Your Expertise Required!!

[yasseen]

Ok guys,,
What would you suggest to a guy who after 7yrs in animation,is found incompetent coz of his background(who was basically a freelancer catering to clients of low profile)....I'm about to call it quits.....but when i think about the amout of time wasted ...my mind says "Give it a final go"...Now how do i nature myself into a competent CG personality....I have no prior or basic education into animation it's just by experience i've driven myself into it so far...

Ok now that talks about my showreel...i would luv to show my stuff here so as to get your personalised comments...please tell me how to upload my files here,coz i tried previously but to vain....it did'n upload....

Cheers

[Whelkn]

I think it all comes down to how good your demo reel is. My roomate here in LA has no background in the industry. he just tries to get better everyday. recently he sent his real out and is now getting call backs from studios. Its all in the reel my friend.

Jeremy

[Freak]

Why incompetent?

You still have your seven years background, it might not be in hollywood standarts, but it's there and it's yours, besides when you work alone you learn certain things that people who grow in big companies with a huge infrastructure don't, so don't deminish yourself just because you see people with amazing eye candy reels, sometimes you might be as good as them, just without the same opurtunities.

When you work alone sometimes you face the same situations that people from big companies do, but unlike them you have none to recover, or the necessary equipament (hardware, software, etc) so you have to be creative and find your own way out, besides you learn a important thing...how to rescue crappy material.

Employers know what they are looking for, and they know when they see something good or with potential.

But if you are not satisfied with the work you done for others so far, do something for you, and use this + you client stuff to get you something, do a short movie, a scene, doesn't need to contain a story or something like that, it needs to show potential or that you're good at least in one aspect, or overall potential.

If I'm not mistaken Victor Navone got into Pixar with it's Alien Song clip, those few seconds of animation were enough to show to people at Pixar that he was a genious.

Certainly the reel is important, but in my opinion it's 60% of what you need, the other 40% are in people that work in the segment and know you, your work or simply belive in your potential, without them to open some doors is a bit harder.

About the formal education, sure it's important but it isn't a big issue in my personal opinion, learning by yourself is just harder and takes longer, but if you did it correctly and keeps studying it's the same thing.

Anyway try to post your stuff on some web server, there are plenty of free hosts around the web the gives you enough free space to host a reel. Post it, get feedback, fix it if needed and start to send it to possible employers.

This is one of the free hosts I know, there are loads of them, just try Google:
- www.portland.co.uk


Good luck!

[arkkitekktura]

I think the most real important thing its your connections, depending of who you know its what you get, basic rule, some people denied the fact that any industry its move for this, but after some time on it I can tell you it is, not just this one, anyone industry, skill counts, obviuslly, pixar dosent going a hire someone that dosent do the job right, but I like to think that 90% its connections, 5% a great demo or good depending of who you know and the other leave to the luck, probrably this its to pessimist but everyday I think its true, yeah there are some stories about this genius and that, but dude youre not that genius soo WUAO, *WorK your Ass OFF, and I can say at least you can get some interviews, think in this way, as an employer you need to cover some needs, soo see what needs on especific this employer its looking for and try to cover all before you apply, anywyas some ideas, Im looking to get something too soo probrably you should listen to me, but hey this is forum and that what its made for right, good luck and let me know when you get something, needs connections too, lol.

[arkkitekktura]

sorry, please visit my new site, www.arkkitekktura.com

[amflmnt]

You serious? Nice site, real-world experience. That will go waay further than class projects! What you still have is the drive. That's not inside a lot of people that forget about the "work" in artwork. Your seven years aren't a waste. It just took you seven years to figure out that this what you REALLY want to do. No short cuts to that analog realization.

Digital is still a new and evolving field. There's so much change that a formal education is becoming hard pressed to keep up. Just look at software books-by the time it's printed and distributed a new version of the software is out and that text then becomes a history book. Now, guess what you study and rely on in a formal education? What education really gives you is a block of time to focus, explore, and exercise the results. If you need that discipline go get the education but IMHO you're doing this already.

(IMHO, if you're looking towards school as a way to re-coup some of those seven years you would be misusing that education and wasting your money because you'd be looking backwards not forwards.)

There is always room for improvement, so saying you want to be better is just too vague. VFX is a broad heading so get specific. What job title do you want to hold and with what company do you want to practice that title. Then there will be a direction to go in.