With my grad film finished, I can get started on something I’ve been putting off for a long time- self promotion! I’m typically quite bad at self-promotion, and during the course, I’ve been too panicked with reaching my deadlines to make something clean and polished enough for social media.
My graduate film is the most finished project I’ve worked on, so this time, I actually have some fairly polished screenshots to work with. While I won’t post my film online until I can submit it to festivals, it should be included in the BFI screening, and so it would be helpful to have a digital record of this fact.
I created an Instagram account for posting my own artwork. Though I considered making a separate account for my film, I don’t have a lot of previous work, so it felt more appropriate to use this as a means to begin posting more frequently. After I graduate, I plan to keep this account up-to-date with any personal work I create.
I’ve also started making plans for short-form content. I want to polish my character design skills, for one, and during a personal tutorial I was given the idea to make animated character turnarounds. This would be a good way to show off one skill I feel somewhat confident in, as well as improving my consistency in solid drawing and line weight.
Walk cycles always look good on a showreel – I have the guest lecturer Aya Suzuki to thank for this advice- and so I wanted to try my hands at a few of those. I recall we were shown this walk cycle tutorial from James Baxter, but at the time, we didn’t have enough time to study it properly. Animating walks for a variety of characters, with different sizes, weights and personalities, would play to my strengths and hopefully be fun enough to keep me occupied.
I could get a head start on making social media posts by working with what I already have. My animation exercises from first year aren’t polished enough to post at the moment, but with some cleanup, colouring, and extra inbetweens, they could become strong showreel pieces. I still have some fondness for my quadruped walk, and the mood change walk.
Another thing I’d like to do for social media is to animate a brief transformation sequence. Most professional 2D animators seem to have dynamic 2D shots in their portfolio, but I tend to work with very safe, front-facing angles. I need to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone, drawing different angles and perspectives.
As great as it would be to get hired straight out of university, I need to be honest with where my skills are at the moment. My showreel is nothing close to the level of a professional, but I need to start somewhere. Keeping a consistent presence on social media should, at least, give me more confidence to keep applying for jobs, and updating my portfolio as my skills improve.