Comments on Animation Tips & Tricks: Interview at a Studio: What Was the Interview Like...

Hey Travis... Nice to read about your story..!! Ve...

2011-03-31T13:39:24.626-07:00

Hey Travis...
Nice to read about your story..!!
Very much Inspiring..
Thanks for sharing.
And Happy for the great achievement by you after your interview...
Hope i would come-up in my interview.

Congratulations! Useful tipps there! Man "can...

2011-02-21T16:04:56.501-08:00

Congratulations! Useful tipps there!
Man "can you start on monday"... so cool :D

And Shawn Kelly as your backup, wow your so lucky :)

Hi travis, thank you for your answer. it helps me....

2010-06-01T21:10:13.472-07:00

Hi travis, thank you for your answer.
it helps me. yes, i will put my best work only.

@HyperNerd: Thanks! @ angga: Hey there, no worrie...

2010-06-01T13:16:06.615-07:00

@HyperNerd:
Thanks!

@ angga:
Hey there, no worries about your English. It's the only language I speak and I'm still no good at it :)
That's a really good question that I know a lot of people in your situation face.

I personally wouldn't put any of those shots on your reel if you don't feel they are your best work. I know you want to prove you've worked in a production environment, but that is what the resume can do for you. Also, if the company likes your reel and asks why you don't have more of your production work on there, you can always then explain your situation to them.
Your demo reel is your first impression and you want it to wow them. Really great personal work will always win out over mediocre animation done for a production.

So the short answer is, don't use your demo to prove how much production experience you have. Use it to show how well you can animate.

Hope that helps, and best of luck!!

hi man, Now working for tv series with very very t...

2010-05-31T21:32:57.638-07:00

hi man,
Now working for tv series with very very tight deadline, crazy deadline.
So, i can not doing my best stuff , detailing some movement etc, in other words , my works are so-so quality.
My question is, do i need to put this on my reel to proof that i've experienced working in production.Or i just put my best personal work (which is have more time to create the best shot) ?
the point is, i want to proof that i've experience in production but without sacrifice with sending poor quality showreel.

Sorry for my poor english :)

Huge congrats, what an amazing opportunity - I con...

2010-05-30T07:48:37.632-07:00

Huge congrats, what an amazing opportunity - I confess I'm a little jealous. Thanks for the blog though, it was interesting to read what they actually ask you in these interviews. Best of luck with it :)

Thanks for the great response, Travis (I ec...

2010-05-29T06:45:37.272-07:00

Thanks for the great response, Travis (I echo Pawel's thoughts exactly)!

Tell Shawn I say hi - and watch out for moths in those cereal boxes! ;-)

@ Paweł Świerczyński: Hey, thanks! I've never...

2010-05-28T16:23:29.054-07:00

@ Paweł Świerczyński:
Hey, thanks! I've never been one to mind chatting about animation. Maybe I'll get better at this and be able to get my point across without being so long winded ;)

Epic thread! Thanks, Travis!:)

2010-05-28T12:49:38.738-07:00

Epic thread! Thanks, Travis!:)

@Clinton and Herman G: No problem guys... thanks f...

2010-05-28T10:50:39.093-07:00

@Clinton and Herman G:
No problem guys... thanks for checking it out!

@Jeremy:
Glad to help :)

@Jameson:
Hey Jameson! Thanks for the congrats! My reel was honestly very short, only about 30 seconds. I only had two pieces on it:
1)One was a mime doing a way over the top rope pulling antic
2) The other was a piece I animated to an audio clip from 40 Year Old Virgin of a guy sitting at a bar and griping about an ex.

My goal was to have a piece that emphasized body mechanics and a piece that emphasized dialogue and acting. For visual effects houses like ILM your reel has to show strong body mechanics. Frankly, I would have put more, but none of my other work was up to snuff. A lot of people have great work from early on in AM... I wasn't one of those people :)

***HUGE DEMO REEL RULE TO FOLLOW****

YOUR DEMO REEL IS ONLY AS STRONG AS THE WEAKEST SHOT ON IT!!

If you are iffy about a shot it should not go on your reel. Only put your best work, even if your demo ends up being fairly short. Also, don't put things like a bouncing ball or your early school exercises unless you have something truly incredible. They may be beautifully executed, but major studios want to see fleshed out character animation.

An animator from Blue Sky told me that my demo reel was helped by not only the work that I put on it. It was also the fact that they could tell that I was able to filter out work of mine that wasn't good enough. He said that a big mistake a lot of young animators make is to try to put a lot of work that isn't bad, but isn't great on their reel to make it longer. Instead of helping them though, it makes it seem like they aren't great at judging animation.

If you've been working for 10 years in the industry and only have a 60 second reel, then companies may wonder why you don't have more work to show. If you are fairly new to the industry and trying to get in, always favor quality over quantity. Of course if you have 2 minutes of work that you think is spectacular, then absolutely use it. I think somewhere in the 45 to 60 second range is fairly safe for someone coming out of school. 30 seconds is definitely running the risk of being too short, but if it is amazing work then it still might get you the interview.

To quote the mighty Shawn Kelly: "30 seconds of awesome crushes 2 minutes of ok."

Thanks so much for sharing that great story, Travi...

2010-05-28T09:35:24.597-07:00

Thanks so much for sharing that great story, Travis - and congrats on the awesome gig! I'd love to know what kind of shots were on the demo reel. You said they viewed it through the AM site, was it all AM work at that point or had you filled it in with personal side projects as well?

just the answer I was looking for, thanks Travis!

2010-05-28T08:07:10.901-07:00

just the answer I was looking for, thanks Travis!

Thanks for sharing that experience, very enlighten...

2010-05-27T21:36:27.052-07:00

Thanks for sharing that experience, very enlightening.

Thank you for sharing! Great story!

2010-05-27T19:55:07.837-07:00

Thank you for sharing! Great story!

@Phil Willis: Hey Phil! Thanks for the comment! ...

2010-05-27T19:34:29.964-07:00

@Phil Willis:
Hey Phil! Thanks for the comment! It was pretty awesome and a bit intimidating to have Shawn in the group on the other end of the phone. He gave me some really great advice when I met him at graduation about how to handle the interview, and it was insanely nice of him to sit in on it. Now he's the animator two desks over with the awesome GI Joe collection. Crazy :)

@Jorge Garcia:
Thanks! Glad you liked it

@Luisk:
Actually, I never really went through the application process. One of the great things about Animation Mentor is that companies will check out demo reels sometimes through the school. So ILM saw my work without me even knowing about it! I went to AM's job fair the day before my graduation and when I went up to the ILM desk they knew who I was!! Best surprise I've ever had.

Normally though you would fill out the application forms through the website (they can't look at your reel otherwise) and then send in your demo by mail.
Thanks for reading the post!

@Jeremy Jutras:
That's a tough question Jeremy. It really would come down to the situation. If an animation supervisor had worked with someone in the past then it could be an advantage for that person. Not necessarily because of favoritism, but because the anim supe would already know from experience that the candidate was reliable. However, I can tell you that even with the recommendation of an employee, if someone doesn't have a demo reel that shows the quality ILM is looking for it won't matter.
So, I guess what I'm saying is that someone who knows people in the company from working with them will definitely be able to get there demo seen, but it really comes down to the work in the end. I'm assuming that most other major studios would be the same as here as well.

For your second question, I'm guessing you're asking how I got the interview. I told the story in my answer to Luisk above, but basically I worked really hard in school and just had a huge stroke of luck to get this opportunity. If that's not what you were asking then feel free to let me know and I'll try to give you a better answer :)

Awesome story Travis. Thanks for giving us some in...

2010-05-27T15:07:43.884-07:00

Awesome story Travis. Thanks for giving us some interview tips! I am also very interested in hearing about what you did prior to the interview stage.. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats! So I was wondering if two people apply f...

2010-05-27T12:45:47.861-07:00

Congrats! So I was wondering if two people apply for the same job and one was slightly more talented but the other one knew people that worked at the studio who do you think would get the job?

Great post Travis! really helpful, and congrats fo...

2010-05-27T09:10:26.259-07:00

Great post Travis! really helpful, and congrats for landing a job at ILM!
I was wondering how was the application process, did you apply through the website, or did you meet a recruiter in a event such as siggraph?
Thanks!
-Luis

wow! this is an amazing post! congratulations!

2010-05-27T08:37:54.043-07:00

wow! this is an amazing post! congratulations!

Congratulations Travis! Glad to hear the hard wor...

2010-05-26T19:28:25.792-07:00

Congratulations Travis!

Glad to hear the hard work at Animation Mentor paid off.

It must have been weird to have Shawn Kelly on the other end of the phone as well.

Ah those four immortal words: "Can you start Monday?"

What a brilliant achievement.

All the best.
--Phil

Haha, thanks Lukas! I don't know about callin...

2010-05-26T19:16:01.176-07:00

Haha, thanks Lukas! I don't know about calling me the man, but I'm glad to hear that it pumped you up a bit.

Keep on setting those keys!!

Travis! That post was inspiring! Believe it or not...

2010-05-26T17:03:13.004-07:00

Travis! That post was inspiring!
Believe it or not, but my first words after i finished reading were "gosh! awesome!" and "geile siech!" (wich is swiss german and means... youre the man!) :-) and you definitely are THE man!

Thanks for that thrust of motivation :-)

They Actually did help relocate me Josh. I was st...

2010-05-26T16:01:29.675-07:00

They Actually did help relocate me Josh. I was still in TN at the time and was supposed to start work 5 days after the interview. In most cases people have more time to move, find a place, and settle in, but I was hired at the last minute. Fortunately they were nice enough to help me find an apartment to stay in while I was on Trans 2.

From what I was told I set a new record for shortest amount of time between being interviewed and starting work. I'm not sure that is actually any sort of an accomplishment, but I'll take it :)

That's so awesome!! So did they relocate you t...

2010-05-26T15:32:27.556-07:00

That's so awesome!! So did they relocate you to the area?

Respect!!!:) hope to have a chance like yours :) c...

2010-05-26T14:55:37.190-07:00

Respect!!!:) hope to have a chance like yours :) congratulation!!!