portfolio

Centurion Angel

i want to go to ballyfermot art college and do animation and i was hoping if any one has or is doing it could give me advice for my portfolio

Hydrosylator

Lots of great drawings. They have to know you can draw. And if you design some good characters, that'd help too. Mount your work of course. If you had one board with loads of stuff on developing one character, different ideas with regard to details and colour schemes, all that stuff, and showing the end result, that'd be their kind of thing.

And in the interview don't bother talking to both of the people there unless they both ask you questions. There's two people there for legal reasons only a lot of the time.

The main program for the computer animation end of things is discreet 3d studio max, so if you want to do a bit of digital stuff, that's what they use, but they train you from scratch, so if you wanted to do portfolio stuff that's quicker to pick up, you might find something like Cinema 4d to have a faster workflow.

I'm not doing animation myself, but am in BCFE and know a few heads in the course. Basically they want hard workers who can draw and have a good attitude.

Chief

Life drawing, life drawing, life drawing....



If you've a bunch of that you'll be flying... all the other stuff helps, jaysus when I was up for interview I had loads of stuff... simple cg stuff, claymation, embroidery (yes they had a good laugh for years on that one as did FreaK_BrutheR and the lads in 2nd year CAM) still life drawings etc. But It all comes down to drawing in the end and life drawing is a huge part of it. I'm sorry to keep harping on about the life drawing but it really is the canines danglies of it all.

Hope you get in m8

P.S. That's not to say you won't get in without it, one or two folks did because the had good drawing skills elsewhere. I wasn't the strongest life drawer but they teach it soo well in Bally'er that if you can draw at all they'll mould you well.

Centurion Angel

thanks guys for all your advice,i'll use it all and I do truely drawing (comics) mainley and I,m very serious about and have been for years sadly my life drawinng would not be as strong as my creative drwaing but saying that I'm trying very hard ,also I had a awfuf art teacher who hated art and school and she keft so now we av a sub who can only come in 3 days a week thts 3 art classes a week my only hope is that i can proove in my interview that I'm very real about making a future out of it

red dave

hi centurian

its been a while since u posted that message but thought i'd add to it. i was in the animation in ballyfermot a good few years ago so dont know if its still the same.

yes life drawing they like to see, especially if you can focus on certain ponts like hands or feet doing different things (eg. hand holding jug, clenched fist) or faces with different emotions or people standing in different poses to show like "fright" or something like that. they dont have to be da vinci's but it would be worth giving it a shot. they like to see studies also maybe if you have a pet of a cat or dog, draw them in different poses sleeping, eating or standing. when drawing them, try to draw them quick with basic lines or shapes like triangles for ears circle for head and rectangles for legs or something?


they also like to see a bit of layout work like a study of rooms or buildings or streets and to show you have a "basic" sense of perspective.

it is a lot of intense work the further in the years you get. you might have to do the foundation ADS 1 yr course before you go to classical if it still has that? i hope you get in, i had great time there...even if i did end up dropping out 3 times:D

dave

Centurion Angel

thanks ive done tons of drawings of hands and feet different styles realistic, sketchy and cartooney I have a week off before my mocks and im just going to DRAW!!!!!!!! thanks all ill let ya all jnow how i get on

red dave

yeah, good luck centurion!!

karma101

i study at BCFE - Diploma in aniamtion.

The best advice i could give u is to draw from life. They want to see fine art skills and lots of it. Life drawing in very important. Even if u don't have access to a nude model - friends and family. Do short poses and long poses - write how long the poses were on the piece.
take a little note book and sketch people in town, on the bus . . anywhere XD if your doing ADS they get you to do this anyway so if u start doing it now they will be impressed. It's hard to draw people in public coz they are always on the move but this teachers u good disciplines for drawing - how to look for the essentials in a pose , how to convey wieght and movement in just a few lines.
Put in personal work - as in characters etc . . but don't over do it. It's a common enough mistake to make but they get alot of portfolios with anime, disney, comic styled characters. Very generic. So only put in the best of the best of your own personal work.

hope everything goes well tis a great college

Centurion Angel

:v: :v: :v: Hey guys thanks for all your help I really needed it yee all have actually helped me with my portfolio thanks very very much:D

At the moment i have no work mounted but i will be doing that very soon,
at the moment my portfolio consists of 2 A3 pictures 1 of my friend smile'in and 1 of my dog im going to do 2 more 1 of a building and another one of a friend,

i have a small sketch book of about 25 pages fiiled with drawings of bunch of flowers and animals and a few objects,

I have a 22 drawings of hands and feet on A4 paper,

i have 12 drawings of hands all different types very realistic ones, cartooney ones and sketchy ones, i plan to mount some to show the transformation from realistic to cartooney(comic book style)

i drew 10 feet much the same plan to mount and show the transformation from realistic to cartooney,

i also have quit a good 8 page comic book done all my own charaters showing my story telling skills with very little dialogue.

tell me what you all think and what else i should do

red dave

hey centurion,

spot on...as karma said (brings back some creative flashbacks ) with the little hardback notebooks say A4, A5 size can be got in say Reads of nassau street for people studies.

That sounds pretty cool with the transformation from real to cartoony and excellent stuff with the amount of work you're getting done!!

that interview must be coming up soon is it?

keep us posted!

Centurion Angel

:v: Yeah the interview is in March some time around Paddy's Day or there abouts,not sure what to expect , then I will find out if im in or not in April some time, I really hope to get it as its the only thing i have lined up for myself its the only thing i want

Centurion Angel wrote:

:v: :v: :v: Hey guys thanks for all your help I really needed it yee all have actually helped me with my portfolio thanks very very much:D

At the moment i have no work mounted but i will be doing that very soon,
at the moment my portfolio consists of 2 A3 pictures 1 of my friend smile'in and 1 of my dog im going to do 2 more 1 of a building and another one of a friend,

i have a small sketch book of about 25 pages fiiled with drawings of bunch of flowers and animals and a few objects,

I have a 22 drawings of hands and feet on A4 paper,

i have 12 drawings of hands all different types very realistic ones, cartooney ones and sketchy ones, i plan to mount some to show the transformation from realistic to cartooney(comic book style)

i drew 10 feet much the same plan to mount and show the transformation from realistic to cartooney,

i also have quit a good 8 page comic book done all my own charaters showing my story telling skills with very little dialogue.

tell me what you all think and what else i should do

Centurion Angel

hey all my interview is on tuesday at 2, my portfolio is looking ok

red dave

Best of Luck!!

Centurion Angel

yup had the interview and i have no idea how it went i was in there for like 10 minutes all together anyway i really want this i hope i get it!!!

chamlis

Is it the ADS Animation Studies one year course you're going for, or the full on 3 year classical animation course? They don't want to see any animation stuff at all. They just want to see life drawings. LOTS of. Not just people; stuff. The weirder the better. If you do studies on something they can't identify untill you tell them what it is (like, I dunno, the inside of a fcuking pepper or something magnified), if they then get that "oooooh yeaaaaah" moment then you're a legend and in. Also, have a sketchbook filled with quick 5 second, 10 second sketches. People waiting at a bus stop is a good one. If you can get the sense of something without having to spend more than 5 seconds on it then you're a legend and in. Try drawing someone standing using only 4 strokes (I love this one) and I don't mean a stick man. Life Drawing is the key. Draw a tree. They loved those. All this seems like an awful lot of work, and it is. But you'll do it cos you must love it. If you don't love it, you'll quickly hate it, because man, you are going to be so sick of drawing naked smelly old men, and bouncing fcucking balls that you'll end up walking out and then not bothering going back. Like me.

Lesson: You show you can draw. They show you to Animate.

chamlis

I wrote this big long spiel there but the comp crashed as I was posting it. You've already had the interview, so I gues some of what I said wouldn't matter now. Just one question, is it the ADS Animation Studies course you're going for or the full on Classical Animation course?


EDIT: OOOPS! There it is!

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^

NeVeR

Hey,, I will more then likly doing the HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN CLASSICAL AND COMPUTER ANIMATION code:CCHND can anyone tell me if on this course you will use 3DMax to model character and 3D buildings. Like teh stuff thats on display here http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=121

red dave

Centurion Angel wrote:

yup had the interview and i have no idea how it went i was in there for like 10 minutes all together anyway i really want this i hope i get it!!!

cool, how many were interviewing you? 2?

Did you get any feedback on any of your drawings from either of them?

When I was there I remember it was before I sat my leaving cert that i found out that i'd be getting in so i dont know if they let you know later now?

Centurion Angel

yup 2 people interviewed me a woman and a man they were nice,i got feed back and it was all good i guess its just the interview was so fast

Centurion Angel

hey all, i got it, im in, im doing animation next year. thanks guy for all your help and support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

red dave

Centurion Angel wrote:

hey all, i got it, im in, im doing animation next year. thanks guy for all your help and support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brilliant!! Well done and the best of luck with it!!

Centurion Angel

will do thanks again all!!!!

red dave

Centurion Angel wrote:

hey all, i got it, im in, im doing animation next year. thanks guy for all your help and support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I forgot to ask you which course did you get into? The ADS 1 year or the CLassical 2-3 year course?

Centurion Angel

i got the one year ads course but hope to go on to more