This article was originally published in the August 20 factor of Animation mag (No. 302)
One of the main attractions of the annual SIGGRAPH confab is its ability to adapt animation and visual effects studies with recent college graduates and task applicants. To help our readers, we interviewed some of the most productive study recruiters and recruiting managers about the key positions they were for and the skills they have in their ideal candidates:
Bento Box Brooke Keesling, Director of Animation Talent Development
Current recruitment: we rent circulars all year round and have been very busy in production, even in quarantine, all our artists and manufacturers running safely from home. As I write this, we have vacancies for storyboard artists, directors, designers (backgcircular, character, props, color), art directors, animation controllers, manufacturers, post-production supervisors, etc., rent many other talented people and welcome them. To Bento Box. We have many screens in production (Bob’s Burgers, Central Park, Bless the Harts, The Great North, to name a few) as well as in development. It’s a wonderful time to get into the animation!
Tips for the jobs folder: Make sure your job folder is up to date and organized so that we can easily locate the task you want us to see. And be sure to check out our online racing page regularly as we climb new positions!
Better approach: many other people touch me LinkedIn and send me emails, which is very nice. But the most important thing we need other people to do is to apply on our online page (www.bentoboxent.com); that’s where we can see all the talented applicants in one place, and that’s the first step in our hiring process.
As I said before, Bento Box is incredibly busy right now and we are looking for a varied diversity of skills. Visit our online page from time to time and keep applying– we Bento Box recruiters do our best to help the skill find a position in our studio!
Useful tips: I love seeing paintings on a variety of platforms and formats like Vimeo, Instagram, Twitter, non-public websites, fanzines, comics, etc. As long as we can locate the task you need us to see, everything is fine. For example, if you apply for a character designer position, be sure to send us a link to your characters’ creations. I know it sounds basic, but you’d be surprised how many searches we have to do recruiters sometimes.
The most important non-numbers: sometimes we locate artists who don’t have touch data in the list, or their email no longer works. Make sure your current email is easy to locate so we can rent it. Also, if your wallet is password protected, include the password in your app.
Disney animated film Matt Roberts, recruiter
Current Recruitment: Most of our current recruiting focuses on our next movie, Stripe and the Last Dragon, with just a touch of recruitment aimed at our un no-announced movie that will.
Available positions: Since we are in production phase in Raya, our recruitment has focused on disciplines for shooting production, such as character TD (especially for technical animation/fx characters) and lighting. We are also for look progression artists (our name for CG texture/shading artists) for long-term roles.
Best focus: our hiring team is on LinkedIn. Those interested in our opportunities can also visit our open positions page on www.disneyanimation.com and follow us on social media such as Walt Disney Animation Studios on LinkedIn, @DisneyAnimJobs on Twitter and @DisneyAnimationCareers on Facebook.
Portfolio Tips: to make your application as quick as possible for the task you’re requesting and to thoroughly read the task offered for the paint format you like. If an express format is requested, such as a reel instead of still photographs or an express record format like Arraymov or Arraypdf, it is because it is the presentation format that recruiting managers like to see the full prospect of their paintings and will only prepare for the future good fortune of your request.
Desired skill sets: this would possibly be diversity according to the role, however, the universal criteria that tend to be true to the maximum of our disciplines are the attractiveness, observation, storytelling and versatility of craftsmanship (such as, whatever express role you are requesting, can show a diversity of skills and a variety of paintings in this discipline).
Major No-No: I would say come with a password on a password-protected reel. You’ll be surprised how often this happens. Including a link and password attached to your reel on your resume can help you control your basics to make sure your password is not lost in the application process.
DreamWorks Animation Doeri Welch, Animation Recruitment Director
Current Recruitment: DreamWorks Animation actively recruits for many TV projects and films in progression and production in the studio.
Available positions: history, art, preliminary/preliminary design, storyboard, CG (animation, effects, TD character, crowds, lighting, riggers) and production
Better Approach: Apply for vacancies or explicit interest in long-term positions in DreamWorksAnimation.com.
Portfolio Suggestions: Present your most recent published paintings and adapt your submissions to the task you’re requesting by reviewing the task description. In all our disciplines, we seek a balance between the attitude of their unique and strong artists and their ability to adapt to the other artistic instructions and historical desires of our DreamWorks projects. Show us paintings that demonstrate your avant-garde ideas, your base forged in the fine arts, your technical skills, your storytelling, your performance, your story and your passion. Check out our #CareerTipsTuesday in facebook.com/DreamWorksCareers.
Desired skill sets: rather than being a software or technical expert, we are for artists and other production people who love collaboration, contributing to a variety of styles needed for art and storytelling, challenge solving and the sense of fun. You can be informed to use the new set of equipment if you have a well-developed eye and a taste for creating the unknown.
Non-no Major: Forget about providing the password to your reel or wallet!
Netflix animation
Current Recruitment: Netflix is in an exciting position to have an unprecedented number of feature films, series for children and families, preschool series and adult series. We are actively working on projects in development, pre-production and production.
Available positions: As we continue to grow as a studio, we seek to connect with the industry’s incredible talents. We will seek to rent artists not only this summer but throughout the year in front-time production spaces such as storyboard artists, storyboard reviewers, visually progressing artists, character designers and production direction.
Desired skill sets: Each position will have a description of the task that describes the express needs, however, in general, we are looking for passionate artists to help shape the new wave of animation. We seek creativity and imagination, narrative sensitivities, communication and collaboration, and the ability to innovate!
Best Focus: Believe in receiving a birthday card from someone who just signed your call at the bottom. We all get them from other people who would have possibly sold us life insurance in the past. They are ignored without problems; open-read-pull. Now create a card where, with the typical horrendous prose included in the birthday cards, that user added their own non-public note. Something you shared, an experience, etc. It is more complicated to launch this card at the moment because the user has invested his time beyond the undeniable signature of his call. The same is true of applicants who touch the studies. I
If they in their email or on the PM social network, they offer an idea like: “Hey, I enjoyed what you did in the XYZ episode of show 123. That’s great! I think the paintings I’m doing could carry anything, anything for this show, can you take a look at it? “, he poses among those who have just sent them a CV or a link. It’s about branding and investing. How are they different from the other candidates? What can you carry on the harvester that we may lack, whether it’s an exclusive style, an exclusive story? We look forward to new voices that will come and expand our vision problems; whether through art, storytelling or anywhere else in the production process.
Portfolio Tips: This will look as worn as an old doormat, but it’s still true: the most productive photographs first and only the most productive paintings! Some artists that the number of paintings exceeds the quality. This is rarely the case. We would prefer to see fewer well-executed photographs than many photographs that fall into the mediocre category. Showing poor paints, the candidate tells the recruiter, “I don’t know the difference between smart things and things that require more paintings.” This is not the message that a candidate must convey.
As the word says, “Kill your loved ones!” A candidate will have to be strict in preserving their portfolio, just their most productive work! It would possibly be wise to ask a uniform artist or trusted instructor to assist you in this selection/selection process, as they may offer a more impartial opinion.
The biggest No-Us: Every recruiter has a story about the No-Us. A recruiter on our team says that at an animation conference, a candidate followed her to the bathroom to start a conversation. Others will tell percentage stories of applicants who are played each week to request an update on their status. As a recruitment community, we want to talk better with applicants. Too often, the popular thing is that a candidate applies and after receiving an automatic “Thank you for your interest” email, no longer receives correspondence. These ghost photographs will have to be frustrating and that’s all we want to fix.
We invite you to register approximately once a month, even more so when the candidate has a new task to share, but registering without new paintings is simply annoying.
Candidates want to know that the feeling of helping a candidate in the right task for them, a role we know they will crush, is the reason we’re doing this.
This pairing takes time or does not take time at all; it’s like magic, but most of the time it’s like this device you use when you get new lenses (do you know the one, A or B? B or C?) with the recruiter appearing the paintings of various applicants to the groups and the search for the highest productive aligns the skill of the candidate with the wishes of the program. Believe me, if production sees how this candidate meets this need, the recruiter will connect quickly!
Sony Pictures Animation Jana Day, Chief Contracting Officer
Current Recruiting: Sony Pictures Animation actively recruits for two films in production (one is Spider-Man: in the Spider-Verse sequel scheduled for 2022) and several in progression. We are also recruiting for the progression of TV animation and have several projects underway at some point.
Available positions: We have the artistic production front end. We are for visually progressive artists (character, environment, accessories, color, soft and 3-d screw development), ancient artists and editors.
Best Focus: Sony Pictures Animation posts on our website, SonyPicturesAnimation.com, as well as on LinkedIn and Twitter. You can also use our individual recruitment pages on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Useful tips:
Desired skill sets: Our artists paint on a wide variety of projects. We don’t have an express space style. Our artists strive in their creations or in their storytelling. They are looking for unique tactics to tell a story and need to paint with artists who like to push the boundaries.
To do this, we are for artists with a perfect drawing, an intelligent sense of design and color, versatility in styles and approaches. Someone who can color the inner lines, and most importantly, can also color the outside. Someone with an exclusive sense of attractiveness, very artistic and unusual. We like team players who take the initiative but also adapt seamlessly and can change their artistic direction in no time.
The biggest obstacles: get ready. Find the study you’re applying for and get acquainted with the projects. It’s frustrating to get a generic canopy letter or email to another study. Review and Edit: Ask someone to take a look at your paintings before sending them urgently. Change any painting that may not succeed. It’s better to let us need more than ask questions about why you left a picture.
Make sure recruiters have all the illustrations in their portfolio. If one of your passwords is password protected, make sure that certain recruiters have the password before any revisions.
Titmouse Studios Ben Kalina, Chief Operating Officer and Producer
Current recruitment: We rent in almost each and every domain over the next 3 months, including: storyboard, design, animation, composition, production and post-production. Titmouse works on 15 series and several short projects (advertising, pilots, development, short films, etc.).
Useful tips: Keep your wallets up to date and treat them as a physical wallet. Include the most productive of your applicable paints, not all the pieces you’ve created (or have them anywhere else). We keep wallets in our files and forward them when vacancies arise. I tell other people: just because we’re not looking for someone today doesn’t mean they’re probably not looking for someone on Friday. We rent through online shipping and recommendations. We have many other people who present paintings through our website, however, the recommendations of existing painters and beyond are very important. The occasions in person at schools and festivals are also wonderful because you know the artists. You can find lists in titmouse.net/careers.
Desired Skill Sets (Response of Antonio Canobbio, SVP and CCO, Titmouse): The main needs once you have achieved the most obvious, the educational skills in art and animation noted in your portfolio, we are for other strangers who need to spend their lives drawing and doing interesting things. Now, an animated assignment is rarely done through yourself, so we’re also for other people who work well as a team and appreciate the collaboration process. For the nerds of the first edition of D-D like me, here are the statistics needed to locate a task with us:
Tips for the work folder: With online presentations, other people tend to send their paintings as they are not thinking about the task they are requesting or for whom they are being considered. There is also a tendency to apply to all open positions at the same time, using the same materials. We see many other people requesting character design, BG design, production assistant, director, executive manufacturer, all at the same time. We like to rent to other people with many facets, but we need artists to stay in mind that those are other positions and require other types of portfolios, programs and resumes. Every time you apply, be sure to update your portfolio and highlight new skills/keys.
Warner Bros. Animation. | Patty Willert, Director of Artists Management
Current hiring: We are actively hiring in several projects in both production and development. We are very busy in the studio to produce a number of series and home entertainment titles, in addition to many interesting projects in development.
Desired Skill Sets: We read about a variety of skills ranging from design, boarding school, artistic direction to writing and production management.
Better approach: for us, direct is the best. [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also sign in to LinkedIn and the Women In Animation website.
Portfolio Tips: Organize your paintings in an obvious way and check out the site to use a portfolio that shows your paintings with their most productive advantage. Send the password to the spaces when you touch me directly.
The largest: Don’t send general presentation emails to everyone in a study. We have artists who think this is useful, but sending the same note to 50 other people is a little sloppy and unsettling. Be considerate and accurate with how and why you log in.
Visit the SIGGRAPH 2020 Virtual Employment Fair in s2020.siggraph.org/exhibition/job-fair.
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