Start by copying other drawings and think about the process of drawing, asking yourself, "Why did the artist draw this in this way?" Once you have copied the character in the same pose, start drawing that character doing different things, making sure the character still looks "on model". Try drawing the face showing different expressions, i.e. smiling, yelling, laughing, sad, suprised, etc. Keep drawing the same character until you feel really comfortable with them and can draw them doing anything. Find another character and do the same thing again. As soon as you feel like you can, design your own character and follow the same process. Top

Before I answer this question, you must first answer a question - What do you want to do at an animation studio? There are lots of different departments to work in, depending on the studio size and the particular production they're working on. These are the artistic departments within an animation studio:

For example: Background department - show examples of color work you have done in watercolors, gauche, markers, and airbrush if you have it. For the Layout department - show examples of line environmental drawings (rooms, exterior locations, both man made and natural), marker tonal renderings.

For the Storyboarding department - show a sample of sequential story sketches for a short sequence, showing your understanding of shot and camera angle selection as well as your storytelling abilities.

If you don't have a portfolio of work, you'll have to start drawing right now. A good entry level portfolio may take anywhere from 6 weeks to several years to put together. If you have no formal training, this may be a problem. You'll probably have to enroll in some night school courses or continuing education or find a college that offers a full time animation program. Pretty much all of these colleges will require a portfolio application, which puts you back to the top of this paragraph.

It's very rare that a studio will hire someone with no formal animation education. The competition is just too fierce for the average "Joe" out there unless they have some God-gifted talent that puts them up there with someone who's been through a college level program. The next big step is to simply call the studio up and ask for an interview with the head of the department that you want to get into or speak to someone in the recruitment department. Top

Your portfolio should include your best artwork. It should be made up of the following:1) Life drawings - About 15 - 25 drawings. - Gestural sketches 1 minute - 3 minute poses. - Sustained poses 5 minutes - 15 minutes. All drawings should show the hands and feet wherever possible. By leaving them off, it means you can't draw them and this will be a negative against you. 2) Object drawing - Around 15 - 20 sketches of everyday objects from around the house showing a strong sense of perspective and structure. 3) Animal drawing - Same as life drawings. 4) Some character drawings - Don't submit established characters that the studio has produced or any other characters like: Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. Studios don't like this at all. Even if you can draw them just as good as the originals, avoid this like the plague. It will hurt you more than help you. Submit your own characters that you've developed. Show them doing different things and expressing different emotions. Be sure that if you're doing 4 or 5 drawings of the same character that they stay "on model", otherwise it'll look bad on you. 5) Artwork that focuses on the area that you want to work in: Conceptual design - rough and finished (color) conceptual drawings for characters, costumes, locations, props, etc.

Character development - a wide variety of concept sketches for characters showing a series of developmental drawings through to the final designs. Show both initial rough sketches and finished color renderings. Show a wide variety of design styles.

Character design - present model sheets and character poses for a wide range of character types and styles.

Storyboarding -show a sample of sequential story sketches for a short sequence, showing your understanding of shot and camera angle selection as well as your storytelling abilities.

Location design - environmental sketches. Early concept roughs, developmental sketches and final location drawings. Show both interior and exterior locations. Display a wide variety of architectural design styles, geographical, and time eras. Structure and perspective very important.

Prop design - similar to the object drawing outlined above, but show the objects from several different points of view as well as being used by a character. Structure and perspective very important.

Effects design - observational drawings of water splashing, dripping, pouring, snow, smoke, fire, light, bubbles, leaves falling, rippling water, glass breaking, etc., etc. Analytical observation and artistic recording of these effects on paper.

Layout - show examples of line, environmental drawings (rooms, exterior locations, both man made and natural), marker tonal renderings. Display a wide variety of architectural design styles, geographical, and time eras. Structure and perspective very important.

Animation posing - character drawings showing a wide range of actions, attitudes and emotions. An animation demo reel is a huge asset (if not absolutely mandatory with most studios). Must display an understanding of the principles of animation:

Animation - Senior Animator - has had experience animating for several years at a high level of quality. An animation demo reel is a must. Depending on the persons reputation within the animation field, a portfolio is optional (you probably wouldn't ask to see Glen Keane's portfolio for anything other than pure entertainment. This person must display an extremely high level of understanding and application of all the above mentioned principles of animation.

Assistant Animator - same as the animation posing position.

In-between- same basic skills as the animation posing position but maybe at a slightly lower level.

Color Stylist - show examples of color work you have done in watercolors, gauche, markers, and airbrush if you have it. Must have a strong sense of color values and color theory as it applies to the emotional and psychological aspects of the human mind.

Background - show examples of color work you have done in watercolors, gauche, markers, and airbrush if you have it. Must have a strong sense of color values and color theory.

Be sure your portfolio is neat and clean. This is an investment in your future. Don't cut back on the quality of the copies you're sending; get laser copies if the drawing is black and white or a color copy would be even better. Nothing smaller than 8 1/2" x 11" in a plastic sleeve booklet or no larger than a 2' x 2 1/2' portfolio. Anything larger becomes cumbersome for the viewer.

Glue the drawings to the backing paper to avoid the dreaded "slipping art" syndrome where your drawings float around inside the plastic sleeve making your presentation look sloppy. A little dab of glue stick on the back of the drawing should be enough to fix it into place.

Don't get the binder type portfolios with the one billion rings in them. The plastic sleeves tend to shrink over time and cause the binding rings to shred the sleeves whenever you turn a page. It gets messy after a while, I know, I have two of them... BIG mistake! Get the ones with 5 or 6 rings, they're much nicer and neater.

Arrange your artwork in a pleasing way on the page so that there is a flow to your composition of drawings. Don't put too many drawings all on one page. It tends to clutter it up too much. Conversely, don't put just one drawing on the page unless it takes up the entire page and looks absolutely amazing. By putting this one drawing by itself you're saying, "Hey! Look at me, I'm all by myself so I must be something pretty hot... take a good long look."

You must understand that the assessor will probably spend no more than 5 seconds on a page (if that) and only longer if they see something that catches their eye, both good and bad. By having the single drawing on a page is only inviting closer scrutiny. So, if the drawing is good, do it. If it's not so good, don''t do it.

Arrange your drawings by department, meaning - keep all your life drawing together, all your object drawing together, etc., etc.

Only send copies of your work, never send an original! Only send the original if the studio specifically asks for it.

Try to have your portfolio start off strong and end it off very strong with your best pieces of work. Top

Working in an animation studio can be a lot of fun, you just have to remember one thing: an animation studio is supposed to make animated cartoons; it must produce a product. Your sole function as an employee is to provide a function that helps to produce that product. Whether you have fun or not is not the responsibility of the studio or any of their supervisory staff. If you're in the storyboard department, you're getting paid to produce quality storyboards to a standard that is acceptable by your supervisor. If you can't perform this function, the studio will find someone who can to take your place.

"But", you say, "Isn't animation an art form? How can you place a price or pass a judgement on art?" Practically speaking, you have to place a price on art and pass judgement. If you didn't place a price on it, you wouldn't get paid for your work. If you want to get paid for it, you must have someone who is willing to shell out some cash for what you want to do. I think that if it was you paying for the art, you'd be passing judgement on whether or not it was worth paying for it. As in any field you are paid according to your talent level and output capabilities.

As an artist within the studio system, and for that matter, the entire animation industry, you are gauged by your talent level, attitude, and ability to get along with others. Nobody wants to work with someone who is constantly griping and complaining or someone who criticizes others behind their backs. Nor does anyone particularly enjoy working with someone who is incapable of fulfilling their artistic responsibilities Top

Salaries can vary quite dramatically from studio to studio and job to job. The difficult thing is charging the proper amount for the job to cover your artistic work, physical time spent on the job, and materials used. You don't want to over charge and loose any future work or get into a haggling situation with the employer with the standard comment of, "Well, I could get my nephew to do it for nothing." You also don't want to under charge and end up getting paid less than minimum wage.

Within an animation studio your wages are usually standardized either by the studio. There are usually 3 levels of payment:

Apprentice
Junior
Senior.

These categories are dependant on your work experience, both type of positions you have experience in and the number of years you've done it for. This is ultimately shown through the quality of work presented in your portfolio.

There is also that special upper eschelon category for those few artists who are deemed inexpendable by the studio. These are the ones that get the baseball figure salaries. These people are one in every 10,000. It is highly unlikely (though not unattainable) that you will ever be this person. It takes an incredible amount of talent to be one of these people. Top

I normally draw at a large table that I got at Ikea. It's 2' x 4' and usually I have a sheet of frosted plexiglass set up on an incline supported by a Luxo Lamp underneath. This acts as a makeshift light table. I can tape a portable animation pegbar to it with masking tape. I also have a portable animation table made of particle board with a 16 1/2" hole cut into it to hold my Chromacolor 12 fld animation disk.

I have a Panasonic Auto Stop electric pencil sharpener. Top

Yes, I still draw all these lines. It's become such an ingrained habit that it just becomes second nature to draw them. Without these lines I'd feel like I'm just guessing and I'd end up making structural mistakes. Top

As they say, "Practice makes perfect." Draw, draw, draw. Draw every day. However, don't just draw anything. Pick things that are around your house, objects that can easily be drawn fully within 1/2 an hour, like a stapler, can opener, video remote control, etc. Top

You don't worry about the border of the picture at all to start off with. You can adjust this later after the drawing is roughed out.

The first line is the horizon line to establish your (or the viewers) eye level. If you draw most of the environment above the horizon line, you are low to the ground showing an up shot. If you draw most of the environment below the horizon line, you're up high and it's a down shot.

You need to know the dimensions of the environment as well; is the room 8 feet high? The relationship of the lines you draw for the floor and ceiling in relation to the horizon line will determine the viewers point of view. Also, the smaller you draw this wall on the page will determine how far away from it you are (the depth).

Pretend you're just drawing a box from the inside. Look at the little thumbnails at the end of the Layout Examples book that show the different perspective setups. Top