Portfolio Requirement tips for Animation School

Some animation programs will ask you to submit an art portfolio in order to be accepted into their program. I’ve been through this myself…

Down below is some info and advise on things you can do to help your chances of getting accepted into an animation program.

Usually, it’s the programs that include classical animation training (as part of the curriculum) that will ask for a portfolio submission in order to be accepted into the program.

They want to make sure that the students they accept into the program are the most likely to succeed. Animation is a very specialized profession and it’s not for everyone. (Fact: Most animation programs have a high drop out rate).

If you don’t draw, don’t worry you can still learn to be an animator – there’s many schools that only require a high school diploma or equivalent plus basic computer skills. You may also be required to pass an aptitude test.

It’s usually after you’ve enrolled in the program they send you a package with instruction on what to include in the submission. So here’s a general example of what you might find in a portfolio requirement package(what you could be asked to do), and some tips on each.

Draw a character in four different emotional states. (ie. sad, angry, happy, surprised
With this test the reviewers are looking to see that you have a sense of acting. Design your own character head or use an existing cartoon character that you can draw. Use the shape of the eyes, eye brows and mouth to create the four different expressions. Those three facial features are the key to facial expressions. Eye direction can also have an impact. For example if the character is sad, you could have him looking down. Or if you have the eyes really wide for a surprised look it helps to shrink the pupils down a little.

Draw the inside of a room from 2 different angles.
This is a technical test to show that you understand perspective and can draw 3 dimensional objects and space. Pick any room in your house with objects in it – should just look natural. Decide on two interesting angles/places where you will sit to draw the room. You could even get up on top of something to draw the room at a high angle – if you do, please take any appropriate safety precautions. (do a Google image search for “animation layout” to see examples of this test).

Draw your own hand in four different, interesting poses/angles.
They will be looking to see that you understand three dimensional drawing and construction. Obviously, draw with one hand, pose with the other hand. As the description says – use interesting poses. You can get a lot of cool poses with your hand and fingers. Use some basic geometry – a cube for the main part of the hand and three cylinders for each finger to get the basic construction and perspective(draw this part lightly), then draw the line and contour over top a little darker. Keep the geometry, don’t erase it! drawings should be rough and loose. Keep the under drawing so the reviewer can see the construction. Should just be line and contour drawing – skip the shading and rendering.

Include 2 – 4 pages from your sketchbook
This is your opportunity to really shine. But keep in mind your applying for animation school so give them some eye candy. Try and fill the pages with characters in dynamic action poses – show line of action in all of your character poses(if full body). Also, draw characters in emotional states(the line of action would be a ‘C’ curve for a sad character to slump forward). Be creative and think of extreme scenarios or situations that a character might get into, or a reaction to something that just happened and tell that story with a drawing of a character posed with facial expression. Make sure you use silhouetted character poses, line of action and strong facial expressions to show character acting.

Include any color work in the medium of your choice. (ie. paint, pastel, digital art…)
If I had to do this over again I would probably do a Photoshop painting. There’s some great tutorials online to help you learn how to paint in Photoshop. What I ended up doing was a portrait in color pencil. If you use color pencil make sure to layer and blend your colors well.

Any kind of fantasy/creative/interesting scenes of your choice.
I found this one lots of fun – try looking through magazines and pick out bits and pieces of photos. For example take the background from one photo, people, animals, and other elements from another and combine them to make your own hand drawn scene. You might have an idea to start with or you might come up with an interesting or funny idea as you search for photos. Do some thumbnails and rough versions of it to get the composition the way you want it and then draw your final piece.

Photography, illustrations, and any other supporting work that you would like to include
You can include any work for this one. If your submitting photography make sure the composition and framing is something that you focus on – framing and composition is something that animators have to pay attention to in their shots/scenes. Include any other artwork that you didn’t get a chance to do in your portfolio. If you include illustrations make sure that the subjects are drawn in dynamic poses, appear to be reacting to something or expressing some kind of emotion. Character animation is acting, so you should squeeze as much ‘acting poses’ into your portfolio drawings as possible.

You will always be asked for copies – never send originals. Just because it would be very cumbersome for the faculty to be charged with the task of returning hundreds of pieces of artwork unscathed.

Even if they don’t ask for it include a few pieces life drawing if you can. Check out your local University’s fine arts program. Ask if there is a life drawing sessions that you can participate in. If you can get some nice life drawing into your portfolio it will be an added bonus. (WARNING – the model is usually nude!) The point is to draw and study human anatomy and form. If you think you’ll feel awkward in the presence of someone posing nude then I suggest you don’t take part.

An alternative is to simply grab your sketch book and head to the library or a place where people don’t move around too much and just start drawing people (try and get some full body drawings) – the zoo is also great if you want to include life drawings of animals.

Don’t get too crazy with shading and rendering. The reviewers at a school will want to see how you constructed your drawings (your thinking process) so leave the rough stuff there on the page. Do a bunch of loose, intuitive drawings and submit your best ones.

Follow the instructions from the school. They usually ask you to submit copies of your work on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. You want to present your art in a neat and professional way to create a good impression of yourself. My suggestion is to place the sheets in plastic sleeves and submit them in a case similar to the one shown in the photo at the top of this article.

One last thing, I’ve seen portfolios go missing so don’t forget to tag it with your name, phone number and program that your applying for ….GOOD LUCK!