HOW TO GET A JOB IN ANIMATION
ROB COLEMAN, A FORMER ILM ANIMATION DIRECTOR AND NOW HEAD OF ANIMATION AT ANIMAL LOGIC, REVEALS WHAT HE LOOKS FOR IN ANIMATOR APPLICANTS
1. WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR ON THE REEL
I’m looking for potential. I’m looking for work on the reel that I find interesting – that I find believable – in terms of either its weight or its acting. I am making decisions on whether I feel that the applicant has demonstrated a style appropriate for the film we’re making. If I see a great stop-motion reel and that’s not what we’re doing, I will still put down a reminder of it in our recruiting database and note, ‘This person’s amazing, reconsider at a later date’.
2. WHAT TO PUT ON YOUR REEL
The reel does not have to be long. Put your best work up front. Catch my attention – I’m looking at a lot of reels. A lot! For Peter Rabbit 2, I looked at 345 reels and I hired 85 people. I will watch until I see enough that I feel that this person’s worthy of an interview, that there’s some spark of creativity in their animation. I will watch for three minutes maybe and I’ll stop the reel. If nothing grabs my attention, then I will move on to the next candidate.
3. WHAT NOT TO PUT ON YOUR REEL
I see a lot of reels with animation to dialogue from very known films. That can actually hurt you sometimes because I might remember the actual performance with that actor from that film. And if you’ve just rotoscoped it, that’s the worst. But, if you’ve reinterpreted it, well, that’s interesting. I’m all for that. But don’t rotoscope what an actor did and hit all the accents that they did. That’s not showing me that you’re an actor.
4. WHAT WILL GET YOU AN INTERVIEW
I’m making a decision on whether I think you can move your character around in the realistic way. Do I think that you can create an appealing performance that I’m engaged with? If you do, then I’ll look at your resume just to give me an idea of where you’ve been and the kind of work you have done. It doesn’t matter if you studied at college or online, or if you didn’t actually study at all and are self taught. It’s what’s on the reel that will convince me that you have the potential to work on one of my teams.
5. THE INTERVIEW
In the interview, I’m thinking, would this individual fit with my existing team? I think of my team as a jigsaw puzzle – my lead animators are my corner pieces, my seniors are the outside straight edges of the puzzle, and then my mid-level and junior animators fit into the middle. I’m working all this out while I interview the candidate. I also think, who would this person pair well with in the team? I’m judging and I’m asking questions about that and trying to delve into the candidate’s passion for animation.