Something to Note - The Door to The Unknown

The Door by Cassandra Ward

It's funny but it is very true, no matter what course you are from they don't tell you about how different it is to cope after you have graduated. The thing is that you step out into the real world and suddenly your looking very unsure.

The thing is to set up the basic steps before leaving the safety of the course that you are in.

Update everything and establish a good presence online.
It might be quite strange but a lot of people forget this. Look at your stuff, update your Resume, write up a Shot Breakdown for your Showreel, write out a basic Cover Letter and then put it in a file and then put it somewhere on the desktop of your computer and possibly on your flash drive that it easy to Access when you have to submit anything for a job. If you're having any trouble with this, Pixar has got a really good tutorial on this. Click here to see it.

For you're presence online, Make sure that your Demoreel is Uploaded, that you post with regularity on your blog and you join a networking site like Linked In For example. Take time to set up some Job Alerts so that saves you time looking everywhere at once and I also signed up to The Animation Magazine online and also the The Animation Mentor E-Letter and last one is The Women in Games mailing list.

Establish Connections and a Network outside The Course.
Find out if there is a group of Animators or just Creative people that group that you can go to meet other animators. For Example these are ones where I live, There is a Creative Group that meets once a month called Digital Laborers Federation and there is also Liquid Head, regular short film screening in Brisbane.

Also Email other animators if you want to get in touch with them, to ask them a question or two or to get them to Critique your work.

Find some more Resources so you can keep on learning after you have finished your course.
Now this is probably the most important out of all the steps. Always have time to learn more since you can only apply what you know, to your work. When you have finished of a new piece of animation actively seek out someone to show it to since that will help you find the little flaws that you need to fix in the way you animate. Try to get more then one person since everyone will see different flaws that other one has missed.

Invest money into growing your collection of Animation Books and other rescourses to help you grow in your knowledge of animation. Try buying volume one and two of Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfeild or the Jason Ryan Animation Videos or attend his Webninars every month as well as the Keith Lango Tutourial Service and this list could go on forever if I let it. Just keep learning and applying it.

Always take your sketch pad and draw people everywhere, buy sketchbooks en mass and try to get the cheapest that you can. I can't believe how much I have actually gained in knowledge about animation this way.

Last point look for valuable resources on the net when you happen to be online, true there is a lot of junk out there as well as good stuff but there is some treasure too!