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My Interview with Blue Sky Studios: Part 1.
5 years ago
What's Reptu up to this time?
If you don't know who Blue Sky Studios is, they're a feature animation studio who made the films Ice Age, Robots, Horton Hears a Who, and Rio.
My college made a field trip to go to the CTN Animation Expo 2018 in Burbank, California. Along with Blue Sky, there were other big animation studios like Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Sony Animation. We were there because we're all Digital Design, Animation-Intensive majors, so this would be a great networking opportunity. I had my 3D portfolio on my tablet to show to other artists.
So, on November 17th, 2018, my friend had a ticket for an interview with Blue Sky, but he wasn't going to show up. Thus, he offered it up to the other classmates, and I was the one who took it. Even though I was unprepared, I still had my tablet. Also, I was willing to take the chance, because I had this demo reel of my 3D work and my animation class was impressed with it. Working for an big animation studio was a dream of mine. Making 3D art was the one thing I had my heart set on; to take part in telling these amazing stories would just fulfill a big purpose in my life.
The interview was in about one hour, and I calmed down my nerves, as the bus was getting closer to the location. I walked inside the giant tent, and handed the ticket to the Blue Sky talent recruiters. There were five small tables and each one had two seats: one for the interviewee and the recruiter. I saw the other artists showing their animations and the recruiters giving them feedback. Going in, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was hoping for something positive and motivating to pursue this career.
I was next in line sort of trembling, but what was nice was the person behind me, a storyboard artist, said that I would do fine, which was comforting. The other artist in front of me was done with her turn, so I was up. Things were about to go down.
The recruiter called me up and we shook hands. And out of the gate, I made the first mistake: not giving a firm handshake. Strike one. She then asked me about position I was going for and my attendance at a university. But then, I showed her the demo reel. Watching her look over my reel was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences in my life. After the reel was over, the first thing she said to me was, "This is more industrial work than feature animation work." Immediately, my heart sank. Simply put, the work in my reel wasn't what they were looking for. Even though it was in 3D, my work was geared towards advertising and graphic design instead of animation. She was expecting characters and environments while I showed her product designs and ads.
Admittedly, part of it wasn't my fault. The university I went to made us do about half of the work on graphic design and the other half on animation. Even though I should have shown her my animation work, that 3D graphic design reel was the best I had to offer. I thought what ultimately mattered was that I was using the correct software, but I guess not.
So that reel was strike two of my interview. Last, I did have some animation work, what she was expecting. It was a 3D character animation of my OC, Wolfo, the one in this image: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36942786/
Already, I knew the animation wasn't the best. At least, she didn't tear it apart, but she said is was basic and I needed to learn human anatomy. Overall, her advice for me was to basically start school all over again
and go to Animation Mentor, an industry-specific online class. She told me, "I don't know what your school was preparing you for." That was strike three and I had nothing more to say, except "Thank you for the interview," so I left awkwardly.
My college made a field trip to go to the CTN Animation Expo 2018 in Burbank, California. Along with Blue Sky, there were other big animation studios like Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Sony Animation. We were there because we're all Digital Design, Animation-Intensive majors, so this would be a great networking opportunity. I had my 3D portfolio on my tablet to show to other artists.
So, on November 17th, 2018, my friend had a ticket for an interview with Blue Sky, but he wasn't going to show up. Thus, he offered it up to the other classmates, and I was the one who took it. Even though I was unprepared, I still had my tablet. Also, I was willing to take the chance, because I had this demo reel of my 3D work and my animation class was impressed with it. Working for an big animation studio was a dream of mine. Making 3D art was the one thing I had my heart set on; to take part in telling these amazing stories would just fulfill a big purpose in my life.
The interview was in about one hour, and I calmed down my nerves, as the bus was getting closer to the location. I walked inside the giant tent, and handed the ticket to the Blue Sky talent recruiters. There were five small tables and each one had two seats: one for the interviewee and the recruiter. I saw the other artists showing their animations and the recruiters giving them feedback. Going in, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was hoping for something positive and motivating to pursue this career.
I was next in line sort of trembling, but what was nice was the person behind me, a storyboard artist, said that I would do fine, which was comforting. The other artist in front of me was done with her turn, so I was up. Things were about to go down.
The recruiter called me up and we shook hands. And out of the gate, I made the first mistake: not giving a firm handshake. Strike one. She then asked me about position I was going for and my attendance at a university. But then, I showed her the demo reel. Watching her look over my reel was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences in my life. After the reel was over, the first thing she said to me was, "This is more industrial work than feature animation work." Immediately, my heart sank. Simply put, the work in my reel wasn't what they were looking for. Even though it was in 3D, my work was geared towards advertising and graphic design instead of animation. She was expecting characters and environments while I showed her product designs and ads.
Admittedly, part of it wasn't my fault. The university I went to made us do about half of the work on graphic design and the other half on animation. Even though I should have shown her my animation work, that 3D graphic design reel was the best I had to offer. I thought what ultimately mattered was that I was using the correct software, but I guess not.
So that reel was strike two of my interview. Last, I did have some animation work, what she was expecting. It was a 3D character animation of my OC, Wolfo, the one in this image: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36942786/
Already, I knew the animation wasn't the best. At least, she didn't tear it apart, but she said is was basic and I needed to learn human anatomy. Overall, her advice for me was to basically start school all over again
and go to Animation Mentor, an industry-specific online class. She told me, "I don't know what your school was preparing you for." That was strike three and I had nothing more to say, except "Thank you for the interview," so I left awkwardly.
