Exclusive Diary Entry for September: Kimura

Hey everyone. Kimura here.

Sorry for the late post. This is my exclusive dormitory diary entry for September.

Continuing on from my last post, I’d like to lay out some thoughts I’ve been having surrounding portfolios.

You may be unfamiliar with portfolios if you haven’t been around a lot of creative work, but simply put, it’s a collection of pieces that one uses to sell themselves to employers. It's a must-have for job hunting creatives.

The first step in job hunting is to create your portfolio as fast as possible! Personally, I think you should complete it 1 year before job hunting starts. That way, you have enough time to refine it to your liking, which I think makes the process more comfortable. The sooner you get started the better.

It’s easier said than done to get started, though. As much as we may be determined to make something good, nothing get’s made unless we get our hands dirty.

That was the case for me.

I was under the impression that job hunting = portfolio and was super anxious that I wouldn’t get a job unless I made a good one.

I scavenged the internet in search of example portfolios, and every time I found a good one, I raised the bar higher for myself...

In the end, it took me over half a year to complete my portfolio, and it wasn’t even as good as I imagined.

However, I feel that things went smoothly after I started brushing it up.

Consider the number of pages you have in your portfolio, then re-do it one page at a time.

You can work at it in your spare time, and this approach allows you to easily see your growth by comparing your before and afters which adds a layer of enjoyment to the process.

If you’re like me and have a hard time progressing your portfolio, don’t expect to make a good one right away, just make it. After that, try experimenting with different wants to brush up it up.

Next, let’s talk about content. Firstly you’ll need to decide whether you want to create a portfolio by scratch on your own or use a portfolio website.

Using a portfolio website is relatively easy, but it’ll be very similar in structure to your competition, so I think you’ll draw in more attention if you create your own page from scratch.

For programs, I recommend Illustrator and InDesign. I used Illustrator, but I hear InDesign is faster on PC.

Once you’ve decided on what you’re going to use, it’s time to pick out your pieces. Unlike the design or game industries, the anime industry doesn’t call for a few, carefully selected works.

Rather, I hear it’s common to include a variety of styles and sketches. That doesn’t mean we can just throw in whatever, though.

When I was job hunting, I had carefully, diligently colored my pieces, then I was told that they wanted to see the plain versions. They wanted to see them in their key and in-between frame states and even asked to see sketches.

Also, a lot of places are looking for people who can do layouts, so it’s wise to include a lot of them. I also think it’s very appreciated when your characters are placed neatly into your backgrounds.

The articles I included in my portfolio were layouts, keyframes, drafts, illustrations, rough sketches, life pieces, and fan art.

Some items don't need to be included if you aren't confident in them. Especially in sketching, there’s a lot of people who can illustrate but not sketch, so it’s not ideal for them to draw add new sketches to their portfolio. I’ve heard of people submitting sketchbooks filled with just drafts and finding success. If you want to add a new article, draw something that shows off your strengths and the skills needed to do the job.

It can also be useful to date your drawings, even if they’re not good. They may like to see that your skills have grown over time.

Once you’ve decided on what to put in your portfolio, it’s time to draft. Rough sketches are fine. Also, you can set yourself up for success by getting a general idea of how many pages you’ll have and where your text is gonna be.

Lastly, I’d like to touch on interviews.

Passion and your desire to work are very important in interviews. “Where do you want to be in the future?” “What drew you to this goal?” You should make an effort to speak about your motivations and inspirations. It’s good to talk about how hard you’ve worked for this and even touch on personal anecdotes.

For reference, I talked about my personal experiences as a student working on independent projects as my motivation for getting into animation.

That’s the end. It feels awkward to lay out my thoughts here for everyone to see but, just in case anyone’s able to glean anything from them, I’ll be as detailed as I can. I hope you all will continue to graciously read my posts.

October 2021, Kimura.