Top 10 Tips for Landing a Job In 3D by Jeremy Birn

1. Be Good.

Schools selling computer graphics as a career skill tend to gloss over this dirty little secret: you have to be good at this stuff. There are a lot of students going for a limited number of jobs, so a lot of the class is not really going to break into the industry - only the ones who can become really good are likely to make it.

You don't have to be good at everything, of course, but your career will not take off until you get really good at something. You need to show professional level skills in at least one area, such as modeling, character rigging, effects, character animation, shader development, texture painting, lighting, or compositing. Several skills are better than just one, but you need at least one to be hired as a pro. The best way to learn is to start by going through the whole process, and then go back and focus more on the areas where you feel most confident or have the most fun.

Schools that try to train students specifically for computer arts jobs often don't have the high placement rates in the industry that their recruiters imply. One reason for this is that studios hire a diverse range of people, with a lot of different backgrounds: degrees in Illustration, Film, Fine Art, Architecture, Philosophy, Physics, of course lots of people with Computer Science degrees, and people with combinations of useful degrees and previous job experience. The only thing tying them together is that somehow they each became really good at something that feeds into the production pipeline.

Being good at what you do is my number one piece of career advice to anyone, and in the end it's the only one that really matters.

2. Network and Promote Yourself.

Computer Graphics is actually a very small industry; you keep running into the same people over and over in different contexts, companies, courses, and conventions. It's actually fairly easy to make a reputation for yourself (good or bad) that will precede you at any company where you are seeking work.

Focus first on your reputation with the people around you, in school or your current job. The people who have actually worked with you are your most important contacts and references, they can let you know about jobs or help you get into different companies. Make a website for yourself, first with obvious elements such as work samples, but expand it with information for other 3D artists. When you are able, make helpful posts on internet discussion groups, do some speaking, writing, teaching, or other constructive things to get your name out into larger channels.

If you are speaking a second language, focus on language skills as a higher priority than 3D. If you can't communicate well with your boss or director, then all the artistic and technical skills in the world would be worthless, because you still wouldn't be producing the graphics that the director wanted.


If you're a student, put your work on the web as soon as you have things you're proud of. Don't wait until you graduate to start a site, putting it up earlier helps to build connections, get feedback, and could lead to a job or internship.

3. Fully Explain your 3D Skills on your Resume

As companies cut back on things like on-the-job training (which has always been something of a myth anyway), explaining your specific software skills becomes more and more important. A lot of students seem to type a block of program titles into their resume, including some that they have used little or rarely, and perhaps one or two in which they are experts. Without professional experience using any of those packages, those little software lists are almost meaningless. Instead of just listing program titles, you should document what you've actually done with each program. For example:

For each program, the main things you want to explain are: how much you've used it, what you've done with it, and what you're good at doing with it. Alternately, you could also flip this format around, and list your skills in boldface, with the software and techniques outlined underneath. For example:

Either way, you are being clear and specific about exactly what you can do, not just providing a vague list of skills or software titles. This kind of skills description is vital if you are a student or just got out of school, and you don't have a lot of professional experience to list on your resume yet. After you have worked on more productions and have more professional experience, you might want to shorten this section of your resume and make more room for descriptions of the specific jobs you've done.Either way, you are being clear and specific about exactly what you can do, not just providing a vague list of skills or software titles. This kind of skills description is vital if you are a student or just got out of school, and you don't have a lot of professional experience to list on your resume yet. After you have worked on more productions and have more professional experience, you might want to shorten this section of your resume and make more room for descriptions of the specific jobs you've done.


4. Do Some Research.

Learn about the companies you apply to, so that you can customize your resume and cover letter to highlight the most relevant of your skills. You want to print small quantities of resumes at a time, and edit them to highlight game-related skills on an application to a game company, echo language from an advertised job description, or customize them for a situation such as adding your local contact information while you are at the SIGGRAPH conference.

If you are invited in for an interview, study everything you can about the company beforehand, so that you can ask intelligent questions at the interview, or mention specific examples of the company's work that you admire or feel that you could contribute to.

Find out as much about the industry as you can, so that you can find opportunities others might have overlooked. It pays to apply to smaller and less well-known companies, instead of just the biggest and most famous companies that everyone applies to. Read the credits of movies, TV shows, and video games to find out who is doing work on projects that you might be interested in. Read magazines like Cinefex and Computer Graphics World, and go to conferences like SIGGRAPH and the Game Developers Conference, to meet more people in the industry. Stay in touch with old friends and co-workers who can be the source of job tips. Quite often, the key to getting a job is finding out about it.

5. Learn to spell.

A mistake from a showreel that was sent to me - don't let this be yours!








Every word on your demo reel and resume should be 100% verified for correct spelling. A lot of the words you need to spell will not be in your word processor's automatic spell-checker, so also check company websites or software documentation for the correct spellings of program names and technical terms.

People hurt themselves when they spell badly. When someone said she knew "Stradda Studio," but spelled it wrong on her resume, it made me wonder how often she had even seen the splash screen. A guy claimed that he worked with "presicion," which undermined his own point. If you want to look like a pro, proof-read your work carefully.


A mistake from a showreel that was sent to me - don't let this be yours!


6. Keep your showreel short and simple.

Delete any weak work. It's better to have a short reel with only one or two projects on it, than to include anything that doesn't represent the best quality professional work that you are capable of today. The first rule of editing is: "if in doubt, leave it out!"

If you are showing modeling, shading, or texturing with a turn-table animation (the model rotating 360 degrees in front of the camera), don't make them too long or slow. 180 frames should be plenty, and it does not need to spin around more than once.

If you have a strong portfolio of illustration, life drawing, painting, sculpture, or other artwork that is relevant to the job you're applying for, digitize it and include a brief presentation of some of your best images at the end of your showreel, but only show a few and only hold them on screen for four or five seconds.

You don't need to add music - most professionals review showreels with the sound turned off or very low.



HINT: For a quick, simple portfolio site, start with the Adobe Photoshop function File > Automate > Web Photo Gallery... to turn a directory of images into jpeg, html, and thumbnails for navigation. For general webpage editing, if you don't know HTML, nothing's simpler than Netscape's built-in Composer window.


7. Show Original Work.

Don't fill your portfolio with copies of other people's designs and characters, especially not rip-offs from the companies you are applying to!

Even if it shows reasonably strong technical skills, copied designs are likely to look bad in comparison to the more famous original, and you will look like less of an artist if you fail to produce original art. Try to depict things that are local or personal: your hobby, your hometown, something that is important to you, or something that fits with your personal style (if you have one.) Your work in modeling, animation, and rendering will be improved if you learn to observe detail and draw from real life, matching your 3D work to a familiar piece of reality. By focusing on something special to you, you'll create more unique and memorable work.


8. Don't bluff or puff on your resume.

If you were a Lab Assistant in your school's computer lab, don't write "Multi-Platform System Administrator" as a job title - just say you were a Lab Assistant. If you want to explain what you did on the job, add bullet-points underneath. For example:

If you are a student looking for your first real job, there's no point in adding a "Professional Experience" section to your resume if you have nothing substantial to list there. Similarly, don't bother inventing a name and logo for a fictional production company; that won't help you find a job.

Companies are looking for big artistic talent, without the typical big artist's ego - being straightforward, honest, and realistic about your work shows that you are the kind of person we'd like to work with.

9. Don't over-decorate your demo reel, resume, or website.

When companies ask for a VHS demo reel showing your work, do send a VHS tape, not some other format of media. Spend your time on the content, not the packaging. You will not get any extra points for fancy color printing or making a logo for yourself. Label the tape with your name and contact information, copy some of your best work onto it, and add clear straightforward titles. Edit straightforwardly, don't cut back and forth between projects or use any fancy transitions.

On the web, too much graphic design or multi-media can distract from your 3D work, and often can't be seen within companies using Netscape on Linux, or operating behind a firewall that prevents users from downloading new plug-ins. Don't limit the visitor in any way from marking an image as a Favorites or Bookmark, using the navigation buttons at the top of the web browser, or resizing the window to fill a 21" monitor. Don't expect everyone to be able to view Microsoft Word format files, either; clean, simple HTML is the best way to design a portfolio website. If you have access to different kinds of computers, test your site in Netscape and other browsers, on Windows, Mac, SGI, and Linux systems.

10. Get Your Foot In The Door.

In many studios, you find top people who initially started as interns. The key is getting in the gate in the first place.






Companies fill most new positions from within. When there's a new position to fill, most managers would rather promote a qualified intern to the position, rather than hiring a stranger, even if some outside applicant had better work on his reel.

Internal promotion makes sense because it helps companies fill positions with reliable people who work well in the team, already know their way around the in-house tools, and know the pipeline at the company. Internal promotion also saves the company money compared to hiring only people who were experienced at other companies, and motivates and rewards good work in all the departments.

If you can get into a good company, through an internship, production assistant job, or any production job (even at a low rank such as rotoscoping or match-move), then you may be able to work your way up by learning the pipeline and learning the in-house tools, and get into a good job at the good company faster than if you spent the extra years in school, working by yourself, or as a big fish in a small pond.