PORTFOLIO BASICS: Your Audience?
Who’s your audience?
Can you imagine Marilyn Manson offering to perform at a Christian Revival? First they’d probably never book such an act, if indeed that’s what they do. Second Manson would have to be pretty desperate or antagonistic to even consider this as a good career move.
The point I’m making is, know your audience. Some creatives are inherently plugged into the zeitgeist of our times and create work that’s not only personal to them but widely appealing. Many of us are not so lucky. We have our head’s down doing what we love and hoping someone will love it just as much as we do. But HOPE is not a business plan.
Believe me, I’m living proof of this. For years, I’ve tried making it in comics. And by making it there are levels, right? Getting printed was the first level. Getting paid for your work was the next. Getting a series or a book to work on and finally getting your own stories and graphic novels published. For each of these levels I had to prove my competency for the job. Granted in the end, the ultimate goal was to have a regular working gig that paid the industry standard or better. But no such luck. And there is a certain amount of luck involved, though, it’s not the driving force.
It also didn’t help that I never really drew, any major licensed characters. I was “hoping” editors would see my work, my storytelling chops and approach me.
But no. That never happened even after 15+ years.
And it’s my own damn fault. If you want to work for Marvel and DC you have to draw their characters. Because how else are they going to know how you interpret their properties?
Through working in various video game studios over the years I learned a couple of important skills. My storytelling ability translated to storyboarding. I could help designers work out everything from gameplay, to spellcasting, to spatial walk-throughs, and cinematics. There seemed like nothing a storyboard couldn't solve. On the flip-side of that I was targeting my career away from the 3D modeling trenches into Pre-production art. I could draw, I had ideas and the energy to keep iterating on them endlessly.
Flash-forward-- I’m freelancing now and have been for the past 20+ years. People know me as a storyboard artist. Why? Because that’s what they see on my website. FUN FACT: I’ve never gone after a job. People find me through word of mouth and referrals. How did this glorious thing happen?
Do good work
Deliver on time
Make clients happy
Get your work out there
At least that’s what I’ve been doing.
Notice I didn’t see anything about pricing. If you follow the above, you’re probably able to charge the top-dollar the market in your area will bear.
Knowing your audience isn’t just about researching the market you want to service, which you probably already are because you’re a smart and beautiful person. Knowing the market in which you work is also important.
Where I live there are a handful of us. Very few solid storyboard artists who get a lot of local work. Are we the best? I don’t know...I probably should research that, but I’m more focused on my client’s needs. My clients are multi-media studios, gaming studios, agencies and the like. I'm busy doing the best I can so they keep coming back.
Why storyboards?
They’re the fastest way to make money and get back to working on my own projects. Not a lot of people are good at storytelling, and those who can draw would rather pursue other areas of interest like Illustration or the sexiness of Concept Art.
Speaking of which CONCEPT WORK...is sexy and EVERYONE who can draw wants to do it. Thinks they can do it. So the market is saturated!
Know the competition.
After you’ve done the research of all the game studios, animation studios, ad agencies and multi-media studios in your area, who are the people they’re using? Who are the people getting hired the most? What can you offer that they cannot?
Rendering beautiful images is hard enough, but can you iterate hundreds of times on weapons, vehicles, clothing, etc. It’s now getting to the point where not only is 3D becoming specialized (i.e. weapons modelers vs. character modelers) but it’s spreading into concept design as well. Are you a character designer or environment specialist?
If you can answer these 3 questions then you’re already on the right track.
What are you great at?
What are you passionate about?
And what drives your economic engine?
If you can’t, you’ve got some introspection to work on.
Regardless here are the basics of your portfolio once you’ve done the leg work and research.
Fence posts. It's all about the fence posts.
6-12 pieces of GREAT work strung between a few fence posts of EXCELLENT work. Now this is mostly for Concept Art and Illustration where key pieces have a WOW FACTOR that seems to make people swoon.
Concept Design is a little different because you’re showing the ideation of a thing through several steps until you get to the final. Limit the steps to like 3 instances and make sure the pieces are killer. In the end, you can still have 12 or so pieces.
For storyboards, find an area of focus ( commercials, gaming, etc.) and show anywhere between 6-10 different projects (10-20 boards per project) that explore a wide, but consistent range of themes and styles. Include levels of finish, from quick and loose storyboards, to fully-rendered presentation boards.
I realize storyboards are hard to come up with without a script but think of the last film you saw. How would you break that down into a movie trailer? How would you creatively sell the idea of Smart TV? This is your chance to show people not only what you do but how you think. If you still need a script, find one here and grab something you’ve never seen before.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Keep track of the time you spend on each project. This will help you sell your skills and time and be able to fairly price your work.
For a guideline here’s my professional site to show you what I do and how it’s presented.
Hope this helps.
More soon…
=s=