Portfolio advice

[Gamirk]

This may be redundant...but

i'm a junior art major undergrad and this fall i'll be putting together my portfolio for grad school applications. I'm going to be applying to 3d animation programs but i really have no clue as to what i should be doing right now for my portfolio. I'm really starting with scratch because i'm getting started so late (i'm skipping a year of undergrad and i didnt switch to an art major until this past year! eep!)

to make a long story short i've only got about a half a year to develope an impressive little portfolio and i'm in panic mode. can anyone give me advice or point me in the right direction for such advice? thanks!

[Dave]

Don't sweat it, 6 months should be plenty.
If you have some life drawings, put them in. If you don't, enroll in some. If they tell you you're too late to enroll, try to persuade them to let you in anyway. They might give you a hard time, but usually you can win them over (I got kicked out of 3 artschools in my day and still managed to graduate from a 4th, so I have some experience there)
Do some sketches at the park or any place convenient. Go to the zoo and make some sketches of animals. Make drawings of whatever interests you. If you like designing, then put in some designs, but make sure they 're not ripoffs from other designers (i.e. comics, Disney or anime). Teachers will be looking for an individual, not a clone.

Long story short; show them what you're about; that you're an aspiring artist with potential and a vision of his own. It won't be the quantity but the quality that tells them that.
If you want feedback, post your stuff in the educators forum. They go through portfolios all the time, so they can tell you exactly where you're at.
Within 6 months months you should have a portfolio that gets you in no problema.

cheers,
~D

[Gamirk]

hey thanks Dave, I appreciate your confidence too! (me = the nervous)

i do have one figure drawing class and just a drawing class under my belt so maybe i'll redo a couple of those assignments to include them. I guess I just didn't think straight up drawing skills would be as important in a 3d animation grad program. cool.

Any 3d/computer work i should be developing for this portfolio too?

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Gamirk

Any 3d/computer work i should be developing for this portfolio too?

Depends how good it is. If you wanna put it in your portfolio because you think it looks nice; do so. But don't do it just because you feel you have to have some 3D.
If you want to add something 3D, maybe it would be more interesting to make some sculptures.

However I'm not a teacher, so I don't want to go too much into specifics without being sure of what I'm saying. Why don't you send a pm to Ed Gavin at the educators forum? He teaches at Ringling, so he could tell you in great detail what to include and what not.

cheers,
~D

[Gamirk]

right-o, thanks

[Naka]

Hello there,
I'm new around here
I had this problem with portfolio as i don't know where to start. I'm trying to apply to an arts course which requires me to submit a portfolio of personal artwork...
I don't have many artpiece to start with as i had either misplaced most of them or they had been on the walls of my previous schools since...
should i just start drawing some new stuff to fill up my portfolio or should i try to get back my past drawings? Cos this portfolio is a part of a requirement to see whether i could get into the course which i want.

Do anyone have any good advice or examples which may help me to tide through this problem?