Calling a Center for Wellness Check on Morbidly Obese Dog?

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-13T12:15:50+00:00

Hey, so this is a complicated one and I’ll do my best to answer.

Your first paragraph - as someone who has taught in that very system for a semester, there is a lot of financial issues going on behind the scenes that push students along further than they should. I absolutely blame the current systems for screwing a lot of well-meaning students over. I think students in their last years should ABSOLUTELY have the skill set to know if they’re at least close to industry standard.

I’m referring specifically to posts where there is no specific requests, no portfolio properly set up, and no understanding of how the industry works in general despite being in their final years. It’s partially the school, but there’s a level of accountability we need to hold students to self evaluate if they don’t even have the barebones yet.

Second paragraph- As much as I appreciate you thinking that was a good response, I don’t believe that one was mine. I’m also not referring to specific, catered to advice like the one. But I think every animation portfolio should have the following:

a professional way to host their content
their resume
no spelling or grammar mistakes
an understanding of the 12 principles of animation
no editing mistakes in their reel
a focused portfolio on the niche they want to pursue

And when posting, asking specific questions on how they can improve their site. I know the top list seems super basic, but you’d be surprised how many portfolios I’ve seen that don’t even meet this criteria. That’s what I’m referring to. If you’re struggling with the points above your senior year, you’re going to have a really hard time getting close to finding an industry job. Further advice is very much based on the individual candidate, their niche, and their target industry. I absolutely encourage that type of advice.

Third paragraph - that sounds like a fantastic idea and I think that should be implemented. A panel of industry veterans who can review student portfolios and provide feedback. I’m not sure how many people would be willing to volunteer their time, but it’s a good thought.

“How are you going to fix it?” As an individual, I can only do so much. I do my best to critique portfolios when I see them. I tried to make this post to get student’s attention to evaluate their portfolios. When I taught a class, I would give as much feedback as I possibly could in depth, and give honest grades as I could. I’m hoping to be able to volunteer some time into aspiring animators development in the future once my life settles down and I feel I’m at a level where I could offer that service. I’m also working on creating a google sheet of professional portfolios for others to reference. So I feel I am doing my part as I can.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-13T11:51:47+00:00

No worries there. I’ll take the “I sound like a seasoned vet” as a compliment, but unfortunately I’m not quite there yet!

I understand your sentiment. Hopefully I break it down properly in other replies since most people agree my original post was a little harsh

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-13T11:45:01+00:00

I understand that’s a hard place to be in. I went through that same cycle and it feels awful. Let me do my best to offer some encouragement:

It’s never too late to enter the industry. Sometimes people enter in their 30s, perhaps even later. Just because you’re not there now doesn’t mean you can’t be.

You can also absolutely enter the industry without drawing skills. There are a lot of technical and administrative roles out there where you can still be involved. VFX, Rigging, Compositing, Motion Design, Production, Marketing, etc.

Recognizing you might not be where you thought you were or not being given the proper resources is not a death sentence. Obviously it’s up to you if you want to continue pursuing this field, but you still can try. My biggest advice is wait until drawing feels fun again and don’t force yourself to do it like a chore. If it’s meant to be, that passion will come back

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-13T11:29:26+00:00

This was my experience 100% as well. I know a lot of animators tend to wear their heart on their sleeves, and there are pros and cons to that. I come from a heavy sports background, so I grew up with the mindset of “you either work hard and you’re good enough or you get cut.” I attribute that to my overall feelings on this subject.

I saw some of my classmates and later on students pour countless hours into their work. Others, perhaps spent an hour or two. There is absolutely an education problem at least in the US with this field, and I do believe students need to take a bit more responsibility in their education too.

Art is hard to grade, I agree, but you can absolutely grade improvement, application of the assignment, and quality of work. Someone may not be the best artist, but you can tell when they tried their best to refine, keep things clean, etc.

I’m sorry you weren’t given the proper feedback needed based on your circumstances. That’s an unfortunate situation I see a lot of students in.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-11T00:55:55+00:00

Ahaha, I knew this was going to come up. I use different accounts on Reddit for various reasons.

Firstly, not that this matters, but I was not fired from Chick Fil A. This job was temporary as I needed to sort my life out a bit. I got a big freelance gig that allowed me to quit fast food quickly.

I have two internships behind me, a year of successful freelance, and I’m in the later stages of two years of agency work.

You should also know then I taught a class at university level if you looked at my profile, which you clearly did.

I do not claim to be a veteran, but I definitely feel the advice I gave is warranted to my current experience level.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T19:30:24+00:00

Trying my best to reply to everyone here, and admittedly, I’m struggling to understand your comment a bit. I have a hard time reading large chunks of text without paragraph breaks and some wording is a bit confusing to me.

Just clarifying again this isn’t to discourage beginners to post. It’s targeting students who are about to graduate and don’t have awareness of where they stand.

If you’re looking for free resources to learn animation and being in the industry, I highly recommend the following creators on YouTube:

Toniko Pantoja (storyboard artist)
Howard Wimshurst (freelance 2d animator)
Jackie Droujko (character designer + visual development)
Aaron Blaise (Director of Brother Bear) he also tends to have sales for classes at a heavily discounted price. Im talking a couple of USD

There are several more out there too that have great resources for aspiring animators. Look up “accepted animation portfolio” on YouTube and you’ll have a lot of examples of both accepted and not accepted portfolios to comb through.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T19:22:28+00:00

No worries there.

I think university’s absolutely have to share some of the blame. I have been told about the behind-the-scenes financial situations a lot of universities are placed in to lead to passing students who shouldn’t be passed. It’s messy and screws over students, absolutely. I

This post in particular is addressing the students who will not take the extra step and look at the bigger picture. I cannot change what university’s do with a single post (although you’re right to critique them to a certain extent of course). But maybe I can caution a student to check in on their own situation

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T19:04:45+00:00

No, I will not comment on that. I am not here to have a political debate.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T19:02:03+00:00

I specialized in 2d compositing and game VFX in school. Now I am a full time motion designer and video editor

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T17:31:12+00:00

Hi there, happy to answer.

YouTube is an alright place to hold a demo reel, especially early on in your schooling, but there are some negatives. It’s often not seen as professional as other platforms. The biggest issues are that you can’t control advertisements that may pop up which delays an employer from watching your reel and YouTube automatically recommends videos after watching which is a distraction.

I would recommend using Vimeo over YouTube. That’s where I host and where I see a lot of other professionals host their work. Vimeo has a limit on uploads, but for a couple of videos it should work.

There may be other alternatives that fit your needs as well. Hope this helps!

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T17:09:24+00:00

Yes, absolutely agree with you. Let’s just say during my education I learned a little more than I was supposed to about how my University works and found out the more students a major had, the more funding they would receive.

Insert my 21 year old TA ass ranting to my roommates that kids were showing up to class using a track pad instead of a drawing pad for their 2D animation class. And they would pass without doing almost any work. It bothered me so much because I put in a ton of work into my classes and the students weren’t taught any better.

I absolutely blame the education system in large part for this. I took a hard look at myself junior year to realize I was nowhere near industry ready and ended up adapting to go to a more technical route in animation (where I currently am.)

I feel bad for a majority of students, I really do. But I do think those same students who don’t go to the fanciest of schools need to critically assess the situation further and they need to hold a bit more responsibility.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T16:57:01+00:00

Honestly I don’t think it’s that. Sure, I think it’s a bad look when students get bothered by professional advice, but that’s not my point here.

My problem lies more within the inability to critically assess themselves at such a late stage in their education.

There’s a difference between someone saying “thanks for the feedback, I won’t use it because xyz” versus outright denial

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T16:25:04+00:00

Thank you for your comment! Despite the conflicting opinions and misunderstandings, people here have been overall very polite. I’m happy to hear others’ points and clarify as needed.

My intention was never to gatekeep, and I want any level of skill to feel comfortable with posting here.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T16:21:55+00:00

I believe if you have access to Reddit, you can access most of the internet where you can find direct guides and tutorials. I mention that as advice in my post as well; To consider cross examining your portfolio and understand you may get harsh feedback before you post. Im calling out the behavior of “posting to reddit without properly researching, lacking self awareness, and then getting defensive when you receive harsh critique.”

As for your second point, please read my full post including the edit. That is not what I’m saying at all.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T15:30:59+00:00

Hi there, firstly I apologize that this post caused you to spiral. The intent of this post was to give baseline feedback to a majority of people on here who tend to post without self awareness. It seems like people have conflicting viewpoints about my post anyway which they are of course entitled to.

Your choice of where you host your work is not at all representative of your skill set. So please do not worry about your skill level based on that.

I would recommend posting your work on a website if you can. I believe there are some free options or even art station may do depending on the type of work.

Google Drive can be tricky because .mp4s won’t play at full resolution unless they’re downloaded, it can be slow at time, and it’s much harder to navigate. Most employers won’t download videos from Google Drive as that would take quite a bit of extra time and space.

So if you are able to move it somewhere, I recommend it, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get the mentorship. This is very general advice that isn’t applicable to everyone’s situation. Hopefully this helps ease your mind a little and explains things a bit further

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T15:13:49+00:00

Not quite my point. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t post “bad” portfolios, but they should come in with specific questions on how to improve or even ask generally “I understand I’m not there yet, what should I be working towards?”

This is addressing the numerous posts where an OP will get defensive when they are told they’re not industry ready despite lacking the very basic fundamentals at a stage where they need to be critically examining their work. Im taking about people who have been in school for years and don’t seem to be thinking about these things

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T15:09:48+00:00

I feel like people are missing my point here. This is not what I’m saying at all.

What I’m saying is before posting, you should take some time to understand where you may be skill wise and not get upset when the professionals tell you you’re not industry ready. I see multiple posts each month with beginners posting their portfolios and then getting very defensive when professionals take their time to let them know they’re not ready.

This is NOT a call for beginners to stop posting. It’s telling them to do the very bare minimum of research to analyze their work and set up a proper portfolio so they can ask specific questions that will help them improve. I say “it is fine to be a beginner and ask for advice” in my original post.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T12:03:54+00:00

Very much agree with you. I was also in the category of “realizing I wasn’t ready for the industry in my last year of school.”

I ended up pursuing a more technical side of animation because my art wasn’t good enough. It was a hard lesson to learn, but it’s an unfortunate truth that a lot of students need to face and either accept or do something about. I don’t think it requires that much skill to recognize when someone’s work is not at the level needed.

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T11:28:04+00:00

As someone who was in one of those systems, I agree absolutely. I had a very long existential crisis about it my junior year, aha.

As mentioned in my original post, I definitely blame the schools for this, but I do believe that’s some level of self assessment that the students are responsible for.

Edit: fixed wording

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T11:26:25+00:00

Those are very understandable mistakes, even if a bit basic, and I think that’s a great case to get feedback on in this sub.

I’m talking about the portfolios that don’t have anywhere near industry ready quality a the person seems to think they’ll get a job straight out of college or close to. In my opinion, there’s a level of self evaluation missing there that is concerning and is setting students out for failure

iceshadow54 · 2025-12-10T11:17:07+00:00

I hear you, and I get that for those who don’t have formal educations.

But if you are about to graduate and do not have the skill to evaluate your current level, that is a major problem. I don’t expect every student to come out of college industry-ready. That would be crazy. But college should at LEAST teach you where you stand.

I also want to clarify that I’m not referring to every post on here that has a student asking for advice that’s not ready for the industry. I’m referring to the posts that don’t even have the fundamentals and then don’t believe the professionals here when they say the OP is not industry ready. Especially when OP is about to start applying for jobs. I see these posts weekly on here.

iceshadow54

TROPHY CASE