Here's how you can create a portfolio for transitioning into animation.

Creating a portfolio for transitioning into animation involves showcasing a diverse range of work that highlights your skills and creativity. Start by including your best pieces, such as short animations, character designs, storyboards, and any relevant art projects. Tailor your portfolio to the animation industry by emphasizing storytelling, character movement, and technical proficiency. Use a mix of personal projects and collaborative works to demonstrate versatility and teamwork. Ensure the portfolio is well-organized, visually appealing, and accessible online through a professional website or portfolio platform. Regularly update your portfolio with new and improved work to reflect your growth and evolving expertise.

Motion design is so broad that you can cover a lot of different fields – Title animations for TV shows, animated graphics to mix with video footage for social media, tv and film, animated UX/UI elements for apps, 2D, 3D, a mix, character animation, advertising. And even there you can break things up in Illustration, characters and rigging. So knowing the industry and then defining your interest is great. So if you can, get an internship. Check out online resources like school of motion or greyscale gorilla, blender (which is free!!), try some things out and then carve out a path that works for you. It is a very competitive industry and there's a lot of creatives out there so you have to be great at what you do.

One thing I learned is that while it's very standard to have a reel with some highlights of your best work, if you're starting out, don't try to go 30 seconds to 1 minute. A lot of beginners, myself included make the mistake of trying to put together a reel only to show mediocre work or multiple scenes from the same projects to fill time. Instead, aim to have 5-10 seconds of showcasing all of the fundamentals – color, composition, principles of animation, timing and do it really well. That will get you far more ahead than longer reels. Another one is maybe making killer designed/illustrated work and having just a bit of motion in there. Most studios will get that you don't have all the skills yet but make killer first impression.

You are narrating a story with animation. All forms of entertainment, including cartoons, video games, and computer games, relate tales of quests and adventures to their viewers. So, being a skilled visual storyteller is crucial for animators. One such example would be Walt Disney, who is regarded by many as a talented visual storyteller.

Through animation, you’re telling a story. If you watch animated movies or cartoons or played video games or computer games, they all tell the audience a story or a quest or an adventure. So, as an animator, it’s very, very important to be a good visual storyteller. Walt Disney is one such person to exemplify as they all say that he was a gifted visual storyteller.