2D Animator Portfolio Website Guide & Tips

What Is a 2D Animator Portfolio?

A 2D Animator’s portfolio, often called a demo reel, is a collection of representative samples of an animator’s work that they include as part of their job application materials. This is the most important part of your job materials, since it is the material evidence of your skills as an animator, and it is the part of your application that will tell a hiring manager whether or not your style fits the job that they are attempting to fill. Building a compelling demo reel is one of the most important parts of compiling your job materials if you hope to be successful at finding a 2D Animator position.

How to Build 2D Animator Portfolio Projects

The process of building a demo reel is straightforward. You will work on various animation projects and collect them together to form your demo reel. However, this requires aspiring animators to work on the kinds of projects that can fit into a professional portfolio. The most common way to do this is by working in the industry, but this can be difficult for students attempting to break into the field. Students enrolled in Noble Desktop’s Motion Graphic Certificate program will spend a large portion of their time in the class working on projects that can fit into a new animator’s demo reel, and all enrolled students will attend a seminar specifically dedicated to building a demo reel to take onto the job market.

Choosing 2D Animator Portfolio Pieces

Like most of your job application materials, the difficult part of building a demo reel won’t be having enough materials. It will cut down on the samples to construct a coherent demo reel. You don’t want to include everything you’ve ever worked on, as this will be overwhelming and will likely include materials that don’t present the best vision of your work. Four very good pieces are better than 11 mediocre ones, and in honesty, it is better than four great pieces and six mediocre ones. You only want to put what you think is the best work in your demo reel.

In addition, you want to tailor your demo reel to the job you are applying for. If you are applying for a job at a video game studio, submitting a demo reel filled with traditional 2D animation work is unlikely to be compelling, regardless of how good the work in question is. Similarly, it is probably better to include a few specific pieces tailored to the given job opening, even if they aren’t the work you are most proud of.

Choosing a 2D Animator Portfolio Website

While the demo reel you submit to a prospective employer should only include a few pieces, it is becoming increasingly common for prospective 2D Animators to maintain a webpage that compiles a much larger collection of their work. This website is helpful for freelancers looking to demonstrate their range. Having a professional digital profile that collects all of your work for colleagues and employers to see is just good practice.

Most 2D animation webpages are hosted on prefab web platforms like WordPress or professional networking platforms like LinkedIn. These are easy to use and set up, making them ideal for 2D Animators who are unlikely to have the programming background required to build a professional webpage. Students with this background may want to consider designing their pages since Linkedin and WordPress are versatile platforms, but they aren’t built with 2D animation in mind.

Building a 2D Animator Portfolio Website

The process of building a 2D animation demo reel webpage will vary depending on what you are hoping to use it for. Freelancers 2D Animators will have different goals in mind relative to job seekers, but there are a few consistent considerations that all demo reel webpages will want to have in mind.

First and foremost, the page needs to be easy to navigate and have clear menus to direct audiences to the specific animation samples they are looking for. Individual samples should be clearly labeled, and animators should organize them so that anyone looking for a specific kind of sample can find it easily. You should also pay close attention to how the webpage is constructed in terms of SEO, which can mean either writing your copy or hiring someone to write copy for the page. Finally, you want to include a concise “about me” section to help inform readers about the demo reel they are looking at. It can be helpful to link to your other professional web profiles, such as a LinkedIn page, alongside important contact information.

Polishing a 2D Animator Portfolio Website

Once the webpage is up and running, you will need to continue to return to it and add the necessary polish as you iterate on your animations. You don’t want to include everything you’ve ever worked on, and you want to ensure that you are using the space to present the best version of your animation skills. As you produce more work and receive more professional accolades, you’ll want to update the demo reel page regularly to keep it as up-to-date as possible. You will also need to reorganize your work as you add more content to help readers better navigate the demo reel webpage. This editing can be a fairly minor process, but it is something that you don’t want to fall too far behind since it is easy to become overwhelmed with the process of updating and revising a webpage.

Learn the Skills to Become a 2D Animator at Noble Desktop

Once you’ve committed to learning the skills necessary to become a 2D Animator, Noble Desktop is available to make that dream a reality through professional skills instruction. Noble offers a wide array of 2D animation classes, available in person or online, and all of these classes are taught by expert instructors with years of on-the-job experience. This structure means that regardless of how your course is delivered, you’ll receive real-time instruction and be able to ask questions and receive personalized feedback on your work. Similarly, no matter whether you take the course in person or online, you’ll benefit from small class sizes and all of the professionalization support options, including one-on-one career mentoring in the career-certificate programs. Finally, every Noble class comes with the option for a free retake within one year, meaning that you’ll have the chance to build your portfolio and get even more hands-on experience in preparation for entering the job market.

Students interested in a career change may consider enrolling in Noble’s Motion Graphics Certificate program. This class aims to teach students how to use tools like Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro to create evocative 2D and 3D animated assets for many practical projects. In this class, students will be guided through the process of using After Effects to animate text, photos, and videos, and they will learn how to modify these animations in subtle but perceptible ways slightly. Students will also learn how to create animated images using layered Photoshop and Illustrator files (this course does not include instruction in either of these tools, they are prerequisites for taking the course). Finally, students will learn how to use Premiere Pro to edit their animated assets into video files. All this work will culminate in a series of professionalization seminars, including a portfolio-building workshop and a one-on-one mentorship session, intended to prepare students for a career as a 2D or 3D Animator.

Students who aren’t ready to make a significant career shift but do want to learn 2D animation skills may want to consider one of Noble’s many motion graphics bootcamps. These classes include the Adobe After Effects Bootcamp, which provides students with guided instruction in the use of After Effects for creating animated digital assets and the Adobe Premiere Pro Bootcamp, which teaches students how to use that program to compile their animated assets into a completed project. These courses are excellent starting points for new animators looking to learn the trade. However, they don’t provide students with any of the professionalization services offered through Noble’s career certificate programs.

Finally, students who aren’t sure that they want to start learning 2D animation but are intrigued by the possibility should consult some of Noble’s free training resources to learn more. Noble’s Learn 2D Animation page, as well as their Learn After Effects and Learn Premiere Pro page compiles a weird range of articles, free seminars and resources that students can use to help them on their 2D Animation career path. Noble also provides prospective 2D Animators with a career information hub to help them decide if a career change is right for them.