PortfolioFormats

PROJECT FORMATS

FORMATTING TO OPTIMIZE A PORTFOLIO FOR THE HIRING PROCESS

The recommendations below are designed to coordinate with the hiring experience and to match up with the laptop and classroom facilities that are available to our students. Student's portfolio works can and do come from all of our courses. We each need to ensure that we are outlining formats in our syllabi for all courses Freshman through Senior level.

INTERACTIVE WORKS

File Names: Students should include their full first and last names on their project folders. No spaces are allowed. These two things will greatly streamline the process of getting student works onto the Kendallweblab site as well as the creation of compilation reels for the Senior show and other important promotional purposes.

Size: Should fit in 1024x768 browser. That is a 950 pixel x 550 pixel max. viewing area.

Load Time: No more than 30 seconds (at 200k/second). Load times longer than 5 seconds should be accompanied by a load screen that says something about the artist/designer or project.

Motion Graphics: Should be integrated. The ability to create 'Rich Media' is the main differentiating feature between our students and a graphic designer or an Illustrator that can 'do web'. The exception to this would be Interactive Design II where HTML and CSS are taught.

Navigation: Should be very straightforward to navigate. Game play should be very simple and quick to learn (maximum playing time should be about 2 minutes with 1 minute being ideal). The hiring user experience is not usually an entertainment user experience.

Compatibility: Should be tested in Safari, Windows Firefox, MAC Firefox, and Windows Explorer at minimum. We have copies of Parrallels software installed in every classroom (on the teacher work-stations) that can be used to test websites in Windows.

STILL IMAGE FILES: 2D & 3D illustration as well as graphic design layouts

File Names: Students should include their full first and last names. No spaces are allowed. These two things will greatly streamline the process of getting student works onto the Kendallweblab site as well as the creation of compilation reels for the Senior show and other important promotional purposes.

File Prep: Color-prepped for both print and web in Photoshop. The default being the web version with adjustment layers that can be turned on for the print versions. Susan has created a detailed blog to help you and your students set files up with the proper color management and instructions on calibrating displays to printers.

http://digitalcolorsettings.blogspot.com/

or kendallweblab.com > resources > worksheets > digital color settings

Layout: For both web and printed portfolios, detail views should be created to ensure a good look at the work. Layouts with multiple views or works on a single page should be avoided. Each image or view should have its own page. This will extend the amount of time a reviewer will spend looking at each project.

Format: Fit on 11" x 17" paper at 150 pixels per inch or letter size (8.5" x 11") at 300 pixels per inch. These are standard sizes that can be printed from the lasers at school. File resolutions greater than these can significantly slow down the printing process and cause serious backlogs.

VIDEO AND ANIMATION FILES

Format: 720p or 1080p High Definition Format is generally too large for a student with a laptop computer that is 3 or more years old. I would recommend that you have them work at a downsized 16x9 format (854 pixels x 480 pixels). Please keep in mind that, when a student applies for a job. no bonus points are awarded for using a lot of pixels. Here are some additional reasons for going with this format:

This is the format that most of our video cameras shoot.
shorter render times for 3D, Aftereffects and file compression in general.
Faster and more productive workflow in Lightwave, Flash and Aftereffects... especially when working on a laptop. (less waiting for RAM previews and intermediate renderings. Better handling of pngs in Flash)
90% of the views of our student's portfolio works will be via the web... (Vimeo is 560 x 315, You tube is 854 x 480, our student portfolio websites are 569 x 320)
80 % of television in general and 90% of children and teen animation is still standard Def (720 x 540)
90 % od dvd releases are still standard def (720 x 480/486)

There will be times where you will want students to work at a different resolution... this might be driven by specs coming from a client or perhaps an animation is being created for a specific festival format. The student may have a newer computer and be working on a relatively short or simple project. Banner ads, mobile devices and e-greeting cards also have their own formats.

DVDs should not have a paper label or really any artwork on them at all. Studios simply want the applicant's name and contact info clearly written directly on the DVD.

Output: Quicktime format. Using either the Apple Animation or Apple Pro-res compression setting. These are loss-less (quality) formats. These files should be referred to as "source" files and contain the word "source" at the end of the file name. All other compressed files for web, hard drive or DVD delivery will be created from this source file. The source file is the file that you submit for inclusion on the Weblab and other promotional purposes.

Compression: Use the Quicktime publishing guide to create Hard Drive, CD-rom and Web versions. It would be great if students can get practice doing this in every animation and video course. These versions should have these suffixes: 'HardDrive', 'Cd', 'Web'.

http://www.kendallweblab.com/weblab2/resources/worsheets/QuicktimePublishingGuide.pdf

Kendallweblab.com > Resources > Quicktime Publishing Guide

Length: A student reel can be no longer than 2 minutes. Most of them will be around 1 - 1.5 minutes. Any individual work longer than 2 minutes will likely not be watched in its entirety during the portfolio review process. Ideal lengths for animation and video are from 5-10 seconds (logos/titles) to 30 seconds (advertisements/lead-ins) to 1-2 minutes (short narratives). This ensures that the student will have time to advance and rework the projects for maximum quality. There are no points awarded for length during a professional portfolio review. Note: group projects can be a little longer, especially if they cross over several semesters.

SOUND (STAND-ALONE) FILES

Format: AIFF, 44.1 khz, best quality, stereo

Compression: None required except for Web. For Web it will typically be IMA 44.1 khz, medium quality (128 bitrate), stereo

Length: Ideal lengths for stand-alone sound projects are from 5-10 seconds (lead-ins) to 30 seconds (advertisements) to 1 minute (music compositions). This ensures that the student will have time to advance and rework the projects for maximum quality. There are no points awarded for length during a portfolio review.

Content: Projects should typically include a mix of two or more of the following.

- musical score

- Environments

- Effects

- Foley

- Voice

Projects: Commercially oriented applications of sound design such as:

- Radio Spots and other strictly voice narratives that could include effects, foley, environments and scoring

- Short musical score samples: max. length 30-60 seconds (15-30 seconds is best)

- Sound Reels, that includes sound design from animation and video projects mixed

with the voice narratives and musical scores listed above.

DIGITAL COMIC FILES

Format: Pixel dimensions (2750X2063) Landscape based on the Zuda.com requirements. The viewer expands to fullscreen which is where the large size image looks the best.