Transferable Skills

Specialist skills

Team work - Being good at teamwork in either the Games, Animation & VFX industry will help a lot for group projects within the companies as depending on the job that you are, if you were to be lead designing a project then you will need to be reliant on your work and the work of your colleagues.

Creativity and Efficiency - Being creative and efficient is needed in these industries as being able to be efficient at getting your work done on time and being able to out your future projects is key to these industries. Being creative will get you far as it means you will have a lot of ideas for e.g. characters in games, visual effects on a movie and some animation sequences for a TV show these are key to these industries to keep you coming up with new ideas.

The ability to think about the big picture - This will be useful as this skill means you will always keep in mind how the overall project should be like if it is a horror movie the overall movie should be dark and scary. It just shows that you can keep in mind the overall perspective of the project.

Meeting deadlines - Meeting deadlines is another crucial skill as this affects your product getting out there if a movie is postponed it can really hurt sales in the overall end

Working to a brief - In the industry you will be given a brief almost always so if the project you are working on doesn't meet the requirements you can be turned away making you miss deadlines.

Respond well to criticism - You must be able to respond well to criticism because it only helps you improve your work, so its best to keep a stiff upper lip when your work is being criticized rather than to take it personally.

Presentation skills - You must also have good presentation skills as when you go for a job interview you’re basically selling yourself and your skill set to the potential employers.

Knowledge of cultural references - When working in the industry you must know about cultural references as films now are packed with cultural references.

Observation skills - When you’re working with a team the chances are that someone is going to make a little mistake, you need keen observational skills to catch the mistakes that your team may have missed.

Planning - You need good planning skills when working with a team, because if everyone clearly plans out what they’re going to do, no one will be confused when they check up on you.

Be able to draw - This isn’t a key skill but the ability to draw is a great one to have so that when you’re blocking out what your team needs to do it always helps to have a visual aid, also if you’re about to start a model if might help you get an idea of what you’re doing if your draw it out first.

Be proactive and self motivated – The ability to self motivate is another very important one because when you’re working in a busy environment no one has the time to keep checking up on you and making sure you’re getting the work done so you must be able to motivate your self to get the work done.

Be confident – When working in industry you must be confident and ask as many questions as possible, especially if your working with accomplished people as they will have an in depth knowledge of the industry and to not ask them about things and expanding your knowledge would be a waste.

Know the language - If you know different languages, you will be super employable for different companies, because if there is a conference call and someone is a foreign client and you know their language your employers will see that as an extra reason to give you a promotion and they will remember your name in future.

Awareness of cinematography - An awareness of cinematography could be a great help as you will know how films are shot and made which will help you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Maths – You must be good at maths because if you’re animating a model you must know how to measure the vectors, you must also have a knowledge of Physics so that if you’re animating you know how things would move, swing and even explode.

Computer literacy - When you're working in the VFX industry it would be handy to have a knowledge of what hardware is in the computers and what they can handle, you should also keep up to date with emerging technologies as the industry is an ever growing organism.

Film theory - You should now film theory because the VFX industry is directly linked with the Film industry so its better to be a fountain of knowledge.

Knowledge of VFX history - You should know about the history of VFX as its the industry you’re working in.

Knowledge of Editing - A knowledge of editing is something that isn't needed but it is a skill that could be useful in case you have to edit an animation clip.

Understand Optics - If you understand optics you’ll understand how light works and how it interacts with objects, this is important because when you're making a VFX sequence you must rig the lighting properly.

Be innovated - When working in industry you should always be finding new ways to make things easier, if you have this skill you will be noticed by your employers.