"At the end of the day, I've got to be honest with you, when I'm looking at CV's, whether you've got a masters or not, I don't care. If you're an animator, it's how good your story telling is. I trained as a character animator, but I can tell you I was the worse character animator there ever was. Concentrate on what you're good at, if you suck at a particular thing, say as a modeler, get someone else to model, if you can't light get someone else to light. Do what you do best, which is animate. And make sure you document what you do properly, that's very important.

There's too much emphasis in the industry in knowing software applications. If you're a good communicator, work well in a professional environment and of course you have animation talent, that's what we're looking for.

Make sure you have a good history that your characters live in. Essentially your characters should have an ego, history and context. Make sure your characters are able to show the range of emotions they need to show. The character will be developed with different styles, movements, understanding and that becomes a template.

Your script in the life blood of your project, don't start a project unless it's a good script that's had many comments. We've all seen enough bad Hollywood blockbusters to demonstrate that. Beautiful visuals but it falls short because of the script. The storyboarding is the next most important component. From that process your entire production pipeline then expands. Use key frames to convey key areas of your work. The storyboard is also your continuity checker"
Michael Carter Head of CGI at Ardman Animation