They are of course not the only large animation companies, but they are certainly the most dominant. They also each fill their own segment of the animation industry, rather than competing directly, Disney focus on traditional hand-drawn animation, and Aardman on Stop-Motion. Dreamworks and Pixar both do CG films, but with very distinctive styles that set each other apart; Pixar have a younger, cuter look to most of their films and are aimed at a very young audience, and Dreamworks create their films with the goal of entertaining all ages.
Though while saying that I realise Pixar are about to break that trend with their new film 'Brave', which could easily be mistaken for a Dreamworks film. It's not out yet though, so my point is still valid at the time of writing =P.
With the trip to the Annecy film festival looming, and with many large animation companies on the prowl for new talent there I thought I'd better give a mention.
At the annual Annecy Animation Festival, representatives from Disney are there and ready to look at portfolios, and hold quick on-the-spot interviews. It's an exciting prospect, but reports from previous visitors to Annecy say that they're very strict about what they're looking for. Previous 3rd years went to them, expecting them to look through their showreels, when they were actually just wanting to see portfolios and drawings, I suppose it's much quicker.
Maybe if you have a good enough one, they give you a stamp and shove you into the next tent or something... The sheer volume of applicants at an animation festival teeming with students dreaming about working at Disney must be staggering, so I can see why they only need quick impressions.
With this in mind, I hope to collect together some of my sketches, and also to create more, of animals, characters, speed drawings, anatomy, and dynamic poses, all the things I expect they're looking for in a portfolio. It's a lot to do in a pretty short time, but if I sit in bed with my sketchbook a few nights in a row like I used to... I'll probably get a pretty decent collection together, certainly enough to look through in a 2 or 3 minute time slot... All this is assuming there actually are Disney representatives there this year... We will see!
Disney are one of the few animation companies still focusing on hand drawn animation. It set's them apart from many competitors, and it's good to see that there is still an audience for it. Obviously, to get a job at Disney, you need to be able to draw!
Despite the cartoony and stylized appearance of Disney films, they like to see that a person is capable of drawing realistically as well as cartoon, and having a knowledge of anatomy and perspective is imperative. I think I have a pretty decent grasp on those things, hopefully I'll be able to show that in my drawings...
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