Last night I got lost in downtown Santa Ana looking for the Art Institute of Orange County portfolio review. I was within a block of the place but had a hard time finding the right building. Signage guys. I was there to see the senior`s work mainly because of my good friend Jim Rivers, a former student of mine and the current recruiter and career guy at AI Orange.

Once I found the place it was well worth the trip. All the portfolios and demo reels were very professional looking and everybody was putting forth their best foot in a well-coached presentation. And that folks is what a school should be doing, getting a student ready to face the workplace.

Unfortunately the Orange County location of the review works against the 2-D animation students while it works for the gaming students. There is some good 2-D animation work here, I really liked the work of Kat Kosmala but she is a 2-D artist in the middle of gaming land and her work cries out for a lot of trips into Burbank.

Seth Haak stands out as a 2-D draftsman and character designer with a 3-D capability.

Also like the work of Jeremiah McKay (good animation name) CGI artist but there is a core storytelling in his work, something lacking in some of the others. He might want to look in the LA area too but could also go the gaming route.

There were a few others that stood out but they didn`t have demo reels left by the time I got there so I could not place the business card with the work. They`ll do okay without my review.  ¶ 10:11 AM