[quote=“Travis, post:1, topic:3081”]
I’d say first and foremost, you will work with everyone
[/quote] this!
and the ability to understand how the engineers will use your work is as critical as understanding how an in-between artist can alter your rough animation; you could throw out a hundred hours of work because things just are not setup technically. i don’t know how schools teach this but it was one of the biggest skills I learned on the job — to have a ‘learned’ passion for the technical side to your art, technical direction discipline, is in vast demand.
[quote=“Travis, post:1, topic:3081”]
Learn how to break up your effects into Start, Loop and End
[/quote] yep!
and importantly is to learn to make art that is easily altered (iterated) compartmentalized and documented. Many time artists feel they are empowered by learning after-effects+Houdini+unreal+maya+max and then could adopt a circuitous approach of creation; The AD might not care how you made it but your colleagues, (or other hires after you) can get completely puzzled if you have not carefully documented your strategy and loop in and out of packages.
I found working in as few packages as possible, in incremental bits, know things will change (you need to be agile, organized), this setup before you start, thinking through the process is very important; Ever open someone else’s PSD and spent 2-3 hours checking each layer? yah, ouch! or had to work through 3 packages of processing just to make a minor adjustment on color; this can be very inefficient