Lightwyrm

I can only speak for 2D
But I would say do your research beforehand in terms of who you will be applying to ;) If you have someone you really like, it would be best to tailor a majority of your 2D portfolio to their style. [Look at previous titles and so on]

Second thing would be simple diversity, so have storyboards, some matte work, some creatures and characters.

And third thing is completley not related at all: never try to come off as hard working, a lot of people think that "hard working = good". But to a boss hard working = you cant do the job easily. Stay cool, and always think you are better than you might be xD [Because the next day you will be anyway so whats the point of putting yourself down.]

Keep that in mind when you are in school too, if your professors tell you you are a hard working student its only half a compliment...

Heh, well, I have to agree with that. If you can do something to a higher standard than the rest of the class without putting in more effort, you're sweet. Though I remember being graded against my own capabilities a few years back, which pissed me off. Teacher basically said that I wasn't doing my best, never mind that I was outperforming everyone else, so therefore I wasn't getting graded as high. Which encourages the exact opposite of what Boris is saying. (Kind of, in a roundabout sort of way...not really)

>.>

From what I've been told, education in a lot of the artistic areas, won't matter too much to whoever ends up paying you. They're only going to care that you can produce, and do it well.

As for a portfolio, I can't add onto much more of what's already has been said. My only thoughts are:

If it's a general portfolio, you will have to have a broad range of examples from everything, and you may end up leaving out something you shouldn't, or including something you shouldn't.

If you can, as Boris said, the best bet is to create a specific portfolio for each company, that will highlight the work they would want to see. Researching them, and presenting something unique to them, is going to grab their attention.

If you want an example of what not to do, look at my webite!

Great tips. Renato dos Anjos, the animation supervisor for Disney Animation Studio gave a small workshop/talk at a local college and he mentioned that.

It was to the extent of [Don't advertise that you're really good at technical shots otherwise you'll get stuck doing them.]

Really cool guy, I always wonder what the big guys do after lectures/workshops in places they're not familiar with. I'm too young to go grab a beer with them and chat and I'm way to intimidated to even ask. I mean, the guy started when he was 14... http://www.rdanim.com/

I guess it's one of those confidence things. It's like picking up women, except it's about oogling skills instead of bewbs.

lolwut? Well, don't complain if you're getting high grades.

Though I get that in English Literature. Which I can understand - there is no such thing as a perfect essay. ;)

I sent an email to a few people before I applied to a high end school here in Canada. And they pretty much told me "take a year, make an awesome portfolio. and you will have the same chance of landing a job."

I don't know if thats true yet or not