>>4324461Knowing people matters, but your skills matter more. As a general rule of thumb for portfolios, you want to make sure it 1) is specific, 2) shows the art director that you can do the job, and 3) has styles you'd like to work. For 1, this means if you want to be a BG designer, make sure you showcase your best BG design work (don't include illustrations, life drawings, etc). Art directors have very limited time to assess dozens of portfolios on top of their regular job. If you send in a portfolio that's half characters before they hit your BG designs, they're probably going to go with someone else. For 2 - this means researching what sort of drawings you'll be doing on a show, if you're a character designer for example, having a bunch of cool OCs is nice, but its even better if you can show your skills at doing turn arounds, mouth charts, special poses, etc with those characters. For 3, if you want to work on a sci fi show, have sci fi designs and apply for sci fi jobs. It also helps to show a variety of styles in case no one is looking for sci fi. If you absolutely hate a specific genera or style, dont include it.
One of the best ways to assess what needs to be in a portfolio is by looking at the websites of working professionals. What sort of work do they include? In your case, look at people who have done storyboards on some of your favorite shows. Some have their boards available as embedded videos, some have slideshows, some have pdfs. Try to understand what makes an action board different from a comedy board, what makes a comedy board for a Cartoon Network show different than a comedy board for an Adult Swim show. Showing that you have experience doing animation could help with boards as well as showing your loose gestural sketches. Most importantly, showing your thought process and problem solving skills are what needs to stand out in your portfolio. You could also try reaching out to pros you admire to ask them specific advice.
