ART & ANIMATION

How do you get hired as a Games Industry Artist or Animator?

By Jonathan Hunter — Lead of Talent Acquisition, AAA video games. Nearly a decade hiring for major studios. Last updated: [August 2026]

You get hired as a games artist or animator by presenting a coherent, consistent portfolio and applying only to jobs that match the style and content of your work. Recruiters open your portfolio before your CV, and they are checking it against three to five specific attributes the hiring manager has asked for. If your art style and subject matter match, you progress. If they don’t, no amount of CV polish will save the application.

• Your portfolio is #1

• Create a coherent style and apply to jobs that match it 

• Explain your choices 

Getting a job in the games industry as an artist or animator is tough; a single vacancy commonly attracts 100 to 200 applicants. But whether you’re a Concept Artist or working in 3D (Character, Environment, or Animation), there are some powerful things you can do to improve your chances.

I advise you to spend the most time on your portfolio. As long as your CV survives the two-second scan, a recruiter will go straight there.

What recruiters are matching your portfolio against

Before a role goes live, the hiring manager writes the job description and the recruiter distils it into a shortlist of three to five key attributes — the profile of the ‘ideal candidate’. Your portfolio is being checked against that shortlist, not against art in the abstract. For art and animation roles, those attributes are usually:

• Art style (realistic / stylized / mood)

• Content (e.g. realistic weapons, or props for a AAA FPS game

• Quality (subjective, but they will have a clear standard in mind)

How to optimize your portfolio

The best thing you can do to get hired is present a coherent and consistent art style and content, then apply to jobs that MATCH YOUR WORK.

On quality: make sure your best work is first. If something is weak, or really old, consider leaving it off entirely — a portfolio is judged by its weakest visible piece as much as its strongest.

And…

Always explicitly outline what the viewer is looking at. Explain your choices and point out, very specifically, what your contribution was. If you worked on an outsourced or shared asset, say which parts were yours.

My three CV rules

These are the same three rules I apply to every CV I review, whatever the discipline.

1. Make it easy to read. A recruiter spends roughly two seconds on the first scan of your CV, deciding whether to keep reading or reject. Use white space, bullet points, and bold text on the keywords that matter, and put the most relevant information at the top. Two pages is standard — the exact length matters far less than whether the page can be scanned quickly.

2. Be explicit. Never rely on the reader to infer anything. Use the formula: task + tool or technique + product or location + result. If it isn’t written down, the recruiter will not guess it, and they will not look it up.

3. Favour facts over descriptions. ‘Improved efficiency’ and ‘good team player’ are opinions, and they carry no weight. Objective, quantifiable facts are irrefutable. Back up statements with numbers wherever you can.

For artists and animators, that means explaining exactly how you contributed to the end product: who you worked with, what the final output was, and why you made the choices you did.

ALWAYS be explicit, telling the reader exactly what you worked on:

Implied

3D modelling in Maya.

Explicit

3D Modelling: Crafted 7 realistic, high-quality, game-ready weapons in Maya for a AAA first-person shooter, handling the full pipeline from block-out to texturing.

Related guides

•     How do you get hired as a Games Industry Engineer?

•     How do you get hired as a Games Industry Designer?

•     How do you get hired as a Games Industry QA Tester?

•     How do you get hired as a Games Industry Producer?