Demo Reel Critiques Please

[kcurtis]

Ok, People, please let me know what I can do to improve myself or whatever it is you see fit. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!!!

http://www.digitalcurtis.com

[JavonX]

First thought: Change the music, it's awful and annoying, really.

The women model looks good, but i noticed that when she stood tall here arm bend kinda funny, the fold at the shoulder looked wrong.

The whole 2. scene. the one with the fog and the street lamps needs a lot of work. I don't know what it's supposed to be but right now its looks very amateurish: the simple geometry, the cheap fog, the lighting. Looks like a 20min job.
Did you make the wall textures?

I'd show a solid car render first and then blend to the textured version, with all those reflections you can't see any detail in the model

The whole "software used" thing is cheesy, just say what software you used, state it all at once without those effetcs, keep it simple.

Why do you write Media Arts and Animation?
There was no animation in the whole reel.

[timur04]

I agree, the music is annoying. You have a 360 view of the female but she lacks detail. You need to animate her leaning back and then show the Matrix effect, otherwise it just shows u can pose characters but not animate them. Fix the geometry on the feet of the girl, you have very funky smoothing going on there. The foggy street scene looks weak and so is the dark castle ally. The third street scene looks better but still needs more work. Why is the ground just a plain? Maybe add a chart next to the right wall with fruit or something, the scene needs mass more detail and dramatic lighting. Next, your blue car looks like it could be a low poly model in a game, again.. needs more detail. Cut out all the effects in your credits, and I would leave out “person I am today” stuff out. It seems the closure to a long movie or a book, not a 1 min demo.

[samuraislayer]

more detail on the models

more models

better animation on your stuff

more animation on your stuff

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and for christ's sake change the music

(focused critique)

i like the model at the beginning, but you need MORE models like that

take that blue car outta there, it does nothing for the reel. if it were my demo reel the only thing that i would keep is that woman model at the beginning

tip: if you have to convince yourself that something is a good model, then its not a good model, same thing goes for scenes... and MUSIC!!!!

hope that helps and wasnt too harsh :)

[doms]

Nothing wrong with the music (unless youre a country and western fan or some such).

The woman would look miles better with a skin material (all you have to do is down load a skin shader from the rendering/ shading section of Highend 3D).

Its hard to critique the reel without knowing where youre coming from (e.g if you've had 5 years pro experience or first semester in college).

Maybe you could try to be more original with the subjects (a girl, car, street?) try to get some interesting briefs to work to if you are self teaching. Good luck...

[mattmos]

If you want to be a modeller, you've got to show wireframes of the work as well as the textured versions, a clean mesh is just as important a part of the work as the shader, as it means it can be animated easily. Best way of doing it I've seen is to blend from one to the other as you're turning round the model.

The music strangely doesn't bother me too much, though if it's elliciting such a strong response from the other viewers might be best to change it...

The work shows promise, though I doubt the reel as it stands would get you a job. Focus on what you really want to do and just put that on the reel, if you try to cover too many bases with animation etc then companies won't know what to do with you.

Best of luck...

Edit: Have to agree with the whole 'software used' opinion by Javon_X, keep it to one screen and if you have to thank people do it personally rather than on the end of your showreel.

[AlbertArt]

Oh my god that music is totally not fitting, to anything in your reel.

The buddah sit down pose is not correct, the neck and shoulders should be bent, but if your rig doesn't do it, I suggest you don't put her in that pose.

The fly through of the ally should be a wireframe and it should not be so dark and foggy, try focusing on the lighting, give it nighttime light like moonlight not dark fogginess.

Also, can the credits, just have your info

[kcurtis]

Thanks for the critiques... Its what I really needed. A lot of the stuff you all said was basically bad, was stuff I realized after I did the reel. I plan on redoing it soon and adding animation to it. Just didnt have all the time when I did this. Thanks, I appreciate it. Any more comments or critiques would be great. Even comments about website or artwork too. Thanks!!!


Keith Curtis
http://www.digitalcurtis.com

[samuraislayer]

as for the website you should get flash and spiff it up a little

i know that many ppl cant afford flash but there is a free trial that you can get of "koolmoves" which is a point/click interface for creating a flash website. you can dl it from www.download.com, just search for "koolmoves"

:)

[JavonX]

I totally disagree with samuraislayer, stay away from flash when you can! People tend to use flash the wrong way.

You can do all you need without flash.
Every porfolio I see done with flash, is about 500x300, come on, what should that be? No one has a 640x480 screen resolution, and I still have to find someone who uses 800x600,
And they have some kind of damn anoying effect to make something appear, no one who looks at your portfolio wants to wait 3 sec for your effect do be finished.
No one wants to hover over a arrow to scroll.

So stay away from flash, you can make a simple, good looking site without it.

About your site, the picture at the top looks like an ad banner to me (I know it's not).

[AlbertArt]

I agree,


Flash though many times is used nicely, many tend to OVER kill the design, making it a marathon to get to the work displayed... then it turns out the work sucks but then the site is all designy.. i think its better to showcase work quick and to the point. My best examples of Simple Elegant sites would be Pixar, Blue Sky, Rhythm & hues, and my site :)

[crashd]

I find that the best way to set out a portfolio style website is to first sit down and visualize what you want to achieve. Then try and implement it in the simplest way possible; probably html/css in this case. If it works, and it fits in with the overall design of your site. Leave it.
I personally detest Flash, for all the terrible websites it's brought upon me as a viewer of content.

Keep in mind the viewer when you're making a site, it isn't FOR you, it's FOR someone else.
-crashd

[kcurtis]

Thanks everyone for all these critiques and comments!!!!!
I really do appreciate them. It helps out tremendously. I will be redoing a lot of stuff as soon as I get some time...it will be a while now but I will soon. Thanks again!!!!!





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http://www.digitalcurtis.com

[kcurtis]

of course, any other comments are welcome too.....lol

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