Animation: Demoreel: UNLIKELY

[pyraxis]

First off, I'm a student, not a professional animator yet, so don't take these things as set in stone. But here's my two cents:

Cut #4. It just looks like a sphere on an extruded shape with a couple quick shaders thrown on. Ditto #20, it could have been just a few minutes in After Effects.

#2, 5, and 19 are probably the strongest pieces on there, so you may want to put them first. From what I hear, most people will only watch the first 30 seconds or so of your reel.

Are #10 and #15 3d models or live footage? At this resolution I can't tell (which, if they're models, may be a very good thing for you :-) ). But it should be clear. Add a wireframe, a polycount, the texture flats, something like that.

Also I can't tell from the reel whether you're looking for a job as a modeler, texture artist, animator, lighter, or what. The company reps I've talked to have all said that they like reels to be very specifically targeted. You might want to do a few different cuts of your reel, like one with just the pieces that show off modeling, one for texturing, etc. I've never heard anyone complain that a reel is too short.

Also this might be just personal preference, but do you really want the first thing that people see to be "It's an unlikely showreel"? Not too confidence-inspiring...

Oh, and you haven't put your name or contact info anywhere in the reel.

[pur9e]

Unlikely, you have a ton of work here. The main problem with this reel is that it seems to be put together in the form of a boutique montage, and the work isn't strong enough all-around to support that.

It's titled an animation showreel, but I dont get the feeling of that from it. Seems as though you are trying to do everything. Some places might have you textruing, modeling, animating, compositiong, TDing, editing; but I can't think of any. Pick one thing which you think is your strongest attribute as a CG artist and focus on that. "Jack of all trades, master of none" applies here to a large degree. You're trying to throw everything in the cg world at the viewer and the result is a bit of a muddle.

You can't send the same reel to every place, unfortunately. If you really want a job and think you have a shot at it, you should customize your reel like you customize a cover letter.

Finally, it's too long. I don't know how long it was, but it was too long.

Adding your contact info into the reel would be smart, but a shot breakdown (software and what you did) should be included separately, printed.

Put your strongest work first. Show them what they want to see. Dont keep the reel reviwer waiting. If you really want to show animation, compositing, modeling, etc, compartmentalize. Dont go back and forth.

All of the above is my opinion. Take it or leave it.

[Disney]

I also a student and so share a simialar position to pyraxis and echo a similar opinion to what has already been said.

I just wanted to make a quick point about the sound track.
Was the music you used copyrighted?
I though it sounded a little familiar personally.

I would definately be careful about using and even remixing commercial music. I know some people can be very particular about where their music is used. Personally where I study we have been advised to avoid all commercial music due to copyright laws. Dont forget you are trying to sell your self which essentially is a form of advertising and you never know who is going to be in ear shot of your reel when it is played by who ever you send it to.

The last thing you want is a law suit on your hands.

Otherwise same points echoed as above really.

[crashd]

Hey there, please keep in mind i'm just a viewer here, not a professional.

Your work seems to be of a generally good standard (compared to other works i've seen). As others have commented there is quite a lot of things that probably should be changed about the reel itself though. For a start, there is no sense of continuity (except the dinky little celshaded cartoon that runs throughout, I really like that btw). Some of the stuff, like the 'video' morphs seem a bit under produced (although I understand that DivX really isn't the best format for stuff like that, next time give XViD a shot, it might be a bit harder to get to grips with but it can produce amazing results).
I can't say much about the music, as I love the tune ;) and there was a sense of beatmatching and such throughout some of the animations.
It was far too long, and didn't really show off any of your talents really well, because it was chopping between different areas of digital art. I assume that if you were going to send this out to a studio it'd be customised...right?

Anyway, hope it helps.
-crashd

[JBarrett]

I'll echo the sentiments above. Pick a focus and show your best work in that area. Even for an animation reel, you need to focus on what kind of animation you want to showcase: character animation, logos, flying cameras over/through stuff, etc. Then eliminate everything that doesn't support that goal.

If you want to show some secondary skills, then that's fine, but make sure that the primary focus comes through loud and clear first. For example, you may have good texturing skills in addition to being a good animator, but you decide to make an animation reel. As you're weeding through your collection of clips, make sure you pick clips that are strong in animation first, and strong in texturing second. If a piece is poorly animated but wonderfully textured, leave it off...it doesn't meet the primary goal of the reel.

I'll also echo the comment re: the name. "Unlikely" may be clever as part of an online nickname, but it can work against you as a title for a reel. If you actually run a company with "Unlikely" in the title, then make it uber-clear that it's a company reel. For personal reels, though, always present yourself, not your online persona.

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