Porfolio / self-portrait / Design visualisation

[eburdeinick]

Hi Peter, just saw your work... not really demo material, the mouth is very stiff, and the head movement really doesn`t say much. The motors... are that, motors. I saw that even some parts of them are not modeled, but image maps... I personally didn`t like yor work. Sorry, you have to improve.
Regards

[peter_g]

Yeah. I was ambivalent about including the motors at all, but decided to because I needed to show some variety to employers. They are underwhelming, but are competent insofar as they look like what they are and they served their purpose well, as well as being my only commercial work so far.

As for your remarks about the mouth movement, the criticism about it being somewhat unnatural is accepted, though I wish someone could put their finger on it better then that. The chin is in much the same position in each of the vowel group morphs, and I followed the "sarge" tutorial that comes with 3ds max's documentation. Perhaps it's the lack of motion-blur (render time motion blur would have raised already large render times exponentially) that makes the chin and neck appear so? I think the lip-sync itself it reasonably good, though.

I don't think I was trying to say anything with my head movement other then "look at me.... I can move my head".

[cache]

i have to agree with eburdeinick..
and its not about using motion blur or not at all!

you have to make your reel more catchy, by adding more stuff, and making them more interesting visually.

if you look at the structure of the reel, i think it can be clearly seen that it is - no offense - boring..

0-37 a head talking mostly in the same way through this time, by talking about its makingof
38-55 pictures of the makingof of the head
56-1:42 visualisations of 4-5 motors (btw some of these could be created within 3-4 hours of work, i think you should only put the best (1-2) materials you got, not 4-5 motors in a row).

so, what i'm trying to say is: 1min56 sec for this is much too long.

vary the content, so you can keep the interest of the viewer.
also, but not so important: music + sounds should help keeping interest; but right now they are kind of pointless (i mean the music)..
the self-portrait talking part was boring because of the sound as well. At least try to vary the tone of the speech in order to give it more energy if you cant add energy in other ways..

these being said, i think you shold improve your reel to have more energy, more parts/elements, variation..


remember: a reel is representing you, your attitude, professionalism,
so if i had to review your reel and decide to hire/not to hire you, i would say:
"maybe i would like to see what other things you did, but since it was boring reel; i am not interested in seeing more.."

i hope i was constructive, and that you dont feel offended, as i was trying to help..

[peter_g]

Perhaps it was constructive criticism; I'd much rather be called boring then inept. The tone was very conservative, which I guess was a reflection of the fact that I didn't want to alienate anyone - one of the companies that I applied to was a medical visualisation company, for example. I thought it more important to show my ability and hone my craft then create something that could stand on it's own as a piece of entertainment.

Funny fact: originally, at the end of the talking head piece I belched and said "excuse me". I cut it out at the last minute though, because I didn't think it was that funny.

[cache]

"I thought it more important to show my ability and hone my craft then create something that could stand on it's own as a piece of entertainment."
reasonable point, but check out for example the images and animations of Drew Berry ( http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3195 (check page2 as well!))..
these are totally not art-for-itself, nor "entertaining" screens, yet highly interesting and dynamic from a visual point of view..
i think most medical/mechanical presentations are boring because of the lack of time and effort put into them, not because they wanted to make it boring on purpose in order to focus more on the content..

"Funny fact: originally, at the end of the talking head piece I belched and said "excuse me". I cut it out at the last minute though, because I didn't think it was that funny."
i actually laughed out loud when i found what "belch" means in a dictionary :D
(english is not my first language)


" I'd much rather be called boring then inept "
dont think that anybody is calling you boring or inept!
this thread is about your reel, not you personally,
so dont take any of the critique personal!
cheers!

[eburdeinick]

Peter, when you tell us The chin is in much the same position in each of the vowel group morphs, and I followed the "sarge" tutorial that comes with 3ds max's documentation. that alone says alot, it is good to work on tutorials, as that gives us some direction, but there are various ways to do the work. You have to make us feel and believe that your character is alive, and I dont think it does. Even if it was a robot it´s lacking character. I think that the problem is that the phonemes you did are looking all the same (almost) thats why the mouth just seem to open and close very shy... open up, express what you have to say !!! exagerate a little those movements !!! Don´t follow a tutorial as is, and excuse yourself telling us thats the way you read it.
Keep it up !

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