New 2007 Demo Reel - 3D Modeler

[windarr]

I got some feedback from someone that thought the music was too fast, does anybody else agree that I should have chosen a slower paced music for the reel?

[Booyah]

I would say drop the music and drop all the traditional stuff. The music is way too distracting, i watched it once with the music and once without and without it i was able to really engage your reel without the, 'what is this music doing here?'. All though you have some really nice traditional stuff which is what your really strongest with, that should be shown in your portfolio, on your website and once you land the interview. It kinda seems like your using your drawings to lenghen your reel. If your doing modelling for games, show a wireframe and give poly counts. The warrior is your best model with the women coming in second, the demon guy needs some work on his head, the face looks flat. If you can try and do a simple rig on your characters just to pose them out more and give some personality like you did with the barbarian. Hope that helps

[windarr]

Thanks for the feedback, do you think the music would be ok if I went for something slower paced? I personally gotta have some music on it, call me crazy but I don't know, it just doesn't feel right without.

Yeah my next revision will hopefully have all the characters posed up, I just didn't have time to meet my personal goal this time around, maybe in a week or two though.

I'd have to disagree on the traditional art pieces, I really think that including them shows my skills as a traditional artist, and leaving them out can leave someone wondering about my innate artistic ability. Perhaps when I have more 3D content to stick in there I'd skip on the traditional stuff.

Well I have the poly counts listed on my shot breakdown, but yeah I should throw in a wireframe and maybe the poly counts on the video too.

Lots of great feedback, thanks again.

[Buhby]

The music is extremely distracting... when I first listened to it, I paid more attention to the music than the model. I was thinking, "What is this? A nightclub?". As far as the traditional art goes, in the title you say it's a modeling reel... ya traditional art is important but it really does seem like you're lengthening the reel. Instead you can, in the end, have 2/3 of the screen saying what programs you used, you're name/number and in the other 1/3 you can have all the drawings scroll down.

The warrior is definitely your strongest model and it seems like you're going for game modeling rather than high poly. Include poly counts and wireframes and definitely pose the alien guy.

I believe all demo reels should have music to "engage" the viewer... but what your music does is somewhat distracts the viewer... definitely use something slower.

[jporter313]

Just wanted to say i agree about the music. I usually stick something calm on my reels, examples of artists I've used for background music in the past are De-Phazz, Radiohead, Air, and Blue Six.

As far as the work goes, it's a good start, but you should really study up on your anatomy, especially facial anatomy, this will help you improve your work.

Cheers.

[JYoung]

If you're applying for modeling positions, just show the modeling and texturing. If an employer wants to see your 2d stuff, they can look at your site. Right now it just looks like filler, and it's not all that great anyway.

Also, there's no reason that thing should be 62 megs. I imagine you can cut it down quite a bit.

[windarr]

Thanks again for all the good comments. I guess I'll find some slower music, any other suggestions besides jporter313's? I'm thinking from the feedback I should at the very least cut some of the 2d content, I'm still thinking I'll leave the best pieces in there though.

Buhby: I have the polycount listed on the shot breakdown, but it sounds like I should probably include it on the reel too.

jporter313: of course, always trying to take some time to work on the anatomy.

Yungimoto: you're right, 62 megs is a lot for so short a reel, I'm using the Sorensen 3 encoding at 50% quality (using After Effects 6, nope, nothing more recent) any suggestions as to what I should use instead? Below 50% the quality is starting to get impacted.

Thanks again everyone.

[JYoung]

What audio settings are you using?

[windarr]

Well I was using the full ones 16 bit, stereo, 44.1 kHz, but I guess I could half the kHz and go mono to help some, any suggestions on the video though?

[windarr]

Ok, well I went ahead and re-rendered the movie to reduce the size a little bit (I'll get around to the other revisions later this week), got it down to 45 MB, using Sorensen 3 at about 43% quality, and dropping the audio to mono at 22.050 kHz. Still seems kind of large, so I'm still wondering if anybody knows of a better compressor in After Effects 6?

[Buhby]

I'm not too sure if there is a better compressor in AE 6, but I do know of a program by Soreson called "Sorenson Squeeze (http://www.sorensonmedia.com/pages/?pageID=2)". It has the web in mind and can most likely reduce your 45mb reel to maybe around 15 or less. I was amazed the first time I tried it. It produces little to no loss in quality while cutting your size to 1/3.

Perhaps with a little digging around you can find a demo version.

*edit
There is actually a tiny button on top of the page I linked that says "Try" perhaps you'll have some luck there.

[Booyah]

get quicktime pro and use h264 for compression, it's pretty sweet

[ivanisavich]

I agree with Buhby,

Sorenson squeeze is the best compression you can get.

[windarr]

Cool, thanks for the heads up on those, wow the sorensen product is $500! But maybe I'll give it a try for free. Actually h.264 comes with Quicktime without getting pro, and I tried it but though it comes out with nice small file sizes the video is washed out as it bumps up the brightness and lowers the contrast so it won't work for me. Is the Pro version better?

Well out of desperation I ran several renders with different codecs and different settings. Seems like photo jpeg is actually pretty good, at least down to 50% quality as it has a higher contrast level than Sorensen 3, below that there is artifacting, and then it doesn't compare to file size for Sorensen 3.

I tried the divX codec too, that was actually very impressive, low file size (12 megs), great video quality. I guess I should have known from what I've heard, but I've never rendered to divX before. Only problem I figure is that not everyone has it, where most people probably have Quicktime, and you can't scrub the video, so if an employer views it they might want to scrub it to see some details.

So though I may still try Sorensen squeeze I've gotta figure on a long term solution which that won't satisfy (not without lots of moola at least :) ). I think I'll just upload two versions. One in divX around 12 megs so people can view it quickly, and one around 40-50 megs under quicktime as probably a Sorensen 3 file, though maybe if I have the divX available I should just up the quality and do photo jpeg (as it has better contrast) so I'm not sacrificing anything and do around the 60 meg range.

Any thoughts? Should I try Youtube for the lower quality version?

[windarr]

Allright, I finally got version 2 of my new demo reel complete. I incorporated most of the adjustments everyone spoke of and added a couple new pieces. Tell me what you think. I have it in three formats you can choose from here: www.crusadingthought.com/movies/movies.html (http://www.crusadingthought.com/movies/movies.html)

Thanks for your time. Oh and if anyone ends up looking over my website, yes I know I need to update the content. I've been making some small adjustments and will be updating the gallery over the weekend. Won't have time for a site overhaul yet, but I do want to redesign the website and go for something a little more updated.

[windarr]

So...any thoughts?

[Radiospank]

so i thought the music was a bad choice.. sometimes that trancy electronic stuff jsut isnt for everyone, even though u may digg it oh so much... lol , but yeah i saw your updated reel... i saw the divx one.. the music was way better ..thanks also the size wasnt too bad.. good luck

[windarr]

Ha ha, you're welcome, yeah I figured I should take the time to get a few different formats for people so they can make their own choice. Glad you like the change in music, any problems with the rest of it though? Or is it as good as it can be for now?

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