Animation Demo Reel

[negative9]

I think you did a great job putting your demo real together, video wise, and I love Front242, but I don't think it should be your choosen music for your reel. Maybe somthing with a more subtle begining.

I KNOW YOUR NOT ADVERTIZING YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH AUDIO, BUT....
The music is a little dark and edgy for your nearly comical animations, and your design style. With more approperate sounds, and fluxuating audio levels, you could really emphize your your reel - especiall on the cuts to the ?orc/goblin? trying to play music...like key in a skrech of a sax when he picks it up:)

Other than that (Which has nothing to do with your work), your animations are great!

Good luck
p.s. Whens the movie coming out? :)

[grury]

Thanks a lot negative9, I agree that the music may be a bit dark even tho is a recent remix of the original track, just thought that the lyrics were quite cool, but I guess most people may not find it amusing at all, so i'll look for something a bit more "happy".

About the green guy playing the sax, thats a music video i did for a mate of mine back in Portugal, my first thought was actually use that track as the base for my show reel, but i think it may be a bit too experimental and put people off altogether.

Here you can see the full music video (http://www.bunchdesign.com/prokoqthigh.html)

Once again thanks for your comments,

Grury

[ed209]

I know this is going to sound harsh but honestly I got about a minute into it and I started to reach for the mouse to shut it down. This really isn't a good sign because I have allot more patience then a HR person who would be screening multiple tapes a day. You have some stuff on your reel that is great but other weaker pieces really should be left off. I'm sorry for being so blunt, you do have some nice stuff. :applause:

I would suggest to get rid of some of the shots of the sax playing goblin hanging out in the red room. They really don't do much for your reel except fill time.

Is that Bernard from Day of the Tentacle? He's awsome! :thumbsup:

[grury]

Not harsh at all Andrew, thats the kind of comment I want to see here.

Cheers

[grury]

Hey all,

Well I followed your advises and did a few changes....New Reel (http://www.bunchdesign.com/cgtalk/reel_High.mov)
firstly changed the music and make it a bit shorter and only kept the character animation stuff.

Please let me know what you think.

Cheers

[keithlango]

Overall the reel feels padded. Shorter is better. I know the rule of thumb is 3min for a reel, but I say keep it 2 minutes or less if you can. Even 90 seconds is good, if it's all really tight. My own demo reel was around 100 seconds long. Self editing is something I look for in an applicant.
Most of the goblin stuff should be axed, except for maybe one or two of the walk cycles. The sneak could be OK if you work on making it a bit more extreme and less stiff. The lifitng the ball and dropping on his foot is not bad, but the drop happens too quickly to read well. Set that up more. The music video DJ section isn't working at all. The 'waiting foot tapping looking at the watch running away' scene doesn't bring much to the table. The falling off the building with the flashlight isn't working either. The clip with John Goodman yelling is staged too much in the profile and the character's actions aren't reading well. If you stage that more towards the camera it may read better.
If I had to give a comment on what needs to be worked on overall in every clip I'd say it's your set up and anticipation timing. Many of your character's gestures & actions seem to happen very quickly without any sense of anticipation or set up. The hand's flick, the stone drops, the finger's snap- but there's no before pose to let us know the action is coming. So the action comes and goes and I'm left wondering "what was that he just did?". Another area for you to work on is in giving your characters real intenral emotional motivation. Alot of your actions right now are cartoon cliche'd double takes and chin scratches, etc. I know you're aiming more for games, but even there solid internal motivations are better.

It's a good start, and there's some decent stuff in there (the teddy bear stuff works Ok for game reel, altho I'd lose the cape as it's cloth sim is distracting). Just work on that anticipation timing. I hope this hasn't been too heavy handed, but you did ask for open crits. You're on an OK track, you just need more seasoning and practice. Best of luck!

-k

[grury]

Great stuff Keith, that sure is gonna put me on the right track, thank you ever so much for your time...:thumbsup:
thats back to the drawing board then...

cheers

[Gretsch]

You wouldn't be posting this reel unless you were open to criticism. But remember the final decission is up to you.
I'm going to have to jump on the wagon with Keith here. I see a decent start with your work but it looks rushed like you wanted quantity. Most of the goblin stuff can go. Axe the whole stage setting shots, sax and drum playing, the harvest machine stuff can go to, falling off the building isn't working. Restage the shot with the sign, it doesn't tell me anything. The heavy object shot is working in the middle but the whole lead up is wasted time where I go click, edit it out. THe Matrix end is funny but too long for what is actually being played out.
Throughout the drowning headache driven music (which I turned off immediately) I couldn't help but thinking, after watching all of that can you do a simple walk and run cycle? I see your animation as too clunky. Fast then dead stop with sometimes not even a pixel moving. Hit a pose and drift in stronger. This isn't a concrete rule, nothing is, but it will help.

[negative9]

I thought it was effective,a nd only gets better.

Using the Cure for music was a great improvement, it fit better. I still think I'd que some of the sound effects in your background animations louder...again with the "red room orc", though it doesn't seem to be popular.

Liked the music video.

Keep at it, all you can do is improve!

//negative9//

[grury]

Thanks for your comment Negative9, posting the reel here really helped me to improve it, there are obvious things that one doesnt realise and the comments and sugestions from other people helps to get it all nicelly together, although I'm aware of few things that need changed/improved, I now fell that I'm on the right track.

Thank you all! :thumbsup:

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