Animation Reel '09

[key_framer]

Hi there Marie,
First off congrats on your first reel posting! I know that it can be pretty intimidating putting your work out to the world for all to pick apart... but, it's also a great way to have people offer insight and offer ways to get better at what you do. But, also keep in mind that everybody has an opinion (some good... some bad...). It'll be up to you to take it all in and decide what works for you and what doesn't. With that said, here are my 2 pennies thrown down on the table...

1) Start your reel off with a simple screen that says your name, what you do (character animator), and contact info. Then get to your animation and don't show your contact info again until the end. When watching your reel, I found myself trying to read your name and all that instead of watching your animations...

2) Your reel seems to be a mixed bag of styles and levels of completion.
- You start off with what I find to be your strongest piece (so far so good!)... However, I wish there was a wee bit more to see there (I liked the character and the animation was solid).

- You then go to the bear in a balloon piece which was good too (I'd maybe save this one for last... start off with your best, but leave on a high note as well!).

- The green guy coming out of the bar acting drunk is not up to the same level of quality as the first two clips. Personally, I find it the weakest entry in your reel (I'd take it off myself).

- Then we get a real quick shot of the character from the very beginning! Still lovin' it and still wishing that there was just a bit more... not tons mind you, but enough for my eyes to see it and register what I just saw.

- Then the cut to the character running. Better than the green guy piece. But, still not quite up to the same level as the first and second clips... The clip also doesn't make a ton of sense to me. I see him running and then stop very abruptly, look back at something that we anticipate seeing as the camera moves around, but isn't there. He then stands for quite some time before he jumps. What I'd do is maybe cut this exercise up into a piece or two and polish it up a bit more. Then you can scatter the two or so pieces throughout the reel and the "not making sense" part doesn't really matter any more. Also, I'm not a fan of animated cameras myself (unless really needed).

- Soccer kick piece. Unless you have more to show of that, I'd take it out. There's not a ton there now to really show.

- garbage character anim... I like it...I don't get it, but I like it!

- Volleyball piece. Same comments as soccer piece

- Crazy character leading the battle piece... eh, this time there isn't a lot there to really see... I'd take it out.

- The Hogan run (I think that's his name). An anim that needs a little polish to me. I like it for showing the physical exercise practice, but he's a bit stiff in the run. The pose that he gets into after the roll confuses me and looks a bit odd. Also, it looks like his back foot is floating quite a ways off the ground. This time the animated camera doesn't really bother me;)

- Heavy box lift... there's some nice subtle stuff in there! However, the part where he staggers off looks a bit unpolished/jerky. I believe that you're trying to show him straining under the weight of the box. If so, it reads as that, but needs a little cleanup...

- Moom dialogue piece. Not a bad start. Each char could be loosened up a bit more (through the torso and some more overlap in the arms, etc). Also, be careful of the ik pops in the knees (ie. brown Moom during: "Rockin', Ain't no walk in the park lady!"). I also wish that the drumsticks were a bit bigger so that we can see them a bit more clearly (and it'd make the awesome twirl at the end stand out more too!) But, I like the overall direction of the piece.

-Traditional art. For an animation reel I'd take it off. You can always take that kind of stuff with you to an interview! But, it also comes down to the job you're going for. If the job listing says that they want to see traditional artwork, then by all means...show them that too. But, be prepared to have a few "types" of reels that you're using to hook employers.

-Music- While I like Linkin Park myself, I found it a bit distracting/dark for your reel. Sure, you had some darker pieces (garbage char and the fist clip guy) but, you also had a cute bear in a balloon. Your call... A lot of places hit mute anyway. At least you chose an instrumental piece too!

So yeah, that more or less wraps up my book..err...reply! Anyway, take what I said and decide what works for you. If you disagree with it all then that's cool too;)

cheers and thanks for sharing,
Tim

[smileyme]

Hi Tim!

Thanks for your comments. Really appreciate them. I guess I was just a bit intimidated by all these animation reels, shorts, etc. done by other artists. A lot of them are really good, but I'm glad I finally got to do it.

As for showing different styles and completion, some of them are projects that I've done at work (those are the animations you liked... hehe) as for the rest, these are just exercises I've been doing at home so I haven't really shown them to a lot of people. I guess this will teach me to be more aggressive in asking people their opinions regarding my work. All the same, I really am thankful for your advices. I'll keep them in mind when I'm adjusting my animations and reel again.

Cheers,
Marie :D

[key_framer]

Hey again Marie!
No problem...it was fun! I usually lurk on the site (probably because I end up writing long replies when I do comment on stuff!;) And well, yeah, it takes time to gather my thoughts and put it into words). But, for what it's worth, your reel spoke to me on some level and I felt like taking the time to go through it as I did (I probably watched it about 10 times...).

And yes, posting your work really is a great way to get feedback (it's also a great way to get your name out there). But, like I said, everybody will have their opinion(s). So, try to read them all with an open mind and take from them what you will.

Oh, one last thing about your reel. Make sure to have some kind of shot breakdown stating what you did and who created the character, rigs, etc...

Also, I'm impressed that you still do animation after the work day is done! Too many people get stuck in the "I won't do it for fun/free any more" mode after they land a gig. That to me means that you have 1) dedication to your art and 2) enjoy animating!

If you were wondering, I'm a senior animator/lead character td at a video game studio in the states. I've been in the industry for about 9 years now. During that time I have drowned in a sea of reels (when a company says that they're hiring watch out for here comes the tidal wave of reels!!!). I'm not trying to imply that my critique is how it should be done. But, more along the lines of what I think would make your reel stand out from the crowd more.

Anyway, cheers and keep on setting those keys!
Tim

[CGOutcast]

you have some cool animation in there, the very first one with that monster guy is good, i would place that jack black lip sync right after. always try to put the best stuff at the start, keep it up.

[smileyme]

Hello again Tim!

Well, I don't mind long replies. I like to read novels anyway. hehe And you've given me some great advices. As for doing animation after work, well, I really need to if I want to get better since I seldom get to do character animation at work. We do commercials so I usually do product animation. Besides, it's really an awesome feeling when you see your character come alive when you finish setting those keys!

I would have thought you'd get tired watching reels here since you also have to do that at work. Glad you aren't, or you wouldn't have given me very useful feedbacks! Btw, what's your studio's name? if you don't mind me asking. And is there any difference in animating characters in games as opposed to animating characters, say, in commercials or movies?


Thanks again!
Marie :D

[smileyme]

Hi CGOutcast!

Yup, I'll do that. Thanks for your nice comments. Really appreciate them!:D - Marie

[key_framer]

Hey Marie,
Hey yeah...watching reels can get old. But, we haven't hired (animators) at work in a while so I haven't had to sit through many of them in quite some time;) But, I do check reels out from time to time online just to see what people are up to.

To answer your questions.
1) who do I work for?
- I work for Page 44 Studios. We're an outside developer that do video games for whoever will give us a contract. We've worked with a lot of the "big" names over the past 10 years or so. The past 2-3 years has been working for Disney. The main office is in San Francisco CA. I used to be the lead there for about 4+ years. But, I moved away and gave up my title to one of the guys that was under me then. I now run a satellite studio for them in Portland, OR. I'd say my job now is more character td than animator though. I still animate, but not really as much as I used to. However, the current project that we're ramping up into will have quite a bit of character animation (hand key and not mocap too!!!). So, I'm sure that I'll be more involved there for this one!

2) Is there a difference in animating for video game vs commercial/movies?
- oh yeah... definitely. I've really only done video games for my career (so far...) and so really only know this field. A lot of the video game animation direction/style comes down to what kind of video game you're doing. If you're doing a game that's heavily player driven (ie you're controlling the characters) the animation design will be much different than say a game where the animations are more cinematic (something like Guitar Hero or from one of my games "High School Musical 3"...yeah... I worked on that;) ). In that case the animations are handled more like a cut scene that plays in the back ground. If the game is more you controlling a character (which most games are...) then the animation design comes down to the user. Which to be honest can be very hard. As an animator you know that one of the key ingredients to a good animation is "anticipation". Without it, animations can look very jarring. But, in video game world, how do you anticipate what the user is going to do? So, that becomes one of the biggest battles that happens every game that I work on. A good example is that I worked on a hockey game for a few years. So, that game was heavily user driven (you're making the character handle the puck, shoot, play defense, etc). When you watch hockey, the game is very fluid and the players (in real life) are constantly thinking about what they're going to do next. But, that doesn't transfer over to video game world very easily. One of the biggest challenges that we dealt with were how do we get the skaters to pull off different kind of shots (slap shot, wrist shot, snap shot, etc) in a very reactive way? A slap shot is a shot with a big wind up....and that wind up is more or less the "anticipation" in that animations. But, when the user hits the button to fire the puck off, they don't want to wait for the animation to wind up and then shoot the puck... they want it to happen instantly. If I recall, we were given something like 4 or 5 frames to get to the release frame. As you can probably guess, this didn't look very fluid. It all came down to "how fun is the game?" And most people could care less about the animation "details". They just want the character to do exactly what they're telling it to do when they press a button...instantly! I'll stop here before I go off on a 100 page rant;)

But, the game "High School Musical 3" was more cinematic in nature. So, we didn't have to really worry so much about the user's influence on the characters. We just had to deal with the limitations of the hardware/engine/resources/etc that the game was to be played on.So, with video games, everything has to happen in real time (well, the cinematic/cut scene stuff is a different story). Movies and commercials are all pre-rendered movies. So, essentially, you can have more tricks/solutions/hacks to get a shot done (in the end you just want the final movie to look good). I always have to be able to get whatever animation back to a rig that will export and play through our engine... and some engines are better than others in regards to character animation.

Anyway, I could go on... but I'll stop there;)

cheers,
Tim
www.timoberlander.com (http://www.timoberlander.com)

[melmann]

Some really fun stuff in there. Id agree with the Jack Black being moved up in the order

Keep on keepin on ! ( And yay Phillipines! )

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