HBS Modeling Reel -- Finished

#1

Hi Everybody,

I’m a self-taught computer graphics artist who has been freelancing for quite awhile. I’ve been pretty much producing industrial models and animations but Id really love to find a job as a modeling artist in an effects studio since that’s what I love doing most.

I finally finished my first modeling reel and I’m activiely seeking a fulltime job as a 3D modeling artist.

Here’s the link (as always, just right-click and “save linked file as. . .” to dowload the movie):

http://www.harrybsmith.com/HBS_Model_Reel.mov

Please let me know what you think.

#2

great music! I love amon tobin!

the outside of the car looked cool, but the inside did’nt have the same quality level… maybe it was mainly the lighting and textures…

are the round dots on the front of the plane supposed to be windows? Maybe you should make that more clear by changing their texture / shader… or even making them transparent so that you can look inside. Right now they just look like fancy dots :slight_smile:

also the zoom onto the wireframe of the plance was bit boring, felt like you tried to stretch the reel to fit the score… maybe one more change would help this already

the character was solid…

but I would have loved to see this picture in full size once. It’s hard to judge your skills if it comes to composition and stuff… maybe you should show everything first, and then zoom and pan it.

printer visualisation was cool (but the colors weren’t… but that wasn’t probably your choice… or it’s just my taste :wink: )

sundawn was ok, but there was too few detail and color nuances on the ocean… maybe just a codec thing… but hard to tell…

#3

Thanks for your comments Lehmi,

Yeah, Amon Tobin Rocks!

The dark spots on the space ship and stage plane are windows and really look that dark. Check out the real thing here:

The music came last and I chopped it up a bit in Soundtrack to make it synch up with some of the footage. I’ll take another look at shortening the wireframe screen time for the Spaceship One sequence.

Thanks for your comments on the character! It’s a good idea to have a full size turntable first but I thought people might miss out on too much of the detail. I’ll figure out a way to make it work.

Thanks again for your comments! This is my first “job hunting” reel so I’m sure I’ll have to do some tweaking. The more feedback, the better.

#4

Hi Harry,

First off I think your reel has promise.

I like the Ferrari… the modeling was tight. The interior looked good, but for that particular car the interior is kind of uninspiring… but I agree with lehmi, the lighting extures could be better so that’s detracting from it a bit.

I really liked the space plane. Textures, modeling… looked good. The character… well. I’m not a character modeler, but I know some and really what you should decide is if you want to be a character modeler, a hard-surface modeler, or both.

If both you’ll need to improve your character skills. You’ll be competing with guys that make all sorts of characters… men, women, monsters etc. And again the texturing needs to be shown and it needs to be stellar.

As for the rest, the printer was ok, but again are you showing your animation skills or modeling skills?

If you’re only interested in modeling then you should stick to showing that. The textures and lighting and colors weren’t so hot, so if you’re going to show a printer as an example of your modeling (and not animation / compositing) then show that… turning… with good textures and good lighting.

The end sea thing… was ok, but again maybe a little out of place.

So to sum up I would advise to really decide on what you want to do / show. Not that you can’t do everything… if that’s what you want… but you indicated you wanted to be a modeler… so if that’s the case, stick to that. And know that if you want to be a hard-surface AND character modeler at a studio you have to be VERY good at both.

I don’t know what 3d package you are using, but that may also have an effect on where you get a job.

And brush up on your lighting / texturing as well. I think modeling-wise on a hard surface you could probably land a job if you improve your texturing and lighting a bit. But I think you’ll probably need more examples if that’s the direction you head since you only have three models.

Although really the two that are impressive are the Ferrari and space plane… I’d axe the printer unless you have some crazy detail in the circuit board or something like that.

Again I think your reel has promise… just needs some polishing and you’ll be there man :slight_smile:

Good luck!

#5

Thanks Jamie,

Hard surface modeling is what I’ve been doing and what I believe I’m best at. This is where I think I can make the best contribution right now. I’m trying to step out into character modeling to broaden my range too which is why I included the character and statue scene.

I’ve used a wide variety of programs – Autodesk/Alias Studio, Power Animator, Maya as well as Electric Image, Silo and Rhino. The Studio, Power Animator and Rhino were hold-overs from my industrial design days but now I’m using Maya for most of my 3D work.

I’ll work on my texturing and lighting and see if I can find something to replace the printer.

I really appreciate your advice and encouragement! Thanks for taking time to write such a thorough and thoughtful response! Your work is very inspiring.

#6

Your Reel is improving more and more…

Now its time to play with animation in your models…
Im waiting to see them animated.

Thankssss

Tomas

#7

Hi Tomas,

Thanks for your kind words. I originally created this as a reel to show off my modeling skills in order to land a job as a 3D modeler – which I did. I’m now working as a production artsit for Digital X, an architectural visualization studio in Phoenix and love it(www.digitalx3d.com).

I primarily use 3Ds Max and V-ray on the job (a great, great program for architectural stuff) and Maya for my personal stuff – although I still use EIAS from time to time. There are just some things that EIAS does easier and better than any other program. And I love Silo for modeling.

Though I’m interested in animation (mainly scenic animation like trees blowing in the wind, making waterfalls, fountains, moving skies, etc.) I like modeling more. A friend of mine animated my SpaceShipOne and WightKnight model which came out great! I keep trying to get him to post it online but I don’t think he’s done it yet.

Thanks again for your response.

#8

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