Hello, everyone. I am a 3D animation student and this is my very first demo. It is all done with Maya and After Effects. This is my very first set of animations and I was hoping to get a little bit of feedback before I start to submit it. Any suggestions would be very helpful. Everything in here was done by me. The modeling rigging animating and texturing. I really appreciate any suggestions. Thank you to everyone who has helped me so far.
The demo is at
Critique Wanted: First Demo Reel
DaRocket
#1
beagean
#2
Hey,
The last character animation in your reel doesn’t have many of the principles of animation to it. Follow through with the head was the big issue in this one.
Plus mastering modelling, rigging, texturing, lighting and animation are very big undertakings for a single person.
Ben,
Ok, I am going to give you some information. I am going to assume that you are at a school which forces you to learn modeling, texturing, rigging, lighting, and animation, perhaps even some compositing? That is fine and great and it is good to learn those things. When it comes down to making a reel to get hired, to go out in the world and get a job you need to have a reel that says you are really really really amazingly good at ONE thing. Maybe TWO TOPS. If you want to be a character animator then focus on that. I promise you that learning any one of those disciplines takes years of study and of trial and error to become if nothing else employable at them. Splitting your time doing all of these different aspects will end up hurting your chances of getting a job. Pick what you want to do and go after that like crazy, really get in there and attack it. If its animation, then great, learn animation to the best of your ability. If it is modeling or lighting or whatever then go after that and learn it as best you can. I will tell you the same thing I tell every student I see, your school will not give you the skills you need to succeed in the animation world, only you can do that. Now getting back to school. You are thinking well how can I specialize since my school is making me learn all this other stuff? You are going to have to do just as much work outside of your school work on your preferred area as you are on school work, if not more. This is fair warning, no one told me this when I was in school and I really wish they had. Anyway, good luck with your studies.
Adamation
#4
Totally 100% agree with Panda i also wish i was told that information when i was in school :S - Adam
system
#5
So I’m curious. Are you saying I won’t be able to find work? I could change my demo a bit. I have some well polished characters I’ve designed and a storyboard for a short animation as well. Would it be better to go that way? I’m definitely interested in being great at something. I don’t intend on putting a hodgepodge set of designs out there and hope for the best. Would it be okay to put concept sketches in a demo reel or should it be finished work?
beagean
#6
As far as I know employers in this field want people strong in one area, unless you’re super human it’s impossible to be extremely good at everything 3d. I was lucky , I did a diploma of screen and media, but my teacher was switched on and knew how we were gonna get jobs and recommended we develop showreels in one distinct area rather than waste our time having our skills scattered everywhere. If you want to animate study the 12 principles, body mechanics, acting, etc. Take a look at animation mentor reels they are usually the best.
p.s. wanna join animation battles. It’s something I feel will make our reels stronger if we really try hard at this. We can critique each others work and stuff as well. 
Yep. Simple as that. I am not trying to be a jerk but its just a fact. You really need to have a reel that says you are really good at ONE thing. right now on your reel you have basically 3 things.
1 firefly intro slate - super simple basic effects
2 frog in a glass case - I am guessing you modeled all of this? these models, are eh at best, they arent amazing and for the most part are boxes with different sharers put onto them. The texturing isnt that impressive and the presentation could use work. camera moves and whatnot.
3 little girl jumping. If you built and rigged this character I cant tell that from this animation. at all. how would I know? this is basically right now just saying you are an animator who has no staging knowledge and doesn’t know how to animate yet.
Calling this a reel is a stretch to be honest. Calling this a compilation of class projects would be more accurate. But class projects do not a reel make. Think about it this way. If I am an employer and I look at this, say, to hire you as an animator. I see this one animation… that’s it. Now even if that animation was just amazing. That is still not enough information to make it worth my time and effort to gamble on hiring you. Its just that simple. Every time someone is hired its a gamble by the person hiring. The only thing they have to judge you by are 2 things 1. your reel. and 2. what people think of you. Now the what people think of you thing can be tricky. The reel bit is the part you really need to concern yourself with at this juncture.
These…are some examples of reels for you to go by.
modeling reel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBz58E4XttQ
rigging reel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxusrZiYzbw
Animation reel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNNRFQqWP4U
Notice in all of these, that they are specific in what they are presenting. They also have a consistent caliber of work that is also of a large enough quantity to show they can do what they do over and over and over. They aren’t crossing disciplines trying to show how they can do this and that and the other thing they are focused and that focus allowed them to get to a high quality level. Are there jobs out there that need people who are jack of all trades? definitely! that is true but the catch on that is that you need to be skilled in all areas fairly well, you don’t need to be a master but you still have to be at a high level.
What I am driving at here, is that you aren’t there yet. You have got a long way to go judging from what I am looking at now. So once again the best thing for you to do. Is pick the one thing you want to do and master and then embark on learning that skill to the best of your ability. Go to forums and places where you can post up work in progress stuff and get feedback on how you are doing. Anyway I wish you the best of luck. I hope this wasn’t too harsh, I am just giving it to you the way it is. No more, no less.
system
#8
I get it. Not too harsh, Panda. I can do better than this. I just thought I would get a job and work on a particular area as I get more experienced and more involved. I thought that if I could show that I’m familiar with the software (all I showed was stuff done solely in Maya) already that it would be enough to get started. I can get some amazing work out, (it might need some polishing) but thing is I don’t know what part I want to get into. There is so much of the story telling that I like. Characters, background design, storyboarding.
If I post some work, would anyone be willing to tell me if it’s worth going for? I mean even if it needs more detail and presentation at least I know where to go from here. I don’t want anyone to hold my hand and do this for me. I can do the work.
For instance, is it worth pursuing polishing the girl and the frog until they have more detail and personality? And is it worth texturing them or would it be better to just stick with the model and leave the rest out? I can post a turnaround like what was in the first demo you showed me. I think I’ll try for a character modeling demo. So far the guidance you’ve all given me helps. I appreciate everyone’s honesty and consideration. It’s better to find this out now than wait a couple months after applying for work and getting turned down.
If you are thinking about doing a modeling demo, I would point you towards polycount.com it is a great community of modelers that are generally very helpful and insightful into the art of creating models and whatnot. They also have a number of free tutorials to get you up and running. I would say though, that strait out of school it is almost impossible to become a character modeler professionally. Most modelers start out as prop modelers, they make things that are placed in the background and other areas that are generally not going to be scrutinized by people that much. They do that until their skills allow them to do better props and such and eventually some guys manage to do character stuff. Thing is there are generally very few characters and a ton of objects that need to be made. I will say though that both are a difficult but rewarding art forms. I will say since you seem to be interested in story so much. That area of almost any show requires very little in the way of 3d knowledge, its a lot more about writing scripts and story boarding. If you want to get into that area you need to write up a spec script and storyboard running with it. Do a couple of those at least to try to get your foot in the door. But that is an area of the industry that is very very hard to get into. Even compared to the other areas of production that are amazingly tough to find a job in. I think modeling is probably your best bet. If you are really interested in that above most other things. Go check out polycount.com and start asking some questions of the guys over there and see if that is a direction you want to go in. Hope this was helpful.
system
#10
That is very helpful and if I have to get experience and work my way into character modeling then so be it. I will definitely go to polycount.com I think this is a good direction. You’ve been so helpful. I can always work on a script and storyboarding as I get into the industry more, learn more about what a successful story needs and what it takes to pitch it properly. Panda, you are awesome. If you hadn’t been so straight with me, I wouldn’t have had a clue and would have taken forever to get started in the right direction. Thanks again.
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