Shader Writer Reel: How to

#1

Hi guys,

soon i have to compose my reel to be able to apply for an internship

my main subject is shader writing using renderman and i’m also doing a lot of shading related development (eg custom shadeops, procedural geometry, rifs, etc)

i’ve got some stuff online which you can find here: http://vimeo.com/patrikhadorn

my questions are:

  1. what do studios expect from someone applying for a internship as shader writer?
  2. after watching my videos, is this more or less of what studios expect for an internship position?
  3. what would you suggest to add to those videos eg do you think something is missing?

i would be really thankful to get some guidance here because i personally experience it to be rather difficult to get any information about that subject

thanks,
Patrik

#2

Hmm since I think it would probably not be very interesting for a non programmer to see lots of code, i guess you have to somehow explain whats the stuff you do can do for the employer… I think maybe a little bit of “Screen capturing” the workflow, in order to show, how easy it is to get your shader into maya, which options it has and obviously how it looks when rendered would be nice. Then maybe show some different shaders (dont show the same stuff several times). Maybe make it a bit like a presentation ( powerpoint like ) where you explain exactly what you CAN do for the company and WHY you are a benefit for them… I dont really know if it even makes so much sense to make a reel for a shader writer unless obviously your shaders where used in a kick ass short or other kind of production. Maybe some images and slides will do …

Greetings and good luck :slight_smile:

Teknix

#3

thanks teknix for your thoughts
that kind of confirms what i thought

it just seems pretty difficult to show shader writing skills in a reel since a lot of time is spent optimizing rendertimes which you can’t see once rendered. also for most shaders a lot of time may be spent to antialiasing and again if antialiasing is good you don’t see anything :slight_smile:

i do like the idea with screencapturing since like this i can also show the user-friendliness however i think this could slow down my reel a bit. maybe kind of a 10sec setup to get awesome result :slight_smile:

grs
Patrik

#4

Well, if you spend a lot of time optimizing stuff, why dont you show that ? Make an image without antialising optimisation, show it, show the rendertime, then show the nicer one with optimisation and show its rendertime… and write something like “after optimising” … Just a simple idea :stuck_out_tongue:

#5

yes that may be a possibility but i usually don’t write an unoptimized version. i try to implement most of it during the development of the shader.

i’ve also thought about comparing rendertimes which may be a possibility but rendertimes may not seem to be very impressive when i render on my notebook :slight_smile:

thanks,
Patrik

#6

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.