Working on New Reel, looking for feedback/critique

#1

Hello,

Its been a long while since I last came on this site. There’s ALOT of cool new work on here as I look through the threads on this site! Nice stuff

As far as with me, I’m trying to put together a new reel. I posted up my work in progresses in another forum/website but got very limited response, so I’m hoping for a different/better result from here. I graduated from college in animation about 3 years ago, since then I’ve applied to just about every studio in current existence and have had no luck what so ever landing a job anywhere. Couldn’t even get a internship anywhere. So after the two year mark past I basically gave up searching and just stepped away from the whole CG realm. Now, I’m trying to give it another shot and hope and see if I’ll have better luck this time around. Unfortunately, I’m not financially wealthy enough to return back to the school I graduated from, because it’s in another state, or attend an online school like AM or the others, to have mentors, teachers and maybe even other students help guide me to the right path and critique my work.

So I come here to see if anyone can look at my work, my reel in progress basically, and just tear it apart and critique my work before I finalize everything and start sending it off. Let me know whats working, whats not working, what should just be scrapped and tossed in the garbage, what should possibly be added, any advise or critique would be very helpful. I just don’t want to waste time animating things that’s not going to get me hired anywhere.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1430019/Test_Reel_02sm.mov

Right now I’m trying to work in games, either doing in game animation or cinematics. Of course I would like to do films some day if the opportunity comes up, but this reel is focused more towards games. All the animations on here is just about done except for the dialog one. I still need to tighten up the lip sync and figure out why he looks so stiff at the beginning. I also have to fix the roll on the running shot.

I’m thinking about adding maybe two more animations once all these are finish, another acting piece and a weapon disarm, but I’m trying to keep my reel short and its already running kind of long so I’m not too sure about doing that yet.

If I actually get feedback I’ll post updates of any shots I work on.

Again, any feedback, advice, and/or critiques would all be very helpful

#2

Hi Adrian!
I totally understand how hard and frustrating it is trying to break into the industry (I’m trying at the moment too).
First of all if your trying to get into games I think you might want to put in a few cycles. What iv found very helpful and inspirational is to find demo reels that got people their first jobs and see what kind of shots they did and what kind of quality those shots are at.

In regards to your demo reel I think its a great start, your shots are showing lots of promise and with a bit of polish they could look really cool.
The first shot the arm that punches (and Im guessing everything else) needs to slow in and slow out of the movement and have a nice arc as at the moment the arm the goes backwards and then there is a big pop between f 12 and 13 and then the spacing gets smaller between f 13 and 14 and then there is a big pop between f 14 and 15 when it should be small spacing between f 12 and 13 then the spacing getting bigger and bigger with each frame. Also the grey guys arm penetrate the blue guys arms. Maybe also after the grey guy gets punched loosen up his arms.
I like the settle on the blue guy but his right arm seems stuck in one place.
Continue the blue guys action through the camera cut.
The first twist on the grey guy looks a bit odd but the bounce looks really nice, especially the overlap on the hand on the first bounce. But then make the final hand slap has more force as at the moment it kinda floats down.
The head twitch might be a bit much so tone it down a bit.
In the next cut when he starts to push himself up both his arms start moving at the same time, try having one arm start the action sooner so there wont be any twinning in the timing.
The push up looks a bit weak so maybe have him do it a bit slower and wait until the arms are fully extended before they come off the ground (same for the feet)
The walk and the jump look really broken because the grey guy is off balance when he steps f202.
When your jumping your hips basically become the typical bouncing ball exercises that everyone starts out doing. Meaning that it needs to have a nice arc and spacing and not change direction mid air unless something effects it.
Around f 220 what you should do is draw a nice arc on the screen that you want the body to travel on and then have everything follow that line. Once again paying attention to spacing.
There is a massive pop in the hips between 259 and 260.
I dont know if its because of the camera move but it seems that at f288 your just rotating at the root control, when you should be doing a bit of overshoot with the body and arms.
Then track the hips on the jump up at f296 as it seems they kinda go up then backwards then forwards when it should be a nice clean arc (arcs don’t have to be big, they just have to exist)
Then there is a massive leg pop at f298 i understand that you trying to show that the kick is powerful and quick but this just seems wrong.
I like the camera cut.
Make sure that the leg that lands on the ground first comes out of the flying pose first.
Then make sure that both the grey and blue guys are flying on arcs and not dead straight lines.
The grey guy has a nice landing, but break up the arms actions and give them a bit of settle.
The blue guy pops at f305, and he holds that weird star pose for a tad too long and is a tad too stiff.
I don’t understand why the blue guy rocks back when he hits the ground at f346.

Holy crap that’s a wall of text… sorry

ummm I hope that helps and I hope I didn’t sound like too much of a jerk.

-Yasha

#3

lol, you didnt sound like a jerk. You gave a pretty decent critique. For the most part I agree with most the stuff you said and gonna work on the areas you mentioned.

Yeah I got a collection of reels, most are ones that got people their first jobs. I’m still debating on whether I should add two more animations. I feel I should but also dont want to make another long reel thats not going to get me hired anywhere. I’ve seen good reels of only three, but three solid animations, that got people hired on their first jobs. I wanted to make a short, three maybe four animation type of a reel, but it’s already starting to stretch out.

Thanks for your feedback. I was hoping to get more feedback but seems like this part of the section done died down a bit since compared to few years ago when I used to visit more often

#4

Quality> quantity

If I was in your shoes i would keep working on the shots you already have until you cant stand them, then leave them for a month or so and then work on them some more. I understand how boring it can be working on the same shot(s) for months and months especially if you have a short attention span.

#5

yeah I’m definitively shooting for quality over quantity, thats why I want to keep it short. Thing is its kind of hard for me to decide what to add in my reel because some studios want to see “this”, others want to see “that”, so I kinna want to add a bit of this and that in it, but dont wanna over do it. I’ll definitively work on my shots until quality is good, but that too is gonna be hard if I cant get valuable feedback. I hoped the online forums would help but I’m barley getting any feedback so I guess I’ll just work it out until it look good in my eyes

#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.