3d animation showreel

Okay. I’m game. I’m sure I’ve seen the bald guy picking up the box before. If it’s the one I’m thinking of, you should be showing a ‘lot’ more of him. The woman walking is very stilted – check the stiff shoulders. The two guys talking near the end I like, as well as the animal stuck in the wall. Some of the clips look a bit unfinished to me and are too short to give anyone a really good look at your work. It’s hard to critique at that speed. Maybe some captions between clips indicating what aspect of the animation you’re trying to showcase. Good luck.

I think it's pretty good. I have yet to get my hand into 3d but comparing this to stuff uploaded at my site ToonTube this is pretty good. Good Job!

ToonLifeOnline
ToonTube

Kumar

I'm a lead artist at a game company. One of the things I'm called upon to do from time to time is evaluate showreels and portfolios and I've seen stuff like this reel time and time again. Many times I'm asked to give my advice to guys just starting out, so I've had decades to think about the answer. As you've asked for crits, I'm going to give it to you straight. Don't take offense - this may come off gruff, but I'm typing quickly and not trying to sugar-coat anything. I think you have potential or I wouldn't bother giving you any advice. Disclaimer off.

If you want my hard advice, you need to edit. Some of these sequences are killing you - specifically the walk cycle on the Shiny Naked Woman. That's so stiff, and the skin is bunching unnaturally at her hips. It will make most hiring partners turn off your reel, so get rid if it now. Also, the guy fighting the alien - the timing on that acting is very slow and is not selling your abilities to animated what should be seen as a bare-knuckle action scene. It will likewise get your resume tossed into the trash.

The Ten Second Club piece, however, is very good. "It's time we called the authorities" "Oh yeah" - but isn't there more to that? It's one of the better sequences, but it feels like you cut a lot out of what was a short sequence to begin with. It makes me wonder if the rest of the piece wasn't very good and that's why you cut it out? You have to be careful, that's what a lead artist or art director is going to think, and that can also get you tossed aside in favor of someone who has their stuff together.

Here's what I recommend: cut this down to 3 to 5 of your best pieces. Don't put anything on here that doesn't just scream PROFESSIONAL. You're represented better by one minute of knockout material than five minutes of mediocrity, right?

Given that, why would you put anything on here that is either low-res or pixelated as if it's a test render? Obviously if you're going in for an animation job, you're not worried about showing your rendering chops, but at least respect the time of the people you're asking to look at your reel and give them something that at least looks final. The guys in the car are a perfect example - a little antialiasing and some shading would go a long way to making that look like an intentional piece.

As for structure, lead with your best stuff. In my opinion, you should put the whole Ten Second Club piece on here first, followed by the little short you did - all in sequence intact, instead of all cut up and overlaid with that music. (Here's another tip - most lead artists and art directors watch these with the sound down anyway...) On the other hand, if your little short makes no sense, maybe you're better off cutting it up like this, but again it makes me wonder why you did that. As with anything else, if it's not good, toss it in favor of something better.

Now, here's what to watch out for: what if you don't have 3 to 5 PROFESSIONAL pieces? As hard as it is to hear (and believe me, I want to encourage young artists) if you don't have 3 to 5 PROFESSIONAL pieces, that means you need to stop working on a showreel and instead go work on your craft. There are a lot of good animators out there and you're competing with them for a job - and maybe you're one of them - but I'm not seeing it in this reel. If you're worried about the hard work of getting yourself 3 to 5 pro pieces, remember - you want to be an animator, right? GO ANIMATE! Enjoy it! Do it like you love it. I'll bet you could get 3 new pieces done by the end of the month and guess what? You'd suddenly have a great reel!

So either take another whack at the reel with the work you've got - best work up front, whole pieces kept intact, and get rid of the amateur test-render stuff - make sure it's less disjointed and completely professional, and then you have a shot.

My advice anyway.