First Demo reel, need feedback :)

Leinad

Hey guys and gals, I just created my demo reel and was hoping to get some feedback! I’ll be going to GDC for the first time, so I am trying to get this demo as good as I can make it within the next week. Any help/comment/suggestion would be greatly appreciated!

Here is my Demo:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz1ByVfZgyc"]Daniel Akbari Demo Reel - YouTube[/ame]

MikeGalli

Hey Dan, I'm not a character artist so I can't comment much on the quality of the work, but I have some feedback for the presentation itself. I would suggest getting rid of the transition camera work where the camera pan's quickly to the next camera. It seems a bit jarring compared to the slow spinning of the model. It might be a bit more fitting to have a soft fade to the next camera instead.
There also seems to be a lot of negative space in your reel. It might be best to avoid too many of the full body shots as it is a bit hard to see much other than silhouette and colors. It might be kind of cool to have a medium close-up (about 1/3 of the body) camera that starts at the top of the character and slowly lowers as the character spins, so you can get a good grasp of the amount of detail.
Lastly, I would consider taking out the work that isn't character art. I think demo reels can get a little confusing when there are multiple specializations in one portfolio reel like character modeling and animation, or 2d art. You usually want to sell yourself at a specific skill set, rather than a broad range of good skills. The exception would be if you are going to be working on small teams where you would be required to do more than just character art. I would seek another opinion on this however, as I mentioned before, I am not a character artist. And a rule of thumb for portfolios is that your portfolio is only as good as your weakest piece. So each piece should be very strong to make it to your portfolio. It is much better to have a few great pieces than some good pieces and a few filler pieces.

Good luck finishing up your reel!

DWalker

Take a look at demo reels for other artists. The one at http://vimeo.com/39330892 is a rather nice example.

Among other nice features:
* Start with your information
* For each character, start with a title card featuring a view of the character from (roughly) the top of the head to the waist or mid-thigh
* Place each character in a pose on a turn table, then turn the base at a consistent rate
* Start with a full body shot, then cut or zoom to a closer view towards the face and pan down
* Show the wireframe in a full body shot with the textures off to the right side
* 30-45 seconds should be enough time to show most characters well
* Finish with a repeat of your contact information and a list of the tools you've used; icons should be enough for most tools since your target audience are professional artists

I would separate the reel into 2 reels and a gallery - put the characters in the first reel, the animations in a second, and the 2D work into a gallery.

You should also consider where you'd like to specialize - in most companies, character artists are not the animators. It's good for an artist to be well-rounded and familiar with everything, it's generally best to focus on one specialty, especially when getting started.