Seeking Feedback Demo Reel
Hi Everyone,
I am pretty new to these forums and this is my first time posting for a critique. I am looking for honest feedback to help me improve my game animation reel.
Please let me know what you think and any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
Angel
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I am pretty new to these forums and this is my first time posting for a critique. I am looking for honest feedback to help me improve my game animation reel.
Please let me know what you think and any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
Angel
[vv]120661892[/vv]
Replies
Jumping in, I'm going to start by focusing on the reel presentation. A great presentation can go a long way effectively making your work pop, while a poor presentation can sink even the best animation. With this in mind, here are a couple of suggestions you might want to consider.
First off, I would really suggest having a title card, even just for a few seconds, at the beginning of the reel, so HR/other artists know who they are looking at.
Secondly, I believe you will probably want to have a similar rendering style throughout your entire reel, as some of your work is playblasted, and some is rendered out with lights. Personally, they both work fine, but I think having mixed styles in the same reel is a bit strange to me, makes me wonder why they all aren't rendered. Whatvever your style is, you should keep it standardized throughout the reel.
Finally, I feel like the reel could be re-organized a bit. Right now it starts with the FPS guy, then to the creature, then to the fight scene (which is incredibly quick), so your first three shots seem to be (presumably) from three different projects. I would suggest perhaps focusing on the full FPS guy animation set first, then moving to something else.
It's also worth noting that your audio is a bit distracting, specifically when the fight scene starts/ends, and at the end how it just clips out. I know most HR view reels muted, but this also goes with the full presentation thing.
Overall I think your animations are definitely on the right track, but the general presentation at the moment is making me pay less attention to the work, and more attention to the , well, presentation.
-the guns look like they're floating they need more weight.
-Origins are ugly they don't work really well you need to edit them look at references.
- lots of static movement.
- add more snaps!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when he pulls the mag out there should be a snap, when he inserts the mag there should be a snap, and when he pulls the lever/charging handle.
- the hands fly around all over the place you need to make sure that the hand movement actually makes sense.
I realy liked the rest though
Thank you so much for the tips and advice. I really appreciate it. I actually finalized my demo reel before GDC so I do apologize for the presentation. I took heboltz3 critique and reorganized my reel, finished up my renders, and changed up the audio so it wasn't clashing with each other. Here was the new reel I finished up before GDC:
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As far as the 1st person goes, what do you mean about origins? I'll work better on my gun animations. I'll go to the range soon and record some reference. I was trying to do a bolt release hit rather than pulling the charging handle back because both guns were not rigged for to do this.
Again, thank you so much everyone. I will continue to keep working on my reel and I hope to post a new one soon. If anyone has any more critique on my newest reel, please feel free to comment even if it's something small.
Final nit-pick about the presnentation would be suggesting that you have your contact info present on screen at all times. Name and email would suffice, but something that shows that this is your work would be prime.
As far as animation, on the grenade throw, the arm's arc and the step feel a bit floaty/weirdly timed, specifically on the antic. I think this is caused by the foots pivot and hip moving at the same time. Break the movement to start with the foot, then the hip, then the upperbody. You capture this much better on the actual throw.
Overall, keep it up! Glad to see the update.
edit: oh, forgot. Also, the end of your reel should end on your contact info. don't fade to black. That way when the movie stops, they still see your contact info. they dont need to pause for it or anything
I like the presentation of the grenade throw. But as the other guys suggested it could be stronger. Try stronger anticipation (look for tension), more forcefully plant his foot, lead with the hips, throw back gunarm, torso twists, lead with the elbow of the throwing arm. Overall your work could do with some more contrast in spacing and timing but it's a cool start.
First-Person is fun but it doesn't show off enough of you're animation skill set. If you really want to add FP to your reel then get the details down, it's a finger animation meaning you have got to add in all the subtle pieces.
It's not worth having First-Person animations, anyone who can see that you can animate will know you can animate FP regardless.
I say I can relate because I was critiqued by Creative Assemblies art director for this piece: First Person Animation so focus your efforts on full animations. I want to see more of those two guys fighting!