Need demo reel critiques
This is my first demo reel for animation. Any critiques or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to be applying for work soon so the sooner the better. I've already noticed a few things I plan on fixing.
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Replies
I think you're off to a great start. But I do think you need to keep pushing and polishing, if possible. I know finding a job can be a time sensitive thing, and you may have a personal deadline you need to make, but there are a few things you can do that would really help improve your reel.
First thing is you need a title card at the start and end of your reel. This should have contact information. While you may be applying with a resume attached to your email, sometimes companies like to just save the video, so it's best to have contact info on the video as well. Make it as easy as possible for companies to contact you.
In terms of content, I think your presentation is hurting you right now. Mainly the cameras. You have a pretty constant camera movement, which is obvious to the viewer. Camera movement should be subtle and add to your animation. If it doesn't, you shouldnt have movement. This is why I believe you would be better off ditching all camera movement and going with static cams. Let your animation speak for itself.
In terms of your animation, your best shot, in my eyes, is the last bit where she is doing hand tricks on the skateboard. You`ll want to move that stuff to the front of your reel.
Over all though, your stuff is lacking weight. Most of it feels floaty or too fast. The good news is I think you could improve almost all of it just by adjusting your keys a bit. It's not so much a posing issue as a timing issue. Start shifting your keys around to make things faster or slower. Play with the timing. Push the timing further than you are willing to go, then when you think it's gone too far, then you can pull it back. But you`ll be surprise by how big of a difference it will make when you start playing with it. Even the parts that you think the timing is good. Try taking out some frames, or adding it. Just to see how it looks. You might surprise yourself. But definitely start with a static camera first, some of that float / quickness i see could be coming from the camera movement.
The presentation for the skateboard shots, especially the falls, needs a bit of work as well. Right now, I feel like they are just shown too quickly, and you would benefit from a bit longer of a run in. Right now, the shot starts and shes already falling. Doesn't really give us a chance to realize what's going on. I would add just half a second - a second of her skating along, like a moving idle, before she takes the spill. I actually really like these pieces. It shows you can come up with different ideas and such. Some timing adjustment and presentation adjustment would really make these shine.
Your weakest piece is the griffon. I would say either ditch it, or, if you`d like to have a creature on your reel, at least fix it up a bit. The flying cycles are very stiff. Have the body bobbing up and down, or side to side. Move those feet more. Really, right now you just have the fur fluttering in the wind. Check out some bird / bat reference. Or check out the flying in Avatar. The whole body needs to move through the air.
You're definitely off to a great start, and I definitely see potential. Moving forward, make sure you fix the presentation (cameras and what not), because that will be the biggest improvement, and the fastest. If you have time to play around with the timing of things, I would suggest doing that as well.
I hope this doesn't scare you off. Keep at it, Shannon! You got this.
I'll be spending most of next week pushing the timing as you suggested and working on weights. But here's where it is so far:
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The fight stuff at the end also has some posing issues. The biggest thing you`ll need to learn for that type of stuff is that once your body leaves the ground, your center of gravity travels at a constant rate. this means you don't slow down or speed up when it comes to travelling sideways. The entire side motion comes from the momentum you started with. Think of a ball bouncing across the screen on the Z-axis. If the ball is in the air, and it's translate Z curves are anything but a linear line to the next contact point, it will look wrong. (minus heavy winds or other second hand forces. wind doesnt affect human bodies though. too heavy). Right now, they kind of jump all over the place in mid air. and SUPER quick. Im sure you've probably noticed that already though, now that the camera is still.
Im looking forward to what you have to show once you adjust some of this.
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