Demoreel crit

cainy

Hi people

Im in the process of face lifting my reel, updating with new work, removing old work. Need some feedback on it, Im generally applying to game studios, but now looking at it its more cinematic related, I dont have any game pieces.

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slipsius

Youve got some good stuff in here. Is the football stuff mocap? if so, you should label it so in the video.

Your giraffe run seems a bit slow.

You have 2 guys that look similar, and they both do the same attack, where they lean back on one foot and slam the ground. It's a poor pose. So showing it twice is a bad idea. when you reach way back like that, your front foot would stay on the ground, but then lift up and move a bit forward as you slam down. but add some twist in the torso. Make the pose more interesting.

But ya. good start to a reel for sure.

(I also editted your post to embed your video. Hit edit post to see how i did it for future reference)

cainy

Maybe its best to take one of the dota 2 characters out? Hard to decide which one, the one with mace is a bit too long for me now. Football is a lot of mocap, but body motion has been adjusted, cleaned and on top of that a lot of keyframed animation like faces and fingers had to be animated from scratch, so Im not sure how to label it..?

limeforce

"Character Animation -- Keyframe on Mocap base -- Montana Football 16" ?

The giraffes front shoulder seems poppy.

Arturow

Your best pieces are the Montana Football and the last one ( but this gets a little bit confusing since the whole clip is in 1 color and when the 2 character interacts they are not that clear)

And I agree about the movement of the giraffe , also I would simplify it to 1 camera

cainy

Ok thanks, will apply the changes. Although I didnt thought my last piece was second best, thats why I pushed it down I'll try to render it better as the current state of it doesnt help, too bad these rigs dont come with textures.

cainy

Hey guys

Ive updated the reel, same link in my first post

Arturow

awesome! much better! good luck in your adventure for a job!

MarekDomin

So, are animators here self-learners or do you have to study some school to have some chance to get a job in industry?

MarekDomin

I am watching some really really good stuff on polycount, are those guys from schools for animators or is this started as hobby and pushed into profesion just with practice?

Arturow

Hello MarekDomin!

I'm sure there are pretty good self learn animators out there but from I had been watching in forums and reels , a lot of people came from a school ( examples : Animation Mentor , IAnimate, Animschool and of course College, to name a few).

In my personal opinion , school is good because is a new world that they are teaching you but if the person lack of motivation or don't really want it that bad it will be an average animator. There is actually a lot of good stuff over the Internet , you can easily learn about animation from it , it all depends on the person and how hard he want/love it.

For your question about to increase your chance at a studio. It all depends on your skills and not the paper ( BUT! , if you want to work in another country, the degree/diploma it helps a lot for visas)

Hardwork pays !

JearBear The Mighty

Hey MarekDomin, glad to see a fellow youngin on here! I would say that there's a good mix on the forums here, but most people have got some sort of schooling. Personally I'm at a 4 year college for game design and I chose to specialize in animation. Buuuut, don't let the schooling part go to your head, being in school, getting all A's and my degree doesn't guarantee that I'll be a professional when I get out. Like even though I'm in school it's still alot of practicing on my own and building up my skills and stuff outside of class.

Anyways, depending on your age I'd look into some colleges or online schools, the online one I've been eyeing personally is iAnimate but they should all help you out. Last thing, since your already on here and checkin people's work out, why not take the extra step and try follow some tuts and creating some anims on your own...can't hurt right?:poly121:

Check out Lynda.com and Digitaltutors to get started.