Final year student reel progress thread
polycounter lvl 2
Hi guys, I just wanted to post up my current reel:
So the first few pieces are new, I'd like to turn this reel more towards games by adding a few cycles in and replacing some of the animations with blue backgrounds. I'd love to hear any thoughts or critiques and I'm going to see if I can keep this thread updated for a while.
So the first few pieces are new, I'd like to turn this reel more towards games by adding a few cycles in and replacing some of the animations with blue backgrounds. I'd love to hear any thoughts or critiques and I'm going to see if I can keep this thread updated for a while.
Replies
- Personally not a fan of the music. I used to listen to rage against the machine back in high school, and it's pretty aggressive music. Apparently some recruiters just mute a reel anyway but some don't, so I would try and pick something more neutral. I had an interview where the animation supervisor said he loved the music I chose (and how I used the music well with my animation) and that it was stuck in his head afterwards. I think you can use music to your advantage in a reel.
Shot 1
- After he gets up and starts transitioning into the run, there's a bit of a jarring move forward in the COG which I would try and smooth out.
Shot 2
- I assume you'll render this shot like shot 1 and 3.
- The reaction to the explosion and recovery back into the run looks sick.
Shot 3
- I feel like he could have a few more frames in the air; some hangtime to make the drop feel even more bad ass.
- Landing pose is bad ass.
Shot 4
- There are a couple deformation issues in the creature (most obvious being the right shoulder after he gets stabbed and looks back to the human.
- The creatures anim is very poppy, which looks cool but I think needs a bit more detail after reacting to the hits/stabs. Its hands move into positions and just stop suddenly with no movement in the fingers or elbows. The COG also looks like it's in the same position the entire shot - I feel like when it dies it should drop and the entire body ragdoll beacuse it's dead.
Shot 5
- Super nice!
- Only note is on the very last pose. I was taught recently that I should never hit a hard stop at the end of a shot, nothing ever stops completely - keep the character alive all the way to the last frame. The pose is great just add some subtle animation the the COG/spine/neck/head from his stomping move.
Shot 6
- Might be a rig limitation? but it looks like the big arm shoulders have no animation in them. When he lifts his arms up and forward his shoulders should go up as well.
- Maybe just a personal preference but I'd like to see a bit more animation in the little arms, like they're trying to claw the ground and help out.
Shot 7
- Cool! Only note is on the final pose I would have the arms fully extended. The current pose looks weak but the action looks strong.
- Same note about keeping the animation alive all the way to the last frame, something really subtle.
Shot 8
- Really nice. Only note would be to exaggerate the down poses before the dog jumps, give it a bit more umph!
Shot 9
- Same note about keeping the animation alive, but from the start (they are currently frozen in a pose for a few frames before the animation starts).
Shot 10
- The transition from the pose where he's on 1 foot to regaining his balance with 2 feet looks very pose to pose (except the left leg). I think adding a bit of drag in the spine/neck/head would add a lot.
- I wish your reel was a little bit longer, I was left wanting to see a bit more of what you can do!
I think you would have no problem getting a junior position in the industry once you start applying, depending on where you live or are willing to relocate to. Keep it up and best of luck!
Here's an update, replaced shot 10 rather than adding it on. I also had one of the animations after my ending card, which was really dumb thinking about it, so that's fixed:
(If it asks for a password: wip)
I've had a couple of critiques from people in games/film companies say they judge people by their worst work so I'm afraid to put up old stuff that I think isn't up to the same standard.
I agree with what you're saying about the music, it's quite angsty at the moment. I'm pretty bad at looking for appropriate reel music that fits, so if anyone could point me towards something that's quite upbeat but has either no lyrics or less.. shouty lyrics, I'd be very grateful!
E: may settle on this tune instead:
Reel as it stands:
Possibly something to add on to the end!
keep the stuff comin!
Especially love your combat anims and character movement stuff
Here's some work I've been doing alongside my studies for "Our Ghosts of War"
It's going to have a pretty elaborate bullet reaction system, so a lot of these are related to being shot in the groin. But we're going to have animations for all parts of the body eventually!
Update on the movement set, replaced the crouching strafe
Really like the dog playing with the balloon
OGOW Charge-up slap-attack:
In regards to the music, in my experience recruiters don't want any audio unless it's necessary to the animation (ex. dialogue, specific dance). What you can do is have one reel without audio for applications and another "show" reel with all the fancy bells and whistles that you can put on your website to get you noticed.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the info about the reel, I think that's a good way to go about it since I've noticed interviewers and in my last job never watched reels with sound on anyway unless they're turning it on half way through for dialogue pieces.
Little Judy hopps animation ive been working on
Little chimp walk, model/rig/renders not by me! There are a couple of frames missing on the first render, so I've put in another at the end.
You can see in the walk when they go to contact they land on the heel and then splat down, whereas yours lands flat straight away, @frame 12:52 onwards
- There is a click in the head as the cycle ends and starts, if you just focus on the head you can see a shift between end and start.
- In the start and end cycle the left leg/hip snaps as well, as if there is an extended curve at the end
- It'd be cool to see some weight in the arms as they contact down on the ground
You have good poses thought, it just needs polishing a bit further, nice work though!Do you mind telling me where you got the rig? I'd love to try it
Loving your stuff. There's any tip you could give me about body mechanics? It really sticks out on your animations how the body flows, especially on the climb animations and the soldier run+explosion clip.
@LluisCavalcanti It's hard for me to explain since it just started to 'click' for me at some point, and I'm by no means all that good considering the other artists on this site, but a few things I find useful:
- Think of each body part individually, try to add nice smooth arcs to everything.
- You can apply this to the hips, make sure the characters COG is always situated in a position where he won't fall over, but be generous with anticipation + arcs on the COG since that'll be the control which makes the most visible change. For example, if a character shifts his weight, you could have an upwards/downwards arc.
- Blocking is awesome, you can get a huge amount done in the blocking stage and with appealing poses.
- Coffee! And keep animating, the more you animate, the more you will see your own faults. You can reach at least the top 2% of any craft provided you spend enough time doing it, even without tutorials or lectures or books.
- Stay humble to ANY critique, anyone can see if something looks weird, even if they don't have any animation experience. Seeing faults in your own work is a lot tougher than seeing faults in others.
Animation from recently I forgot to put up: