Presenting your Reel

edlucas3rd

Hey, so I have a question. When it comes to showing off your animation(cycles) in a reel, what is the best format? I've seen many that do a turntable, or some just do multiple orthographic views while others just do a single 3/4 view. Does anyone know if there's a standard?

Einar

I don't know if i've seen any official standards for it, but if i were you i would use this logic: Turntable and multiples are the best for video games, this is because you want to show that you can animate it so it looks good from all directions. Turntables are great for very symmetrical locomotion, and let's you show that you are 100% comfortable with any angles. Multiples are very great to showcase specific parts of your locomotion. If you designed it around a 2D pose forexample which looks great but still want to show that it works fine from diffrent angles as well. It's also better if you have something in animation that breaks it up (like a personality reaction, a jump or something) because then you can see that from all angles instead of maybe missing a vital part because the turntable was at the wrong position at that time. This of course can be worked around. 

Another thing i like about the multiple is that it fills out your screen, and it fills it out with only interesting stuff, while a turntable might make the composition less appealing. A negative with multiples is that a viewer might still think you're hiding something because they don't get to see the locomotion from a specific angle they might wana see it from.

Single 3/4 is usually only good if that locomotion is trying to tell something other than: Look i can make locomotion from any angles. It can be a piece with a story, where multiple angles or turntables would take away from the story you're trying to tell. This also let's you strengthen your poses for that camera angle like a feature animator would. If you're looking for a job in the games industry the one watching it will probably think, Pfff, this guy is hiding something though, so it really has to be great and fun enough if you go this road.