Need advice on cutting down demo reel length
polycounter lvl 5
Hey,
I'm putting my demo reel length and trying to get my first game job. I feel like 3 mins is a little long right now. Half of that reel is showing the mocap stuff.
Anyone have any advice on which shots don't hold up? It's tricky because the mocap stuff is taking up a lot of the time and you need time to show off that stuff effectively.
I'm putting my demo reel length and trying to get my first game job. I feel like 3 mins is a little long right now. Half of that reel is showing the mocap stuff.
Anyone have any advice on which shots don't hold up? It's tricky because the mocap stuff is taking up a lot of the time and you need time to show off that stuff effectively.
Replies
I would also personally cut out the second shot. It is just the first shot from different angles. The first shot feels nice and dynamic, you have shown the shot off really nicely already, probably no point repeating it
Same with the hero shot, throwing the missile. It just doesn't feel up to the standard of the rest of the reel the timing on the throw feels very even.
Finally you could probably shorten the in engine shot at the end. Its good you have it in there, shows you can take an animation from concept right to implementation but it doesn't need to be almost a minute long. Even just 10 seconds of her walking, to a run to the weapon check at the end would show you know your stuff.
Take what I say with a pinch of salt since it is much better than my reel but just my personal opinion.
Good luck shrinking this down. I would say from what I have been told not much longer than 1 minute 30 seconds is a good target.
To push it further, I'd be more concise with your breakdown. Quicker cuts on the mo-cap stuff, show the in-engine stuff with more structure, less running around. Also, Have the shotgun walk without the gradual cut in of each camera angle, and loop it for three to four cycles.
I think I will cut down the in-engine stuff down to half the length and get rid of the mocap breakdowns and have it on a separate vid on my Vimeo channel. See where I'm at then. maybe around the 2 min mark and then I will see if I can take a shot or two out.
EDIT - Managed to get it down to just under 2 mins with just cutting the second shot.
Thanks.
I think you could cut down the first shot a lot by not showing it twice. I think of the two, the first one is stronger. Also I'm not a fan of the in air circular spin type motion, I would cut that segment entirely. The super hero landing is fine
I would cut the sword and sheild run
cut the rifle walk
keep the take down, I think this is one of your strongest pieces
Cut out all of the "passes" stuff on the mocap data, just show the final one and if you want show the before, but do it simultaneously, don't make me watch it multiple times
Cut the end segment in the engine WAYYYYYYYYYY down, given that it's early WIP you may want to remove it entirely honestly, but that's up to you.
Anyway, I hope that helps, Best of luck, I'm looking forward to seeing v2.0
Anyway, here is V2. Cut out the second shot, removed the run, replaced the walk with a better one, cut down the mocap and in-engine stuff. Got to a nice 1:45.
Awesome work!
I would cut super man and the rifle girl walk, and the knife pull. If you're going to keep the dog, I would at least fix the bouncing ball (or get rid of the ball entirely, I don't think you need it) right now it feels like it sticks as it hits the ground, just brings the whole shot down
Overall I think it's much better than v1.0 though
Good luck.
Since I got comments from a few people that the Superman shot could be better, I think this is a perfect opportunity to learn more about my own work. If you don't mind, what exactly about the shot is weaker. I think the throw could be better, I see some funky knee stuff. I could probably smooth out some spacing issues and get even more weight into the shot.
Is there anything specific?
Cheers.
For me, the superman shot was kind of strange how he enters, judging by his landing, he landed from a high position. Instead of doing that noticeable curve at the beginning I think it would have helped to have it more linear in my opinion.
Also when he goes back after launching the rocket it seems that 2 people were holding each arm and moving superman back :P ( like those Japanese programs with people in black suits and black background) I guess it would have been immediate the flying after the rocket launch and not so much preparation
Do you think I am good enough for a junior/entry level position?
For the mocap and UE4 clips, I'd build out the UE4 level a little more to a graybox level and show more of the final cleaned motions in UE4. You could inset the raw motion as a pic-in-pic like the recent series of Uncharted Lost Legacy reels. Also gives good impetus to author some additional animations like jump/vault, firing, and cover animations to round out the anim set.
The Unreal stuff is super tricky. I would love to have a more robust system but I felt overwhelmed even with the simple set-up in my reel. I didn't know how to diagnose any issues I came across. So right now, I'm starting from the super basics and I'm going to take it really slow and try to understand how Unreal works. Start with more simple blueprint set-ups and try to make up a situation, e.g, a character enters through a door which triggers and explosion or an event. Then I can gradually ramp up in complexity.
I'm hoping that the employer realises that I'm willing and actively trying to learn the technical side. I rarely see in-engine stuff in reels so I'm hoping that even having something simple in my reel gives a few extra brownie points.
Otherwise great stuff man