Could you provide advice/feedback for my showreel, please.

Skittle

Hello,
I am Roy, a student animator creating a showreel in preparation of finishing my course.
 
This video shows some of the animations that I am planning to use in my showreel:


As I am still in the process of generating work for this showreel, could you please provide advice for what kind of animations I can add to improve it.
Also, any feedback regarding the current animations will also help a lot.

Thank you.

I am sorry if I am unable to reply quickly, as a lot of time is being taken up during the final weeks.

AnthonyAnimation

Your best bet is to look at industry professionals' demo reels if you'd like an idea of what to include in yours. At the same time I personally think you should animate what you want to animate. Your passion will show through more than if you work on something because you think someone else will like it.

Try to be unique and creative- what can you offer that other animators cannot?

penOr

I agree with anthony about animating what you're passionate about - it will turn out better than something you're forcing yourself to produce.

It also depends on what part of the industry you want to get in to (games / vfx / feature film). If you include a lot of cycles then you're tailoring it for games. If you're interested in vfx then focus on photo-real creatures or digi-doubles, showing your sense of weight is very important. And for feature film you'll want cartoony characters and focus on dialog and acting.

I'd get some shots in there that tell more of a story. Show some character and context.

Skittle

@AnthonyAnimation Thank you, I have been looking at existing demo reels, and was mainly worried if there is something that I may be missing. I will continue animating what I want to animate, thank you for the advice.

@penOr Thank you, I am hoping to work in the games industry, so it is helpful to know that cycles are good for this. I will also try to create some narrative shots. Thank you.

Rmunday

Without echoing what has been said, regarding the pieces you already have they are all pretty solid. Generally you should start with your strongest piece which in my opinion would be the little fox guy, his subtle secondary action and overlap on the ears really give this piece huge character. Your second best piece should then end the reel, which I feel your quadruped cycle fits well.

I feel like the spear run cycle is quite lacking though. The main chunk of the run itself is nice but for me the right hand, something just feels off with it, especially from the front view it feels like the hand and in turn that section of the spear are almost on a pivot. Adding some subtle side to side variation would help break that up I imagine.

Since you are aiming for games industry maybe get some of your stuff in engine as well, show you are capable of taking an animation from an idea to a final usable asset for a game. You don't need to go all out and set up an advanced state machine or anything (Although been able to do this is a bonus) but literally just importing it into a nicely lit scene and getting your cycles to blend together will help!

As a student you definitely have a super solid start here a couple more awesome pieces, title card at the beginning and end (Doesn't need to be more than a second long, since potential employers can pause if they need to grab them) then you are well on your way.

Skittle

@Rmunday Thank you for the feedback, I will be sure to adjust the hand. Also, I am planning to show some animations in-engine, as this is a part of my final assignment, though up until recently there have been some issues with implementing the animations into Unreal. Thank you.

Skittle

Hello,
I am sorry for not having updated for so long.
I wanted to wait until I could show some things from my internship before I updated my showreel, and I am not great with forums sorry.

Here is the showreel that I plan to use, any feedback will be appreciated. Thank you.

AGoodFella

Cool. Some nice stuff, I really like your run cycle at the start.

For the ladder climb, it seems like she isn't exerting any effort to actually climb up the ladder, feels very pose to pose. She seems too low, her arms are fully stretched.

For the mocap stuff at the end, you only need to show the first shot, I feel. Show the cleaned up version first and then show them side by side. I'm hopping between both on the first viewing which makes it difficult to concentrate on each one.

Also, I think you could clean up the shot more. Especially the hand contacts and the penetration issues. I understand it's for an undisclosed project, does that mean, it's for an upcoming game? Are you allowed to use it?

Keep going!

Skittle

@AGoodFella Thank you for the feedback, I will add these improvements as soon as possible.

For the motion capture work; I was sure to discuss if I could use any scenes from the current project before adding them to my showreel. 
Thank you.