Help with animation reel

3dmuscle

Hey everyone

I have been trying to get a job as an Animator in games for a while now but no success, i think it has to do with the animations in my reel not being game oriented, although i haven't got any feedback from companies that i applied, but i am pretty sure that's what it is . Anyway, can you guys give me some tips on what kind of animations i should have on my reel that would help me, taking into consideration that i don't have experience in games. I was thinking more action and less acting, does that make sense? Also i wonder if including just quick cycles if it is not too boring, any help is appreciated.

Also, i am working on my website right now, using the tips that i have gathered here.

Thank you

MoP

Quick cycles on low- to mid-poly characters and items are probably ideal.
An interesting character model or two with some interesting walk/run/attack/death animations would probably be fine.

That said, I'm not an animator myself, but it seems to me that you want to target your reel at the field you want to work in. There'd be no point rendering realistic film-resolution characters if you were applying for a job making a handheld-spec car racing game, if you see what I mean...

3dmuscle

That's what i imagined, the characters that i have right now in my reel are free high res rigs i got from the web and i only have one walk cycle, most of the shots are acting pieces.

Thanks

SkullboX

Sharing your reel might give us a better idea of how both the content and presentation can be improved.

Go pester some modelers for awesome looking static normal mapped characters. They look great, are cheap to render, nobody is going to aniamte them and that shows you can animate within the market's demands.

There's nothing wrong with showing your skills as a narrative animator working with high poly rigs, but you definitely need some stuff specifically created for games.

Watch out with stuff like Generi_rig for maya though. Even though people hiring animators should look past this many people have an allergic reaction to generi_rig's appearance. Partly because it's everywhere, mainly because even if the animation is awesome, it's still an ugly little blue guy. Hell even I hate looking at it, and I know how awesome it is to animate with.

3dmuscle

SkullboX - I was thinking that, asking someone that has a nice game model if i could animate it. I have been searching for good free game models and have not found any, would be great to do that. I will stick around here, seems like a good place to learn and maybe someone can let me animate a model and we can both use on our reels I am at the same time brushing up my modeling skills and learning a bit of the process of modeling for games and a little texturing too, just trying to have an overall picture of the whole process, but still keep animation as focus.

That blue character i was going to use it, but i thought the same, i have seen it everywhere and maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to use it.

The reel that i have now is hosted at cgtalk, again, it does not have anything to do with games unfortunately so that's my next goal,
get more action/cycles pieces

http://madeofpoly.cgsociety.org/gallery/

Thanks for the tips

Geezus

lol, gotta love the happy music with a bloody jesus on a cross.

Joao Sapiro

hey nice animations man !!

3dmuscle

[ QUOTE ]
lol, gotta love the happy music with a bloody jesus on a cross.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL..yeah, i got comments on that before...I had another version of the reel wihout the religious part but well i wanted to show that i can do realistic animation as well so i put it back

I want to work in games so the reel is going to change as soon as i get some new animations.

Thanks guys

SkullboX

I'd take out the christ, it doesn't really show much animation anyway as it's both dark and very minimal, and it might offend some potential employers - it doesn't offend me at all, but from what I've heard people in the US are pretty anal about stuff like that.

As for the rest, it kicks ass. Why you prefer working on games as a character animator rather than narrative animator is weird to me, as I personally find narrative animation more fun and more rewarding, I personally started out in games.

You also used a large variety of 'standard' characters so I personally wouldn't worry about that. Why you can't get hired as a game animator with this reel really surprises me. I guess you need more swords and guns in it or something, because the animations themselves cannot be the problem.

Sage

I think once you show some modeling and texturing it will be easier for you to get a job. Nice work though. I would take out the Christ scene as well just to avoid problems. Like it was said, show some walk, run, jumping, fighting with models that are in a style found in games.

Here are some sites to get you started on the modeling and texturing.

www.poopinmymouth.com

http://forums.ego-farms.com/index.php


Alex

3dmuscle

SkullboX - As soon as i get new animations, i will remove those 2 shots. Yes, i understand, religion is a very sensitive topic and i see your point, it could definitely get in the way when it comes to get hired if someone gets offended by it.

I was thinking game cinematics as well, there some so many great work out there but i am not excluding narrative animation either, would be nice to work on something like that too, i think the bottom line is i just want to get a job doing animation

Sage - Thanks for the links. I had seen the poopinmymouth.com before, awesome tutorials! That's my thinking, at least get a good base with modeling and texturing, not trying to master them , but i see lots of job posts for animators where they welcome people that have other skills so that would definitely help me.

Thanks guys

Sinistar

Luis, you have some great animations there!

I like the "cholesterol" scene. What's the audio from?

The office worker scene is great, too. Reminds me of every day at my job. :P

About the Christ scene, if you leave it in, I would remove the Christ part at the end in and leave the first part, but add the audio back in to show off the lipsynching.

Also you should show more of the boxer.

Anyways, great work!

3dmuscle

[ QUOTE ]
Luis, you have some great animations there!

I like the "cholesterol" scene. What's the audio from?

The office worker scene is great, too. Reminds me of every day at my job. :P

About the Christ scene, if you leave it in, I would remove the Christ part at the end in and leave the first part, but add the audio back in to show off the lipsynching.

Also you should show more of the boxer.

Anyways, great work!

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey thanks man

The "cholesterol" came from "the Sopranos", that's Tony's mom talking
The office worker i got inspired by my ex girlfriend, in the animation it shows why she is an "ex" now LOL
The "religious" portion of it, i will definitely have to remove them, as some of you guys said here, people may get offended by them, it makes sense, so i am working on new animations and learning a bit of modeling at the same time.

Thanks again for the kind words

Luis