This is not the type of work most game studios are looking for.
Your options will be very limited. I cannot think of many game companies that make art in your style, but if you can, those are the companies you'll want to apply to.
Your music selection made your work appear artsy and "Anime" so that's good if that's how you want your demo reel to be perceived.
In your snow scene, the mountainside was covered in snow, your building wasn't.
Use ease-in/out camera movements. Cameras that pop to a halt feel very amateur. I'm actually surprised how often I see this.
You're using two planes of leaves to create the effect of leaves being blown around in the air. It's very obvious, not sure if you had intended this to be obvious or not. The leaves go into the water and then come out in a perfect formation.
Your demo reel is too long for the amount of work you show in it, it will bore people. I get a sense you're stalling for the music to end with the video.
With a demo-reel, your audience will be game studio developers, not a general audience. What you have looks more like a short music video.
I think you should use more traditional demo-reels conventions, so that your potential employer will become better informed as to who you are, what you want to do, what your abilities are.
Add your name and contact information along with "Environment Artist".
I think you should show turn-arounds of level assets. This will better display your abilities as an enviroment artist. You should show wires, tricounts, and textures so you can display your understanding of creating assets for video game enviroments.
I second killingpeople. This isn't what most studios are looking for.
Your video is to long, I just kept skipping it to see the next environment.
In my opinion a demo reel is terrible for an environment artist and not needed. Show high-res images with high and low versions of assets, if applicable.
One thing that I can definatly say about this was I really enjoyed some of your lighting choices (the street scene I really liked) nice warm choices of colour really breathed a bit of life into it... but as KP and Cojax have said... your demo reel is reaching out to a pretty niche market, I think some employers can see that you have the ability to use lighting to set the mood... and have a pretty unique way of doing so... but the fact is the work itself just doesn't show all that well to what studios would probably be looking for...
And yuh... I skipped the video a bunch of times to see the next piece.
Stick with screenies I say, and if needed, do some quick quicktime videos (to help bring some of your environments to life).
cool, thank you all for replying;
brb google, I don't honestly know how to make a wire shot except from printscreening;
at this point I'd prefer working on smaller indie (especially mobile) projects to be honest, thus the work is certainly artsy and stuff.
I'll be putting it together more thoroughly after the new year break, so yep, texture sheets, wires, polycount and shorter length for the video.
2 JasonLavoie
thank you
I think I'll just build a simple website later, and will fill it with stills on one hand ( = to give a direct presentation)
and will keep a reel, because it's fancy and I'd prefer to have some stuff moving. Except will make it shorter, lol
As for the wires, did this little image for another thread:
If composite is not available, change your renderer to Mental Ray..
Oh, and as a side note, you really should go with images when you apply for jobs, its faster to look through. Reels is better for when you are doing animated stuff, not for environments for games because they are showcased just as good in stills and does not justify loading.
But if you, against good sense, should still decide on a reel. Then it would be advisable to cut SIGNIFICANTLY down on the sequences. Do not spend more time than five seconds on each shot, otherwise people get bored as they do not have the same attachments to your work as you have. Remember, you always like your work much more than everyone else does. It may sound harsh, but its true..
Maybe some angles form expected Player POVs? Walkways or doorways in the waterfront scene for example. Give employers a first- or third-person view of what kind of experiences you create for players.
I think that soon game development will be to the point where artists capable of envisioning and executing stylized worlds like these will be very valuable. Amazing work, man.
The concept art at the very end was really nice for the environment stuff. But I strongly agree if your looking to get a job, you got to show you can do more than just the stylize scenes.
I agree with everybody and I'm adding one more thing, the music was so distracting that I had to turn it off. You can use an editing program to lower the voice just a little or just change to a completely instrumental track.
I can't really say much that hasn't already been said, I def. agree with everyone else. There are some really nice stylistic things in there, really enjoyed myself, but again, very nice. I will comment on the camera work, the biggest issue is that it feels like you're hiding things with your camera instead of utilizing the camera to enhance your scene, like the second scene with the snow, I would have started farther out and then circled around to the close up that you ended on, it would have made more sense, instead of circling out then cutting in. Along with this the pavement scene is beautiful, but the camera going into the granite slab - either cut to your next scene there or go around the granite slab - its too disorienting and distracting to your viewer, unless thats what you want, which I dont know why you would on your demo reel. Like I said though, there is some really nice work in there, just need to find a way to highlight it better, and I believe that stills may be the way to go about this as well. Best of Luck!
EDIT* I know you're not focusing on the camera movement, but I feel these adjustments will aide in showing off your environments as well.
I can see where kp is coming from but I liked it a lot personally. It reminds me of the types of graphics that I see so often in xbox arcade stuff. So maybe shoot for those kinds of studios when applying?
Replies
Your options will be very limited. I cannot think of many game companies that make art in your style, but if you can, those are the companies you'll want to apply to.
Your music selection made your work appear artsy and "Anime" so that's good if that's how you want your demo reel to be perceived.
In your snow scene, the mountainside was covered in snow, your building wasn't.
Use ease-in/out camera movements. Cameras that pop to a halt feel very amateur. I'm actually surprised how often I see this.
You're using two planes of leaves to create the effect of leaves being blown around in the air. It's very obvious, not sure if you had intended this to be obvious or not. The leaves go into the water and then come out in a perfect formation.
Your demo reel is too long for the amount of work you show in it, it will bore people. I get a sense you're stalling for the music to end with the video.
With a demo-reel, your audience will be game studio developers, not a general audience. What you have looks more like a short music video.
I think you should use more traditional demo-reels conventions, so that your potential employer will become better informed as to who you are, what you want to do, what your abilities are.
Add your name and contact information along with "Environment Artist".
I think you should show turn-arounds of level assets. This will better display your abilities as an enviroment artist. You should show wires, tricounts, and textures so you can display your understanding of creating assets for video game enviroments.
Good luck.
Your video is to long, I just kept skipping it to see the next environment.
In my opinion a demo reel is terrible for an environment artist and not needed. Show high-res images with high and low versions of assets, if applicable.
Best of luck!
And yuh... I skipped the video a bunch of times to see the next piece.
Stick with screenies I say, and if needed, do some quick quicktime videos (to help bring some of your environments to life).
Good luck
brb google, I don't honestly know how to make a wire shot except from printscreening;
at this point I'd prefer working on smaller indie (especially mobile) projects to be honest, thus the work is certainly artsy and stuff.
I'll be putting it together more thoroughly after the new year break, so yep, texture sheets, wires, polycount and shorter length for the video.
2 JasonLavoie
thank you
I think I'll just build a simple website later, and will fill it with stills on one hand ( = to give a direct presentation)
and will keep a reel, because it's fancy and I'd prefer to have some stuff moving. Except will make it shorter, lol
If composite is not available, change your renderer to Mental Ray..
Oh, and as a side note, you really should go with images when you apply for jobs, its faster to look through. Reels is better for when you are doing animated stuff, not for environments for games because they are showcased just as good in stills and does not justify loading.
But if you, against good sense, should still decide on a reel. Then it would be advisable to cut SIGNIFICANTLY down on the sequences. Do not spend more time than five seconds on each shot, otherwise people get bored as they do not have the same attachments to your work as you have. Remember, you always like your work much more than everyone else does. It may sound harsh, but its true..
EDIT* I know you're not focusing on the camera movement, but I feel these adjustments will aide in showing off your environments as well.