Need advice for demoreel

Will Faucher

Hey,
I am currently a student in 3D art for games, and I have lately started working on my first demoreel. However, I need some advice coming from people with alot of experience in the industry.
I am now modelling my entire scene and character model in 3ds max. I plan on making a short (but sweet) film of about 30-35 seconds. Now, my teachers told me it would be best to render it all in Max. I thought this was a good plan, since it gives me access to Global Illumination and Final Gather. However, a friend of mine who works in the game industry told me it would be best to import my scene and my character into the Unreal Engine 3, and film it in realtime.

Which would be best? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Which would be more impressive and have a higher chance of landing myself a job?

Thank you very much! All help is appreciated!

Ben Apuna

If you've got the time to learn new tools and workflows and intend to work in games then go ahead and make your demo reel with UDK. UDK has lightmass so now there's really no reason to do traditional renders just for global illumination.

On the other hand, if time's short and you just need to get it done to pass the class then render it all in Max. You will still have the assets in the end and can explore porting it to UDK in the future when you have more time.

Somewhat off topic from you post, it sounds like you are not specializing in any particular area of game art, that's probably a bad idea... I could be wrong in assuming that so I won't go into it here. If you want more info on that topic just PM me.

Will Faucher

I am leaning towards being a character artist. And after thinking hard about it, I won't go with the short film idea, it will just take too much time to create and render. So I will stick with a character in a small environment turning around with a dynamic, animated idle pose. I'll most likely do this in max, since I'm not familiar with UDK. Unless it is just like Unreal Editor 3 that is...

PolyHertz

UDK is an updated version of the UT3 editor (its much nicer, though takes more powerful hardware). Using UDK is better then rendering it in max if your able, sene alot of game companies will give you extra points for showing that you know the engine, where as rendering capabilities in Max are good but not as useful for them unless your going to be working on cinematics.

I'd stay away from doing characters if the reel is meant to land you a job, sense your first ever character was only made 2 months ago you realy dont have the experience yet to break in that way. And in general character artists are in low demand and high supply these days sense everyone wants to be one (or as someone put it, "they're the rockstars of the game industry that get all the chicks", or something like that).

Will Faucher

I've heard that before. I am assuming environment artists are in high demand, correct?

PolyHertz

From what I can tell (good) environment artists are almost always in demand. Though atm the industry is in a slump (as should be expected with the economy the way it is), so your mileage may vary.

Will Faucher

After many hours thinking about it, I was thinking of making a generalist demoreel, combining both environment art, character modelling, and a bit of animation to give my character(s) an idle pose (breathing, walking around impatiently, etc). Is this a recommended idea? Or is it best to stick with one thing?
The reason I asked is simple. Say a certain company has a job opening for a character modeller for example, and my demoreel is strictly environment art. I am screwed. However, if I make a generalist reel, it could be good for both, and would show that I have the skills and knowledge to do both.

Ben Apuna

In theory this might be a good idea, however it doesn't really work that way.

While trying to make a character, animate it, and place it in an environment you will spread yourself too thin, unless you spend a ton of time on it.

Let's say you'll do an alright job in all three areas and you apply for a character position. Many others have also applied for the same position, most of them have chosen to specialize specifically in character art and have a few amazing characters in their portfolios. Who do you think will get the job?

In most cases a job in the game industry will be to make or do something very specialized. Such as making characters, or environments/props, or animation, even more rare will be artists who work solely on fx, user interface, or lighting. Usually the only time you see job opening for generalists is for small companies. There seem to be more openings for generalists in the non-games CG industry.

While it's good to learn the basics of everything as that will make you more well rounded and help advance your understanding of game art as a whole, you should choose a specialization and focus only on it while working on your portfolio. No matter what you choose the competition will be very tough in the current economy.

I say "portfolio" because unless you are going for fx, or animation a demo reel really isn't necessary, high res still images of your work on a simple website are a much better option for landing a job.

PolyHertz

Just stick with one thing, companies would rather you just be very good at one thing then OK at several. The quality bar in the industry is always rising and you'll be hard pressed to catch up if you don't have focus.

Having said that, assuming your new to environment art like characters, and decide to go in that direction, I'd very much recommend picking up some of the Eat3D tutorials sense I've seen them help out a lot of aspiring environment artists.

If you end up wanting to become an animator then I cannot stress enough the need for quality rigging skills. Good examples of riggers would be Manitou or Victor Vinyals. for animation itself people like Sota Yuyama or just check out the student showcases at Animation Mentor. You don't necessarily need to be rockstar at rigging, but the better you are at it the easier your job as an animator will be.

Will Faucher

Thanks for the help guys, it's really helping me out choose what I want to do. What I had sort of planned for my "generalist" idea was have a character simply stand there with an idle pose, (very simplistic animation), in a small, very pretty environment with a few well-done props. But if you truly think focusing on one task, then I'll definitely try to create something interesting, (unlike character reels on a simple turntable for example).

Also,Ben Apuna, the reason I am making a demoreel is for school. Our final project is to create a worthy demoreel, it is required to pass the course, and the best reels in the class are sent off to companies who have a partnership with the school.

kodde

I'll second going for realtime rendered graphics in your showreel if you want a job in the game industry. Making it look good with fancy offline render features is good as well, but not that relevant... yet.

BTW, who decides which are the "best" reels?

Will Faucher

If I decide to make an environment art reel, I'll definitely go for realtime render in UDK.
As for who decides which are the best reels, it is the teachers (who have all worked for many years in the industry and some have been lead art directors as well), and the school principal (who has worked many years in the industry as well). I have until september to make something absolutely kickass.