[Portfolio] Kendall Nedroscik, Animator

gammaslam

Hello.

portfolio.WEBSITE >> http://www.gammaslam.com

ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR WORK.

I'm posting my portfolio to get opinions and critiques on my reel and my website. I designed both.

I've been out of school a year, working really crappy jobs to pay ridiculous loans. I work on stuff in the little free time i have. Recently got a job lead from school so i updated my website and content with stuff i had that was closest to completion. Just got engaged Hopefully the critiques here will give me hope and or direction so i can eventually obtain a job in the industry and afford a wedding in the next 20 years :P.
Walmart and Dunkin Donuts just don't cut it financially or mentally.

Thanks everyone. for your time and effort

Sukotto

I'm in love with your Golem stuff and this is the first time seeing it Is all your animation done in Maya? How'd you achieve that bright/cel-shaded look for the Golem running?

Mike Yevin

I am also curious about Golem, love the style

I think the site design is super clean, i really like your logo. I believe you should have included information on what your trying to achieve in the industry (in your case an animator) and your email up top inside your banner.

As far as the content, you have a lot of really good stuff in your reel, however I feel like you need more that are up to the quality of Golem run and the drifting cars. Most of what you have looks unfinished, or poorly presented, but I will say your animations are great

aesir

I think the first page should have your animation reel on it, rather than your golem designs since that's the job you're looking for, right?

ericdigital

Hey nice website man. The first run animation is great. I would consider scrapping the fullsail specific stuff (at least the tennis player) it just isn't really adding anything for you. The robot ninja dude seems a little stiff in spots but still works pretty well. Good stuff overall though man!

achillesian

really like the 2d design stuff, you might consider that as your specialty

Cyrael

Hey man I feel you about being out of school for a year and still out of work, I've been doing the same thing as you and busting my but to try to get that first real animation gig.

Here's my 2 c on your reel, Get rid of the tennis player pieces and the walk at the end, they're really weak compared to the Golem and the cars, the car piece could still be touched up a bit as well, the timing seems off on the second car, a bit too slow, mix up the pace a bit to give it more of a push/pull feel, right now its very evenly spaced.

The box jump is alright, but probably should be put later in the reel.

Hide the controllers on the robot walk, they do nothing to help you and are a HUGE distraction.

I dig the eye shot and the airplane stuff. The walk you may not need to get rid of upon second inspection but it could benefit GREATLY from some clearer lighting, a backlight and fill would help a lot.

All in all, its decent but I feel like it could be stronger based upon my suggestions and some that the others have made.. I definitely feel where you're coming from, so keep the head high, and dig in your heels and keep animating.

Good luck brother!

bejkon

Nice, but I think you need more body mechanics like interaction with heavy object and jumping over a wall. The plane and cars looks ok but you can spend that time showing more advanced stuff.

James9475

You can get a job, but maybe not with this reel(or at least it'll be a lot lot harder).

The problem is, I can tell you've got the juice to make something good, but none of the pieces are particularly exciting or excellent, and you really need something that'll make somebody laugh or go 'shit..huh'.

If I were you, I would actually make around 4 entirely new pieces:

1 really great walk cycle that transitions into a run cycle (you could easily start with the golem run you have which is quite nice)

1 really fantastic 10-15 second traversal scene. Think prince of persia/uncharted/the matrix. You don't need a polished environment, just make abstract blocks, and pick a simple enough angle where we can see all the body mechanics.

1 Really fantastic scene of 2 characters interacting, it could be a fight, or a dance or something, doesn't need to be more than 10 seconds long. Make sure somebody dies and that the death animation is very good.

If you want and have the right rigs available, make 1 nice character piece, dont go crazy, just a few lines of dialogue, 5-10 seconds.

The whole thing should be less than a minute long, only include renders, no viewport capture, but don't bother with any fancy special effects or camera work, nobody cares about anything other than pure animation mechanics when looking at your reel.

I know you say you're busy and so on, but if you're being honest with yourself you know you can produce what I'm asking within a few months, and you would get a job very very quickly after that. I personally work long hours at a game company and I make a shit load of animation outside of work still, don't lie to yourself that it's too much work.

Feel good man, you are less than 3-4 months away from having your dream job, you just have to be honest with yourself and do some harder work for a little while!


P.S. The front page of your website should have the embedded video, dont make them have to click a second time to get to what you need them to see.

gammaslam

Thanks guys, this really helps.
thanks james9475 for your honest professional opinion and reel suggestions.
Definitely way beyond what i was hoping this post to achieve.

1. Definitely putting the reel on my homepage.
2. Animate..
A. Walk to run cycle.
B. Character interaction.
C. Body mechanics/weight/aka.traversal scene
D. and do it in 3-4 months. like a man.

I can't thank you guys enough. I'll probably make a wip thread as soon as i get my pre-pro done. !! im excited

James9475

awesome dude, I'm excited to crit your new stuff

Mark Dygert

Nice! Some good advice too. I'm glad you're open to it. That attitude with your reel in a few months is going to go over pretty well.

- I really like the length, try to keep it under 2min 2:30 is probably pushing it.
- I like the golem style and the jumpy walk is fun. It might be a little too peppy for a rock golem but it fits the world.
- The walk cycle of the space marine guy coming out of the shadows, seems to have some pop in his foot steps? The scene is also pretty dark and hard to see whats going on.
- I think you have a good eye for dramatic shots, so thats going to play well with a lot of stuff you do.
- I think you should ditch the box... It looks very beginerish and it looks like when it lands it squashes too much, almost like a glitch.
- The robot with the exploding eye, is he on ice? he seems a little floaty. It would be nice to have the ground explained a little better, or have his hand grab a little better and slow his body down. Right now he just kind of holds the pose and slides.
- It might also be good to provide a breakdown of what you did or didn't model or rig. Kudos if you did it all yourself but it might be good to say that somewhere.

Alberto Rdrgz

Lovely, Smooth animations Kendall!

DerDude

I would take out the flight-things and may be the car animation. Don´t get me wrong, there´s nothing wrong with that, but i´ve read alot of do´s and don´t about demo reels and those kind of thing are on the black-list
Also think about your presentation, the last peace is so dark, i can´t see the animation. It gives me the feeling you want to hide something?
Also the steps with the rig, nothing to special. When you want to show the rig, go for it, but maybe not this way. I admit, 1 minute is a good choice for breaking in the industry. Keep the good work up

artquest

Hi, Ken! Long time no see. I really like the Golem design and the animation cycle looks great too. About that WiP thread, are you gonna start it soon? I'm looking forward to seeing more new stuff! Keep up the good work man. I hope you land something soon.