[Portfolio] – Drawallday/Michael, 3d artist animator

Drawallday

Hi all,

UPDATE: Thanks for some of your feedback. I just completed my general 3d animation demo reel. Any more feedback would be great. If you prefer to email me, that would be fine.

UPDATED 01/18/11

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onwlig6U7D8[/ame]

3d stills:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58189869@N03/sets/72157625728903235/

gsokol

The perspective in the first shot drives me nuts...how his arm gets really close to the camera...tone that down. Also, if that character is doing sign language (which is what it appears to be to me) maybe say that in text....otherwise people might be confused by whats going on.

The weighting section is pretty bleh. You basically have characters spazzing out for several seconds. I'm not sure if an animator would need to show that at all, but even if you did...you need to slow that down so people can comprehend exactly what is going on.

gibson543

overall I think the animations are very "stick up my ass stiff" you know, like in the class scene I was laughing because the guy wasn't even moving, his arms open to the side with the hands open. NO ONE is like that. And the push animation is ok, but again, the homie walking is very stiff overall, his head didn't even move. not very natural. some secondary motion would help, and I also agree with gsokol.

Rockley Bonner

I loved the weighting section...becasue it made me laugh.

James9475

Yo, I'm actually an animator and will give you a helpful crit:

First off, what is this targeted at?

1) Film/Tv. You need acting pieces. you could get a job with 10 seconds of good acting + lip synced dialogue that is professional quality.

2) Games. You need action pieces. Traversal, combat.

At the moment you have a strange kinda hybrid reel, where it's all acting stuff with no dialogue. This is the main problem with the design of the reel. Also, it's great that you know skinning, but unless you are applying for technical animator positions (in which case you need a reel showing rigs etc and not animation) there's really no reason to have the skinning in there.

Animation wise, really it's just a case of unnatural posing and a stiffness of motion. More subjectively, there's a bit of an imagination problem happening too.

Let me put it this way. At the moment your pieces look like hand-keyed versions of motion capture stuff (but not with the realistic motion of mo-cap). If a piece needs normal humans moving normally, they will almost certainly use mo-cap. I'm not saying that it's not essential to be able to animate the human body realistically, but if you're going to do it, I'd suggest pushing your imagination a little bit. This all goes back to the 'games want action, films want acting' thing.

Its clear that the first piece is by far the best, and what you've spent most time on. This is a good thing, b/c your strongest work should always be first. It's the closest piece to a finished acting you have (which is cool since it's sign language). Take the ideas in this piece and extend them out.

So yeah, I dont want to ramble on too long, so before I say anything else, it would be great if you could reply with,

''I want a job in films/tv''

or

''I want a job in games''

b/c then I can give much better practical advice on what to do next.

Cheers

Jay

Drawallday

updated demo reel breakdown moved to first post

Drawallday

James9475 wrote: »

Yo, I'm actually an animator and will give you a helpful crit:

First off, what is this targeted at?

1) Film/Tv. You need acting pieces. you could get a job with 10 seconds of good acting + lip synced dialogue that is professional quality.

2) Games. You need action pieces. Traversal, combat.

At the moment you have a strange kinda hybrid reel, where it's all acting stuff with no dialogue. This is the main problem with the design of the reel. Also, it's great that you know skinning, but unless you are applying for technical animator positions (in which case you need a reel showing rigs etc and not animation) there's really no reason to have the skinning in there.

Animation wise, really it's just a case of unnatural posing and a stiffness of motion. More subjectively, there's a bit of an imagination problem happening too.

Let me put it this way. At the moment your pieces look like hand-keyed versions of motion capture stuff (but not with the realistic motion of mo-cap). If a piece needs normal humans moving normally, they will almost certainly use mo-cap. I'm not saying that it's not essential to be able to animate the human body realistically, but if you're going to do it, I'd suggest pushing your imagination a little bit. This all goes back to the 'games want action, films want acting' thing.

Its clear that the first piece is by far the best, and what you've spent most time on. This is a good thing, b/c your strongest work should always be first. It's the closest piece to a finished acting you have (which is cool since it's sign language). Take the ideas in this piece and extend them out.

So yeah, I dont want to ramble on too long, so before I say anything else, it would be great if you could reply with,

''I want a job in films/tv''

or

''I want a job in games''

b/c then I can give much better practical advice on what to do next.

Cheers

Jay

My answer to your main question would be Film/TV.

James9475

Drawallday wrote: »

My answer to your main question would be Film/TV.

OK well in that case the biggest thing by far is that you need a quality lip synced acting scene. I would start work on one and post the progress here.

Drawallday

James9475 wrote: »

OK well in that case the biggest thing by far is that you need a quality lip synced acting scene. I would start work on one and post the progress here.

I just had an idea... let's see about that. No problem.

Drawallday

Updated my demo reel (please look first post)... still work in progress. Now it's more animation focused. More updates to come.

Drawallday

Updated my demo reel (please look first post).

Drawallday

Some 3d stuff of mine...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58189869@N03/sets/72157625728903235/

Drawallday

Finished for now. (please check first post) Thanks for checking.

Drawallday

3d stills bad link now fixed

3d stills:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58189869@N03/sets/72157625728903235/