Critque my reel
polycounter lvl 9
hey guys i am working on my senior reel, i had a panel review today and was told i need to improve my lighting, here is my reel, some feedback would be much appreciated on how i could improve my lighting, and or presentation
http://vimeo.com/73287259
http://vimeo.com/73287259
Replies
Merely my initial opinions as I simultaneously try to understand the same things. Rock on!
I think you have some pretty sweet stuff happening in here. I can throw in my two sense but I am a student myself so take from it what you like.
First thing I noticed was in your cafe scene, when you switch to wire frame there seems to be competing geometry in the door way. I would fix that because it flashes making it really hard to not notice.
I like where you are going with the cafe's lighting. Looks like you are getting some nice, albeit confusing light cookies.If the lighting is baked I would adjust the settings to get softer shadows especially in the beginning of the last shot of the cafe. If they are not baked, I might consider baking any kind of lighting with those kind of cookies. Saves a lot on draw calls and then you can add more lights if you want. Also, I pointed out where your focus is. If you intended that then defend it but since this is game lighting think about how it can be used to lead the player.
The house has some of the best showcasing of your modeling, imo, but the worst lighting. In the first turn around the porches are very dark. In the final shot you end the turn around and pause on this shot. I would recommend having it turn a little more before pausing and panning out. This is the last image the viewer see's of your house and it doesn't do it justice at all.
I really like your last scene! Multiple floors, nice fire particles! I can see how they might have gotten grumpy about the lighting in this scene though. If you have a place where you can enjoy a bonfire this weekend then go and light up a large fire. Look around at the lighting. A fire that large would be giving off more lights and shadow then what is being shown. That's kind of the tricky thing with throwing fire in a scene. It looks really cool but it effects so many other parts of the environment (nice smoke on the top floor, by the way). If you can, it would be cool to throw in a an light that is slightly animated that casts dynamic shadows. This is where I am talking out of my ass though because I don't know how much that would raise your draw calls or even how you would do that in Unity but it would really sell the believability of the fire if you could. Anyone else reading this can knock that theory down or suggest another possibility.
Here is my updated reel more feedback is appreciated
Before :
https://vimeo.com/73983400
You still seem to have that flashing geometry in the first scene's wireframe...
The house's lighting is looking way better! Don't kill me but, now when you end the house's last shot we are pulled away enough to really bring focus to the ground texture and it's pretty crappy in comparison to the beautiful house. Maybe throw some vegetation, like grass or something to hide it or tweak the texture on the ground? Just my two cents.
You are on the verge of a really amazing camera move in the last scene. When the camera goes towards the escalator it gives the viewer the feeling that it is about to really shoot down the escalator as though you are a ghost about to plummet. And then it kind of does it but it's a little too slow and it breaks that feeling. I think it would be a really great touch if you could pull it off. It's not necessary but because you are so close to doing it I felt a little let down when it didn't happen
The lighting around the fire is way more convincing now. I love that you put in flickering! The issue with the flickering though is that it's repetition is too noticeable and it's feeling like a controlled strobe light. Would it be possible to make the flickering loop a little longer or with more variation?
It's looking pretty good dude. Keep it up.
But some things do still stand out.
Mostly take another pass at all your materials, especially inside unity most look really flat and you lose a lot of volume as a result.
Why is that jukebox flashing? I couldn't avert my eyes from it.
I like the hut the most out of all your assets, have it first in the real.
Unfortunately your weakest link is your subway.
Without some major reworks, I'd leave it out.
I may be wrong from watching it just twice but your scale seems off on a lot of things, especially that descent down the stairs.
A lot of the assets could use a bump in poly-count.
Having an intro/outro page on your reel is not necessarily a bad idea, but it feels rushed. I like the skull but i'd like it a lot more if it where a sweet sweet render.
Lastly, while it's true that most people will fast forward through reels with the sound off when looking at new talent, for the one guy that will listen to what you chose as a soundtrack, don't just chop it off at the end.
Good luck!