Animation Reel

# 1 09-12-2011 , 12:50 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2011

Posts: 4

Hi guys,

I would like to show you this short reel of my recent work in Maya, I am studying animation and have been working with Maya for a semester.

I would love to have some expertise critique from you guys, I know its not a fantastic Demo Reel but I am starting and really want to get better

Autodesk Maya Demo Reel - YouTube

Thank you! user added image

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# 2 11-12-2011 , 11:59 AM

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Join Date: Jun 2009

Location: Prague

Posts: 827

You've made a lot for a semester so well done.

For a showreel though you might want to be a bit more selective, it should contain only your best work and when you're starting out no one expects you to have lots of cool looking stuff, so better to think simple. If you focus on one or two scenes as well you can spend much more time on getting them to look really good, instead of ending up with lots of things that doesn't look as good as you could make it if you spent the extra time.

Also your reel is confusing to me, I don't get what I'm looking at. Is it a generalist or an animation reel? Because if it's an animation reel those model turntables in the beginning shouldn't be there.And unless you did absolutely everything in that reel like rigged and modeled the characters you need a shot breakdown of what you did. If you did the rigging too I'd still add an intro screen where i made it clear that I did everything in this reel from modeling to animation just so it's clear to someone watching.

Cheers,
Nilla

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# 3 11-12-2011 , 06:30 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Oct 2011

Posts: 139

sorry, if I seem harsh, I'm gonna critique it as if it were a professional demo..
---

Your demo should be relevant to the position you're applying for. If you think that your modeling skills are really good and want to show them off, I'd do a second demo just with design - it doesn't hurts and you give the person who's doing the hiring an option to watch it or not.

As to the animation demo itself:

It should show ONLY your very best work. This is hard when you're a student because you don't have that much to pick from, but it's better to have 2 really good scenes in your demo than 10 mediocre scenes.

Your very best scene should be the first in the demo (first impression + catches attention), you're second best scene should be the last in the demo (the last scene in demo stick in mind).

Avoid bouncing balls. Bouncing balls are typical student exercises (they're good to learn the principles of animation, but they're not good to show off) - to me, bouncing ball = "Hi, I'm student".

You're strongest scene imo are:

1) the guy putting the boxes on the table
2) the bipedal ball's walk cycles (both, keep the first one on longer)
3) the balls with the tails and tennis ball - because it shows off their personalities.
4) *optional - the kick off

So if I were you I'd spent my time tweaking those scenes - till they're perfect.

ei.

1) watch the turn when he places the first box down (act it out - now his legs just rotate), the second box seem very heavy at first, but in the second part of that action it seems like it lost all its weight (again, act it out, if it was that much heavy he wouldn't be able to put in on the table with his arms outstretched, he'd probably have to balance it in on his chest make a step forward and drop it on the table), have him pause a second before reaching for the final box (to breath out).
2) good as it is
3) focus on weight and momentum (especially when he's bouncing up and down the steps)
4) the steps before the kick off are very short & the kick off pose it's wronge.

--if you want to have edge over all your fellow students I highly recommend acting every move and buying preston blair's and richard williams' animation books and applying those principles to your animation--

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# 4 11-12-2011 , 11:22 PM

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Join Date: Jun 2009

Location: Prague

Posts: 827

nov2011 - Honest critique's the best even if it stings sometimes, much nicer to know what's wrong than having people tell you you're awesome and not getting anywhere in the real world user added image

hune - Have a look at this thread jay just started, it will give you some more info and if you add your reel for critique there as well I'm sure you'll get some more feedback if you want it.

Show Reels - A Guideline

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# 5 12-12-2011 , 12:21 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2011

Posts: 4

Hey! thanks a lot for watching my video and using your time for writing a critique, and I will practice more with your advices.

This is very helpful for me guys and I will do everything since showing all my job with the characters and picking my best scenes (corrected)

and again thank you so much!

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# 6 12-12-2011 , 03:00 PM

Administrator
Join Date: Jun 2009

Location: Prague

Posts: 827

You should keep an eye out for animation blogs as well, there's a lot of good resources out there for animators. I just posted this blog on facebook I started following it recently and they put up a lot of good clips that are very helpful to learn from, stuff like this;

Animation School- AnimSchool: Weight Shifts and Center of Gravity - YouTube!

https://www.animschoolblog.com/

And keep posting your work up, it's not a bad start.

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