Hi, I am hoping if you have a spare couple of minutes to check out the first pass of my showreel.
This is what I could come up with in my “spare time”. Don’t seem to have much of it with a full time job, study and a travelling band.
Please crit and let me know whats good and bad. Thanks!

I am still cleaning up some of the animation (lip sync etc.) But just want some feedback on it so far so I can tweak it.

Also if anyone has any good advice on getting a nice smooth video export for web viewing at a fairly low file size I would be very grateful.

I used flash video for this test and it seems to skip a little bit.

you can see it HERE

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Sometimes you eat the bear...Sometimes the bear eats you...
Either way...shit happens

https://www.fadedseoul.com

I really like them all just N I C E ! :attn:

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Art Director
www.sevenbullsgames.com

yeah nice job!

everything worked really well together, including the music, and there was some good variation. well done mate!

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arran3D

arran3D blog

That was great. Someone likes videocopilot.net

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Very nice job, but if I have to nit-pic anything it would be that the animations seem just a tad bit sluggish, and a little bit artificial on some moments. However, aside from that, I wish I had your animation skills.

As a beginner at maya I say WOW at that!
nice work man!

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You think you know, but you have no idea

I agree with THX. It's pretty good, but there's a lot of floating and it's almost all just slightly artificial. If you go in and tweak the curves and add that extra polish it could be great though. Good luck

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www.funkybunnies3d.com

Thanks so much for the comments. I really appreciate you all checking it out!

Hehe, yeah Kudos to Andrew Kramer at video copilot!! I dont have much time these days and find myself doing all my work at stupid hours in the morning so his tuts were helpful...

I do agree that the animations are still a little sluggish in spots so I am tweaking them now trying to make them a bit more lively.

Also I have to change the video export settings too...For some reason (maybe the keyframing) it is making the video a bit choppy and not doing any credit to the animations..

any advice for clean video export settings?

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Sometimes you eat the bear...Sometimes the bear eats you...
Either way...shit happens

https://www.fadedseoul.com

other than what the guys already said I'd probably concentrate a little more on the facial element such as lipsynch and expressions around the eyes.
but its a great starting point you've got and with a bit more effort you'll get this nicely polished

Si

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Looks good man, I really need to drag my backside into animating!

Cant add anymore crits other than whats already been said.

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"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

:bow:
It's really great saw a lot of digital tutors by the way:p

hehe, thanks gster123..yeah I was contemplating using some of that stuff as I want it all original ideas..But time is not my friend unfortunately...On the other hand I am cutting it down and chopping alot from it and have another original scene that is nearly finished that could replace some...

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Sometimes you eat the bear...Sometimes the bear eats you...
Either way...shit happens

https://www.fadedseoul.com

yh i noticed digital tutors creeping in, but i'd like to say, wow!

excellent put together showreel man. it had elements of everything. Bodymechanics, acting, lipsynching. and it was all put together very nice.

tweak the curves, and polish the body weighting and balance and ul be flying!

good luck m8

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those who succeed are only the failures that never gave up.

https://www.vimeo.com/7080130

Hey, great job overall, man. Got a bunch of crits though to improve a bit.

Lets start with the beginning lip sync. Some of just the lip sync needs tightening, but more importantly i feel that all of the expressions need to be way more exaggerated. Im not sure what the rig is like, but if it uses blendshapes, you can push the slider beyond 1 if you want.
you have some nice subtle gestures though, i like those.


The mechs walking seem to defy gravity at some points. I'd check to make sure your center of gravity is more over the supporting legs, especially when the mech is moving slowly. Also, the main mech fires off to the left, but it seems to be aiming arbitrarily at the floor in front of it, and although there is a little incoming fire 1) the trajectorys dont match and 2) the motivation/reaction of the mech could be clarified

I got nothin for the monster bit. That looks pretty solid

The push could be tightened up a bit. Right now the block is moving steadily as he pushes, but it seems like with his footing and body posture it might work better as two main thrusts foreward (maybe a little variety in the speed)

the ninja landing looks solid, but....gah i wish i could go frame by frame....the takeoff body position seems to warrant a more vertical takeoff than horizontal.

the next two bits are fine, but the poses could definately be more exaggerated. For instance, when the monster roars, get his whole body into it. Theres an opportunity for a nice looking full body curve if you tilt him back more, and an arc reversal before and after. What you have now is okay, but the legs not moving there makes it look stiff.

In the next few bits i think the motion could definately be snappier. At this point the pacing of the motion your reel is steady, where variation could bring it to the next level of polish. The little alien thing hopping is an example of this. The hopping itself can be varied speeds (ease in/ease out) and the reactions, in my opinion, should be held. Each action that he has must be acknowledged and appreciated by your audience. Each pose tells a story. He's happy he's reunited with the fruit. He notices that he is in perilous danger....so on....

The horse should be way sped up unless your going for a slow motion bit, but in that case give the audience more information for that to register (slow mo audience reaction or something)


The skateboarding bit is kinda hard to see. I'd bring the camera in closer to the action. Also the camera itself should be treated as a character ( give it ease in/out, variation in speed, nice arcs)




Overall i think you did a great job with these pieces. I cant animate that well, but countless critique sessions at school have given me a lot of things to look for.

If I could give one piece of advice it would be to make a checklist of the 12 principles of animation, and go through it for every shot.

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What I lack in skill I make up for with enthusiasm.

Wow, I finally got some time to work on this demo reel...Its been crazy busy!

badtertle: I really appreciate your awsome crit and advice..Everything you said makes sense and you have some great points there.
I wish I got to read this a bit earlier....Anyway I hope you get some time to check out the improvements I made..
I will take all this into more consideration when I do my final draft of the reel..

Thanks again


Anyway, after some new animations,
scenes cutdowns, new music, tweaking, etc. this is what I came up with...

I managed to get this showreel to under 2 minutes..
perhaps on the final draft it will be less...

click HERE (link to quicktime movie 8.5mb)
I look forward to reading your comments and advice.

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Sometimes you eat the bear...Sometimes the bear eats you...
Either way...shit happens

https://www.fadedseoul.com