Rushed Demo Reel

[anatomy|b]

Seems to be getting me a few job interviews in Seattle, so I thought I'd share it with the community that got me into visual design in the first place. Even if you guys forget who I am every damn time I come back. >.<

[Conan]

Seattle is actually where I want to end up when I graduate for working in 3D field. Though I'm learning to something more technical for work like lighting & rendering as anyone can model. Would like to work in UDK as a light tech but I don't know of any companies in Seattle for games these days?

I'll break down your reel later but it looks good. I'm just sitting in the hall at the moment waiting on a class, so I really don't have time to detail it.

//Editing for details.

Keep the text, loose the transitions applied to them, just have them appear and then jump to whatever you want to show. There is also no need for sound so take it out, unless it is related in some way such as it being a short or lip sync. Some people actually just use cuts from animated shorts followed by the breakdown.

Show your best work first, whatever that may be.

Half way down that camera move on your piano player show wireframe on shaded.

Even though it says Ben whatever it took me a few times watching your reel to notice that you were pointing out you just did the texture on the truck. It might be better to just cut the slug out and put down in the corner "Model by so and so" and then below it put "Truck Texture by me."

The car was about what you want to show, did you model that too? Needs to say "Model and texture by me." You only need to show wireframe on models you make. If anything you could slow down that spin. If you want to get really into doing texture work show your UV's, just show a picture of the snapshot and then show it with the texture under it. You don't need to do that though that is just if you were making a texture artist demo reel.

Western seems good to me. I personally just would have used a different camera setup that involved less movement if any.

The two models, they need some text on them and probably want to point out you made them in zBrush. Render them in Maya and use a wireframe from that as well.

I have no idea what is with that last scene, might want to clear that up.

Anywho, that is just nit-picking your reel to death. I think the only major detail to to cut out the slugs/transitions and just use some text on each piece in the corner for a few seconds. Best way to lay out that text is like:

Bob Saget
Modeling and texturing.
Made in zBrush and Photoshop.

<Name of work>
<Credits of what you didn't do>
<Credits of what you did do.>
<Tools used>

For big works that you did with on a team you just credit what you did and then at the end of the reel you have a rolling credits.

Name of Piece in big bold blah blah
guy 1
guy 2
gal 1
tranny 1
etc.

[anatomy|b]

Thanks man. Some of those suggestions are great, and I'll definitely take them into consideration when I find the time to rerender my work. (I just landed a sweet job, so hopefully that won't be for awhile.)

Though I will say, I resent you saying "anyone can model". Anyone can render and light, too. They're both skill sets that take time and training to acquire, and the people I graduated with that know how to render and light, let me assure you, they know how to model and texture about as well as I know how to render and light. Which is to say they're capable of doing so on a passable level. But nothing worth bragging about.

[Conan]

Thanks man. Some of those suggestions are great, and I'll definitely take them into consideration when I find the time to rerender my work. (I just landed a sweet job, so hopefully that won't be for awhile.)

Though I will say, I resent you saying "anyone can model". Anyone can render and light, too. They're both skill sets that take time and training to acquire, and the people I graduated with that know how to render and light, let me assure you, they know how to model and texture about as well as I know how to render and light. Which is to say they're capable of doing so on a passable level. But nothing worth bragging about.

Congrats on the job. Re-rendering shit is always a pain and as I said that was getting into the nit-picky shit.

What I mean by anyone can model is that anyone that does work in 3D has the capability of modeling regardless of anything else. The amount of people that apply to "just model" is about half the market of people applying for jobs. A renderer as a job is partly a programmer, it's more then just putting in some settings. They also do a lot of server work and make their own modifications to the renderer they use. Same thing for lighting, you have to know temperatures and the physics behind how light reacts (and bounce). But that is on specialty level as opposed to graduating student level so it's something that doesn't really apply at the moment. Once you put together a demo reel that consists of production work to get a job at a larger company (lets just assume you are) like Pixar or something like that. They will want your demo reel to be about only one thing---your specialty that you are applying for.

Friend of mine works in one of these major companies and the guys that look at the reels there he says are "elitist pricks." Like if you are applying for modeling and you put a texture on it they eject and move on. But as I said a lot of this doesn't apply so much now. It's just something I point out because I hear this shit everyday about reels. The best suggestion I heard is to have a general reel on your site, just capping major works. Then when you make your reel cut each 'scene' into it's own file. When you go to apply for a job take each of those scene files and plug them together. Then you can have a custom reel that has the most relevant work to the job at hand and your latest work.

[missionsix]

Awesome work! So are you ending up in Seattle? I'm living here these days, working at a tech company... we just moved to the pionier square area.

[Conan]

Awesome work! So are you ending up in Seattle? I'm living here these days, working at a tech company... we just moved to the pionier square area.

Hopefully once I graduate I'll be moving up there, that's the plan anyway. Maybe when it comes to that you guys can help me get situated?

[anatomy|b]

Awesome work! So are you ending up in Seattle? I'm living here these days, working at a tech company... we just moved to the pionier square area.

Thanks!

Yeah, I just settled down in the Green Lake area. What kind of tech work are you up to?

[MonkeyRonin]

Who are you?

[missionsix]

Thanks!

Yeah, I just settled down in the Green Lake area. What kind of tech work are you up to?

Green lake? i live in Fremont. I'm a software developer for Isilon systems.

[anatomy|b]

Green lake? i live in Fremont. I'm a software developer for Isilon systems.

Awesome. You probably live like... 30 blocks south of me, or something. I'll PM you my number. We should grab a beer sometime or something.

[Conan]

I hopefully plan on moving that way, I'll PM you both my GoogleVoice number so we can stay in touch. If I plan on moving that way I might need a place to crash or some shit to help get sorted out. I could def use a good sense of the job market thought.

[Luz]

looks like some really cool stuff! Wish I could of seen the elephant and kid with textures though!