What to put in a showreel

Submitted by Snowy on
Forum
Job and Work Experience

Hey everyone,

Sorry if this is covered somewhere else, I did have a quick look and if it is I figure it must be rather old news and things may have changed a bit.

My question to you all is this: what should you show in your showreel? Obviously for animation work you will want to show your skills in modelling, texturing, rigging and animating but how much of what, what should the style be in; should you focus on character animation of machinical etc.

Any ideas greatly appreciated,

Snowy[:p]

Submitted by urgrund on Sat, 18/03/06 - 5:08 AMPermalink

"What should you put in?"

Well, your best stuff... its more impressive to have a 1min reel of top notch stuff than a 3minuet containing another 2min of average "look what else I can do" stuff.

Since my 'forte' is level design, I show off completed levels - not individual models rotating on a stand (which would suit a character modeller). So, focus on what type of positions you would apply for. Maybe even have a few variants of the reel tailored to different positions. I've got diff versions of resumes... for example, a picture framing company I did renders for didn't need to know that I can use Quake III editor, but they did need to know about offline rendering skills (which, conversely, aren't that important for QuakeIII mapping!) :) .

...ranting! Anyway, main point is only show your absolute best, your 'least best' item is your weakest link.

Submitted by Brain on Sat, 18/03/06 - 7:57 AMPermalink

You say "for animation work you will want to show your skills in modelling, texturing, rigging and animating" which I think is wrong. For animation work, you want to show your skills in animating. The rest are secondary, and only need to be there if they're worth showing or the job calls for it. I fully agree with urgrund that you should tailor reels to different positions.

Another tip: put your best stuff first and last. The beginning will hook 'em, and they'll remember the end. And add music. That isn't annoying or overheard (ala no Crazy goddamned frog @:-) Watching a reel without music... just doesn't seem right. There needs to some kind of audio, in my humble opinion.

Some reels to look at:
http://www.briansum.com/
http://resume.artbyjustin.com/index.html
http://www.kay-kay.com/

Good overall gist of it:
http://www.3dark.com/archives/demoreels/index.html

Submitted by Snowy on Tue, 21/03/06 - 12:36 AMPermalink

Thanks for the input guys, especially for the link there Hazzard; I knew it was on here somewhere as I had read it in the past.

Cheers[:)]

Posted by Snowy on
Forum
Job and Work Experience

Hey everyone,

Sorry if this is covered somewhere else, I did have a quick look and if it is I figure it must be rather old news and things may have changed a bit.

My question to you all is this: what should you show in your showreel? Obviously for animation work you will want to show your skills in modelling, texturing, rigging and animating but how much of what, what should the style be in; should you focus on character animation of machinical etc.

Any ideas greatly appreciated,

Snowy[:p]

Submitted by urgrund on Sat, 18/03/06 - 5:08 AMPermalink

"What should you put in?"

Well, your best stuff... its more impressive to have a 1min reel of top notch stuff than a 3minuet containing another 2min of average "look what else I can do" stuff.

Since my 'forte' is level design, I show off completed levels - not individual models rotating on a stand (which would suit a character modeller). So, focus on what type of positions you would apply for. Maybe even have a few variants of the reel tailored to different positions. I've got diff versions of resumes... for example, a picture framing company I did renders for didn't need to know that I can use Quake III editor, but they did need to know about offline rendering skills (which, conversely, aren't that important for QuakeIII mapping!) :) .

...ranting! Anyway, main point is only show your absolute best, your 'least best' item is your weakest link.

Submitted by Brain on Sat, 18/03/06 - 7:57 AMPermalink

You say "for animation work you will want to show your skills in modelling, texturing, rigging and animating" which I think is wrong. For animation work, you want to show your skills in animating. The rest are secondary, and only need to be there if they're worth showing or the job calls for it. I fully agree with urgrund that you should tailor reels to different positions.

Another tip: put your best stuff first and last. The beginning will hook 'em, and they'll remember the end. And add music. That isn't annoying or overheard (ala no Crazy goddamned frog @:-) Watching a reel without music... just doesn't seem right. There needs to some kind of audio, in my humble opinion.

Some reels to look at:
http://www.briansum.com/
http://resume.artbyjustin.com/index.html
http://www.kay-kay.com/

Good overall gist of it:
http://www.3dark.com/archives/demoreels/index.html

Submitted by Snowy on Tue, 21/03/06 - 12:36 AMPermalink

Thanks for the input guys, especially for the link there Hazzard; I knew it was on here somewhere as I had read it in the past.

Cheers[:)]