Hi everyone, I've just recently joined awn forums & thought since I've been updating, editing & re-editing my cg animation showreel I'd upload it on to youtube & share it with you! I'm an experienced uk-based animator who's currently freelance & on the look-out for both freelance & contract work, but who's also trying to get off his lazy backside & work on his own ideas more!
Anyway, here's the link & any comments and/or critiques are very much welcome--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUzsmQzBZfA
All the animation on the reel was created using 3DS Max.
Oh dear..no responses? As I said above- any comments, critiques etc are very much welcome!
Your 3d stuff is great. I like the fluid movement of all your characters. The Knight Rider skit was funny too and totally in keeping with my memories (I saw it first time around). Carrot car - brilliant.
Sorry - no criticism. :D
thanks for your comments blackspot- praise is very gladly accepted too! the knight rider project was good fun, especially as we had humourous, more adult storylines & scripts to work to, makes such a change from all the pre-school stuff which tends to be the mainstay of the television side of animation in the uk!
The carrot bit is for the titles sequence of a kids show on nickelodeon in the uk (I think!) called "Bubble & Squeak".
i thought it was great all through... except for the mice, they're just not up to the standard of the rest imo.
Hey there fellow animator,
Thank you for the being the first person to comment on my reel, I only hope more members of this forum follow suit.
I must say, I feel somewhat at a loss when it comes to trying to critique your reel, if only because you have considerably more experience than I do. However, as a fellow artist, I fully empathize with your need for constructive criticism and shall do my best to oblige you.
One thing your reel excels at is demonstrating versatility.The fact that you were involved in more than stage in the production pipeline enables for better lateral communication with any development team you're part of.
Your character animation is quite accomplished, considering you've been working under stringent television budgets. Frankly, the only gripes you'll get from me are nitpicks.
Your strongest piece is the Pharaoh spitting out the food. The timing seems just right, and his expression really sells his distaste. The only thing I'd have done differently is to hold on his change of expression, creating a stronger contrast as he realizes the food is revolting. I'd have also exaggerated the spit a little more (however I'm sure you were keeping the performance within the confines of the character's personality).
The piece of the man wishing to have the power bothers me for some reason. I'm not sure whether it's voice actor's delivery of the line, but something doesn't sit well with me. He appears *genuinely* cheerful and ebullient when I think he's supposed to be scheming and selfish. Jaffar's manner around the Sultan in Aladdin comes to mind as a good reference point; his forced decorum and cordiality can't disguise his true nature.
Finally, the last thing I found a little off putting was the clip of the soldiers prying the boulder off the cliff. The soldier closest to the camera doesn't seem to be putting as much weight as he probably should be in order to move it (the boulder). It didn't seem to me as if a whole lot of effort was put into trying to dislodge something that probably weighs at least 3 times the soldiers' combined weight.
Everything else looks really good, I'm particularly fond of that little flash Knight Rider clip. I hope you can take a lot of what I said with a grain of salt. I can only go by my own observations and render an opinion based on that judgment. Consider that the criticism you just read is coming from someone with a less trained eye.
Anyway, thanks again for your feedback, and keep up the great work! :)
Hi again & thanks for the comments guys, it's great to get other peoples perspectives, especially those that are looking at my work with "fresh eyes"!
rebelhill- I've had that thought at the back of my mind during & since the last edit of my reel. The mice are meant to look a bit stiff & simple "stop-motiony", as if they are plasticine with simple joints & armatures underneath, but they also don't show my animation off to it's best! I think the main reason they got on the reel is that I really enjoyed animating the two idents for a childrens TV channel they were in, & most of the other decent shots with them in were too simple to get on the reel. I think I still have the max file for that though & i've one or two ideas how to rectify the shot...or I may just cut it or replace it with something else!
jgombe- thanks for the detailed response! I've always tried to not get too rusty with some of my other cg skills, though generally I'm employed as an animator. I don't like to view one part of the pipeline as being a totally separate discipline from the other bits- my feeling is that you can't fully separate modelling from animating as you'll lose sight of how they greatly influence one another. It certainly helped me when I was animating on the series the bible-looking stuff was for ("Friends & Heroes"- it was on CBBC in the uk, I've forgotten what channels it was on in the US & Canada) as it meant I could make new morph targets for characters when the animation needed it & adapt models to certain degree without having to wait for one of the already very busy modellers to step across & do it. It also meant that I was one of the animators that tended to bigger crowd scenes & scenes with effects also, which made things more interesting!
Oh yeah- the knight rider stuff might look like flash but we did it as a kind of adapted cut-out style in 3DS Max, so it's actually 3D but kinda isn't!
I see what you mean about the boulder push shot. I also know what you're on about with the acting "have the power comment", though in my defence I did pretty much what the storyboard laid out- the character is a magic-man of sorts who does faith-healing tricks for money who then is amazed by the healing that the disciples Simon & St Peter can do, so he's asking in possibly quite a positive way in that he thinks it's some kind of trick they're using (like the ones he uses) that can be bought with money. In the story my next couple of shots are Peter getting angry with him, which just missed out on this edit of the reel.
Thanks again for the comments, all those that have posted!
Hi again & once again thanks to all of you that had a look at & commented upon my showreel!
As an accompanying video I've recently put my Supporting material reel on youtube as well- usually when sent my reel on dvd out to places this video would also be on there just to show work displaying other elements of my animation, just in case the studio or company in question wanted to see a bit more of my effects, human locomotion or crowd animation for instance.
The video is here, if any of you fancy taking a look--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pd8a0AD8gA
Thanks everyone!