This unit is designed to teach us as third years, how to display our work in an interesting and captivating way to employers. Starting with an overview of current show-reels, I will plan and then develop my own to showcase my abilities as a vehicle artist, utilising software packages such as Sony Vegas and adobe after-effects.
Show-reel Examples
As these first examples are from ex-students, I don't believe I can provide a direct link to each video although they are listed in the order displayed within course resources.
1. Animator Showreel
-At 6 seconds, the text intro seemed far too long, especially with such a bleak background, this text could very be easily be an overlay for the starting cinematic and could have looks wonderful in my opinion.
-I understand it was a shared project between animator and environment artist but a full 20 seconds without any animation beyond a low-poly bird seems a little lack-luster.
-The depth of field may create a cinematic feel at times but it seems pretty overused, blurring the character and environment without any logical reasoning at times.
-What I quite like is that the structure of the environment allows many, very expressive animations to be used and blended together without ever looking out of place, especially with the character's interactivity with the environmental cloth.
-As the character running through the block-out is a great way to showcase the smooth running cycle and controls but this runs on for far too long, taking up almost half of the video length. A good 20 seconds could have probably been cut out of this.
-I quite like how the reference for character movement was shown through the run cycle but these could have been displayed much faster.
All in all, the cinematic was enjoyable to watch, showing both the environment artist and animator's skills but the last segment lost my attention due to its sheer length.
2. Environmental Showcase
-Same as the previous show-reel, why not use the 6 second text intro as a text overlay?
-The environment could have greatly benefit from a bit more light as some texture work was made especially difficult to see.
-The starting pan seemed a little odd coming from the pillar and zooming backwards, i would have personally tried this in reverse order.
-I very much like the use of animated textures for the fireflies and movement within the foliage as this gives the scene a lot more life.
-It did seem like there was far too much focus on the first environment. I feel like this was probably done to extend the overall show-reel length but it made the show-reel drag on quite considerably.
-I really like how the trees came out but i don't believe this justified as many camera pans as they received.
-It did seem a little strange putting a rotating marmoset gun render in there but if the artist wishes to be a generalist, I can see how it fits.
-The ending ideas concepts seemed once again like they dragged on that little bit extra to buff the show-reel length.
-Overall, 2 minutes seems far too long for one environment, one gun and a few ideas. It could have probably been compressed into a rather entertaining minute.
3. Architecture Show-reel
-Will return to this once I can get the link working again-
4. Environment and Prop Show-reel
-This show-reel made quite nice use of depth of field but i still think its pretty un-necessary in most cases.
-Brief coverage over the first environment seemed very nicely done although, the second pan could have included the third pan content. There was no real need to add an awkward jump.
-"Simulated pan of a Sci-fi scene, looking through the outside window." I believe a slow pan down the hallway, slowly turning the camera could have made a better showcase of the modular assets but timing wise, these really didn't drag on.
-A close up of the mortar shells may not be the best idea due to the relatively low poly-count and depth of field seemed entirely un-necessary with a single rotating object.
-The generator pans still wouldn't require depth of field. Our eyes do this naturally, all it accomplishes is hiding the texture and model work when it comes to single objects.
-The "sci-fi prop with simulated camera spinning around the object". Works quite nicely for an object like this. The artist seems very set on un-necessary depth of field effects though.
-Reference imagery of what would be done to showcase the construction of a modular store front, could work very nicely although a few quick examples could have been nice to further get the idea across.
-It was a 1 minute show-reel. Shows all the content of previous reels but at a much nicer pace. Stops the viewer from becoming bored.
5. Concept Show-reel
-Intro text used as an overlay. Really like this technique. Could do with a slow pan of the opening scene to make it less static.
-No need for the black fade, it just seems strange starting on a static environment before transitioning to concept art.
-The camera zoom across and in on the concept art shows the great detail went to by the artist. No reason to stop the pan and fade to black again, just transition to the next piece of work.
-Zbrush work didn't need to be a static side/ front/ back image. Slowly panning the camera up as it completes a single spin, ending on the face could have been nicer but the ideas still get across quite well.
-Nice showcase of 2D portrait work but once again, why just freeze the camera and transition to black, it looks sloppy.
-Showing how concepts in 2D become concepts in zbrush is great but the head rotates far too quickly.
-I like how the 2D robot concept starts with close-ups of the face detail before zooming out on the rest of the scene, once again showing the artists attention to detail. Still annoys me that the camera just stops and fades to black.
-N3-rd concept shows nice perspective drawing skills but panning seems un-necessary and far too fast. It still has random pauses without reason.
-Character concept to 3D application is very nicely done with the overlay, it shows the artist is fully able to work with hand drawn concepts, producing a 1-1 product. The character spin seems a little too fast and zoomed out again. (common problem)
-Lots of very nice concept art, showing both organic and mechanic objects/ characters. A very slow sideways pan could do wonders though.
-Grey backgrounds are fairly lacklustre, at least use something that complements the colour schemes of the concepts.
-Black borders seem rather unprofessional. Try to keep the same aspect ratio between images.
-Persian soldier progress from thumbnails to finished product don't fit the overall style of the show-reel and the showcase seem a little rushed.
-The monster zoom-out is done nicely UNTIL the ending, once again jerking the camera, leaving black borders and stopping abruptly.
-League of legends artwork looks good but drags on a little too much with the second image.
Overall the work and content within the show-reel is nice but it uses incredibly basic Sony Vegas transitions and a lot of these need some work.
-My favourite one so-far. The huge amount of content really sticks in your mind.
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