I'm trying to get my first animation job and I can really use some critiques please.

thanks!

https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~mdlee/a.../reel02med.mov

That was a nice simple little reel. Nothing special but nice. My complaint is on the 3D part. Movements are a bit slow and the characters need alot more work for a demo reel. The camera animation looks pretty good. Make an impression with your work. Thats how you get hired in the industry in my opinion.

Please don't take this the wrong way. It's constructive criticism.

What QT codec did you use? All I get is audio...no video.

same here - no video, just audio. Quicktime says it doesnt have the required bits and they are not available from their site.

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the compression type is H.264. It's basically the default medium broadband settings in final cut. I'll make another one in mp4 later tonight.

Thanks for the critiques. I look forward to the negative ones. It's the only way to get better.

Some nice stuff. I especially liked the traditional animation stuff you had. Maybe more of that might help.

Didn’t like the 3D/caricatured boy/girl animation that much, as least not for an animation reel. Also the lip-sync, wasn’t bad but again for an animation reel it needs to be really good.

Remember, a demoreel is only as good as the worst work on it You can have some really decent stuff but the reviewer will probably notice and remember the weak work over the really great stuff.

Good luck.

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Yeah, but no but yeah but no....

Note: This is a very blunt critique of the reel and may seem harsh, but it is honest feedback that I feel is necessary. Do not take this as a personal attack.

The clips with the boy and girl are cute, but they do not seem like good pieces to include in an animation reel. The timing isn't clear, there is no sense of weight on the characters, and the overall staging of the scenes isn't all the clear or interesting. The clips show that you can technically animate, but they do not show that you understand the principles of animation nor basic cinematography.

The lip sync segments seem very weak to me. All you have are a couple of syllables, which tells me next to nothing about how much you actually know about lip syncing. You need to have at least a full sentence there.

The camera work at the beginning of the reel is nice as are the hand-drawn segments. The model of the blowfish and the funky carousel thing confuse me. And, if you're aiming for an animation position, why are you titled Graphic Artist on the reel?

If you want to get an animation job, this is not the reel to send out. It shows that you have some foundation skills for working in 3d, but it does not demonstrate that you have any usable animation skills for a professional environment. I would not pass this reel on to my supervisors for consideration for an entry-level position.

I would recommend creating new material that focuses on good, solid animation skills. Work on a few walk cycles that really show you understand weight, timing, and other principles of animation. Create a lipsync piece that is at least a sentence or two in length and that moves more than just the lips (the whole face moves when people talk). Maybe even add some other simple segments of characters lifting or pushing heavy objects. I wouldn't even worry about characters interacting with each other until you can at least get the basics down.

I hope this helps to point you in a better direction for creating a good animation reel. This advice comes from years of watching both very good and very bad reels and getting rejections on my own reel. And you did ask for "negative" critiques.

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Danny Ngan
Animator | Amaze Entertainment
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