Thursday, March 4, 2010

Demo Reel 2010 Thoughts

As I type I'm rendering out the first shot for my new demo reel. It's been 3 years since I've put out one. My instructors recommended in college that we should put one out every 6 months. I'm wondering how that's even possible if you're working as much as I am.

Regardless I do have time now and this is long over due. It feels great to finally be creating some renders. I decided for this reel that I work just concentrate on a characters. My original reel is very general and shows a little bit of everything. I think coming out of college you need that. At this stage in my career though, I want to get away from that and really show what I am capable of as a character artist.

I'm doing three character sections: Togo-Next Gen Character (High & Low Poly), Secret Agents (Low Poly), and Creature (Have not narrowed down this slot yet).

I want to be able to show off not only the models but the variation of styles, shaders, texturing, and workflow. What hurt me with my original reel is that I was thinking of it too cinematically. I naturally want everything to feel like a film. It wasn't until after I made it that I realized it should feel more like a tech demo. This is what I was missing. Showing potential employers how I think and how I put the characters together. So I aim to fix that this time around.

I still have plenty to create and assemble for this, but I should be done this month if I don't catch too many snags along the way.

Once I'm finished I will either move on to an environment/prop reel or go on to finishing up one of the various shorts I started. I'd like to do the latter of the two, but that all depends on my current state of employment.

Ah, also I'm working in HD for the first time with the reel. It's taking up a HUGE amount of space on my hard drive, but the resolution is well worth it. I can't wait for this 22 hour render to finish so I can begin to composite the first shot!

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