Professional Project - Week 4 - Project Progress and Showreels

Final Characters - 

The feedback was to see whether the eyes on the Earth character could have no outline and instead have a shadow round them. Below is the Earth with and without an outline and the final Wifi character look.

Revised storyboards with added colour - 

From last weeks feedback Jamie wanted me to add the new ending where the Earth character looks down at himself and sees hospital popping up on him. I have done this and also added the ETC lettering popping up when the internet is plugged back in.

I added colour to see what the overall look will be. I feel the colours go well together and I can start to look at creating an animatic.

Animatic - 

I then put the storyboard into the animatic and timed it to the voice over we were given. I then added some foley sound for when the Earth hits the floor and the water splashes out of him.

I feel the beginning is timed well but the ending shot of the Earth with the hospitals goes on for too long. One way I am going to try and fix this that when the hospitals pop to add them popping up slower and the Earth reacting to it.


colour animatic with added sound pro project from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.

I will send this all to Jamie and see what his feedback is.


Feedback - 

After sending the above to Jamie, the feedback I got was that the timing of it was good apart from the ending, which I had discussed above and to go with the Earth character that has no outline around the eyes. Jamie suggested having the Wifi character put little badges on the Earth character to represent the different organisations and to reduce the amount of hospitals.

When I showed the above to Emily she also picked up on the ending and suggested a similar thing to what I suggested above and have the Earth reacting to them popping up.

I will take on board both suggestions and will play around with the ending for next week seeing what I can do in the last part of the voice over.

Lesson -

In this weeks lesson we discussed showreels and what is a good and bad showreel and all the elements that go into making a good one.

Some key points about a showreel:

• When making one make sure it is specific for the job/role you are applying for and to not send it to everyone. This only wastes time for you and the employers.
• It should be around 45 seconds - if it is too long people will shut off after awhile and it wont keep them engaged
• Only include your best work - if you don'y like something don not include it, as if the employer asks you about it, you will have to talk about it
• Put the best work first not last - what if they don't watch all of the showreel they wont see the best parts, if you put them first then they will catch the employer
• If you only do a specific part in a project say on it what you did (e.g only character design) as it is wrong to take credit for things you did not do. 
• Should research studios and tailor the showreel to that
• Have a title and contact details on the showreel 
• Use the best quality work files (uncompressed)
• The sound should work with the showreel and not put people off it - if it is annoying and your work is great they might not watch it - it should have a rhythm and a climax 

Quote - 

‘There’s no point throwing showreels around like ninja stars, it’s wasted time and effort. Look at the companies that interest you, find out what they are looking for and pretend to be that by tailoring your showreel accordingly.’

We next went on to look at some showreels - 

11 best showreels from 2015 -http://motionographer.com/2016/01/20/11-of-the-best-2015-showreels/

It was good to see what you could do with a showreel and how they are all so different . The music worked well with each showreel and they were engaging to watch, although some were slightly longer than needed, it was very helpful for when we make our own showreels for next week.

Lois Van Baarle - 

I have seen her work before and loved it but I did not know she did animation or her name. 

Emily showed her progression through her showreels and how they change throughout the years to suite different things.

2007 - 

showreel 2007 from Lois van Baarle on Vimeo.

2009-
showreel 2009 from Lois van Baarle on Vimeo.


Susi Sie - 
We looked at Susi because she has some really interesting work that you woulod think is all digitally done but in fact she films the effects live using different mediums.
Showreel from Susi Sie on Vimeo.

Simon Reeves -
Simon Reeves Demo Reel 2011 from Simon Reeves on Vimeo.

Oliver Staphylas - 

Character Animation Reel 2010 from Olivier Staphylas on Vimeo.

Chris Godfrey - The Great Gatsby VFX Showreel- 

The Great Gatsby VFX from Chris Godfrey on Vimeo.

This was awesome to see just how much VFX went into the movie and what you though was actually shot a mansion was actually put in after.

Louaye Moulayess - animator at Blue Sky Studios - http://louaye.com/index.html - When looking at his showreels you can see his progression and advancement in his work.

Louaye Moulayess - Demo Reel from Louaye Moulayess on Vimeo.


Homework -

Our homework is create our own showreel using what we created in the last few years. It is in for two weeks time.

Since I want to be more of a generalist animator I am thinking of adding a variety of work I have down.

what I am thinking to include:

• Innovative - final piece 
• Innovative - Blue styled piece
• 3D - animations
• Advanced 2D - the tree growing 
• Compositing - bat animation