Going into this year one of my main priorities when it came to my own practice was to address some of the shortcomings brought up by my tutors in regards to my previous showreel, most notably the lack of character animation. My main way of addressing this over the course of Level 6 was to concentrate on my characters, more substantially fleshing them out in the pre-production with turnarounds and preliminary walk cycles. Just as important however is cutting out work which doesn't fit the brand I am trying to build as I progress on from uni in search of freelance animation work and fixed contracts working for studios. A lot of my work from first and second year, which appeared in my previous showreels was cut. Shots from 'Adrift' were cut and the film made private on my own personal Vimeo at the behest of my tutors who felt it didn't fit with the style of animation I had grown to specialise and the animation was not on par with what I was now capable of a year and a half on. I also got rid of some of my rougher looking DUIK animation, as a lot of it seemed unimpressive compared to more recent work and I wanted to keep a fast pace for my showreel in order to showcase myself as more of a multidisciplinary practitioner.
Previous Showreel from Autumn 2017. Made in preparation for MAF.
I mostly worked on top of previous showreels I had made for the end of year shows of the previous two years as I feel the format and the song I used makes the showreel stand out from the pack. Too many showreels I feel are slow and boring, incorporating boring stock music or low energy lo-fi hip hop which doesn't do enough to excite the viewer. For the past three years I have chosen to use the beginning of the track 'Hajnal' by Venetian Snares, as I like the pace at which the strings keep changing, placing emphasis on every 16th note and every third verse allowing me to structure my showreel in a way which allows me to place emphasis on particular shots while keeping a fast pace of editing.
I wanted to include as many shots from Monsieur Sausage in my showreel as possible, as I felt these were the best demonstration of my ability as a character animator, designer and layout artist. Shots taking place with my characters around a table showcase all three of these aspects. However, I felt for the sake of cohesion, shots in my showreel must play out chronologically, almost as a cut-down version of the final film inter spliced with animation from other projects in-between. This did mean however not including what I feel is one of the stronger shots from the film, the opening shot, in my showreel as it is over 10 seconds long and wouldn't fit with the pacing of my showreel, which I want to keep short and punchy under 50 seconds.
Summer 2018 Showreel
Also, in tangent with creating my own personal branding I created an end title card which uses all the same branding assets as the rest of my promo pack, to bookend my showreel with. (I would also go on to use this image as a signature on my Gmail account.)
Showreel End Title Card / Gmail Signature
Feedback
Feedback in regards to my showreel was positive, from both peers and tutors as well as professionals. My tutor praised my renewed focus on character animation feeling it addressed some of the shortcomings he had with my previous showreels to a certain degree, while also agreeing with my uncle who works as an Animation Director, who told me to incorporate more shots highlighting my process in animating/compositing shots as well as speed paints of backgrounds and layout work. As a 2D generalist, it seems to be a strong reel, though I do want to expand on the background/Layout aspect of it over the summer in order to sell myself more in that regard.
Upon completion and immediate peer feedback I began emailing my new and improved showreel to studios and people I know with ties to industry in order to both promote myself and garner feedback. This includes people working for studios such as...
Arcus Animation Studios
Gas Tank Productions
Sixteen South
Paper Owl Films
Brown Bag Films
Boulder Media
Factory
Red Kimono Media
The Line
Blue Zoo
Example of email sent to companies asking for feedback on Portfolio work
Most of these companies deal with 2D animation, and as a generalist I would be very much interested in hearing their feedback on how I can improve on the different aspects of my work.
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