Hi animators,
I am preparing to make a showReel on character animation hopefully with Houdini. I wonder if I should make some walk cycles and run cycles for the showReel. What would the lead animator from Large studio would think about seeing walk cycles on a showreel? Or Whould they expect to see some special design on some unique character motion? But according to what richard williams said from his book, a walk cycle is one of the most important thing to do it right. Any suggestions for me for what kind of motion I should be putting on a animation showReel. Would the style of showreel from “animation Mentor” be good enough to get a job? (a walk + an act + some pushing)

thanks for your attention

How about looking at other character animators reels to find out whats required

rob

Show some strong acting. The fact that you know the basics would be evident from that, even more if you chose your shots carefully in order to show more.
And, since you mentioned Animation mentor:
http://www.animationmentor.com/newsletter/0807/feature_geek.html#tipTrick [animationmentor.com]

Dragos

as others already said good knowledge/feeling of motion are necessary. I depends what do you want, but I believe that showing that you feel the rhythm and movement are the best ways to get a place somewhere. And one maybe a bit overlooked aspect is the fact that you should make your showreel looks good. Well designed, with smartly chosen music, nice booklet together with dvd… because all those things can make your work draw attention. This is visual art we do, and presentation must be good looking.

circusmonkey
thanks for your reply, Rob! I also want to find some good examples to look at too. i ususally search from animationMentor. Do you have any other good places that I can see other good character animator's reel? thanks!

digitallysane
Thanks for your showReel tips link! That is really helpful! thanks!

djorzgul
thanks for your advice!
“rhythm and movement”, I will remember them!

Well from what i remember from school and looking at reels at lunch time at certain studios. A reel should show what it is you want to do. It being character animation you should show good acting skills as well as good poses and the timing has to feel right. Some good follow thru and gestures if it;s a human type of character if it;s anything other then that should should show good motion and timing.
If you have movies or clips of movies and recreating those shots might help as well as i have seen some of this being done at schools. If you have your own footage u can use that as reference. Show that you can create convincable animation is the key. From what my experiences were. Could be wrong depends if you want to work in commericals if your good enough to work on movies. So show strong poses, good timing, convincing performances , if you know some acting put it in there as well. That should be good enough to land a job i think… or some of the students showed that some work in some big companies now….

good luck when your done you should post it to get some feed back on it… before sending it out…




George