Demo Reel tips

[Mentor]

check demo reels of somebody who got the jobs.

Modeling: Topology speaks complete what you know. One single parameter which can judge what you know...

Animation:
you just need to do something like animation Mentor students demo reel

Fx: Simulate the Natural phenomenon perfectly
Knowledge of compositing adds 200% weight to your demo reel coz most of the fx are done in compositing package ( all the movies including the Independance day cloud work was done using compositing live elements not maya fluids ). Overall technically capable.

Texturing: Uv mapping to be clean and smooth without streching and 100% weight to Painting skills in photoshop

Vfx: what ever you have done should be invisible If somebody finds out what have you done then you did something wrong. By the way visual effects means it creates an effect on your visual senses. All wire removal, green/blue screen removals, dust busting, Compositing a CG element over live background.

At the time of interview

Most importantly attitude

The ratio that what I give to each characteristics of the candidate

20% weightage to technical skills
20% to how fast can you learn things
15% Are you a good listener
15% Purpose of why you want the job
20% Interpersonal skills and communication
10% Fluency and IQ quotient

Overall the Attitude is the multiplication factor to me... companies check each and everything of yours..

your educational background
your friends
your past companies or colleges
your Orkut connections
your phone numbers will be checked with whom you are in touch with

they create a mindmap of yours that what you think all the time
they try to stress you and scold you at the interview and see how you react and neutralize the situation ( this is a trick to check how much is your short temper and how you handle the situation )

For texturing you need to have only only and one and only Painting skills in Photoshop... forget about anything else ... candiate with BFA has an offer letter ready all the time even if he doesnt know any 3d package.

I can give further suggestions... if anybody wants it...

regards,
Sandeep
GoldenEyevfx

[Beena]

this will be very helpful for the candidates who wants to improve in animation industry.
thanks for the suggestion and the idea you gave.

Thanks

[gada paras]

very useful information

[dilipjthakur]

Thanxss
Your Information is like milestone.
it is helpful to all jobs seeker in Industry.

[satan]

<rant start>

I myself have taken like 15 to 20 interviews ..... especially of freshers. I'd agree with most of what you've written. But I never had to shout and all. Anyways, something else I did 'additionally' is that I literally used to diagnosis the candidate.

It's important to remember you don't say anything that'll make the candidate feel frustrated of his quality yet letting him know he's not selected. As far as I am concerned, I used to show the candidate what are exactly the flaws he has done in the works in his portfolio. I even used to tell him the techniques he might look for to sort those problems. And when he's going back home, he can look up those problems, sort it out, and prepare slightly better for the next interview in some other company. This way you don't discourage candidates that his work isn't good, instead you encourage him to do a bit better for the next interview. There's a difference.

Also it's important to make the candidate feel at home when you're taking the interview, OR taking the test for the interview. After a week only an employee starts feeling like home in his workspace. So there's no need to pressurize him and see how much he can manage when he's tortured and hanged over a big bowl of boiling oil. Instead you're missing out the real potential of the candidate when he's at ease. They need their space, all of us artists do. Period.

Eh, please don't take it personally. This was just my personal rant.

<rant end>

[Mentor]

hi satan its true artist work better when they are free.. But the point is that about how well they manage their ball in the court... believe me or not I ve faced this in couple of interviews which was very very tricky... some of them were big shot studios... Its not the intension its the test... they just want to see how people behave react when things go wrong... some guys dont do it...

[Mentor]

there is some info i will post it soon..

[Mentor]

DEMO REELS : PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES Written by Oren Jacob About the Author: Oren Jacob is a Senior Technical Director at Pixar. He has been with the company for more than six years now and has worked on numerous award winning commercials like Listerone &quot;Arrows&quot;, &quot;Mission&quot;, and &quot;Jungle&quot;, Levi's &quot;Khakis&quot;, and Hallmark &quot;Magnet&quot;. He has also worked on many commercials that did not win any awards, but his mother still loves him. Oren did quite a lot of lighting and special effects work on the chase sequence in Toy Story, creating the smoke contrail effects and assembling the overhead helicopter shots of a suburbia that was a little too much like the one that he grew up in. More recently, Oren finished a new THX logo for LucasFilm, taught the first Pixar University, a 10 week, intensive training program for newly hired technical directors, and is now a Senior Technical Director on the Toy Story Sequel. *Disclaimer*: These are the personal views of Oren Jacob. These are not the views of his employer. The following text has no relationship with how his employer as a company, anyone who works there, or anyone else for that matter, feels about this particular topic. This text may not be used or reprinted, in whole or in part, without permission. DEMO REELS: A word or two from Oren Jacob The work that you put on a demo reel entirely depends upon the work that you are trying to get. If you applying for a jobs as a character animator, put character animation on your reel. Create a story. Compel your audience. Make them laugh or make them cry, but evoke some kind of emotion or response. Almost always, any robot, spaceship, chrome teapot, checkerboard floor stuff will get you ejected as fast as the reviewer can reach the button on the front of the VCR, unless you do something really, really, really creative with that material. And I don't suspect that all of you out there are Chuck Jones or Tex Avery, so pick your subject away from the typical Siggraph palette of tired examples. If, on the other hand, you are applying for a job as, say, a lighting TD, then show some lighting in your shots. Have some bright regions, dark regions, transitions in between, focus the viewers eye, lead them around the frame, demonstrate a sense of density balance, color balance, and good taste. Maybe if you can pull off an excellent looking frame that violates every single one of these things, then do that too. But just do not submit a flat shaded, poly render of some wizard staring at a point light which happens to be embedded in a flickering candle with tons of ambient filling the scene all around. Maybe a good suggestion for people who don't know what to do with a reel like this is to imagine that you are putting on a theatrical play. You are the person walking around up there in the cat walk and you can point all of those clever lights with colored gels toward the stage to create an aesthetically pleasing experience for the audience. Just remember to not throw each of the 16,000,000 colors available to you into the picture and thereby totally distract the audience from what they should be getting out of the image. Go buy a book on cinematography and buy a book on black and white still photography. In fact, why don't you include some real photographs in your reel. Show us stuff that wasn't done on a computer. Big points for this. And sketches. Reviewers always love to touch and hold things. Send us pretty pictures. And, let's say that you are applying for a job as a modeling TD. Then, show us your models. Do not hide every shot in really dark lighting so that we can't see anything. You're applying for a job as a modeler, not a bad lighter. You probably don't want to pretend that you are an animator and try animating your model so that is just ends up looking epileptic. If you do that, then not only can we not see your model but we also know that we're not going to forward your reel to the animators. Just build some cool stuff, render it sensibly - maybe even light it well - and show it off. Give us a few seconds per model to let our eyes understand the image. And you probably want to show several kinds of models. Organic, living shapes. Hard edged, manufactured objects. And all manner of things in between. In all cases, do not put on some completely lame, Art Of Noise, 1987, super-duper, agro, around-the-world remix of something on the audio track dubbed so loud that the clipping causes the speakers on our televisions to go into a seizure. Every other reel for the past decade has used this kind of techno-garbage. Now, while I may or may not actually like that music when I'm listening at my house, using that kind of stuff on a reel only just pisses everyone off in the review session. Enya can be pretentious but if the images that you are showing are a match, then you could get away with that. Classical music tends to be soothing. Big Band music (highly recommended...) is exciting, robust, and a little zesty. All I'm saying here is search beyond the techno section at your CD store and find something unique. Gregorian Chant? Moroccan? Maybe subtle Japanese string instruments? Just no more techno stuff, please. And always include a credit list explaining what you did, shot by shot, or model by model, so that the reviewers don't immediately ask &quot;Did s/he do that all by her/himself? No way.. give them a call.&quot; And, this is particularly true of folks who work on large group projects like, say, a film effects job. Don't just lump every single shot from the film that your company worked on in the reel. When we review two reels that come from a company that worked on a show like this, we all immediately ask &quot;I wonder why those two folks put all the same shots on their reel and didn't include a credit list with their resume?&quot; Just avoid this situation entirely and put a credit list with your reel. And, above all else, more important than anything mentioned previously, do not ever, ever, ever show stuff that you are not allowed to show. If you are working on a film and it hasn't come out yet, NEVER NEVER NEVER put this on your reel. Besides the obvious legal debacle that you are bringing upon yourself, besides the high probability that you will get fired immediately, and besides the overall stupidity of this concept, you will never, never, never get hired. A few additional thoughts... Overall, be creative. Be original. And put something on your tape that makes me want to watch it. Draw me in. Compel me in some interesting way. Try and do something that hasn't been seen at Siggraph in the past few years. And have fun doing it. If you really want to make space ships fly, go ahead and make a better space battle than the one in A New Hope. But your odds of success against a mark set that high are, well, not very good in my humble opinion. You probably aren't a better director than Lucas and if you were that good executing effects sequences, you are probably already working in the industry anyway. I should point out that there are companies that do look for folks who can execute space ship battles copied from films and TV shows. If you are applying for a job in those sectors of the industry, then this email sort of doesn't apply to you because your job will be to make space ships fly through star fields. If that is the case, then disregard everything I've said. I should also point out that it can really help to tailor the work on your reel to the company that you want to work for. ILM, Disney, Digital Domain, PDI, BlueSky, Pixar, Rhythm&Hues, Sony, and others all do different kinds of work. If you want to work for one of those companies in particular, then it can help to submit a reel that deals with some of the issues that the various companies deal with. __________________________________________________ A DEMO REEL PRIMER Written by Zero Dean What is a demo reel for? A demo reel is essentially a sales tool. You are selling yourself and proving, to an extent, what sort of positive addition you will be to a company. If you can prove you've got oodles of talent and a creative way of thinking about things, your demo reel will get you noticed. If it is exceptionally good, it's your doorway into the industry. Who is your audience? Your audience, obviously, is comprised of those people you want to work for. The thing is, you're not alone. Many, many people want and have tried to get the same job you are applying for. These demo watchers have seen countless reels and guess what, they're tired of seeing the same things over and over again. If you think your 3 minute flying logo is going to win you a job, you better consider it very carefully before putting it on your reel. These people are not obligated to watch your entire reel. If they're dissatisfied, they will hit EJECT and move on, possibly missing your Oscar(tm) worthy animation later in the reel. What to put on a demo reel SECTION A (general): Only your best, most amazing work ever. This stuff has to be the best thing since pizza. If you can do it all (model, render, and animate), do it all! You'll earn points for this. Companies are looking for people who can wear many hats and accept many responsibilities. You need to capture their attention and show them you're more than up to the challenge of working in a creative (and crazy) environment like theirs. You want to not only show them you're up to it, you want to show them it'll be a breeze for you. What to put on a demo reel SECTION B (specific): You need to get as many strong points across to your audience visually, in as little time as possible. You need to capture their attention, draw them in, and make them forget for an instant that they are watching a demo reel. This can be quite difficult unless you a great deal of vision and a really good story to tell. Currently a lot of business are looking for excellent character animators. You need to bring an object to life, give it a voice, an attitude, &quot;CHARACTER&quot;, and have it tell a story. Be fresh, creative, and original (I can't stress that enough). Also, there is a demand for artists who are good at creating low polygon count models. If you have specific skills you want to show off and can, such as adding actual paintings you've created in the real world into a 3d environment, then do it. You are trying to earn as many points as possible. A well rounded artist is always appreciated. What not to put on a demo reel SECTION A: Probably whatever you are most likely to think about putting on your demo reel first, is the sort of thing you want to stay away from at all costs. You may think you're being original, but believe it or not, everyone else thinks their name or company logo looks cool flying around the screen too. How about spaceships? They're cool, to be sure...but if you're a demo watcher and that's all you see day in and day out, you're probably dying to see something else. Also, with whatever objects you include in your animation, make sure they are decorated (textured) in the best way possible. Most things in the real world are not shiny and new. Instead they are dented, beat up, scratched, or flawed in some unusual way. Prove your texturing skills by creating your own complex custom textures and make your models even more interesting to look at. Realize that your audience has seen just about every basic transition and effect out there. These are the things that are only one click away in whatever program you're using. You need to be different and your effects need to be hard won. If it can be done from a simple pull down menu, it's probably not doing to impress them. You need to stand out from the rest of the pack. What not to put on a demo reel SECTION B (exceptions): Of course there are exceptions to everything in the computer graphics and animation industry. If the job you are applying for is going to require specific skills, such as flying logos or spaceship battles, then by all means gear your demo reel in that direction. However, if you are going to be applying to a wide variety of jobs, it is best to have something that will appeal and look absolutely amazing to everyone. How do I create a good demo reel? Sit, plan, make-up, cross out, plan some more, think, cross out, make up, and then get to work. A good method is to think about what your strengths are and then think about the most effective and entertaining way possible to get those strengths across on screen. Then sit and think about every aspect of what you want to do and storyboard it out. Understand what every scene is going to involve, how long it's going to take, what sort of resources you'll need to accomplish it, and if everything you want to do is really possible. And if it's not possible, how you're going to look that obstacle in the eyes and say &quot;up yours, I'm doing it anyway&quot;. What does a good demo reel look like? Many companies have their own reels which you could probably arrange to get a hold of. Contact these places and see if they will send you one. If these are places you would like to work for, then pay close attention to the sort of things they do. Otherwise, I suggest checking out many cool animation tapes currently on the market. Look for &quot;The Mind's Eye&quot; series by SMV or &quot;Computer Animation Festival&quot; series also by SMV. Watch the tapes, be inspired, and then think about how you could have done it better...and then do something else, since what you're thinking about doing has already been done. Remember, be original. If you want to do something that's been done before, do it differently (if that makes sense). Things to remember! Put your best stuff first. You want to grab your audience's attention as soon as possible. Give credit where credit is due. If you didn't do something, say so. Also, specify the tools you used to create your demo reel. regards, Sandeep GoldenEyevfx