#17 Animation - Creating your Animation Demoreel

zord189 (72)in #art • 7 years ago (edited)

The fear of whether you're doing it right or wrong. The feeling that you're headed towards a rejection of the job, especially your dream job. Throughout my animation career as a 3D Generalist and a 3D Character Animator, I've come across several lecturers and mentors explaining what an ideal demoreel should be. I've also heard from several hiring parties and they've told me how the screening or the shortlisting of demoreels go about. This may not apply to all companies, but most of them have something in common, when the demoreel doesn't appeal do them or isn't up to par with the standards they want, they will immediately drop it in the rejection box.

And there you are waiting patiently day after day if they would actually email you a job interview. If you're in luck, the company would actually notify you that your demoreel has been viewed but rejected. So I've created a list of 5 tips you can do to help you better your chances at landing that dream job of yours.

Note : It also depends how good of a portfolio you have. The projects you've worked on.

5 Tips to a better Demoreel

1. Do not show clips that aren't yours.

You have to be very honest in your demoreel because the hiring studio would trust that you can deliver the EXACT quality that they've seen on your demoreel. If not the EXACT quality, at least they can gauge your standard of animation through the clips. In the event where you have several artists working on the clip, you can put a note down below the clip stating which part was done by you. Failure to do so would lead the HR to think that you've done everything by yourself.

Imagine if they've hired you based on your demoreel which you so happen to 'plagiarize' an animation clip that you didn't do. They would give you shots which they 'think' you can handle, but instead you can't deliver. This is not only bad for the studio, but detrimental to your career as the animation community is fairly small. In Malaysia, you'll probably see the same few faces over and over again throughout your career.

So, be very clear to state your portfolio.

2. The Jack of All Trades

I know that you may have plenty of clips to show and sometimes you do not know what's best to be added into your demoreel. Hence, compiling everything you've done throughout the years, from modeling, animation, rigging etc etc... Unless stated by the job application that the company is hiring someone with multiple skillsets such as a 3D generalist, you should not dump everything into your demoreel.

Be as specific as possible to the job role you are applying for. If you are applying for big companies where the skillsets are very very specific, compile only the ones that relate to it. For example, If the company is looking for Character Animators, compile clips on ONLY Character Animation. Your walk cycles, dialogue scenes and action scenes should be the only ones inside the demoreel. Not some random clip of you modeling a car just cause the car is cool.

3. Keep It Short

As an addition to the previous tip, do not make a short film for the director of the studio to watch. These people are often very busy with their daily schedule with only enough time to shortlist a few demoreels. That being said, they may have to filter through 100 demoreels very quickly to find the best out of the 100 in very little time.

You have to get to the point right away. A 40 seconds to 1 minute demoreel is suffice for the director to call you in for an interview.

OH NO! What can I do with a 1 minute demoreel!?!?

Well, always put your Best Work First. Remember the saying,"Best Things often come last"? Well, you'll probably end up being the last to ever receiving a job. You only have 1 minute to show the directors what you are capable of, so put your best animation clips first and leave them wanting more. ;)

Most of the time, when the directors get bored within the first 10 seconds of your demoreel, they'll probably switch to another.

4. No Fancy-Shmancy

Haha, yesh, the tip title is already pretty fancy. Probably caught your attention and wondering WTH is Shmancy. That's the whole point of this next tip!

DO NOT include music, effects, title swiping in and out that will distract the directors from actually paying attention to your demoreel. We want the director not getting a spasm after watching the 1 minute reel of light leaks and flares. If you've decided to add a upbeat music just so that you can link the various clips together, you can. But you have to be very careful not to boost the ~db till it becomes distracting.

Some may say to NOT add any music because the best reels are the RAW ones where the dialogues can be heard properly. Well, some of the best clips I've seen have music in their demoreel and it is very well added. It will either give you the advantage or destroy your reel.

5. Remember These Things

Remember to always check what is required in your demoreel. Some companies have certain specific criteria or format that they want you to follow. Failure to do so would probably end up bouncing back your demoreel. It will waste a lot of your time.

Make sure that you have your name properly written on the DVD/pendrive along with your HP no and email. When things get messy reviewing all the demoreel, you'll never know what might happen.

Give the studio sometime to get back to you, while waiting, do not constantly pester them on getting a reply. Some studios may take days, some weeks and some even get back to you after a few months. All in all, do not wait for that one studio. I encourage you to blast out your demoreels throughout various studios that you like.

Lastly, I hope that these simple tips would help you land that dream job. If you've failed and your demoreel gets rejected several times, do not worry. We've all gone through the same. All we need to do is continue refining those skillsets of yours and create a much better demoreel.

GIFs taken from www.giphy.com