WIP Animation Showreel - Owen Robertson

[robertsonowen]

Hi all,

I went down to London on Thursday to attend the "Games for Grads" show and quickly cut together a quick showreel to try to show there, unfortunatley I never actually managed to show anyone :(
I think it was a combination of me being a bit nervous talking to some of the industry guys and gals, some of which didn't have a way for me to show them my work and also my stupidity of only taking it in one format (divx) on a flash pen!
Ah well, suppose you have to learn somehow :P

Anyways, it was still a good experience although there was little catering for the animation side of things (I think most of the animators are too busy to attend ;))

Well here's my rough "work in progress" reel,
Still have a few weeks left before I finish university, so there's more pieces to add yet, some acting scenes and hopefully some more interesting body mechanics shots (want to try to do some sort of weight test or even some game combat moves/sequences) and then I just need to add as many layers of polish as I can ^^


Youtube Link : WIP Animation Showreel 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtItNoiYpuk)


I would love to hear any feedback/criticism, even if its just about the order of the clips or presentation.

Thanks v.much in advance

Owen

Oh and as a final note, if you have the opportunity to attend an event such as "Games for Grads" or anything similar, don't do what I did. Come prepared.
Make sure you have your showreel in a few various formats (Divx, Quicktime, WMP) and burn them to CD's so you can let people take them away, even burn it to a DVD (as a movie that can be played in any player) if you can.

Hope this helps someone ^^

[MonteCristo]

Actually, I was really not expecting much when I looked at this, but was rather impressed. I like the first two animations, these are good, although the first loses something during the transition to one knee -- as if the illusion slips slightly and it feels a little more rigid, whereas there was a good feeling of realism up until that point.

The cat walk is also very nice, the bit where it looks around needs a bit of revision, as it feels a little bit hurried, and again too rigid when compared with the really good, slinking walk you've given it.

The little boy walking animation feels more like early work to me. Lose this from the showreel -- it will cost you a job interview. Anyone seeing this one in this state, would probably move on to the next showreel. Same goes for the run animation (though to a lesser extent, as this could be given a bit more weight and improved to come inline with the other stuff).

Ok, there's my 2 cents. :)

Good luck.

[DJdude]

i really like the first one

[robertsonowen]

Hey guys,

Thanks very much for the feedback, it's much appreciated ^^

@ MonteCristo
Thanks v.much ^^
Im having trouble with the 'drop to knee' part, I think it's because he moves his back foot while it appears to still have some weight on it.
I'm quite suprised at what you think of the cat and the walk cycle because I actually animated the cat in my first year of uni, whereas the walk was animated this year... (lol, mabye I've gotten worse at animating over the years!) but I totally agree with the walk cycle, it lacks something quite major.... Character!
At the time, I thought it would be a good idea to try to animate a plain/vanilla walk cycle to show that I have a decent understanding of the body mechanics in a walk, but looking at that in retrospect I've realised how bad an idea that was, character is more important than mechanics.

Again, thanks for taking the time to crit my work.

Oh and could I possibly ask why you say "I was really not expecting much when I looked at this", just wondering if it's because of the way I appear on the forums or even if it's just cause i'm a student! ;P

@ DJdude:
Thanks, that seems to be most people's favourate shot.

[MonteCristo]

Hey guys,

Thanks very much for the feedback, it's much appreciated ^^

@ MonteCristo
Thanks v.much ^^
Im having trouble with the 'drop to knee' part, I think it's because he moves his back foot while it appears to still have some weight on it.
I'm quite suprised at what you think of the cat and the walk cycle because I actually animated the cat in my first year of uni, whereas the walk was animated this year... (lol, mabye I've gotten worse at animating over the years!) but I totally agree with the walk cycle, it lacks something quite major.... Character!
At the time, I thought it would be a good idea to try to animate a plain/vanilla walk cycle to show that I have a decent understanding of the body mechanics in a walk, but looking at that in retrospect I've realised how bad an idea that was, character is more important than mechanics.

Again, thanks for taking the time to crit my work.

Oh and could I possibly ask why you say "I was really not expecting much when I looked at this", just wondering if it's because of the way I appear on the forums or even if it's just cause i'm a student! ;P

@ DJdude:
Thanks, that seems to be most people's favourate shot.

Not meaning to sound like a jerk, but because you are a student. For the most part it takes a while after Uni before a lot of students come into their own. So I think your work is actually very promising. You'll get work no problems I reckon.

[caddycad1976]

There's some nice stuff on your reel- I think I'm in agreement with the other posters about the strength of the opening sequence, which is enhanced by the handheld camera feel. There is something a little odd about the drop to the knee. I like the cat stuff too, partly because I'm impressed by how you've modified a Character studio biped into working pretty well as a quadruped! I've worked on a few quadrupeds previously at a few different studios where adapting a biped's been utilised to certain degree but no-one's been entirely satisfied with it so other solutions were eventually found, possibly the best (but by no means perfect) being CAT rigs. I don't mind the run, though from the quick-ish look I had at it it looks much better in the front & 3/4 views & could do with a bit more weight maybe.

I think maybe we've been pleasantly surprised by your reel because your message at the start of the thread does paint a picture of a disorganised so-&-so! Don't worry though, get your reel on to dvd & off to relevant studios & see how it goes. I know how it feels as an unprepared nervous recent graduate (or still at college) wandering round trade shows- I had one or two pretty awful job interviews at pretty dis-interested companies before starting to get anywhere! I've also took samples of work on a format they couldn't view before as well- thankfully that was all a long time ago!

[robertsonowen]

Hey again ^^

@ MonteCristo

Hehe, I didn't think you were being a jerk ;P I was just wondering if it was because of the lack of finished work that I have posted on here over the last few years :P

@ Caddycad

Thanks for your critique, I'll try adding more weight to the run and sort the 'drop to knee' out as well.
Unfortunatley, I am a bit of a "disorganised so-&-so!" I suppose it's a really bad habbit that I need to break out of.... and soon! I Just hope I can beat it before it bites me in the a**!


Owen