realistic time duration to make a show reel

[dhasian]

i just starting to building up my show reel,so i wanna ask you guys how long the realistic time to make a good show reel that could land you a job ?
i want to know this so i can make some deadline for my porftfolio.animations will not be on my portfolio cause i know it will seriously take a whole lot more time.

im setting my deadline 6 months from now ? is it possible ?

sorry for my bad english-thank you-

[Nupsi]

Hey again, dhasian

I would say it depends on what you are going to show in your reel. If it´s interesting, or even breathtaking, the showreel sure can run up to a few minutes (3-5). But if you´re going to show the same model or scene over and over just from different angles it´s getting boring quite fast. I think a short but interesting showreel is much more effective than a long but cheesy one.

[dhasian]

yeah but what im really want to know is how much time do i have to make a good portfolio ? is 6 months enough ?

[Vozzza]

Err... depends how good you are and how much time you spend procarscinating. I reckon 2 weeks should be tops. And then see the response, get some feedback and make another one.

Otherwise you might spend a whole lot of time making something all wrong.

[Crispy4004]

You have 10 seconds to sell yourself, 30 seconds to keep their intrest before loosing them, and a 1 minute to 1:30 before they pull the plug regardless. If your reel is something incredibly special, 2 minutes tops. Make sure to have no fancy introductions, just get right down to business.

Think about your browsing habits watching reels on youtube. I for one hardly ever finish a reel, especially if I feel it's not up to par with my own work. Now take that and imagine you have been doing nothing but watching reels for 8 hours straight.

Another big mistake I have seen a lot recently is showing off bad workflows. The biggest offenders are the lighting and compositing reels, which I have stomached through to find the best way to create my own. Nothing screams "I don't really know what I'm doing" like improper pass addition, lack of an indirect light source, lack of tone mapping, and ugly post effects to try and mask the downfalls. But 98% percent of examples you find on the web do exactly that. I can't complain though, all the miss-information out there will only make my eventual reel that much stronger.

Find that one thing that everybody seems to do wrong and do it right.

[dhasian]

thanks for the strong input, guys !
will study others reel and see what make its bad or good.

[McKronic]

I spent 6 months on my first reel that landed me a job. The thing with CG is no project is ever 100% finished and you can always find something to tweak. So I would say set your deadline and do what ever it takes to hit that deadline. Also keep in mind that if a commercial can sell a product in 30 seconds then you should be able to sell yourself in 30 seconds, short and sweet is always the best way to go. Hope this helps.

[dhasian]

thanks Mckronic, it does help.6 months sound good.
can i see the portfolio that you talking about ? just curious
tried the link but it doesnt work anymore.

[McKronic]

Originally Posted by dhasian

thanks Mckronic, it does help.6 months sound good.
can i see the portfolio that you talking about ? just curious
tried the link but it doesnt work anymore.

ahh yah I neglected to pay for my website so it's shut down temporarily. Here's a link to my old/new demo on youtube and my portfolio on deviantart:

old - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74GqPv7I-uA
new- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QaxYcy6VBI
portfolio - http://mckronic.deviantart.com/

[dhasian]

great animation,Mckronic.you sure did a lot of work in 6 months.

[McKronic]

haha yah there were a lot of sleepless nights

[poopipe]

13 years and I'm still nowhere near finishing

[dhasian]

Originally Posted by poopipe

13 years and I'm still nowhere near finishing

: with skill like that do you still need demo reel ?

[McGreed]

I was thinking about making a new reel, as the one I have is pretty much crap and not really applying for the area I want to work in, but I was wondering about what to make and from what. I'm not really that great with drawn concept art, and would rather create something from someone elses work, but I kinda feel like that might be sort of 'cheating' or something. Is that stupid or correct or just something commonplace to do?

And in those cases I don't talk about 'normal' elements, such as creating a truck from real life, but more sci. fi./fantasy elements. What do you think?

[dhasian]

any suggestions guys ?