Here goes my new demo reel showing some projects I had a pleasure to work on in the span of the last few years. I shifted focus from compositing to more 3D/VFX work compared to the last reel from 2008. There are also more of the interesting shots left behind this time, but I do believe in brevity when it comes to presentations.
3D/VFX show reel 2013 from Denis Kozlov on Vimeo.
A breakdown following:
Showreels retrospective - part 3
Today I'm finishing my little restrospective of showreels. This one from 2008 differs from the older ones in a way that it shows for the first time what I've learned about putting a demoreel together by then. I believe it was even included with one of a Computer Arts magazine's issues.
Demoreel retrospective part 3 of 3 - 2008 from Denis Kozlov on Vimeo.
Compared to the previous one, it is shorter, better structured and unified, with contact data (not valid by now except for email) clearly stated at both ends. Sure thing it helped a lot to have a couple of feature films I had worked on premiered, so I could eventually include those shots. But interestingly enough, those shots already existed when working on 2007 reel – overall, skillwise I was a lot the same person. Still it is hard not to spot the difference (a big one being that I am still not ashamed of this video).
If curious, you can find details about the particular shots in the breakdown.
Music: Jeff Beck - Grease Monkey
That's it – next week the plan is to finally release a new 2013 demoreel – the current one.
Demoreel retrospective part 3 of 3 - 2008 from Denis Kozlov on Vimeo.
Compared to the previous one, it is shorter, better structured and unified, with contact data (not valid by now except for email) clearly stated at both ends. Sure thing it helped a lot to have a couple of feature films I had worked on premiered, so I could eventually include those shots. But interestingly enough, those shots already existed when working on 2007 reel – overall, skillwise I was a lot the same person. Still it is hard not to spot the difference (a big one being that I am still not ashamed of this video).
If curious, you can find details about the particular shots in the breakdown.
Music: Jeff Beck - Grease Monkey
That's it – next week the plan is to finally release a new 2013 demoreel – the current one.
Showreels retrospective - parts 1 & 2
So in order to illustrate some concepts from the previous post on showreel tips (and maybe to feel some nostalgic embarrassment either) I am starting a demonstration of my old demoreels here. The first one dates back to 2004 and represents mostly the television work:
Demoreel retrospective part 1 of 3 - 2004 from Denis Kozlov on Vimeo.
Not that much to discuss probably except for it's old and very funny. But even though I didn't have that many cool shots to pick from, there are things which could have been improved here. And they all come down to “killing the babies” as was stressed in a previous post.
The biggest flaw is in the beginning – the first part showing shots from the intro for Rust – the game I've been working on for a couple of years at the time with my friend and a genius programmer Vadim Zabrodin. Rust really felt like a baby to me, and despite the fact that the whole intro was a quickie, assembled in only a week from a budget game-level assets, I did put it in the very beginning and failed to cut it down enough – a rookie mistake:)
And then I should have cut down the rest... Guess it could've turned into almost twice better looking 30sec.
Interesting thing here is character animation. True, I didn't completely realize back then how funny those shots look, still even if I would have, chances are I would have kept them. And it’s something I saw even studios are doing – putting character animation shots in, no matter the quality, just to have it there. This is something my whole essence is screaming against, BUT...
But recalling the job interview I had had showing this 2004 “masterpiece”, the art director of my future employer specifically asked if I did the animation myself and she seemed to be satisfied with the positive answer... So on the other hand, there might be something about throwing some character animation in no matter what – I don't know; still by default I’d avoid any dubious work even if it represents a certain niche. It’s not an easy job for an author to abstract from his work and take a look from the side. Whenever possible, group reviewing sessions are of the greatest value for the matter.
No breakdown for this video, but I held credit for most of the visual material (usually including direction). And of course contacts should have been at both ends and more pronounced. Both were less of an issue in this particular case since I was usually presenting the reel personally, but it wouldn’t have hurt.
One thing cool about this piece, however, was the music. A piece of traditional Altai guttural singing lent by my producer Oleg Zakharov, who used to be working on the album at that time.
So let’s use this positive note to switch to the next item in our little Kunstkamera:
Demoreel retrospective part 2 of 3 - 2007 from Denis Kozlov on Vimeo.
Hard to deny the progress here, still as a reel it quite sucks.
The years between these two guys were the time of extensive learning due to relocation and indulging into the new working environment, so I felt I’d eventually had the material to show and did exactly the same mistake - didn’t manage to cut it down. Even worse - made a suicidal attempt to put everything together: game art, drawings - even the logotypes. All for the same old reason - a misconception of “short showreels are bad”.
At least I should have grouped the material into logical chunks like modelling and compositing for instance. Plus I tied myself down by the choice of music. Song 2 by Blur is exactly two minutes long and after planning for some parts of it, I had to fill the rest... Something close to the mistake of trying to tell a story with your demoreel. Just don’t. For stories there are films.
And here we have another “However” - the plan was to sort the mess out by introducing a smart navigation. Yes - those weird little squares in the top bottom corner actually mean something. The key is in the first shot - the intro contact plate. Moreover - the few frames of blinking text in the end is a breakdown! The plan was to avoid a separate breakdown file which can easily get detached from the video, while at the same time not overloading viewer with excessive data. In my imagination, people would notice those little marks of weirdness around the spot and find the answer through little inspection and frame-by-frame watching - that was the plan. Well, clearly it failed. Even myself after few years hardly managed to notice those magic breadcrumbs and recall their sacred meanings. The bottom line - no one is going to watch your reel over and over again, so make sure every statement is loud and clear.
Good thing here was that after compiling this 2007 demo reel, I did start asking people their opinions and impressions, which resulted in the following 2008 compilation notably improved upon its predecessors.
Thus next time we’re going to finish the retrospective and hopefully start seeing a little difference :)
Hope this will save someone an error or two. Let me know.
And I guess there is no need to mention that none of the contacts from these old show reels are active anymore, except for maybe the email in the second one...
Demoreel retrospective part 1 of 3 - 2004 from Denis Kozlov on Vimeo.
Not that much to discuss probably except for it's old and very funny. But even though I didn't have that many cool shots to pick from, there are things which could have been improved here. And they all come down to “killing the babies” as was stressed in a previous post.
The biggest flaw is in the beginning – the first part showing shots from the intro for Rust – the game I've been working on for a couple of years at the time with my friend and a genius programmer Vadim Zabrodin. Rust really felt like a baby to me, and despite the fact that the whole intro was a quickie, assembled in only a week from a budget game-level assets, I did put it in the very beginning and failed to cut it down enough – a rookie mistake:)
And then I should have cut down the rest... Guess it could've turned into almost twice better looking 30sec.
Interesting thing here is character animation. True, I didn't completely realize back then how funny those shots look, still even if I would have, chances are I would have kept them. And it’s something I saw even studios are doing – putting character animation shots in, no matter the quality, just to have it there. This is something my whole essence is screaming against, BUT...
But recalling the job interview I had had showing this 2004 “masterpiece”, the art director of my future employer specifically asked if I did the animation myself and she seemed to be satisfied with the positive answer... So on the other hand, there might be something about throwing some character animation in no matter what – I don't know; still by default I’d avoid any dubious work even if it represents a certain niche. It’s not an easy job for an author to abstract from his work and take a look from the side. Whenever possible, group reviewing sessions are of the greatest value for the matter.
No breakdown for this video, but I held credit for most of the visual material (usually including direction). And of course contacts should have been at both ends and more pronounced. Both were less of an issue in this particular case since I was usually presenting the reel personally, but it wouldn’t have hurt.
One thing cool about this piece, however, was the music. A piece of traditional Altai guttural singing lent by my producer Oleg Zakharov, who used to be working on the album at that time.
So let’s use this positive note to switch to the next item in our little Kunstkamera:
Demoreel retrospective part 2 of 3 - 2007 from Denis Kozlov on Vimeo.
Hard to deny the progress here, still as a reel it quite sucks.
The years between these two guys were the time of extensive learning due to relocation and indulging into the new working environment, so I felt I’d eventually had the material to show and did exactly the same mistake - didn’t manage to cut it down. Even worse - made a suicidal attempt to put everything together: game art, drawings - even the logotypes. All for the same old reason - a misconception of “short showreels are bad”.
At least I should have grouped the material into logical chunks like modelling and compositing for instance. Plus I tied myself down by the choice of music. Song 2 by Blur is exactly two minutes long and after planning for some parts of it, I had to fill the rest... Something close to the mistake of trying to tell a story with your demoreel. Just don’t. For stories there are films.
And here we have another “However” - the plan was to sort the mess out by introducing a smart navigation. Yes - those weird little squares in the top bottom corner actually mean something. The key is in the first shot - the intro contact plate. Moreover - the few frames of blinking text in the end is a breakdown! The plan was to avoid a separate breakdown file which can easily get detached from the video, while at the same time not overloading viewer with excessive data. In my imagination, people would notice those little marks of weirdness around the spot and find the answer through little inspection and frame-by-frame watching - that was the plan. Well, clearly it failed. Even myself after few years hardly managed to notice those magic breadcrumbs and recall their sacred meanings. The bottom line - no one is going to watch your reel over and over again, so make sure every statement is loud and clear.
Good thing here was that after compiling this 2007 demo reel, I did start asking people their opinions and impressions, which resulted in the following 2008 compilation notably improved upon its predecessors.
Thus next time we’re going to finish the retrospective and hopefully start seeing a little difference :)
Hope this will save someone an error or two. Let me know.
And I guess there is no need to mention that none of the contacts from these old show reels are active anymore, except for maybe the email in the second one...
Tips for a better showreel
 |
| 3D/VFX Showreel 2013 is coming |
I noticed different people have preference for either a word “demoreel” or “showreel”. In general, those seem to be interchangeable with more flavor of a finished work being showcased as implied by “showreel”, and “demoreel” stressing rather a demonstration of certain skills or techniques as discussed here. But if you’re struggling to pick a particular word - don’t struggle, do pick - any.
And follow the main rule:
Keep it short. Really. Looking at the big houses' reels I used to feel bad showing less than 3 (at the very least 2) minutes of material. Well, these days I'd say 2 minutes is the absolute maximum for a demoreel. I remember reading that it's the worst shot in the reel you're going to be judged for, and I believe it to be true. So the longer the video – the lower you'll have to put this worst shot threshold. And when it's even the greatest and coolest stuff you're watching for too long you're starting to get tired of it, and great shots do not look so great compared to too many other great shots – pieces of work start competing with each other. The idea of a 3D or VFX showreel as I see it – is to tease, to intrigue, to make an impression. It's not even the first date – it's asking out. Let those people interested ask you for additional examples if they'd need it, but to make it happen – impress first.
In 90% of the cases I saw (way more often than I would've guessed) there was a need for the reel to sell more than there actually is (like when your skills are higher than the shots on your hands), so I tend to consider it a normal situation unless you're an ILM or something. But the cool and funny part of it is that it’s perfectly doable usually. Through edit, music and ...keeping it short. The professional slang expression I've heard for this is “killing your babies” - cutting out the material which you really love for the sake of improving the final result as a whole. It is hard, but it is a skill to acquire and it works. And one way to get there is to keep showing your demoreel to other people and LISTENING to their feedback. If more than one person had the same remark independently – chances are it's more correct than what you think.
Best work first! Good if it's your latest work as well, if not – ignore the latest rule – go with the best. I'm trying to stress the last shot as well, but without sacrificing this rule. What's the sense in postponing the cool stuff, if the viewer will never see it only because she'd turn off your reel since the beginning was not exciting enough?
For the music, I believe in fast, dynamic tracks rather than slow, lyrical and artsy. It helps to involve the audience imho. Fast rhythm also gives more flexibility for cutting. The main thing is not to irritate the viewer though, thus instrumental tracks should be preferred and genre extremes with clichés avoided. Editing the reel is a perfect time to ignore your musical preferences and rather think of what works best with the visual. I found it helpful choosing the music first, otherwise trying to cut at the modular lengths helps picking the sound later. It's also interesting how often it is stated that music is irrelevant for a CG artist's reel since everyone is watching it mute anyway, and at the same time when I tried showing a mute reel to people, the most frequent comment was: “But where is the music?”
Don’t try to tell the story - it usually doesn’t work. If it does - great, but do not let this false goal to limit you and put good work aside. Rather focus on smoother flow between the cuts - visual unity of some sort for neighbouring shots like grouping by technique or color.
And of course the contact data – both at the beginning and the end. Personally, I also like making the reel loopable, although perfectly aware that no one is going to play it on and on except for myself:)
Hope that helps someone and please share any thoughts or useful links you have on the subject.
Here are few from my older researches:
UPDATE: VFXTALK.com looks rather hacked than functioning at the moment, so I adjusted 2 URLs below to preserve them in case it will resurrect, but to make them inactive at least - use at your own risk.
Some forum threads on the matter:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=31676&highlight=salary
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=2948003&postcount=149
VFXTALK/threads/9014-Top-10-things-to-never-put-on-your-Reel
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=452666&highlight=things+demo+reel
And a couple of galleries to start
http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?s=9bbe27ddb22bc1fffef191d55c1f8949&f=154
VFXTALK/forums/146-Demo-Reels!
Next week I plan to start the aforementioned retrospective of demoreels which served me in the past.
Introduction to the Visual Effects industry
Almost every time I answer “Visual Effects” to a “What do you do for living?” kind of question, I rush to add: “It's much less cool than it sounds”. Indeed, there is a strong halo of magical appeal around it paired by a lack of understanding the techniques and processes involved. People think of what is commonly shortened to VFX as some kind of a black box, so myths like secret tools, one-button solutions and sensational incomes are born even among artists working in the neighboring fields (like I used to be myself).
At the same time most of the techniques, procedures and mysteries are already unveiled and publicly available. The only thing required is to find a proper reading, which I am daring to suggest here. In two flavors:
First one would be the closest thing there is to a Bible for VFX – The VES Handbook of Visual Effects, published by the Visual Effects Society just a few years back. Contributed to by a plethora of renowned practitioners, it covers all stages, processes and techniques from preproduction to fur rendering in a systematized manner. It is a kind of VFX version of American Cinematographer Manual, if that helps. Of course, the Handbook is not application-specific and does not get down in details to particular buttons and software tutorials (it's only nine hundred pages after all). Still it tells you pretty much everything there is in the field. Amazing. A long time needed must-have for everyone dealing with creating or manipulating moving images. Get it.
This was about how things are done. As for the second flavor of information, I suggest reading White Paper - July 2013 - The State of the Global VFX Industry 2013. This document, issued by the same society, is a follow-up on the VFX Town Hall on Pi Day. It addresses the problems (not technical or artistic, but rather business and careers) the visual effects industry is facing right now. Things are quite opposite to the glamour idealistic pictures a lot of us would have in mind when picking a career path. I know it's a bit of a “yesterday's news”, still believe this information should be spread as wide as possible.
And my last (but surely not least) suggested reading would be the Effects Corner – a blog by visual effects veteran Scott Squires, where he is covering both topics listed above (he actually contributed to both aforementioned publications as well). A great place to start, especially if you don't have access to the Handbook right now (for this particular purpose it’s worth reading the Effects Corner chronologically).
Have a nice reading and good luck to all of us.
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