by David Jones

what constitute a good 3d Demo reel part 3

Hi! Everybody! It is a nice beautiful -15 Celsiuses day to begin the weeks! I didn’t have the times yesterday to came out with the last of my article about what constitute a good 3d demo reel so this is about the time to end with it today.

Today I said in the last post of the same title I will go trough my demo reel that you can still see in the previous post of this series or article or you could just go and see at this link:

http://the3dblogger.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-constitue-good-3d-demo-reel.html

So now that it is done lets begin! First As I said in a previous post you can see right away that Ive done a opening screen or you may call it a presentation screen. It is like an introduction paragraph in a essay or a opening credit when you watch a TV movie show. It kinda give the feel of what the viewer is gonna see. So it is a good way to start a demo as you have no choice to start somewhere as a matter of facts!!! :OP So in my case I put my three character that Ive modelled and texture in position and in interaction on the left side and on the right side I put the title which include my name and the description of the demo which is a demo reel….

So you might find it redundant and you particularly right! Back in time a tough it was cool to specified that it was a demo reel but now I realize what is the point to specified that it is a demo reel as you will surely give it to the employers with a letter or face to face already saying that you give them your demo reel. It like I was sending you a letter and on the envelop I specified you that it is a letter :OP Beside the peoples who will look at it knows enough their works that they will know right away that it is a demo reel. But anyways that is no big deal put it or not it is as you will. I’m just giving you food for tough here. Anyways if you put it do as the automobile industries. If your done your demo in 2008 then specified it as a 2009 demo reel. It is particularly true if you finish your animation class in December and go on the market in January. You don’t want your demo to look like or be identified as an old demo.

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Just down the demo reel title I put a big red button saying start as you can see. So what this is doing there… My demo reel is a quicktime movie with low compression so I was able to put it on YouTube. It is not a DVD with a menu where you can choose your options etc… Than it is no point to have put a big red start button here, but I didn’t know to much about DVD editing at the time and don’t know to much now to and I tough that I could make this button the play button… but this didn’t happen. I was in a hurry to finish it for the end of class. I think they are several software that can do that like Nero’s. You might want do search on that even tough I’m not to sure if you can implement your own visual and graphics. Anyways at your school you surely have class with teacher that know about it. Remember to not be afraid to ask them for help as they are there for you and paid to teach you.

Now let get on the real thing the meat of our demo. As you edit your demo you might not want to put anything in a messed up way. Remember in a previous post Ive talk about the soundtrack of your demo and how it could and should influence the pace of it and could tell what to put at which place? It is still true but there is more to take in consideration.

When I took my class and at the time of the editing of my demo, one of my teacher told me is theory about how to manage my arts in my demo. What to put at the beginning and what to put in the last etc… Basically he call his theory the ”sandwich effect”. I tend to agree with it so lets take a look a this funny theory. What he mean by sandwich effect is that considering that in a sandwich the bread is the structure of it. The bread it is what put everything together and prevent others condiment to fall apart normally… Then the bread is what it is the most important. I know you see me coming from far away now! :O)

At the beginning of showing your art you will want to put ,according to this theory, a bread slice! NO!!! just kidding, you will want to put one of your big pieces. You got to start big! Impress right away your viewer in the most of the case the employer. Never had a second chance to do a first impression they said. You may put your finest pieces but I will save it for the last place in your demo. Why that? Because just like in any movies and novel or roman or even song before the actual end of the media which is in fact the factual ending. It may be the credit screen at the end of the movie, the conclusion of a novel etc it have what it is call a climax. The climax is like the summit of a mountain, it is the higher point you can reach before starting to go down again. In a movie in example it is often in the last tiers of the movie when the hero get to reach is goal after an epic battle and then in the last scene you see the hero came back to home. Just watch ”the condemned” with Stone Cold Steve Austin!Now I know you understand me :O)

Concretely it mean like in the movies you got a generic of opening than you put maybe your second best piece to start strong, than you go with the condiment, some minor work or work that you like but not as strong in showing your abilities, than one condiment more strong build up until you end up with your final piece which is the cherry on the top of the sundae! Than you put your credit screen with thanks to family and teacher who help you and most important your name and how to reach to you.

Lets take a look to my own private demo reel. First my opening screen, the introduction, than Ive started with a motorcycle which I was very proud of at this time. Than I put other pieces that I liked and mostly the only things that I have with enough potential to be put in a demo. And then I finish with a big character space-marine-like which I was very very very proud of it at this time as I obtain the admiration of my colleague student. Finally I finish with a credit screen with my name again and my email and phone number (which one is not the same anymore!). I will not recommend you to put your phone number on it if you plan to expose your demo to the world via YouTube in example, but if you only plan to show it to employers that’s not bad even tough they will have it in your resume.

OK now that you know how to put your art pieces in your demo and that you know how long to put each thing considering the timing and the beat of the song you use, maybe you are asking your self is there something that employers what to see and something that they not want to see? Well I will talk about it in a next post tomorrow. Id taught that I could be able to finish this series of article about demo reel in this post but in doing it I figured a lot of thing to talk about :OP So stay tune for the tomorrow article in which I will talk about what employers want to see or not and how to finally present your demo reel to the employer in term of media and the course of action to do it!

Sam The 3d Blogger
www.the3dblogger.blogspot.com

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