Demo Reel Advice For VFX CG Animation Students

Is my demo reel is satisfactory for this studio?

Every CG or VFX artists face this type of question in their career span.

If you are looking for your first job in animation, visual effects or computer graphics then creating an excellent demo reel to show studios is crucial.

Your demo reel should offer something unique, entertaining and engaging.

Let us discuss about the crucial points which VFX-CG-Animation Students should keep in mind before preparing the Demo Reel.

Creating a Demo Reel which will showcase your talent and will make you stand out from the crowd in the competitive market is something to be focussed.

After discussing with several VFX CG Animation supervisors and artists of reputed Production Companies we gathered several important factors necessary for Demo Reel.

VFX CG Animation students should follow the guidelines before designing the demo reel.

Tips To Make Your Demo Reel Stand Out

The Demo Reel should be interesting.

Opening the reel with a great acting shot and another will grab everyone’s attention.

A mid close-up shot sells emotion well; let the feelings of the characters convey to the audience that will make the audience hooked to the demo reel.

Editing is the key part here; proper selection and arrangement of shots will add wow factor to your demo reel.

The reel can do tricks with the viewer.

Entertain your viewer with unique visuals by thinking out of the box; read the job description carefully to find out the need of the studio.

Recruiters prefer a tight and short demo reel; give you maximum effort to make the three minute reel interesting.

Don’t be insecure about the length of the demo reel as every frame counts; even ten seconds of amazing animation can beat one minute of ordinary animation.

In fact a demo reel of one or two shot with duration 30 second can also win heart.

Demo reel should be short, simple and interesting.

Be attentive on your skills and strengths.

Most of the time we want to add too much rather than focussing on the simple element; lack of focus can hamper the demo reel.

If you have the talent to draw, paint or sculpt include that in your reel.

If you are an animator create a unique character; don’t copy the popular character and do walk cycle turn-tables.

30-45 seconds of animation is enough in a demo reel as the recruiters is reviewing 30 more demo reel.

Make the dialogues interesting to tell the story; don’t show violence

The emotion in the dialogue sells the product; animating only the eyes and eyebrows of a character can sell the shot.

Just a slight movement of eyebrow can change the whole facial expressions.

Never put a shot in your demo reel until and unless you are 100% satisfied.

The Animator who will review your demo reel will wonder about your judgement of quality; bad selection of shots will lead your reel into the bin.

If you are a modeller then showcase your understanding of surface texture and lighting.

Don’t use rave music as most recruiters turns off the volume at the time of viewing the reel and listens only for lip sync on an animation reel.

VFX CG or Animation students should impress the recruiters with the pictures not with music.

Show your ability to learn new software.

If you are a VFX artist then concentrate on digital matte painting, particle simulation or meshing.

Get your hands in high definition footage, put incredible complex elements into demo reel to show the reviewer that you understand the concept of key, fill and bounce lighting, shadows, depth of field, colour.

VFX Compositors should know Nuke very well.

Working in the VFX field need professionalism; VFX is challenging and fun so respecting yourself and co-workers in the key part.

Be professional and respect your recruiters’ time.

While submitting a demo reel student should remember to add a cover letter, a shot breakdown and reel outline along with resume.

Mention about the software and operating systems used in the making of demo reel.

In your demo reel don’t mention about the software which you have used only one time.

Labelling should be done clearly and the delivered media should play easily.

Don’t forget to keep an online backup link of your demo reel.

Demo reel material should support the type of job.

Your material selected for the demo reel should well match with the companies requirements.

If you have interest to do high resolution creature work for movies then create some complex ZBrush material with rigged and mesh models.

Create your demo reel up to the standard of your dream job.

Good attitude is also important as the reel.

Impress your recruiters by your imagination and hard work.

If you fail to get the job don’t get discouraged, get the feedback and apply gain.

Reel must deliver your calibre to work within a complex pipeline.

Your reel must show how efficient you are to work within the collaboration.

Be open to work for partnership in schools, advertising, new media, industrial design and sculpture.

Working in collaboration will help you to develop your skills, patience and understanding.

Cross-training is important now days in the field of digital art.

Digital artists can gather experience while working with traditional animation team.

Modeler should study anatomy of human and animals to get the detail knowledge about figures; Modelers must understand concept of the work.

These day studios expect your reel through a link such as Vimeo or You Tube.

When the demo reel is ready to be seen it is necessary to decide upon your video sharing platform.

Vimeo is the industry standard.

Remember students Demo Reel with unique contents always get attention and easier to remember.

VFX-CG-Animation Students must keep in mind that Demo Reel is their gallery; it will explain who you are.

Therefore if you an aspiring student of VFX-CG or Animation then keep in mind the above mentioned points.

Contact us to so that our mentors can guide you at every step.

DIGITAL MAKEUP IN THE MUMMY: MAKING THE UNREAL REAL

If you ask the next person you meet on the street about what they want, chances are they’ll have something or the other to tell you about… meaning they want more. Better. These ideas of ‘more’ and ‘better’ – of enhancement – are what keep us as a race moving forward and developing. This holds true of every field – including one that is often overlooked by us when we watch those big, effects-intensive blockbuster films: makeup.

While going gaga over spectacular cinematography, VFX or animation, we often forget to realise the effort that goes into making the actors fit the look that is demanded by their role.

As actor Andy Serkis said, actors’ performances in films are enhanced in a million different ways, down to the choice of camera shot by the director – whether it’s in slow motion or whether it’s quick cut – or… the choice of music behind the close-up or the costume that you’re wearing or the makeup.

Makeup defines the final look of a character, and doesn’t merely include the face and cosmetics – outfits and character design also play a major role.

Like many other aspects of filmmaking, makeup too has gone the digital route and much is being done through computer-generated imagery and visual effects.

People don’t generally associate makeup with cutting-edge disciplines, but with technology expanding the way it is, the truth is quite far from this perception.

The breakthrough as far as digital makeup is concerned came in 1999, with the release of The Mummy.

If you go by the dictionary definition, digital makeup is a compositing technique by which the appearance of actors are changed onscreen.

The reality of the situation is more complex, because of the myriad techniques that go into capturing information and creating the virtual prosthetics for the final compositing.

While traditional makeup prepares actors for photography (or, in the case of stage performers, live performances), preparations for digital makeup typically involve the application of reflective tracking dots onto the actor so that motion information recorded can be used for tracking and placing the digital prosthetics and effects on the actor during compositing.

For a project as ambitious as Universal Studios’ The Mummy, the visual effects were supervised by John Berton of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). The first step in any kind of effect for film is to decide on the look and feel of the character(s).

For the titular mummy, Imhotep, this process took around three months to complete, as the team had to not only design the character, but plan out how the designs would be implemented.

Twenty years ago, computers weren’t as advanced as they are today, so every last detail had to be meticulously hammered out so that the project could move into production.

The main challenge was the fact that the mummy, while looking decidedly inhuman, would have to seem believably human so that the transition from his desiccated state to human form would not be trapped in the uncanny valley.

The key to this was maintaining realism, and Berton felt that this could be best achieved through motion capture.

Imhotep is a menacing character, an embodiment of good turned evil, but at the same time he is (or, rather, was) human.

Motion capture, therefore, was key to making him realistic – everyone knows what human motions look like, and while the technique didn’t allow for much transference of expressions at the time, realistic motion could be achieved with a lot less time and effort than 3D designing would take.

Simple observation and photography of Arnold Vosloo, who played the character, helped the VFX artists by giving references for his gait and style of movement.

There were several stages of decay for the mummy, and while the early stages were completely digital, later stages where mummy begins to look more human used a combination of prosthetics and digital effects.

ILM, which had previously worked on films such as Star Wars, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Jurassic Park, is intimately familiar with the complexity of realistic effects, and this knowledge was channeled quite effectively for The Mummy.

Once the digital assets were ready, the time had come for texture painting – which could make or break the final product.

So, to create complexity in the shading for the mummy, the texture artists created hundreds – even thousands – of textures, depth maps and transparency maps from different angles so that the creature would appear organic and maintain the quality of output needed for a film of this scale.

Berton, in an interview, said that the real modelers for the film were the texture artists, as their work was used to make the models into what we saw in the film and capture the gooey, fluid nature of a rotting mummy’s body.

There were numerous layers of colour, opacity information, depth and bump information and dynamic simulation all coming together into one cohesive character.

And the best scene to prove it, according to Berton, was the one where a scarab beetle climbs into a hole on the almost-regenerated Imhotep’s cheek and he eats it.

Performance capture has also been used to transfer emotions and facial expressions of characters onto CGI creatures, as in The Polar Express (2004), Avatar (2009), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), or The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (2011).

Today, digital makeup and performance enhancement is an accepted part of filmmaking and has been used in films abroad and in India.

We have characters like the Terminator from Terminator: Rose of the Machines (2003), Benjamin Button in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Davy Jones and Captain Salazar in the Pirates of the Carribean films, Ahmanet in The Mummy (2017) from foreign films, and Gaurav from Fan (2016) or Lingesan in I (2015) from Indian films as notable examples of digital enhancement of practical makeup effects. It’s not just film – TV shows like The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones or Doctor Who are using such technology to great effect.

With more and more media forms demanding such effects being made every day, there is a lot left to be seen in the growth of digital makeup techniques and application in the years to come.

Top 6 Most Popular Animation Magazines

The world of animation is evolving very fast. With all the advancements in the animation technology there is increase in the number of animators in the market.

Today’s blog is about the popular animation magazines that every animator should know.

Animation is being used in every field…whether it is cartoon series, games, videos, movies, commercials or anything else you just have to name it … and animation is already setting its foot there.

Thus it is very important for budding animators to know about the trends in the industry. These websites provides the information about the latest trends in the animation industry, its education and visual effects.

The animation magazines are popular among the industry people. It gives a quick glance of the new updates that the animation people are accepting and which are the new software in the market.

You can either buy a printed copy or opt for a digital one. You can get all the information through these magazines about the world of animation.

There are variety of developments and innovations in the technology of computer animation. The animation magazines take these innovations and present it to animators.

There are many animation blogs and articles available on the internet. But there are some of these that are really worthy of reading and as an animator you should be read these blogs to keep your knowledge updated. So let’s see such websites today and know more about them.

Animation World Network

The animation world network is the most famous group that has the largest selling magazines across the world.

It provides itself in around 150 countries and has lots of readers. It has wide range of interesting articles and news in animation. It has a large source of imagery resources for animators.

It also provides links for animation professionals and fans. They publish printed magazines as well as digital magazines.

These magazines are Animation World for general animation articles and VFX World for VFX and special effects. It is one of the oldest magazines and was launched since 1996.

Their magazines are also available on the online shopping websites such as eBay.

Through the Animation world network, you get one source for variety of information of facets of industry. For every person working in animation industry, AWN has some information for everybody.

Animation Magazine

Animation magazine was founded in the year 1985. It is a monthly magazine that publishes 10 times in a year.

It comes in digital as well as the printed format and covers the latest trends in animation industry and visual effects and its education.

Every form of animation is covered in the Animation magazine.

It also covers the articles about the animated films, TV series, cartoons, visual effects, new media, and new computer graphics techniques and software’s.

They keep their website updated with latest posts. You get the most exciting articles about animation here.

Every year two events are hosted by the Animation magazine. These events are The World Animation and VFX Summit and The World Animation Celebration. Both the events are very popular and prestigious.

Cinefex

Another good magazine for animation is Cinefex. It is a bimonthly journal that covers visual effects in movies.

It was launched in 1980.They have lengthy and important articles about the trends in the animation industry.

This magazine also contains the interviews of popular animators and artists. This is a very famous magazine ever since its launch. It comes in digital and printed edition.

There is special article about the behind the scenes photographs that explains the use of visual effects in the movies.

These photographs contain the stages involved in the progress of the film making.

The digital copies were launched in 2011 and were also made available for ios users.

AnimationXpress.com

AnimationXpress.com the online magazine has served as the nucleus of the Indian Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics industry online, since its inception.

Animation Xpress organized many industry conferences and have media partnered almost everyone in the animation, vfx, gaming and comic events all over the world for the past several years.

AnimationXpress.com is in the midst of a transformation that will add immensely useful engines and features and revolutionize the way B2B happens online globally.

3D Artist

3D Artist is a magazine that contains all the latest articles about the animation field. They are very popular among the animation crowd and have wide variety of articles and information about different different projects in 3D world.

This magazine is published in UK. They have everything the artist in 3D animation needs to know.

This magazine provides a source for motivation among the new aspirants hoping to make future in the Animation or computer graphics industry.

They interviewed artists across the industry and makers of the 3D projects. They also give career advice from the industry professionals.

It also features the computer graphics tutorials and awesome 3D stuff. This magazine has articles for all levels of animation artists.

3D World

3D World Magazine is another popular name in the Animation magazines.

This magazine is designed for the artists in computer graphics, and also covers areas of VFX, animated games, movies etc.

It is a monthly subscription magazine. It contains the articles related to the 3D creativity.

It in year 2000 Andis published in UK. The magazine is sold across many countries. It is also available in digital as well as printed format.

The magazine illustrates the updates in the 3D animation world, visual effects and video games.

They also provide the column for questions and answers. They provide the tutorials for 2D and 3D animation. They have review articles about new software’s and trends in the market.

So isn’t it cool that you get so many exciting content just by paying some minimal fees.

These are very important magazines for the budding talent in the market of animation.

All the aspiring animators should learn the new trends and technology in the market. There is increase in the number of animators in the industry.

Keeping yourself updated is very important if you want to grow as animator and want to survive in the industry. But reading these animation magazines is informative and fun at the same time.

And why not? They give you information about your favorite animation character.

Today we summarized the top five most popular animation magazines. You truly will get benefit by reading these fantastic periodicals.

Just keep reading!!! Our Animation Blog for more updates.