There is not much time between Unit 2 and Unit 3 but I feel much more prepared for the new animation challenge than I’ve ever been before. I believe I finally got a sense of how film production in CG works, also, I am much more confident in both my technical and animation skills now. I evaluated both the opportunity to make a film and a showreel and although I love making visuals for my stories, in this case, I will make a showreel because I already have two films. So when applying for work it will be more beneficial for me to have a good showreel and two films than 3 films and no showreel. I can always make a showreel on the side, but having the chance to invest more time now purely into my showreel will reflect in its quality.
I have been in contact with Yaniv Garber throughout this term and he has helped me a lot with my animation and Showreel. He has given me tutorials and showed me some hacks when it comes to animating in Maya. I’ve received feedback for my showreel from him a few times and we decided that for the Unit 3 submission, I should include multiple clips and it’s okay for the total to be 2-3 minutes long. And then for my work showreel that I will use for applying for jobs, I will select only the best shots from those 2-3 minutes.
Having a mentor is beneficial because that way you learn from someone who has good experience in the industry and you can learn from their mistakes and accomplishments. In addition, keeping in touch with people from the industry helps with networking, making connections, and finding work.
From my research on CG showreels, I have noticed that everyone’s showreels are very similar, and yes even if the animation is great to me it seems boring to keep watching the same walk cycle over and over as a recruiter. I’ve made a little list of how I plan to make my showreel unique.