The advice I’ve heard is to start with your best work, since people looking at the reels often can get bored and switch them off halfway through. Giving the best work up front provides a good incentive to keep watching.
Having said that, this is the image that I’m left with at the end of the reel:
Not very memorable - I’m sure you can end on a nicer bang than that 
Generally quite nice work though! Good luck with it!
Thankyou all, quite a lot of good thoughts to mull over. Some of them are possible to implement, some aren’t. One of my main issues is that because I’ve only just been able to reach this standard of work, these are essentially all my best pieces, not a selection from a group of twenty-odd. I’m starting to get the feeling that one more of my own characters is a really good idea, possibly to replace the pirate link at the end, or to simply add into the mix. Incidentally, the pirate link is meant to look wax-like, I’ll be explaining in a written cover sheet that he was modelled for a CAD project to be milled out of wax by a milling/prototyping company as a master template for a jewellery piece. In other words, the piece is in there because I like it, but also because it was going to be for something different than just 3d character design. I tried toning down the amount of light on him, but I can tone it down further. Maybe I’ll just change the material outright to show the modelling better, which is what it’s all about anyway.
I reckon I might try a head / face sculpt, I’ve done a fair bit of 2d portraiture. Then I could show the person’s photo as a reference, then my sketch, then the model, lighting, etc. Then it’s ‘original work’, yet working to set paramaters as it were. Still not heaps on the ‘imagination’ side though unless I melt half of their face off or something…
Not that I want to rush things by any means, but my only thought is that I could end up spending another couple of months just churning out work for a reel instead of actually jobhunting/working.
Once again, thanks for the crits, this is really valuable stuff to hear for a first reel.
Cheers,
Ben.
Oh I didn’t mean to say that the model was necessarily bad or anything, I’m just saying that the last glimpse of imagery is of the back of this thing, with the pinched in geometry in the middle. That’s the last thing that leaves an impression at the end of it all, so at the very least, it would be good to end with, say, a sexy front view of it 
No offence taken, I got what you meant the first time. I do like that model, but out of the current five, it’s probably my least-favourite if that makes sense. I’ll probably add one instead of cutting anything, it’s still a relatively short reel.
Kudos to you and the team once again for Elepahant’s Dream by the way! I purchased the dvd’s and have learnt a lot looking through the files.
Ben.
Hello,
I really liked your demo reel. Your modeling skills appear to be excellent. I especially enjoyed your lighting setups. Clean and the faked SSS was excellent.
My only crits:
The music doesn’t seem to flow with the video. Perhaps if you were showcasing tanks, planes and big guns? I just can’t invision General Grievous or Davey Jones listening to ACDC. In short, it seems as though the music is there just for the sake of being there.
Personally, I would focus on my #1 skill and showcase work related to it. Right now I’m getting high density mesh, lighting and texture work. If that’s what you are show casing, well then you hit it right on! However, if your interested in doing game quality work, I’d suggest making a separate demo reel.
-Try spinning the delorian from the side, around the front and then to the back.
Some demo reel information which others may find useful:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/demo_reel.html
http://www.mediacollege.com/employment/demo-reel.html
http://www.thescratchpost.com/features/nov00/features1.shtml
Never assume whoever is seeing your reel is reading the cover sheet while they are watching it (or that they read the cover sheet at all). If there is important information they need to know I would find a way to discreetly put it on screen, for example:
Title of Work
Blender Model for short film
…or something like that. If you post on the CG Talk Forum in the appropriate thread the people there can probably give you a lot of helpful tips on how to professionally present your reel. Don’t rush it, the little details matter if you’re looking to land a really good job!
Something I just saw on YouTube was a DeLorean animation that another Blender user from Argentina did. His model is not as detailed as yours, but he’s got a cool animation at the beginning showing the model being detailed. This was the kind of workflow thing I was referring to in my earlier post.
If you’d like to check it out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwUq262fPR0&NR
Pink Mesh - To be honest the music is their for two reasons, one being that I like it, two, because it had many ‘cues’ to make it interesting. However, I am watching the reel every now and again without sound because I’m aware some people switch it off, particularly if it’s loud. I want to keep the intro as is, but the rest I may cut back on the flashy bright music-sync-hits. Cheers for the websites too, I’d only seen the LucasArts one. To clarify, I am aiming for High Poly over games, although doing games might be something interesting to try later on.
Buck-Beaver - Thanks for the hint. I’ll make sure the cover sheet re-iterates points rather than giving crucial details. I’m working on something with the full ‘workflow’ setup now, will post shortly. I’ve looked at other reels that have that sort of thing, so I’m pretty clued in now.
Will post changes when done.
Ben.
Hello all,
He’s had his own thread, but here is my latest and final addition to cut into the reel before I post it out/personally show to companies. (Sir) Sean Connery, the true James Bond. The video is 4.3mb and is a rotation that goes from base model through texturing and sculpting to the final model with particle hair.
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/12/BondProgression3.mov
Reel in final version should be out very soon.
Finally… 
Cheers,
Ben.
(P.S. I also have a reference photo and/or a detailed 2D sketch that I’m looking to work into the cut at the start.)
Hello All,
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/12/BD_NetReel.mov
I’d like to think of it as finished, as to why I posted it in the Finished Projects Section, but I just got an email from a mate of mine suggesting that a wireframe of each model would be a good idea. He comes from a low poly background, but I was thinking it might not be ‘that’ much more work if it would be worth it.
Thoughts?
Ben.
Nice! It looks really good. I think the addition of the James Bond section really helps a lot. I don’t know that you need to add wire frames of each model (it does seem that would matter more if you were doing low-poly work) but it wouldn’t hurt either.