Please, Critique My Demo Reel! (First Post)

Thrash 2023 3D Art Demo Reel

Hello, I signed up for a Blender Artists account years ago in animation college, but I have not felt it necessary to actually post here until now.

So basically, I graduated with a B.S. in Media Arts and Animation degree in 2018, but my for-profit college shut down mere months later, nullifying the one advantage of going to college vs. self-studying, that being having an in-person network of industry professionals to continue to give me guidance and recommendations to local studios at least a year or two after graduation. Since then, I have fumbled on my own to try to break into the industry simply by trying to improve my portfolio. Although I now have a nice day job that allows me to live on my own and gives me plenty of time to model in Blender as a hobby (due to it being one of those lovely four-day-workweek arrangements), I would really want to know why, no matter how much I adjust my portfolio and improve my workflow, I cannot convince even the smallest indie studios and companies that I’m competent enough to even interview for an entry-level position related to 3D art.

Finally some Internet comment came along and bluntly told me my demo reel is nowhere near “production-ready” for my preferred studios (Disney, Pixar, Nickelodeon, Dreamworks) and despite all the sheer amount of years I’ve put into my portfolio and demo reel so far, it looks like I just started using Blender yesterday. It’s a good thing I have a job when this Internet stranger told me this, otherwise I would have dismissed them as some Internet troll and/or taken it personally, but frankly I see that they have a point, regardless whether it was just some opinionated animation fan on the Internet or whether they were actually an industry professional giving me the “tough love” my non-artist community and family cannot give me, no matter how much I ask them to not hold back.

So that’s what I want this focused critique to be: WHY is my best demo reel yet still nowhere near “production quality?” I was planning to finally get an answer to this question after going to Burbank’s CTN Expo this November, but it would save me a lot of time, money and traveling if I got some feedback online, plus the same commenter I mentioned in the previous paragraph argued I would likely get the same assessment if I showed my Demo Reel to such industry networking events, also without an explanation as to how I can improve.

Clearly I’ve gone as far as I could just from trying my best to critique myself, watch various tutorials on various art topics, and trying to gleam insights from other forum posts here on similar frustrations with getting into the industry. Some specific questions I would like addressed:

  • Could the problem simply be that I am using my own, admittedly-bizarre OC characters (outside of the female character, she’s a design from a NewGrounds artist called “Flikki”)? Would it be better if I had dedicated 2D concept artists design more conventional-but-still-striking character designs so that I can simply focus on re-creating them in 3D?
  • Am I still too much of a Jack-of-All-Trades, decent at everything but excellent at absolutely nothing in the Blender pipeline? Should I maybe focus on specializing more, especially as an American who needs to basically master his craft before being considered in Hollywood, an industry that generally prefers to get cheap, unskilled labor from outsourcing and increasingly AI?
  • Am I being too stingy with the poly counts and texture detail? I often take pride in making my character models as low as 10,000-15,000 polygons while still having separate fingers and a fully-poseable face, but clearly that does not seem to be impressing recruiters that are equally interested in whether the character is simply appealing to laymen audiences. Likewise, I am struggling to find a balance between textures that aren’t too detailed and Silent-Hill-esque for my kiddie designs, but at the same demonstrate my PBR texturing skills better than basic colors for textures could and would especially shine on 4K/8K theater screens.
  • Should I maybe just consider starting over with a more 2D-centric portfolio, since I personally find it easier (even frame-by-frame 2D animation, more time-consuming than genuinely challenging) and have essentially honed my drawing skills since I was 6 years old, even though that would basically limit my options at companies like Disney, who have long decided “2D” anything was somehow “obsolete”? You can examine my Newgrounds Art Portal submissions for a direct comparison of my 2D drawing skills versus my 3D rendering skills.
  • Finally, how seriously should I focus on making portfolio-centric pieces? Clearly it has led to a bit of burnout and discouragement just focusing on making EVERY art piece worthy of putting on my next Demo Reel, especially since I have the most fun designing abstract OCs that certainly don’t fit current Hollywood trends and perhaps never will, yet I need to make my designs more “mainstream” for my demo reel to prove I can work for any artistic vision besides my own. I wonder if it would be paradoxically be faster and more rewarding at this point (especially since I have a stable job to fall back on these days) to just make and share whatever I want, without thinking too hard about whether my hobbyist projects are “portfolio-worthy,” until I get sufficient practice just from actually making stuff and potential indie studios (if not bigger studios) start asking for my services, instead of the other way around of me constantly sending my reel on online job boards to no avail?

I know this is A LOT to just read, but your input would be GREATLY appreciated considering how little qualified help I can get from either my now-nonexistent college or people who even remotely understand how this stuff even works. Thank you.

Welcome!

I am going to give you my impressions going into this video.

  • You open on an animation scene, despite the rest of the demo being character modeling: are you trying to show modeling, or animation? Are you trying to show that you are a generalist? If you include stuff that’s not your strength, you run the risk of including something that will turn recruiters away. If you are trying to make a generalist demo, every aspect needs to be good, which is going to be a challenge (though not impossible).
  • Then, I see the landscape around the charaters, which looks like it was cobbled together in 5 minutes. This could be acceptable in an animation demo, but you then go on to have a modeling demo.
  • Modeling and texture are linked together in an inseparable way: if you are good at one, you need to be good at the other. I don’t see any texture work that shows any level of skill in this demo. The opening scene has a landscape done with the most basic repeating textures and 2 untextured characters. Everything else in the demo is either untextured or has just basic bump patterns, and while this may fit your art style, it doesn’t show any technical skill.
  • Having a heavily stylized artstyle is fine, but you should show only the best pieces. Also, I would like to see some variety. You don’t need to replace your entire demo with realistic models, but I would like to see at least something that shows you can do other styles.
  • Your rendering is a bit problematic for a demo, because I can’t tell if you went out of your way to get a retro look or if you lack skill and left Eevee on default settings.
  • I would not include t-posing characters, wireframes, armatures or untextured models unless they are an impressive technical feat and those views are necessary to understand the model. And even then, I would include a better background.
  • The lighting could use some improvement for some of the pieces. And even more importantly, the color space/color correction on some of the pieces is either too bright or too dark and sometimes is inconsistent across the images of a same character.
  • The presentation isn’t doing your work any favors. You are including mostly still images with zooms. If you could have smooth, animated camera movements around the models, it would be a lot more interesting. The image composition could use some improvements too. The watermarks are not helping either (I don’t think I have ever seen watermarks, even in expert artist’s demos).
  • Your demo could use some more ambitious projects, something that shows technical skill and impresses the viewer. Every piece you have now looks like it could be made in a few hours. Are you able to spend multiple days on a single project, make an entire beautiful scene that tells a story and makes the viewer say “wow”?

These days, there is little merit in having a low polygon count anymore. Video games characters now regularly go past 100 000 triangles. When it comes to texture detail, it’s fine to go for something more cartoonish, but that is generally not done by putting a uniform repeating bump on objects. I am not sure what you are going for exactly, but what you have now looks more like a lack of texture skill than an intentional style. You would have to look at what other people are doing and figure out what kind of texture you are going for. Maybe a more hand drawn style would fit better? Maybe your characters could use smooth gradients?




So, If I were you, I would improve the demo’s presentation by reworking the lighting, color correction and image composition wherever it’s not at your best. I would have more animated 3D renders with subtle camera moves around the models (keep it subtle, you don’t want a rollercoaster) instead of still images with zooms. I would remove the wireframes / untextured views and avoid gray backgrounds. I would research what kind of visual style you are really going for, and how to better texture it (is there anyone else who has textured heavily cartoonish models? How did they do it?). I would include at least 1 project in a different style, something that shows technical skill and impresses the viewer. Maybe I would place the characters in more complete scenes, something that will tell a story and cause an emotion in the viewer.

Keep up the work, you can do it!

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I’ll go through your specific questions, because my opinion on demo aligns with @etn249 's impressions
1)I think OCs aren’t a problem, but the level of execution is. To be brutally honest, you have long way to go as character modeler. Anatomy, weighting/skinning, texturing, materials - all these areas need improvement. My advice is to use edge extrusion instead of face extrusion (box modeling) while poly modeling a character. It gives more control of the shape. Study tutorials on topology for animation. (Unpopular opinion: don’t bother with Zbrush + retopo workflow for cartoon characters; straight up poly modeling with subdivision is better when you do not need excess details) Also, study concept art of cartoon characters, and principles of character design, to get idea of fundamental rules before breaking them.
2)From what you have now, I think you have more potential as animator. The animated scene has traditional cartoon feel if you forget about CGI render. And you are serious about working for Hollywood one day, Blender is more popular in indie and freelance sector. Large studies all sit on Autodesk’s products, like Maya, for better or worse.
3)Nowadays, even in game models, “lowpoly” is increasingly just a “least count that still looks good” than any specific number. If the model is not meant for realtime engine, do not overthink your polycount. As long if it isn’t a sculpt straight from Zbrush, it is good. One area where you cannot afford being stingy is, again, subdivision modeling. If you use 4-sided tubes as base for your character’s limbs, as it happens with box extrusion, it gives distinct amateur look no matter how many subdivision levels you have.
4)That’s for you to decide. If you feel 2d is more efficient for you, then go for it. 2d still has its niche, especially on TV/streaming services
5)You need to give your very best for portfolio, otherwise there is no point in having one. Burnout is unfortunate reality in any artistic field, if my personal experience is anything to go by

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From what you have now, I think you have more potential as animator. The animated scene has traditional cartoon feel if you forget about CGI render.

Thank you, ever since I saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania, it convinced me that CG animation is capable of the same whimsical animation as 2D in a lot of cases, and I try to really exaggerate my poses and squash-and-stretch as a result, although these Maya rigs (the guy on the left is Moom, I think, can’t remember the name of the other rig) are not nearly as flexible as what you regularly see in Hollywood animated movies these days. From what I understand, though, although the industry is incredibly specialized, animators also need to be able to create complex rigs of their own, and I just can’t do that, especially if scripting is involved. Modeling and texturing seems a smidge less technical in that case, and I am planning on starting from the fundamentals again by working on backgrounds and props before trying characters again, so hopefully I prove I can at least take other designs from photographs and (financially compensated) concept artists and make them 3D meshes, if not my own intentionally-lumpy character designs.

I should probably clarify that I’m using a fork of Blender called B4Artists, with the hotkeys set to “Industry-Standard” (e.g. Ctrl+E to extrude, and I use the typical combinations of mouse buttons and the “Alt” key to navigate the 3D viewport) and even set the theme to “Maya” so that the 3D viewport has the same teal-gray gradient as the last version of Maya I used in college, Maya 2017. Speaking of which, while I guess a yearly subscription of Maya is still less than the old standard of buying a $3500 license of the latest Maya every single year, the subscription price seems to have gone up hundreds of dollars per year since I graduated college, as if inflation and price shocks have any effect on digital rentware, so I can’t possibly imagine that I’d be able to afford Maya until AFTER I make a lot of money with my art, not before. I said I have a job, but for now it just barely gives me enough money to live semi-independently in California and I would rather use the extra money at the end of the month to properly compensate 2D artists who can give me more portfolio-friendly character designs to translate to 3D. Getting a subscription to ZBrushCore and eventually the full-fat ZBrush seems perfectly doable unless the monthly price of that drastically increases after I type this, too.

Frankly, that is a relief to learn. I’ve had better luck designing cartoon characters that way, though I would imagine retopology is still an important skill to put in my resume, and unlike rigging, I could do it if I have to even though I hate it just as much.

Ultimately, what I concluded from the advice I got here + a similar plea for guidance I asked for in the NewGrounds forums is that my personal art style is too “out there” for a portfolio (albeit fine for a website that celebrates weirdness like NewGrounds!) and, for my portfolio and demo reel, I should simply prove I can translate another person’s design and vision into 3D as professionally as possible–basically, be more of a commercial artist who can sell his services to others in this case than a snobby fine artist who insists that anyone that doesn’t “get” their abstract or overly-simplified $4,500 art installations are somehow “uncultured”. Also, in many ways, I’ve actually made things much harder for myself due to not having qualified mentors to guide me after college (again, this for-profit university suspiciously closed down shortly after I graduated)–like keeping the poly counts lower than necessary, trying to both design my own characters in addition to modeling them or using the ZBrush-retopo-bake workflow on simple cartoon characters that would come out less “lumpy” if I used basic poly modeling instead.

Thanks for the much-needed guidance after being led astray so long, I probably won’t respond to any more comments on this thread (though I’ll still read them if they have advice that hasn’t already been said) so that I can quickly shift my time and focus to re-learning my 3D fundamentals and sharing WIPs of prop models for more feedback here, but this has been useful and, of course, it has saved me a trip to CTN Expo in Burbank until my Demo Reel is significantly more presentable! Thank you!

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