SHOWREELS
We were asked to find two showreels which we thought were well edited and that we liked. I spent some time browsing vimeo and eventually found some I REALLY liked!
The first is Antonio Villamandos 2020 animation showreel. From the get go it’s full of personality. It has a customised animated introduction screen that clearly showcases his general vibe and sets the tone for what work we’re going to see coming up. The choice of music also matched up with the general retro/game aesthetic of the title and contents. The contents of the showreel have a bunch of different things they’ve worked on between 2018-2020. It had work ranging from personal work, videogame work, to even some client work. I love their incredibly bouncy and fun style, and their work translates very nicely into the work that they do!
Remus and Kiki are a set of collaborate artists who made a showreel of the work they’ve made together. Personally, I think their work is amazing and their showreel is edited fantastically! The editing is on exact beat with the music – and the choice of song even fits in with what work they’re showcasing at the start of the showreel. Even then, it sets a great mood for their work regardless! They have a collection of commissioned work from what I can see from matching the clips on the showreel to their website https://www.remusandkiki.com, but there is some personal collaborate work as well. I think their showreel is dynamic and fast paced (but not at the detriment of their talents being shown!) I hope I can make such a top-tier showreel one day.
GUEST TALKS
Guest talks were given for professional practice as well, we got talks from Zoe Woods and Aishling Mcelroy – 2018 graduates of UU, and Greg Woodcock, who graduated from Swansea met uni in 2008, and made his own studio.
Zoe gave us a brief overview of who she is and where she’s worked. She did placement in Enter Yes as an animation intern, and since graduating has worked at BBC Blackstaff, Jam Media, Blue Zoo and Framestore. She gave us a brief description of the roles she worked in and what they entailed, which was very helpful in case I ever get employed for a job she’s had because I’ll have knowledge of what’s expected of me in that job. She then gave us an overview of laying out animation – and explained the differences in work between 3D and 2D layout. She ended the talk reflecting on how studios work for animation, how size effects how they work, and how covid has affected the industry over the pandemic.
Aisling McElroy, the second guest speaker, also introduced herself and gave an overview of her job history. Giving us an amusing cinematic parallel when telling us that though now she’s a lead producer currently working on 5 different creative projects – when she first graduated, she actually just worked in a bar for a few months before getting any prospects. Aisling broke into games, working on games using a mix of 2D and 3D skills. Aisling worked at Sixteen South and Blackstaff Games in various positions, and is currently with Italic pig and has been for the last 2 years. We were informed on projects that she’s currently working on, such as the game Paleo Pines to be released on Steam at some point in the future, saying that her favourite part of her job is getting to see things like Paleo Pines go from a formless concept into a finalized product. Being a lead producer, she gave us insight into her job role, telling us her main focus most of the time is making sure everyone is doing what they need to do when it comes to production, and ensure they’re kept on track. When we asked questions about how to present ourselves when applying to jobs, she said that even if a studio is not hiring – a cover letter always goes well when making yourself known. She gave us amazing advice when it came to skills we would need and advice on how to break into the industry.
The final guest speaker was Greg, who has created his own studio https://slapstick-studios.com/. He introduced himself and explained to us what he does and what he’s worked on. He’s very proficient in mo-cap, so he’s worked on lots of games and media that use it, including large games such as Until Dawn. He’s great at a lot of things! Being able to rig, texture, model and animate – and this really shows in the sheer range of work he’s done. He also gave us great advice when we were able to ask questions. He told us the first jobs are generally the hardest, he spent his first few years working freelance for low pay, and told us that even though it was hard, after a few years he had more work and studios started to take him on. He also stressed the importance of knowing what you like to do, as he said one of his biggest challenges was entering to work industry with a lot of skills but no specialities, he simply did not know what to do. We also got some CV tips, he told us to make sure to put the software we can use on there, and make it very visible. Be sure to put your experience, and of course, not to lie or over-embellish yourself. I’ll be sure to keep this in mind when I make mine.
