As I intend to go into vehicle and prop modeling I have decided to focus on those types of show reels. While I could get some good information by looking at other examples I personally feel that I could benefit more from focusing on that type of show reel.
The first show reel I want to look at belongs to Ridhwan Borha who has created several cars for a game called TrackVerse. He has 6 cars, 2 cartoon, 2 futuristic and 2 urban themed ones. As expected they are all on turntables and are all on the same base with the same lighting rig. Just to look at it I think it looks a little unprofessional. They also take a full 15 seconds to move onto the next and the rotation speed is quite fast at 7 seconds so 2 rotations is not really necessary when it really could do with some other shot. I think the lighting rig hampers the model and it gives the cartoon models a very strange glossy look which makes it look almost amateurish. The only models that slightly get away from this are the final urban style cars but they still have a strange gloss to them which wrecks the look of an otherwise OK model. The transitions are also very basic and very common. The wireframe faded in over the model and then fades out along with the tri count in the top left and it's all very run of the mill. One thing I really dislike is a semi transparent TrackVerse logo in the background. It is very large, constantly present and very distracting and actually, considering it is semi transparent, clutters up the reel quite a bit. I also find the music too loud, obnoxious and doesn't fit the overall look and feel of the show reel and further lets it down. The contacts section at the end of the reel is actually very odd. Nakama Studios which feature as a logo both in the corner of the whole reel and on the contact page seem to make 2D artwork and I can't seem to figure out what they have to do with either Ridhwan Borha or TrackVerse. His blog does hold an answer to his work but raises a few more. It seems, looking at his blog, that he is mostly a character artist as he has quite a few impressive looking models dotted with the odd environment and this show reel in the 2010 section. On the whole I don't like this show reel, the models are alright but let down by over glossy textures, bad lighting, boring turntables, boring base, cluttered screen and obnoxious over loud music.
The second show reel by Anarhiya is to show off his Audi R8 model he created in Max. I personally quite like most of this show reel which starts with some beauty shots of the R8 in a parking lot scene. Just some standard flybys and close ups but then something unusual happens. He has animated a full driving about sequence in the parking lot and doing donuts. This really impressed me as not only were the engine revs and tire sequels in time but it was surprisingly well done and was definitely a shake up of the usual formula which usually has the car on a pedestal, trying to emulate Gran Turismo or Forza. The light was very well done as well unlike the previous reel. The R8 was still shiny but it was a much more believable shiny, like a freshly cleaned car rather than a dodgy lighting rig. I do have a few complaints though. The cameras in the flybys need work as they sometimes get too close to the model and forget to show it off and it goes at some very strange angles so your cranking your neck trying to get a clear look at the model. The driving about does this too and it does get a bit tiresome. If they were fixed and it was made a little longer to make it about 1:30 - 2:00 minutes I think this would be a very decent show reel. Again though the music was off. It was too loud and didn't fit with the reel at all, I personally would have used something from the menu music of Forza as they have some nice un-intrusive music. The one massive problem I have is the ending. This has the worst ending I have seen in a show reel, there is not contact information and instead of showing logos for the software used to make he creates a 'cast list' where he lists the programs and what he did on the model, which was everything and the whole time there is a small spinning wireframe model of the R8. This, I feel, is an abysmal use of space and time. What he should have done is have a quick shot of the wireframe with polycount and possibly a small shot of the maps he used and then afterwards a contacts section. You can save the list of what you did and the programs you used for a blog if you have one or in the description of the video, there is no need to waste valuable space and time on a silly idea in what is essentially a decent show reel. This is a bit of a let down as the ending for it is so bad but the overall quality of the model and animation swings it for me.
Neerachar Sophol's show reel is a bit of a strange one and I can't decide if it's good or not, or even if I like it which is probably a problem in itself. To start there are only pictures of the models and not any 360 degree views of them which is a little unusual as most reels have the 360 view but I found that as I looked at the rendered images I kept thinking 'what are they hiding?' Later on there is a rotating Buddhist temple which has a bizarre diagram of the breakdown of what parts of the model have been modeled, or textured, or where the reference has influenced the model I honestly can't tell and there is even an image of a drop down menu from Maya or Max with links to the pictures. This is completely out of place and quite pointless as you can't read it, so it just clutters up the scene and confuses the viewer. The temple goes through the usual turntable no texture, wireframe then texture which is unusual as it is the only one to do so as there are some nice looking props and buildings which would really benefit from being shown in a 360 environment. They would have also benefited from having a poly count too as they are only pictures of fully textured models with no wire frames so there is no telling how heavy they are on the polys which is something people would like to know. To finish up the building and prop there is an animated scene with the temple with wipe through effects of the various stages finishing in the final render shot and to their credit it does look OK. The next part is the character section which starts with a very nice diagram of the character they intend to model which fades into a wireframe shot of the character and her weapon, the untextured with rigging controls and finally the finished model and a detailed look at the face controls but again they have added what looks like a tiny shot of the hierarchy in front of the hypershader and underneath that are what I assume is various shots of different facial movements but they are so small that it's completely redundant and uses up space. There are some nice images of various action shots and facial expressions in the next part so it makes me wonder why the small shots were included before when these are perfect for showing the facial movements. The bi-plane after this seems a little out of place even though it is quite well done and I do feel that it would have been better suited before the character showcase or not at all as it really contrasts with the oriental style of the props and buildings and the amazonian style of the character, as does the second character bust that I believe is the pilot for the plane which is also quite well done, as is the animation of her flying the plane short as it may be. To finish up the is a very brief look at some sort of sci-fi robot with a diagram, a front shot, 3/4 shot and what I think is a gantt chart but again it's too small to make any sense of so there is no point in showing it and confusing the viewer with unnecessary information and cluttering up the space. This part could also do with being longer as you see a total of 5 seconds of the model which for a character is far too short especially as other models have much more time spent on them and it seems a bit of a waste of a nice model. As for the whole show reel I quite like the background as it is subtle and non intrusive however some contact details are very much required. The music is OK however I think it's a little loud in parts but aside from that I think it compliments the model well and doesn't distract from it. Overall I can't decide if I like the show reel. It's good in parts and bad in others and frankly a little confusing and cluttered. If I had to say whether I thought it was good or bad I would have said it was bad with alright models,t here is certainly room for improvement like removing the images and replacing them with quick looks at model and get rid of the silly pictures of irrelevant information like what groups you have in your model and the gantt chart. If you absolutely must put them in then at least make them big enough to read so they look like they serve a purpose rather than an strange looking background and confuse the viewer.
Videos;
1: Ridhwan Borha - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pylqrz3Kv0M
2: Anarhiya - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjBd0wbKCTc
3: Neerachar Sophol - https://vimeo.com/35741186
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