24th October 2010

For this week’s blog entry we were told to look at show reels in our area of interest. My interest is environment modelling so I looked in to environment show reels, finding out what I personally think makes a good show reel and what doesn’t.

Good Example

My good example of an environment show reel is created by a guy called “James Pavitt”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF46aJhszbs&feature=related

He starts his show reel off with a submarine in an underwater environment. This piece of work has great lighting coming from the submarines lights and fan. After several seconds of showing the submarine in the environment he then shows the submarine by its self. He shows the final product and then shows the audience the AO pass and that vehicle in wire frame view.

He then goes on to show a cottage. Again this shows great depth of lighting and this really helps the environment stand out. The lighting and textures used gives the effect that the cottage is very old and mysterious. He then shows the cottage in wireframe mode and shows how he used an image for his background. He then dose the same with the inside of the cottage again showing it in wireframe mode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiBy-bRbJn8&feature=player_profilepage
(Here is a short film that he created using the cottage environment)

For his final peace he has done a castle. This piece of work is done in the morning/afternoon time of day while his other pieces of work were more dark/night time. This shows he can do a variety of lighting approaches with his environments. He shows that he also uses background images in this to fill the empty spaces in the environment.

To finish up his show reel he shows his concept art work. This is not just environment concepts but also character concepts that fit the environments that he has done.

Bad Example

My bad example of an environment show reel is created by “Kevin Tan”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3u-g979VXY

The reason I chose this show reel for my bad example is because it seems like each scene is rushed, and does not give the viewer enough time to look at the environments properly.

Also the lighting is extremely bad in each scene; I found it very difficult to actually see what was being shown.

At the end of his show reel he shows a CPU fan he has created. Personally I think that has too much Pollys and most of it is not needed for a model like that.

blog post 1

For our first lecture on Professional Practice in the Games Industry we talked about what the module was and what we wanted to achieve when completing the third and final year.

My goal when finishing the third year is to get a job as a games environment artist. To do this I will need a good understanding of environment modelling, lighting, texturing the use of other programs and also how to make a very attractive show reel.

In my spare time I have been looking at two types of show reels, these are: -

·         Video games environment.

·         Video games lighting.

After looking at several show reels I started to get a good understand on what the key features are of making a good and professional show reel.

I found that starting off with your best piece of work is always a good start, this being because you want to grab the audience’s attention with something outstanding. For the middle part of the show reel you want to put verity in, for example, if I was to create an environment show reel I would show the different art styles that I have done, such as: -

·         Modern/realistic

·         Futuristic

·         Cartoon

For the ending of the show reel you want to show the audience another good piece you have created or showing your first piece with different lighting or effects.