502 - Showreel

Here is my showreel, showing the best of my 2D background, compositing and animation work done over the past 2 years:

I'm really happy with how this turned out, especially as it contains so many different styles so I'm proud that I managed to edit them together without it looking like a random compilation. Originally I wanted to use different music than last year (and the year before that), however I couldn't find one that I liked and was easy to edit to, and also other people won't be seeing the previous showreels anyway.

I remembered advice from MAF with making a showreel, where they said to make a narrative out of your work even across different projects, and just be generally playful with it. This would make it more enjoyable to watch and would help a lot with the pacing, so I definitely took that in mind when editing it. Here are some of the things I thought about when editing this:

• I wanted the title and end cards to be more interesting than just text, so I used the same trick as last year of putting one of my works but blurred behind it. I really like this as it also allows me to transition into the main showreel fluidly
• I also wanted my title card to reflect my personal branding and presentation, so I used a very similar but free font for it
• I knew I wanted my alien scene to be first, so I used that as a starting point. The motion of it went from left to right, therefore I put the rolling-down-hill scene next as that also had that left to right movement, so the 2 scenes together make sense and flow well. 
• I initially had the bird scene near the end however it just wasn't fitting in well. I ended up moving it next, as the colours of it matched the previous scene, and it ended up also acting as time filler for the music to hit the drop 
• The lightning was timed for the drop, but also acts as a transition to the scenes with a black BG. In addition, it serves to give a bit of a break from the faster moving scenes, allowing me to show some of the slower scense next
• The character in the balloon scene was positioned after the lightning as it has a black BG so it can fade in. It's also next as it is almost reacting to the lightning strike
• I transitioned into the towel scene using the slam zoom of the WEEE to act as if it was zooming into the binoculars that we're seeing the towel scene through
• Rain of one scene allowed me to transition into the rain of the next without it being jarring despite the style differences
• I used the man being launched upwards to transition into the water fx splash, as if the man is falling into the water himself from the previous scene. It adds a vertical continuity between the scenes and a bit of humour. I really liked this transition especially as I was having trouble fitting the water splash in anywhere due to its more sketchy, unfinished appearance and the stark white BG (it was also timed to be on the beat)

Also, there is the general rule about putting your best work first, your second best at the end and then the rest in the middle, and I tried to apply that however I focused more on the flow of the showreel so it ended up being more: best, second best and then worst at the end. I think this is ok though, as it's not a huge detriment. I'm also pretty happy with the timing of it too, as it's reccommended that your showreel should be pretty short.

Editing all my work together definitely shows it in a different way, and it makes me look at it more positively. I found this really fun overall.