Crafting a Killer Demo Reel [The Animation Industry: Preparing for a Career - Unit08]

Crafting a Killer Demo Reel

07/02/25

Screenshot from Labad (2021) animation demo reel.

Introduction

This blog post explores one of the most important aspects of preparing to work in the animation industry through creating an outstanding demo reel (sometimes called a show reel or portfolio). This aspect is so important because it shows the company that you have the skills needed to do the job. In an industry where the quality is so high the studio needs to know that you are ready to work on commercial products. It is arguably the single most important factor to whether a studio would consider you or not. If your showreel is good then they are likely to look at your C.V. next to understand you skills and experience. If you aren't getting to the interview stage then it is likely you need to work on the quality of work you're showcasing in your demo reel.

Lecture Notes

The section studies the blog post 'Crafting a Killer Demo Reel - with Kevin Richards' 

(Williams, 2022). This echos the advice in the video shown above Demo Reel Advice by Alexander Williams (2020). Kevin Richards who was consulted in the creation of this blog post is an ex-student of Williams (2022) and currently works at Aardman Animation Studios. Here are the curated tips of creating a killer demo reel :

• Do include :

1. Put your best work first. You want to hook your viewer instantly.
2. Take out any pieces that aren't polished, work in progress. Quality over quantity.
3. Keep it short - no more than 1 minute. 30 seconds to a minute is the best range.
4. Focus on body mechanics, lip sync and acting.
5. Be inventive - Whilst walk cycles and animation exercises are great they are very tutorial driven. You should show work that has creative flair and incorporates storytelling elements. The studio wants to see that you understand the fundamentals and can apply it to a narrative driven scenario rather than just follow the steps in a lecture.
6. Be original - Find lines of dialogue that no one has heard before, opposed to something everyone recognises. If they recognise the dialogue then they will compare your work to the source material opposed to looking at it fresh.
7. Include professional work - if you have worked on a live commercial project - include it! This will be a benefit to you.
8. Render  your animations professional and take care with how you present your work. Don't include playblasts because this shows a lack of effort, care and pride in your work.

• Don't include :

1. Geometry intersection - this lowers the quality of your work and will distract the viewer. You work should look professionally rendered.
2. IK Pops - This is where an IK handle over stretches and then pops into place. They can be challenging to remove but are very distracting and will detract from the overall quality.
3. Floaty animation - Hold key poses and stay in them. Get to the next pose quickly.
4. Symmetry - There should be no twinning with arms raising at the same speed. This shows a lack of understanding of the principles of animation (Overlapping action).
5. 'Shovel' Hands - fingers can be easy to ignore and this can make them feel stiff. They should be posed naturally and respond naturally to the movements.
6. Lack of originality - Opposite of the advice listed in the 'Do' section. Some core exercises are fine to demonstrate fundamentals but ideally your animations should be placed in a scenario to build a sequence rather than in isolation.
7. Missed Accents - Lip sync that misses the accents to deliver voice lines emotively and creatively. You should also have contrast in your accents.
8. Lack of overlap - Arms and hands should include drag and overlapping action. This is sometimes referred to as the progressive breaking of joints.
   
   

• Include a C.V. :

• If the reel interests the recruiter then they will move over and take a look at your C.V. This should be easily accessible from your demo reel or website so that recruiters can look deeper into your skills and experience.
  
  

• Recruiters will respond to :

1. Exciting and original lip sync pieces that display great acting choices.
2. A comprehensive understanding of body mechanics - timing and spacing.

This next section reviews the advice from Building a Portfolio & Getting a Job in Animation (2018) seen below. Sir Wade Neistadt has a rich YouTube channel and has worked for a range of big animation studios including DreamWorks.

• Strong portfolio that shows you can do the work and have potential to grow within the studio.
• You need to be a team player that can communicate with people positively.
• There was a discussion around diversity, which I'm also a huge advocate for. I'm a huge believer in diverse products are made by diverse people. The benefit of diverse products that are properly represented is that people see themselves in the media we consume and others learn about different people through the media. This means new stories and perspectives will flourish rather than turning through similar perspectives.
• However, this doesn't mean you should receive role because you have a diverse background. It should still be based on your skill and ability to do the job role. However, it is making sure that opportunities are presented and considered equally.
• Look into 'art of' books for the type of films you want to work on. 
• Look at SIGGRAPH (2025) to network and understand jobs.
• Go to local networking events such as Animex.
• You need to pursue the jobs. Not the school. They are there to give you the tools and point you in the right direction.
• Consider other roles rather than just 'Animator' - maybe even consider support roles!
• You're competing against the world, not just those in your class, even though it might feel like this!

Animation Demo Reel Analysis

This section aims to research an analyse a range of portfolios from talented animators that could serve as inspiration to me when crafting my demo reel.

The first demo reel I'm going to analyse is by Galicia (2017), shown below :

• This reel is hosted on ArtStation - a common platform for artists to present their portfolios. Ranging from concept, 3d Art, animation and more.
• This reel is structured with a 3 second title card that features the artist's name and their contact details. This is nicely presented with interesting colour and font choices to make it feel creative whilst still getting across the key information clearly. This means that the person viewing can easily contact the artist. These contact details are also in the description which makes it even easier to contact the artist.
• The description explains the shots a little further and includes work on feature films in addition to personal work. This adds a lot of weight to the artists credibility.
• There are 7 short shots across a 45 second reel. The shots are all contextualised into a story telling scenario and include :
• Mechanics x3
• Lip sync x3
• Creature Animation
• Whilst all shots are extremely high quality in terms of animation the reel starts with a strong, creative mechanics shot and then straight into 2 lip sync shots. There is another lip sync shot later with non human characters. This shows that the artist is prioritising their lip sync of human characters, probably because this type of work is more favourable.
• All shots show emotion and different personalities of characters, which shows that the artist can bring different types of character to life.
• There is some simple music used in the shots to convey emotion and lip sync is prioritised. I think the only thing I could think to improve is that some music bursts in quickly and could be softened a little more so that it isn't so jarring.
• I love that there is a range of different characters from humans to humanoid-like characters to anthropomorphised characters. This shows the range of the animators skills and its great to see how the animator has tackled lip sync with birds!
• There is also shots that include characters physically interacting with one another which is a huge bonus.
• There is a shot of a character raising into the sky which reminds me of a video game cutscene or boss animation. So whilst the demo reel appears geared towards traditional tv/film animation they are also showing versatility.

The next demo reel I'll analyse is from Shams (2018), featured below.

• This show reel starts with a simple title card that includes the artist's name, demo reel title and their contact details. This is show at the beginning for 1 second and at the end for slightly longer for 2 seconds. This means that we get into the animation presentation quickly and the recruiter can pause the reel quickly at the beginning or end to get the details.
• The reel itself is 35 seconds long. Showing a short, high quality insight into this animator's work.
• The description this time only mentions that this is this animator's work on a wider project and who the director was. This is great that it identifies that it is professional work on a commercial project, however, if they included their contact details here it would make it even easier for people to contact them. However, they could click their profile on ArtStation and get the details this way.
• The whole demo reel is beautifully rendered and includes 5 sequences from the Mr. 'Indifferent Animation Show'. I like that this shows they've worked on a professional project, however, it is also a little limited because all the work is in the same style but does show different scenarios. However, perhaps the focus of this was to build a wider portfolio and showcase the work specifically on this project.
• There is no lip sync work and instead this focusses on body mechanics, character personality and emotion. All of the animation is super high quality, however, in terms of range it makes it a little more limited.
• The emotion range across the showreel is great, covering a wide array of emotions. There is also a wide range of poses which does show the animator's skill with body mechanics and posing.
• There is a lot of subtle acting in the first shot which is really strong and shows that the animator is leading with their best work. The last shot is also really strong with some great posing and interaction with objects.

The last demo reel I'll analyse is from Labad (2021), shown below :

• This last demo reel is slightly longer at 1:02, however, I feel it is high quality throughout.
• There are a total of 7 shots that include acting, lip sync and mechanics all with story telling elements.
• There are several shots that show characters interacting with one another, which is very challenging and is a real strength of this reel.
• I love the way the reel starts with a strong clip right away and then freezes on a strong pose whilst the animator displays their character details.
• There is a little message that prompts the viewer to play with audio so that you can hear the dialogue lines.
• The second shot is really nice because it shows some subtleties with facial animation to really display emotion.
• The first lip sync shot is animated very well to really reflect the personality of the voice in the character. They've clearly planned the shot well to think about how they will show the personality through the characters poses. This is also a long dialogue shot, demonstrating skill across a long audio clip which is a huge strength.
• The working-from-home worker with coffee shot is great because it shows a shot story through this character. This could easily be a shot from a feature film and whoever is watching could tell this. 
• They end on a lip sync shot of a female character, which shows good range in skills to animate different characters. This is a real strength of the whole reel that he shows a good range of different types of shots throughout.
• A frame counter and shot number is available as an overlay. This helps if you need to talk through your reel and refer to specific shots. This is commonly done during interviews.
• Overall, this reel is extremely inspiring due to the quality and range of animation they are showing. All shots are contextualised in a narrative sequence. Lip sync is well executed. There is lots of strong acting shown through interesting poses. They know how to hold poses really well which creates contrast in their timing. 

Conclusion

This was a really good exercise to reflect on my plans for my own reel. Most reels are including around 7 shots and falling between the 30 - 60 second mark. The strongest reels all focus on narrative and storytelling elements to demonstrate animation skills in context opposed to in isolation. I love the way Labad (2021) sequences their reel by freezing on a strong pose for the title card. Demonstrating a range of different types of animation also appears to be key so that you can demonstrate your breadth as an animator. I already have some creature animation, mechanics animation and lip sync animation alongside some of my professional work and other animation exercises. This should show a good range of skills initially.

My plan to develop my animation demo reel is to :

• Implement feedback from my 2 recent animation assignments, the lip sync and locomotion.
• These will then need to be re-rendered.
• Next, review the quality of some of my other animation exercises and improve any aspects to demo reel quality. I am thinking of some of my horse work, however, this might need contextualising into an environment to support storytelling.
• I want to take a look through my old professional work and see if there is anything worth while putting in. I could ask the tutors for advice here. Generally I feel my old reel is quite bad compared to the work I am producing now.
• I then plan to edit these together into a short reel, taking inspiration from Labad's (2021) sequencing and holding on a strong pose for the title card. My 'Blast' animation might work well for this, however, is likely to need some polish.
• Once this is done I will have a reel and I'll be able to review the timing.
• Next would be a stretch goal and this would be to include some more lip sync work, potentially a female character. For this I would search for an interesting voice clip that would work and follow through the production pipeline to effectively develop a high quality animation, starting with in depth preproduction. This would add further variety to my work and include a greater range.

This feels like a solid plan and I'm excited to see it come together! The challenges here will be time, particularly if I want to add an additional animation sequence which could take some time to put together. This will be balancing work and any assignments set - at this point in time I know there will be a video essay, however, no details are available. I'm also hoping that the practical assignment will be to submit a C.V., LinkedIn profile and demo reel, however, there are no details for this yet! Despite this it does give me a plan to work towards over time. It is also iterative and will enable me to grow and add to the reel, depending on length. I feel I have a strong base to get things together. I also feel this will show a good range of skills including: character mechanics, locomotion, lip sync, acting, storytelling elements and creature animation. Therefore, it is likely that this reel will really show me at my best and will be a vast improvement from reels I have made in the past!

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the key elements of a successful demo reel.
2. Learn how to tailor your demo reel to specific roles or studios.
3. Reflect on your current portfolio and plan improvements for your demo reel. 

Reference List

1. Building a Portfolio & Getting a Job in Animation (2018) YouTube video, added by Sir Wade Neistadt [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdeZsV6nIoY (Accessed 7th February 2025).
2. Demo Reel Advice by Alexander Williams (2020) YouTube video, added by Alexander Williams [Online]. Available at https://youtu.be/0Lr5uFwunyE?list=PLuECxuxunywn8LTWkoZ2xBgOSI7iIXSZL (Accessed 7th February 2025).
3. Galicia, E. (2017) Demo Reel - 3D Animation, 12th August [ArtStation]. Available at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LwKKr (Accessed 7th February 2025).
4. Labad, K. (2021) YouTube video, added by Kyle Anthony Labad [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOU7NPDNrNk (Accessed 7th February 2025).
5. Shams, E. (2018) Mr Indifferent Animation Show Reel, 19th November [ArtStation]. Available at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/e0JJRY (Accessed 7th February 2025).
6. SIGGRAPH (2025) The Premier Conference & Exhibition on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques. Available at: https://s2025.siggraph.org/ (Accessed 7th February 2025).
7. Williams, A. (2022) ‘Crafting a Killer Demo Reel - with Kevin Richards’, Animation Apprentice, 1st September [Blog]. Available at https://animationapprentice.blogspot.com/2022/09/crafting-killer-demo-reel-kevin-richards.html (Accessed 7th February 2025).