After a lot of editing and tweaking I’ve got together the ‘final’ (for now) version of my Realtime VFX Showreel: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8QWBn
It’s specifically in Unreal Engine as it’s what I’ve learned and been working in mostly, with a bit of practice in Unity too.
I’m actively looking for a job in VFX at the moment and I wanted to ask if anyone had any advice or tips from their own experience when applying if there are certain things, types of effects, skills or software that would be good to showcase and add to my reel?
At the moment I’m delving further into Houdini to learn more about how I can use it more often in my workflow, but on top of that, what do you guys think? Is there anything you think is super important to include? I’d love to hear it!
Do you have much bandwidth to polish the fx that are in the reel? Or are those considered “done” and you’re just looking for advice on how to best compose your reel out of them?
Just asking so I can focus the feedback to the right areas
Hey Travis! Either, or really. I’m happy to go back and rework the effects too, everything is all my own work so it’s quite easy to edit and then refilm and recompose, etc.
Gotta say though, at first glance many of those need mayor optimization as there is a bleepload of overdraw, unneeded amount of spawnrates. especially the ambient/various vfx ones wouldnt do well on the performance aspect.
There are also some somewhat odd things I noticed in that shader, mainly using the RGB output or B output of a grayscale texture, that sort of thing.
Besides those nitpicks, I’d suggest to practice timing and impact for next years reel!
Keep up the work, for a first year its def some good attempts. (and that bow one looks familiar )
Hey Luos (Yoeri)! Haha, I think the bow should look familiar!
It’s so funny that you’ve seen this, I’ve watched so many of your videos as I’ve been learning as I only started learning VFX 3 months ago (in June) and you’ve got such a lot of work that’s been really great reference! I hope you don’t mind me having that in my reel? I can put something else in if you like, as it was heavily inspired by your work.
That’s a good point about optimization, I did think about it, interms of overdraw and LODs, etc. but as this was mostly for demonstration - rather than game implementation - I wasn’t sure whether or not to be concerned about it, so that is a really great point! Thank you!
Good start on the reel and some great attemps given you started in June. As @Luos_83 mentioned the optimisation and timing would be great areas to focus on.
I would personally make the title card shorter without animation, remove the shader network stuff and pick a couple of pieces and polish them. Pick pieces that show a range in problem solving and timing. Then front load those at the front of the reel. Perhaps you could pick pieces that you would like to push and post on here for CC and people can help.
I am sure you’ve seen this but @Keyserito published some excellent videos on Art of VFX
Yea, watch the videos Colbalt posted, even experienced artists can learn a thing or two from them.
And nahh, recreate whatever you want I am cool with it. thats how I learned when I just started out. (recreating the UT3 weapon effects)
While its fine for now, practicing optimization is just as important as all other aspects of vfx especially if at some point you might be asked to make mobile/switch focused effects. in those cases even a few tens of miliseconds or kb/mb’s can make a difference in a crisp framerate or a slideshow.
I’d also suggest to download the free vfx content epic has supplied and learn from their setups, timing, and flow
If you just started in June, you are on the right path! I’ll expect much from next year’s reel.
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! Really helpful feedback and definitely things I’ll take on board and change in my next draft of my reel.
I’ll definitely start doing that too, trying to work on a few select effects and really polish them. Feedback on individual pieces would be great to have.
Yes, I’ve watched @Keyserito 's YouTube channel and all of the lessons, but definitely something I need to revisit again and make sure I’m adhering to, going forward.
Gonna keep on working and hopefully keep improving too.
Thanks again!
)