Behance Reel Reviews

1. Fei Gao's Demo Reel 2011
Not only is the demo reel good work, but I think the presentation is what helps sell it. After embedding a high quality video of her demo reel, she included high quality screen shots of each of her animations sequentially, which really helped you appreciate her color choices, compositions, and overall style. There is the tiniest amount of text before the video, but I feel it neither adds nor takes away from her reel; I wish it was more descriptive.

2. Art Grootfontein's Demo Reel 2011
What I really like about this demo reel is its custom opening that features a 50s aesthetic that remains present throughout the entire reel with music to match. Although that can be limiting, to me it represents a very cohesive style that is also quite charming. The page itself doesn't have some of the other bells and whistles of others, preferring to display only the HD video and nothing else. I will say though, the reason I clicked on this demo reel (and many others that ultimately were not what I was looking for) was that the thumbnail image appealed to me. I think this curbside appearance may be the key to getting your reel looked at.

3. Castleforte 2009 Reel
Okay, so this is a company's demo reel as opposed to a single person. However, I enjoy their reel in terms of timing and different types of animation/motion graphics. I also like that I was drawn to their main image in the thumbnail on the search page, like my previous selection. Sometimes that other information crowds. While I feel that other reels I looked at had shot lists or more similar types of information, if the reel wasn't that good I didn't look at that stuff at all. Ultimately, I need to be drawn by the thumbnail and from there, be wowed by the reel. Another thing I will point out is that many people embedded very small or lower quality versions of their reels. If anything, this usually made me stop watching completely. I should be able to clearly see the work without full-screening, as a potential employer may be less patient than I am.