Showreel Research

Before I get started with my own showreel, I thought it be best to research into existing showreels, so I can see what I think works and take inspiration. 

I really like Kilogramme's latest showreel. It is filled with really strong work that shows their diverse range of animation styles and capabilities. Their production focus really shows in their showreel, and the music compliments the content, resulting in a very upbeat reel. 

Kilogramme Showreel 2017

Although I have a diverse range of skills (experience in 3D, motion graphics), I don't think I am going to include this range in my own showreel like Kilogramme have. Instead, I would like to tailor my reel to work that I would like to continue producing.


I really enjoyed this showreel by J-Scott. He is an Art Director with the design and animation studio Oddfellows in San Francisco, and it's very clear from his showreel where his strengths lie. This is something I want to get across with my own showreel.

J-Scott Showreel

Here is another good example of a showreel that showcases work of a particular style/that is 2D orientated. Though I thought the work shown was very good, and I do like the aesthetic of the work, For me this showreel was too long, and after a while I started to lose interest. I shall make sure to keep my own reel quite short.

Headless Showreel

I also found that this showreel was a little inconsistent. There are clips that are showcasing lip syncing and haven't included the audio from the film, and others towards the middle where they have decided to include the speech. Personally, I found it hard to hear what was being said by the characters as the music was too loud over the top of the audio. Though this isn't going to be a problem with my own work, as I am not going to be featuring any lipsyncing, it's definitely something I should keep in mind for future reels should I have something of this nature to present.

I've found that showreels don't always have to show of the range of animations you've worked on. Instead, if you have a lot of strong work from one particular piece (usually feature films), a reel that shows of this work could be appropriate.

Trent Correy - Moana

For example, this showreel of Trent Correy's shows some of the scenes he worked on for Moana. Although this isn't something I am going to do with my own showreel as I don't have enough content to do this, and have other strong work I would like to showcase that isn't just from my grad film, I do like how there is a range of rendered, final scenes and play-blasts. This should be something I consider doing with my own showreel, especially as my final film isn't yet finished and I have a lot of scenes that are just linework at the moment.