I've said a lot of these myself. Bang on man! I am totally guilty of not updating...as my current public reel is from....uhh....2014. But we did just finish off an intro for a 2020 reel yesterday! Anyway, I have a tip. As you work, keep a folder for reel bits. Render out 5-10 seconds of the coolest part from each piece. That way you have stuff ready to edit. And if you decide later that another part might be better, you'll at least remember the piece exists. I'm not as disciplined as I should be with this, but when I am it helps a ton!
Oooo, such a good tip. I used to keep a note with all of the potential projects to include, but this is much better. Makes it much easier to start. Damn 2014? haha. Can't wait to see the 2020 reel! That's going to be insane with half a decade worth of Workbench gems! :D
Listening to both these dudes is what landed me a career in the industry. Ben’s experience and ability to break things down to practical and actionable approaches to creating motion graphics, as well as his grasp of all the peripheral work that does on ‘around’ translating an idea into a deliverable is super valuable. And @Workbench has one of the most comprehensive, nay... encyclopedic knowledge of motion graphic construction it’s scary. And his ability to distill that inti not just a tutorial but like a legit new tool in your arsenal is skill building at its finest. Plus they’re both funny. And each have the strength of a bear... THAT HAS THE STRENGTH OF TEN BEARS! *statements on strength have been validated by the CDC (Centers for Dope Creators). Stay safe everyone, and wash them hands.
1. Length 30-60 secs 2. Only show your best 3. Include work you want to get 4. Structure; strong start, strong end 5. Make your role clear 6. Include personal project 7. Music 8. Update often. Once a year or 6months 9. Show the process 10. Show your personality 11. Show design 12. Tailor your reel 13. Treat it like for client 14. Get feedback 15. No tutorials. Take what you learn and do it your own 16. Avoid cliche 17. No long intros 18. Use editing software 19. Time remapping, speed or slow 20. Reanimate your work 21. Upload!! Thanks for the awesome tips ben! Wish me luck for making a good showreel ya ♡
omg this video comes at the perfect time!!!! i´ve been working on my showreel for a couple of weeks and I feel like I´ve watched every "tips and tricks" video for showreels out there
Top advice! Another tip is to consider mixing 2 tracks. I found this helpful, as some of my work is really dark and moody, and other work is bright and colourful. Obviously its not for everyone, but can work well I think!
Love this. Definitely sound advice. When I was in school, the general idea for your reel was to "shotgun" them with everything in a desperate attempt that SOMETHING on your reel will stand out to an employer (maybe as an intern or a swiss army man at a startup) and the school can say you're now a working a professional to their credit. But even when I graduated I defiantly adopted the, "put your best, favorite work on your reel" in regards to your rule 3 and specialization has served me well since. Though as time goes on, I often think these sorts of guidelines are just as subjective as the art itself. When I reviewed portfolios/reels I always wanted to absorb a lot of content personally speaking. Show me your best stuff for sure, but I'll also look at whatever ya got - good, bad, whatever. I think I was always trying to size up how proficient, how passionate an artist it. Maybe you got a couple knock out pieces, but for me, it didn't speak to someone's character or consistency. I can make an educated guess that a killer 30 second reel is a good hire, but it's still a guess. Compared to someone with a slew of projects that tell me exactly what I'm getting. I'll try to research the candidates' sites and social media to get a bigger picture than just the submitted portfolio/reel. And I'm not saying your best work won't make a good impression, it definitely will, and you'll probably make the cut, but I'm probably gonna dig for more than that. So if you have A LOT of good work, or a real LONG reel, I probably don't need to look any further. Then again, I often would review work on the weekends/down time instead of leaving it to a first impression. And maybe that speaks to my time management skills...aaaandd now I'm babbling... 😉 Ha! Thanks Ben! I'll see about submitting a couple of my older reels too! 👍
What a motivation to finally make the showreel I've been putting off for ages, thanks Ben! I'll also try to gather the guts to forward it to you in a few weeks.. :D
I think a lot of the tips in this video apply to all sorts of art & design portfolios too - keep it concise, only show your best work, show your best pieces first but still end strong, only show the work you want to attract, tweak a piece to make it better if you can… almost every tip in this vid can be translated and applied to different types of portfolios/showcases. Thanks Ben!!
Here I am looking for tips on creating showreels and this video falls from the heavens into my lap. I should've known you'd have exactly what I was looking for...
These are great tips that can mostly apply to any sort of reel! I'm primarily a filmmaker but have the same considerations when putting together my reel.
I didn't know u had a showreel, i always scrolled all the way down in ur ig to see ur awesome works. But here, i have a complainin, u're so good and the showreel is soo short (ok no that short but still i wanna see moree)💕
I'm starting my carrier as an animator and have only recently come across your channel, but I'm already in love with it. Keep up the amazing work! Cheers from Brazil
Thank you so much for all this tips ! I'm making my first show reel and i'm stressed to make stupid mostakes, so thanks a lot, life savior ! love your intro, so dynamic and creative
Music: I will pick "Magic Scout - Farm" by Kevin MacLeod. I don't know why but this tune plays in my head while I'm animating. So it fits the mood of my work.
Hey Ben. I appreciate the tips as I've been putting off making a reel for a while now. The main reason for that though, is something I would like to ask about. You touched on this a bit... My work is all over the place so far, and I only have ~1 year of college work and ~1 year of freelance work, some I am not allowed to share. There's enough quality stuff for a 30 sec reel, but there's not enough for just a 2D animation reel, or post-production/vfx reel, or personal style reel (mixed techniques). The industry in my area is not the biggest, so I don't have a luxury of picking a specific field yet. I gotta work on whatever I get, and each project demanded different skillsets, quality levels and styles. My strongest point so far has been the know-how to work with any style, the technical fluency, and I like that. I enjoyed jumping around between fields. Do I just make different "mini-chapters" in a reel to break it into several moods and fields? Do I just wait for my career to mature further and get more focused until I put out a reel?
Thanks so much for watching. Definitely don't wait, any reel is better than no reel. I'd say stick all of your best stuff in there and don't worry so much how dissimilar it is. I think grouping them into different parts of the reel is a good idea, but really just put together your best work and put it out there.
#13 omg that was unexpected to hear from you :) made my life super easier knowing I'm not the only one haha Thank you for the video, great source of inspiration, as always
Haha, I've been putting of appearing in videos for so long because of this. But though, "to hell with it, It ain't getting cut for months. Let's embrace it!" XD
Thanks for your video! I am an actor from Ukraine and I act in films and TV shows. I also do commercials for European countries. What should you say about yourself in an acting business card? How long should an actor's business card last?
Ben, do you have any advice for someone like me who has ADD and creating motion graphics takes an eternity? I took the School of Motion Animation Bootcamp and it was a huge challenge for me. I pulled a couple of all-nighters to get projects done. I don't have any experience and I have to create a showreel from scratch. I was going to use a few snippets of my assignments from SOM, but saw one of your videos suggesting that's not a good idea. Thanks for any input you could give a struggling wannabe mograph artist! I really respect your work and your knowledge and wisdom!
These are really great tips Ben !! Thanks so much. I though have a question , I make animated lyric videos so how should I make a reel out of them. Confused about music part, should i keep the song of the videos I choose or should I just keep one track for all of the clips I select for the reel?
BEN! YES! Thanks man! Im submitting something to you 😎🤟 soooo not a reel of your latest coursework?!😂 PPL THE COURSE IS AMAZING!!!! sign up if you can afford!
About to update my reel from 2017. This exactly what I needed to see. What’s your take on ‘truchos’? Not sure in English, but in Lima, Peru amongst the design community ‘trucho’ is a fake project tailored to add something to your portfolio to help attract a client/clients or to fill in a gap.
Thank you so much for this! Could you recommend some premiere tutorial for editing motion works? I've done quite a few videos (mostly editing footages) by Pr but still feel very rudimentary, can't really stick clips in super cool ways. And I don't know if it's a problem of the version(latest) I feel the mask is so unintuitive, hard to edit it right in Pr, the keyframes are also not easy to edit like AE...
Hey Ben. Thanks for the dope tips! Quick question - Do you think adding some slides of personal photography is appropriate? Would it be a good way to show off compositional technique and personality, or is it too different from the subject of the reel? Thanks again for all the hard work you're doing duder!
Hello! This is a very helpful tips. Thank you so much for this opportunity! I have just submitted my reel that I made last year I hope you don't mind that it's not something new. :) Question: updating your reel once a year would be ideal. But if I feel like that I haven't made any animation that can replace my previous reel. Does this mean that I haven't improved? (I do think that lately I haven't improved... like I got stuck!) Any tips about this? I am still saving up to register to your course. :)
Hi Ben, this might sound like a dumb question. If I've done ads for a studio, is it alright to just include it on my reel or do I need to notify the studio?
@@BenMarriott Thanks! I'm transitioning from editor/cameraman to motion designer. Hoping to get something half-decent together by then but we'll see. Fingers-crossed.
Do motion graphics usually use someone else's art ? or do they create it themselves? I'm a film editor and I'd like to create a motion graphics in order to get more jobs like that
7:36 why specifically not after effects? i feel like when i use premiere for putting clips together it can be worse bc or how buggy premiere is and i feel like i have less control, i also dont see how using ae could make a showreel worse
could someone please explain to me why, you would need to edit your showreel in premiere rather than after effects? what can premiere do that after effects cant?
I've said a lot of these myself. Bang on man! I am totally guilty of not updating...as my current public reel is from....uhh....2014. But we did just finish off an intro for a 2020 reel yesterday! Anyway, I have a tip. As you work, keep a folder for reel bits. Render out 5-10 seconds of the coolest part from each piece. That way you have stuff ready to edit. And if you decide later that another part might be better, you'll at least remember the piece exists. I'm not as disciplined as I should be with this, but when I am it helps a ton!
Oooo, such a good tip. I used to keep a note with all of the potential projects to include, but this is much better. Makes it much easier to start. Damn 2014? haha. Can't wait to see the 2020 reel! That's going to be insane with half a decade worth of Workbench gems! :D
@@BenMarriott Thanks! Let's hope!
Listening to both these dudes is what landed me a career in the industry. Ben’s experience and ability to break things down to practical and actionable approaches to creating motion graphics, as well as his grasp of all the peripheral work that does on ‘around’ translating an idea into a deliverable is super valuable. And @Workbench has one of the most comprehensive, nay... encyclopedic knowledge of motion graphic construction it’s scary. And his ability to distill that inti not just a tutorial but like a legit new tool in your arsenal is skill building at its finest. Plus they’re both funny. And each have the strength of a bear... THAT HAS THE STRENGTH OF TEN BEARS!
*statements on strength have been validated by the CDC (Centers for Dope Creators). Stay safe everyone, and wash them hands.
@@KRGB Haha! Thanks Joshua!
And congratulations!
1. Length 30-60 secs
2. Only show your best
3. Include work you want to get
4. Structure; strong start, strong end
5. Make your role clear
6. Include personal project
7. Music
8. Update often. Once a year or 6months
9. Show the process
10. Show your personality
11. Show design
12. Tailor your reel
13. Treat it like for client
14. Get feedback
15. No tutorials. Take what you learn and do it your own
16. Avoid cliche
17. No long intros
18. Use editing software
19. Time remapping, speed or slow
20. Reanimate your work
21. Upload!!
Thanks for the awesome tips ben! Wish me luck for making a good showreel ya ♡
Jesses! finally someone who put this all things down i literally scroll all of the comments wishhhing to encounter the recap !thanks!
thanks
thanks
bruh this guy's intro is literally his showreel lmao
@@PokeFX yo what's up man
What a great intro doe
i agree
omg this video comes at the perfect time!!!! i´ve been working on my showreel for a couple of weeks and I feel like I´ve watched every "tips and tricks" video for showreels out there
Top advice! Another tip is to consider mixing 2 tracks. I found this helpful, as some of my work is really dark and moody, and other work is bright and colourful. Obviously its not for everyone, but can work well I think!
Such a great tip :D Definitely something work trying :)
the bat hits different in this times
Lol
Oof
I'll take "Bat's Ass World" over Reality rn
Lmfaoooooo
We are in the perspective of the man eating the bat's asshole before realizing he just made a whole pandemic
Love this. Definitely sound advice. When I was in school, the general idea for your reel was to "shotgun" them with everything in a desperate attempt that SOMETHING on your reel will stand out to an employer (maybe as an intern or a swiss army man at a startup) and the school can say you're now a working a professional to their credit. But even when I graduated I defiantly adopted the, "put your best, favorite work on your reel" in regards to your rule 3 and specialization has served me well since.
Though as time goes on, I often think these sorts of guidelines are just as subjective as the art itself. When I reviewed portfolios/reels I always wanted to absorb a lot of content personally speaking. Show me your best stuff for sure, but I'll also look at whatever ya got - good, bad, whatever. I think I was always trying to size up how proficient, how passionate an artist it. Maybe you got a couple knock out pieces, but for me, it didn't speak to someone's character or consistency. I can make an educated guess that a killer 30 second reel is a good hire, but it's still a guess. Compared to someone with a slew of projects that tell me exactly what I'm getting. I'll try to research the candidates' sites and social media to get a bigger picture than just the submitted portfolio/reel. And I'm not saying your best work won't make a good impression, it definitely will, and you'll probably make the cut, but I'm probably gonna dig for more than that. So if you have A LOT of good work, or a real LONG reel, I probably don't need to look any further. Then again, I often would review work on the weekends/down time instead of leaving it to a first impression. And maybe that speaks to my time management skills...aaaandd now I'm babbling... 😉
Ha! Thanks Ben! I'll see about submitting a couple of my older reels too! 👍
What a motivation to finally make the showreel I've been putting off for ages, thanks Ben! I'll also try to gather the guts to forward it to you in a few weeks.. :D
Thank you!! I can't to see yours!! :)
I think a lot of the tips in this video apply to all sorts of art & design portfolios too - keep it concise, only show your best work, show your best pieces first but still end strong, only show the work you want to attract, tweak a piece to make it better if you can… almost every tip in this vid can be translated and applied to different types of portfolios/showcases. Thanks Ben!!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for all your great content!!!! Love you ❤️
You are so welcome! Thanks so much for the love :)
So one of the best choices of music to a reel its death grips...
That's just what i needed to hear
Haha, always
Here I am looking for tips on creating showreels and this video falls from the heavens into my lap. I should've known you'd have exactly what I was looking for...
These are great tips that can mostly apply to any sort of reel! I'm primarily a filmmaker but have the same considerations when putting together my reel.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks so much for the approval! :)
I have 1 week of experience on after effects. Now I think I am ready to make my showreel and get some clients.🤑
Thank you for all of these videos Ben you are awesome!
Glad you like them! Thank you :)
I didn't know u had a showreel, i always scrolled all the way down in ur ig to see ur awesome works.
But here, i have a complainin, u're so good and the showreel is soo short (ok no that short but still i wanna see moree)💕
Haha, thank you so much! :)
I'm loving these talking informational videos! Also this background/set/layout is fire 🔥😄
Thanks so much mate! :D
Ben Marriots ROCKS! great teacher!
This video is very useful. Thank you Ben!! (Nice hair by the way ..) :D
Haha, thank you. For some reason I can't get it cut XD
"Death Grips"
that caught me completely off-guard lol
Great tips as always! but most of all, I really really love your sense of humor😂
Thanks so much!!
I'm currently doing my reel, it motivates me to finish it earlier !
Good luck!
AGAIN. Much appreciated. Great advice. Thanks.
This is just what I needed! Thank you so much for sharing 🙏
Thanks) Yes, it's really important!
Great tips, thanks Ben!
oh nice im sending over my 40 minute showreel of robots, dragons and spaceships to you right away!!! but im joking ((: great vid
Haha, nooooooooo XD Thanks so much for watching
I'm starting my carrier as an animator and have only recently come across your channel, but I'm already in love with it.
Keep up the amazing work!
Cheers from Brazil
Awesome video dude! 👌 and super relevant for us illustrator in the crowd as well, 100% true for illustration & design portfolios.
Thanks mate! I really appreciate it :D
Thank you so much for all this tips ! I'm making my first show reel and i'm stressed to make stupid mostakes, so thanks a lot, life savior ! love your intro, so dynamic and creative
Incredibly helpful, thank you! Working on building a new reel so this couldn't have been more perfect timing.
Love this! Really helpful, as always
You're so welcome!
Truth... all day!!!
Great tips and well timed - I'm sure everyone in the industry is currently going through these motions (these motions...)
Great tips, very good idea to upload the reel natively in every platform!
Thank you for the help full video, I'm currently refreshing my reel, and your advice is very useful
Top notch Ben , much obliged !
Music: I will pick "Magic Scout - Farm" by Kevin MacLeod. I don't know why but this tune plays in my head while I'm animating. So it fits the mood of my work.
Awesome as always!
Hey Ben. I appreciate the tips as I've been putting off making a reel for a while now. The main reason for that though, is something I would like to ask about. You touched on this a bit...
My work is all over the place so far, and I only have ~1 year of college work and ~1 year of freelance work, some I am not allowed to share. There's enough quality stuff for a 30 sec reel, but there's not enough for just a 2D animation reel, or post-production/vfx reel, or personal style reel (mixed techniques). The industry in my area is not the biggest, so I don't have a luxury of picking a specific field yet. I gotta work on whatever I get, and each project demanded different skillsets, quality levels and styles. My strongest point so far has been the know-how to work with any style, the technical fluency, and I like that. I enjoyed jumping around between fields. Do I just make different "mini-chapters" in a reel to break it into several moods and fields? Do I just wait for my career to mature further and get more focused until I put out a reel?
Thanks so much for watching. Definitely don't wait, any reel is better than no reel. I'd say stick all of your best stuff in there and don't worry so much how dissimilar it is. I think grouping them into different parts of the reel is a good idea, but really just put together your best work and put it out there.
I wish I could like twice! Really awesome!! Thanks o/
Wow, thanks!
Great tips, thanks for sharing your experience!
My pleasure!
Just applied!! Whoop whoop!
Valuable tips 👌
Thanks a lot
#13 omg that was unexpected to hear from you :) made my life super easier knowing I'm not the only one haha
Thank you for the video, great source of inspiration, as always
Haha, you're definitely not alone
"Artist are terrible in doing work for themself" WAIT I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE??? i thought something was wrong with me!!! thanks Ben I feel better
Yep absolutely using death grips for my showreel
I think u r a literal angel
Ben you are amazing man!
Thank you! This was very helpful!
Thanks, very helpful! 🙏🏼
would love to see your current reel and I bet I'm not the only one :)
Short and sweet is the key!
i fuckin love you for everything you do for us
Dope tips! Thank you :)
Really informative 👏 video. Was hoping to find a balance between my graphic projects and video projects in one.
Death grips, hahaha
I can just see your animations playing with 'get got' in the background
Thank you so much
Lol, you really got that self quarantine hair don’t you :))
Haha, I've been putting of appearing in videos for so long because of this. But though, "to hell with it, It ain't getting cut for months. Let's embrace it!" XD
He kinda reminds me of the obsessed girlfriend meme lmao. He's very cool
"Steel art when you need to. Art is free" (c) God
Thank you so so so much for this video
You're so welcome!
Very helpful tips.. Thanx
Thanks for your video! I am an actor from Ukraine and I act in films and TV shows. I also do commercials for European countries. What should you say about yourself in an acting business card? How long should an actor's business card last?
Ben, do you have any advice for someone like me who has ADD and creating motion graphics takes an eternity? I took the School of Motion Animation Bootcamp and it was a huge challenge for me. I pulled a couple of all-nighters to get projects done. I don't have any experience and I have to create a showreel from scratch. I was going to use a few snippets of my assignments from SOM, but saw one of your videos suggesting that's not a good idea. Thanks for any input you could give a struggling wannabe mograph artist! I really respect your work and your knowledge and wisdom!
You are so helpful!
These are really great tips Ben !! Thanks so much. I though have a question , I make animated lyric videos so how should I make a reel out of them. Confused about music part, should i keep the song of the videos I choose or should I just keep one track for all of the clips I select for the reel?
bruh 7:57 , This is so me..
Im still using after effects :(.
For me, idk why its harder to learn premiere than C4D...
Hi Ben ! Your video pushed me gently but effectively finally to do my reel ! Can you advice good sourses of free music ?
BEN! YES! Thanks man! Im submitting something to you 😎🤟 soooo not a reel of your latest coursework?!😂 PPL THE COURSE IS AMAZING!!!! sign up if you can afford!
Haha, thanks so much. I really appreciate it
This video is really helpful. Thank you. What dimensions would you say the comp for a showreel should be?
I send you my reel !! Amazing video, and LOADS of great advice in the comment.
Awesome thank you!
Great tips!
About to update my reel from 2017. This exactly what I needed to see. What’s your take on ‘truchos’? Not sure in English, but in Lima, Peru amongst the design community ‘trucho’ is a fake project tailored to add something to your portfolio to help attract a client/clients or to fill in a gap.
Thank you for this
Good video, but we want to see your showreel!!!
Thank you so much for this! Could you recommend some premiere tutorial for editing motion works? I've done quite a few videos (mostly editing footages) by Pr but still feel very rudimentary, can't really stick clips in super cool ways. And I don't know if it's a problem of the version(latest) I feel the mask is so unintuitive, hard to edit it right in Pr, the keyframes are also not easy to edit like AE...
Do you recomend to include stuff learned and made by following a course? Or like with tutorials i should avoid it.
Thanks man
Did this gentleman recommend death grips for a showreel
So good! No tutorials eh? I'll just have to delete my reel then 😂
Amen to #13, Im the absolute worst at this.
Thanks m8!
Hey Ben. Thanks for the dope tips! Quick question - Do you think adding some slides of personal photography is appropriate? Would it be a good way to show off compositional technique and personality, or is it too different from the subject of the reel? Thanks again for all the hard work you're doing duder!
question.. can you edit music in primere? like chop music down and uh well match it?
Robots: check. Flying saucers: check. 😂
Hello! This is a very helpful tips. Thank you so much for this opportunity! I have just submitted my reel that I made last year I hope you don't mind that it's not something new. :)
Question: updating your reel once a year would be ideal. But if I feel like that I haven't made any animation that can replace my previous reel. Does this mean that I haven't improved? (I do think that lately I haven't improved... like I got stuck!) Any tips about this?
I am still saving up to register to your course. :)
Are you taking hybrid reels (video production & animation) or just motion design reels?
Hi Ben, this might sound like a dumb question. If I've done ads for a studio, is it alright to just include it on my reel or do I need to notify the studio?
Hi again, what size should the whole thing be pixel x pixel?
does everything have to be in color and finished? Im 26 and Im just starting on my own.
Ben are you planning to do a qna soon?
Just in case, how many project should the motion demo reel have?
do they have to be EPILEPTIC by the rule? Because i've searched for reels and now i am not feeling so well.
What's the deadline for reel submission?
In about 2 weeks I'll start going through the submissions :D
@@BenMarriott Thanks! I'm transitioning from editor/cameraman to motion designer. Hoping to get something half-decent together by then but we'll see. Fingers-crossed.
Do motion graphics usually use someone else's art ? or do they create it themselves? I'm a film editor and I'd like to create a motion graphics in order to get more jobs like that
7:36 why specifically not after effects? i feel like when i use premiere for putting clips together it can be worse bc or how buggy premiere is and i feel like i have less control, i also dont see how using ae could make a showreel worse
could someone please explain to me why, you would need to edit your showreel in premiere rather than after effects? what can premiere do that after effects cant?
When my after effects imports clips, they are super sped up. When I go to render, the final product is super slowed down. Any idea how to fix this? :/
Number 7 has a very important point about roles reversed!
That's All Folks !