Dark and surreal mixed with stop motion, kinda reminds me a bit of Jan Svankmajer's work with some serious mograph underpinnings! Check out Nando's 2010 reel as well, some very nice pieces.

"Whale Song" for Modest Mouse from Nando Costa on Vimeo.

Nando Costa Reel 2010 from Nando Costa on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Demo Reel, Film Short, Stop Motion

Great Roundup at aetuts+ on several visual effects treats, many of which we have posted to our inspirations page in the past, by Topher Welsh.

"A subject we haven't touched on for a couple months is the wonder of visual effects and compositing breakdowns. Take a look at the largest roundup of this genre to date!"

Check out the full article at aetuts+

Here's a small sample of inspirations covered:

Nokta . from Onur Senturk on Vimeo.

Mnet "Urban Bubbles" from panic embryo on Vimeo.

Brian Alvarez 2010 Reel from Brian Alvarez on Vimeo.

Labels: "Making Of", 2D, 3D, After Effects, Demo Reel, Experimental

A great way to find talent, and great way to find inspirations too! Click "Next Reel" to see a random motion design reel. If you see a reel you like, just hit "Like This Reel". This will help bring the best reels to the top. Check it out

Labels: Demo Reel

Our friend Topher Welsh has done it again- 32 Fantastical Demo Reels is a stunning roundup of visual eye candy inspiration featuring a wide range of styles and talent.

View All 32 Entries Here at AEtuts+.

GKASTER Motion Demo Reel

GKaster Reel may 2009 from gkaster on Vimeo.

Steffen Knoesgaard Showreel 2010

Steffen K Showreel2010 from Steffen K on Vimeo.

Labels: Demo Reel, Experimental

Topher Welch has recently compiled a list of 41 compelling demo reels for your viewing pleasure. Some older, some newer, but all very attractive. "Wow... it took forever, but I'm here to bring you more demo reels then ever before! Maybe you are hurting for some graphics ideas, or just need to whet your inspiration palate? There's no better way to throw away an afternoon. Enjoy!"

Joost Karngald Reel



Tony Hudson 2009 Reel



The Mill 2009 Reel



Mathieu Gerard



Thanks to Topher for scouring the interwebs and putting this together! These were just a couple that jumped out at me, but you can browse the whole list at Aetuts+.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Demo Reel, Experimental, Film Short

Demo reels aren't something we normally put here but after I saw the sand effect in the beginning, I was sold. Nice particles! The reel is VERY short at 1:19, which is a good length for a reel. The cuts are fast. Can't say I like the choice in music but it goes well with the aggressive content. In all, an excellent reel, even if it is 3 years old! Nothing in the reel is dating it. Maybe I should post more reels.



Thanks to Stephani Bell for the link via Facebook. Toolfarm is on Facebook! Become a fan.

Labels: Demo Reel

I don't tend to put a lot of reels up here, but one of my former students emailed me and asked about this one. Very nice work. It flows really well. Students, please look at this one for inspiration on how to edit your reel!

glasshouse reel 2009. from glasshouse on Vimeo.

Labels: Demo Reel

King and Country directed and animated this self-promotional short; "”The Ride”; loosely follows the journey of an idea from it’s rough beginnings, through a perilous course, until it finally takes off into the world."

Labels: 3D, Demo Reel

The Red Giant/MyToolfarm NAB Contest submission was officially over earlier this week and we had several terrific entries. Because of a problem we had with our uploader, the entries were also collected via another method, so this is not every entry unfortunately. This will give you a good cross-section of what was entered and if the winning entry is not in this bunch, we will put it online. There were about 24 entries in total. There are some super talented designers and motion graphics artists out there. I was blown away by some of the entries.

For a video to qualify, they must use Trapcode Form or Magic Bullet Looks. The first place winner will receive a trip to NAB and present their project at the Red Giant Booth. The first and second runners up will receive software.

The official winners will be announced next week. The list below is in the order they were submitted from newest to oldest and is no indication of the winners.

I should also note that the star ratings are not accurate if you view at MyToolfarm, so please ignore them. I think they work fine, but I wonder if someone has come through and given them all low marks just to be funny. All of these videos deserve higher ratings than they've received. I'm going to look into this.

Symantec NetBackup Product Launch

Submitted by Mark Jeschke

Veritas Backup Exec 10 Event Opener

Submitted by Mark Jeschke

Tori Amos Greenscreen Contest Submission 2007

Submitted by Mark Jeschke

Freedom Fall (Clip)

Submitted by Erik Candiani

Ryan Wheat Motion Graphics Demo

Submitted by Ryan Wheat

Penny and Ashtray

Submitted by Axel Roessler

The Field Scene

Submitted by Pericles Lewnes

Mumbai Central

Submitted by Alexander Snelling

Besuch der Holztiere

Submitted by Axel Roessler

Labels: 2D, 3D, Demo Reel, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, MyToolfarm, Student Work

Jim G., one of our fine Toolfarm Forum Experts, IM'd this terrific reel from Ronin. I love reels like this - where they actually do some cool editing and sound effects to make a cohesive demo, instead of just string together an endless assortment of interesting clips. There are clever transitions and cool sound effects with the edits.

Kids, watch and learn.

Labels: Demo Reel

Stash Media Stash 33 trailer came out earlier this month. Man, this is some seriously cool work. I'm too lazy to re-write the description:

Fun, in all its shades and guises, is the operative word for Stash 33.

For instance: we open the main program with complete bunny-mad chaos from Pleix and MacGuff for Groove Armada, and then trample on through Psyop’s hip-rebel-comedy for Fanta, HSI’s deadpan take on Reyka Vodka, manic pirate/bovine/bicyclist stop motion for Cravendale from Nexus, crazed MTV Asia work from JL Design in Taiwan, Wilfrid Brimo going berserk for V Energy drink, Han Huggebrooge’s unhinged vignettes for Dutch TV, Make’s extremely flammable chipmunks, very curious characters from Curious Pictures for Crunch and we cap it all with a surreal and utterly original bit of action-lunacy about courage, show business and inter-media love created at Supinfocom by Corentin Laplatte, Samuel Deroubaix and Jerome Dernoncourt,,, you get the idea – check below for the full list of contributors.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Demo Reel, Experimental, Film Short, Stop Motion

Method's CG Reel came out today. I love the stuff done for Sears with the power tools blooming out of flowers. Amazing 3D and compositing. You'll see the fern and pink flowers with the drills. I first saw those spots at the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival in January 2007. Mindblowing effects.

Labels: Demo Reel

Mason Dixon of the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival sent this one onto me. The Somersault's Winter Reel is incredible. I don't like to post too many reels, but this one has a combination of diverse styles, high-end work and innovation.

Somersault has a new site too. And... they're looking for a full-time and freelance 2D and 3D artists, so if you're looking in Chicago, here's an opportunity.

Labels: Demo Reel

We're looking for a few good animators, editors, students or even just fans of visual effects to contribute to this blog. Not HTML skills necessary, but a good eye for the most ground-breaking and rule-breaking techniques and styles out there. We want eye candy! Yes, we do.

Interested? Drop me an email and tell me why you should be considered. You would be expected to make one post per week, but you can post more, as long as they're quality videos. You're welcome to add your thoughts and opinions about the video, too.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Commercial, Demo Reel, Documentary, Experimental, Film Short, Interview, Movie Trailer, Music Video, Podcast, Stop Motion, Student Work, Television, Titles

Natush, of Munchen, Deutschland, has produced some very cool visual effects, but what I'm really digging is the way that they present their work. You can watch their work as you normally would, or you can hover over and see the post production work as your watching. See the original shots before the matte paint and keying are done. Alternately, you can click to view two video windows playing simultaneously, with the pre-production in one window and the post-production in the other. Such a simple idea, but so well executed. Really cool work, too.

Katie Gobright sent me this link. Thanks Katie!

Labels: Demo Reel

This is definitely one of the nicest student showreels I have seen. This was done by Waldemar Borth, from Mannheim, Germany, and this showreel won an Animago award. Hey, congrats.

Students, take note... I teach at an art school, and many student reels are not very good. Yes, they try, and I don't want to be too cruel, but I see some recurring problems with the reels. Many are too long and repeat content, contain that is very amateurish, or looks exactly like something in an iPod commercial/Comedy Central ad/Green Day video. My advice? Be original and make your reel stand out. Make it personal. Put your best work on it. Keep it fresh. I wrote a short article on creating a proper demo reel if you're interested.

Waldemar does it right. The auto commercial and other content looks very professional, not like student work. He keeps it short. He even uses, I believe, original music. He shows a variety of styles, too. Nice work, Waldemar.

Labels: Demo Reel, Student Work

Normally I would link to an entire page, but there's so much cool stuff from Exopolis, I thought I should post it all. Exopolis is an L.A. based creative studio that develops for seemingly every type of media available. I don't know about you, but I'm inspired!

My homie, Dru, sent me this one asking how the keying was done on the BET spot and the roto on the NASCAR spot. My response: Very carefully. Actually, I told him he needs to get Ultimatte Advantage and Silhouette FX Roto.

Labels: Commercial, Demo Reel

Jerome Olivier is a mograph artist who has worked in Tokyo for many many years. His reel is terrific - lots of variety, interesting edits, cool music. Those of you working on your own demo reel... take notes!

You may recognize his name from the film Missing Pages, a unique short film that has won film festival awards all over the world. I interviewed Jerome in February 2006.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Demo Reel, Interview

Onesize is a production studio in Delft, The Netherlands and I gotta say, this one blew me away. It's the Onesize 2006 Demo Reel. They're taking styles and techniques that have been done before and put a new interesting twist on them. The result is mindblowing! Seriously cool stuff.

They've done work for MTV, KFC, Nike, Vans, Mitsubishi and others.

(Note: This file link says temp, so please tell me if it gets moved and you get a broken link. That happens sometimes, to my dismay.)

Labels: 3D, Demo Reel, Experimental

I like to get some variety up here by featuring projects from big post houses, cool student work and some interesting techniques and styles that I've never seen before. This one came via Charlie Forbes, one of our Toolfarm Forum Experts.

Nicholas C. Raftis III, a fellow Michigan artist, is a video/audio artists create inherently fused synaesthetic animations and music, via programming generative systems in Max/Msp/Jitter by Cycling 74. I have no idea what that means, but the result is really interesting and fun. His work deals with abstractions of space and reality.

He has performed live music and video under the pseudonym "OOO" at numerous large scale electronic music shows, alongside notable artists such as Juan Atkins, Wu-Tang Clan, Jimmy Edgar, Richard Devine and more. He has done interactive audio/visual installations, published albums of music on many record labels, and screened films in festivals worldwide.

This is Nicholas' Demo Reel. I would like to point out the twisting effect on the city scape and the cool graffiti effects. Very cool, indeed.

Labels: Demo Reel, Experimental

A little trip down memory lane... This AE 3.0 Promotional piece is an infomercial-type video from 95 or 96 with appearances from Trish Meyer, Tim Sasson, Lynda from Lynda.com and others. Classic. Oh, how far we've come.

Thanks, Matt, for sending it to us!

Labels: Demo Reel

Re:Vision Media is a company run by Brandon Hirzel, a new media artist from Detroit (props for Michigan!), now living in San Diego, California. He works as a freelance motion graphics, cinematography, music video, VJ...

I saw his eye-popping reel on Brandon's MySpace URL. What really delights me about this reel is the effect where the video freezes, an outline is drawn around the character and the person becomes a bit posterized. As this is happening, textures, graffiti, lines and other elements draw on behind him. Okay, this effect is all-over right now, but I haven't seen it this superbly. There's so much detail. A definite 10 on the cool factor.

The reel is vivid, energetic, tight, fun to watch and everything a reel should be. Well played, Brandon. Well played.

Labels: Demo Reel, Experimental

Some super cool work from Shilo Design, a collective of designers, animators and directors.

There are some meritorious (wicked cool) animation for MTV, AMC, and Toyota included in their Shilo Montage 2004 video. Love it.

Labels: Demo Reel

Check out the Latest Reel from CA-SQUARE. I wish their sample was a bit larger, but there's some really nice work there.

Labels: Demo Reel

Great high-end stuff from Syndrome Studio, so check out their Motion Portfolio.

Labels: Demo Reel

Studio Arsenic | ShowReel starts out with some gentle, classical Japanese scenes then moves into some groovy, fun work. Lots of style and originality.

Labels: Demo Reel, Experimental

I love Bjork's work and she makes incredible videos. Human Behaviour annd the giant teddy bear is a great moment in music video.

Labels: Demo Reel, Movie Trailer

Check out Mr. Monterani's demo. I really like this guys work - the simplicity and style. I really dig the bit wit the dots and the Americas which become Antartica. This is just quite a bit different than most of the work listed here in Inspirations... and probably more along the lines of what many of you do from day to day. The music reminds me of something from Down With Love - fun flick.

Labels: Demo Reel

Besides having a domain name that I'm sure people would fight over, motion-graphics.com, Erik's work is marvelous... really cool and different. One of my students alerted me to his site after asking me how he did the Lance Armstrong animation.

Labels: Demo Reel

Fabulous compositing and 3D, and really good compression on their Quicktimes. The Embassy Visual Effects Inc. has created some (un)believable and seamless effects for the big screen. I love the creeping roses and the collapsing Guggenheim.

Labels: Demo Reel

Wow! This is one of the best reels I've ever seen. It starts off with cool live action vector-looking people (ala iPod) and then goes into a stellar showcase of work. My fave is the butterfly/flower animation that's about the halfway point. I really dig the way the ended it too. A+

Labels: Demo Reel

shake.com - Quality animations, a melange of styles and some high-profile clients make this reel a good fix when you hit a creative block. Lloyd Alverez has one of the more modest sites I've seen in a while, but it really puts the focus on his outstanding reel.

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard....

Labels: Demo Reel

MK12 is really swell video house from KC, MO. They do some really innovative work (another with strange music on their demo reel!)

Labels: Demo Reel, Experimental, Music Video

Yeah, an interesting site to say the least. As you watch the gentleman in the leotard do hip swivels, take a peek in the Broadcast section. Gmunk has a great style - of course, I've seen this style a lot lately, but I saw it here first. Make sure to check out Happy+Reel_02.

Labels: Demo Reel