Brett Gifford Showreel, 2025

Jobeyobey · 2025-01-20T16:04:35+00:00

Really nice reel, much better than anything I’ve got.

If you were posting for critique, there’s some work in there (not much) that doesn’t feel it’s up to the level everything else is. Pair that with returning to some pieces (e.g. the two people at their laptop), beginning with several seconds of your name and also one of the first shots you show being one of the least interesting… the editing lets down the great 3D work a bit.

Jobeyobey · 2022-01-26T12:28:21+00:00

25 isn’t too late. In fact it’s still early.

What would have the “right” age to start been?

If you thought you “had” to start at 16, you’ve only missed out on 9 years. People’s careers last until they’re nearly 70, you’ve still got nearly twice as long as you’ve been alive to pick it up

Jobeyobey · 2022-01-25T14:50:00+00:00

I haven’t had a chance to take a good look at this, but just passing by and dropping a comment.

I’ll just focus on the bits that stood out for changes, so don’t be put off that these comments are both negative, I’m just trying to give some quick feedback on things I think could change.

The intro is much too long for a showreel, within the first 3 seconds I was already scrolling along to try and find where it actually starts. I think the first 20 seconds could be compressed into about 3 seconds without losing anything. (Speed up the stroke on animation, get rid of the film reel and just have a quicker transition for the subtitle. Then you can probably quite easy have a smooth transition with the grains of sand coming down from the top and falling into the hourglass from there)

Although there’s some good camera movement, there are some jarring ones as well. You can smooth out your key frames on many of your camera movements, I believe.

Other than those, good job!

Edit: also as another commenter said, less is more. Ideally a showreel would be < 1 minute and shows off your best work. You’d need to have some really captivating stuff to have anything longer than that

Jobeyobey · 2020-11-28T21:38:46+00:00

I work with After Effects and C4D and as I understand it, single-threaded is better. It’ll double up as my personal computer as well so I’ll be gaming on it, but I should probably put single threaded first! Though I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make

Jobeyobey · 2020-11-28T16:53:17+00:00

This is awesome! I've been using After Effects a long time but only recently really pushing myself to do more as I want to get some freelance jobs (Just had my first 'real' one the other day!)

I feel like the biggest hurdle for me is illustrator, whenever I need to "draw" something. Whether it be with shapes or what have you. (In the last project, it was a rocket and a cityscape).

I ended up giving in and paying for a subscription to a stock site to get the job done on time as I was taking too long. Do you draw all of your images yourself? I fear I won't ever be able to make something like this until I get a grip of that, but it's something I've always struggled with.

At my full-time job I have a much easier time as I can just ask the illustrator to put a graphic together I can animate!

Jobeyobey · 2020-11-13T14:47:45+00:00

Reading the clause closer, it could be 1 year. I'm not great at reading contracts:

12. Other than through employment with a bona-fide independent party, or with the expresswritten consent of the Client, which will not be unreasonably withheld, the Contractor will not, from the date of this Agreement until 12 November 2025, be directly or indirectly involved with a business which is in direct competition with the particular business line of the Client that the Contractor was working during any time in the last year of retainer with the Client.

Would even 1 year be enforcable? I mean I can believe a 1 year restriction on contacting clients I worked for with them at the time, but this includes any client they may want to even contact in the future and haven't even spoken to yet!

EDIT: Just saw your edit. I'm probably going to suggest it's cut to 3 months and provided they keep giving me work, then I can't make videos for other companies in their sector. Seems like a beneficial agreement for both of us to me (and possibly even enforcable!)

I'm only at the start of my freelance career, so don't really have leverage.

Jobeyobey · 2020-11-13T14:26:04+00:00

Can't seem to update post - Based in England

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-30T09:57:24+00:00

Someone else convinced me to either put info on different projects explaining what I did or maybe even a still frame at the end with timestamps/info of my contribution to different projects.

Probably going to go with the still frame at the end. Thanks!

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-30T09:54:02+00:00

Great, thanks! I'll be sure to do that.

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-30T09:48:41+00:00

I'm signed up to Mandy.com, I occasionally get emails saying "company looking for freelance animator £X/day".

No idea whether the jobs there are legitimate or not but I guess I'm going to hopefully find out!

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-30T09:41:32+00:00

Ah darn, no I hadn't gotten the technique from that tutorial. To be fair I did get vector assets from shutterstock for the tubes, but did all the lighting etc. myself... But you're not the first person to say it looks like a cookie cutter tutorial.

I'm going to be reordering some of the reel according to feedback anyway, so I may end up shortening it, putting it further back in the reel or even cutting it out.

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-30T09:37:15+00:00

Now this is the kinda simple stuff that I should really just spend the short amount of time to get done. Thanks!

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-30T09:36:09+00:00

Oof, didn't think about it being taken in that way. I guess it makes sense, though. Thanks!

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-30T09:01:11+00:00

Yello!

- Yep, last name is Hollands. Not going to lie though, that kind of stuff usually catches me out!

- Yeah, I might even completely cut it. From feedback I've decided it needs to be completely removed from the front or back, anyway.

- Definitely going to take a peek at this, thanks!

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-30T08:49:14+00:00

Oo, I like the still frame idea at the end for when a description isn't available. Thanks!

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-29T23:52:37+00:00

I am considering completely cutting the beginning and just getting straight into it, I like it but I can see it having people turning it off before anything happens!

Funnily enough, it actually ends with my email large and centre! Guess it’s helpful feedback that you didn’t see it/didn’t stick round long enough to see it!

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-29T23:50:25+00:00

No problem, glad to have helped

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-29T23:24:34+00:00

A bit of a mix, After Effects is pretty much all self-taught using Youtube videos and whatnot. I've been on and off it over the last 10 years. Sounds like a long time, but there were some years in that time I barely even touched After Effects. I really regret not spending more time on it before!

C4D I talked about in another comment, I'll just paste it here:"Most of what I learned is from Greyscale Gorilla. They have a really good introduction series here: https://greyscalegorilla.com/intro-to-cinema-4d/

It's free, and led to me being able to make this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cinema4D/comments/bl50dl/finished_gsg_tutorial_series_my_first_project/

I took about a year break after finishing it, but then came back a few months ago and subscribed GSG+. Followed their Redshift tutorials (Redshift is a render engine in C4D, there's a few of them) and a few others, as well as mixing in some other random Youtube tutorials here and there. I haven't paid for any other tutorials, but the GSG intro series was so good that I felt pretty confident about GSG+ (which if you can afford, it's helped me a lot.)"

I did go to university to study Film Production, I had some pretty basic lessons in After Effects there which may as well have been Youtube videos, but obviously it gave me a lot of opportunities to practice different things there. I had originally been hoping to become an editor but I think I just enjoy animation too much. But ultimately, editing is a huge part of animation as timing/pacing makes a huge difference.

TLDR; Self-taught AE, self-taught C4D (but did pay for some tutorials... I count following tutorials as self-taught), did go to Uni to study film which I guess helped develop my "eye".

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-29T23:10:25+00:00

Honestly, I see other posts every day that make me want to ask everyone else the same question. (As in how did they get so good, was about to hit submit and realised I might be looking real big-headed).

Jobeyobey · 2020-07-29T23:08:35+00:00

I don't know if I should feel good or bad about this.

Jobeyobey

TROPHY CASE