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One Showreel A Thousand Meanings.
For a long time the word "Showreel" have been bothering me.
Do we need one? What is its purpose? What benefit will it give us?
I see my self as a person who always tries to think and see something from several point of views, deconstruct, or find out more.
Now and then i watch other people's showreel, and it's always admirable. But then a question pops up in my head "What benefits will this showreel give us(the viewer)?"
It Seems like they are just throwing it online on their socials. whats the purpose for this action? Is it to impress people? but then I remember the book called "How to make friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie" that says "People want validation, respect, and to be looked up on." So yea, lets face it. I know for a fact us humans will have that desire to be recognized even if its just a small award or event here and there.
There are definetly tons of other point of views on how we can interpret this, which brings us back to "Why" we do what we do. Some people join competitions for the recognition, but others uses it as a media to push them beyond their limits.
At the end of the day, any kind of Industry always comes down to business, making money.
Therefore if it's about making money, is the purpose for a showreel is only to attract potential clients? So just sending it around to potential clients and hoping for the best? Well, that was what I believed years ago. Well of course it works now and then, and yes it makes me happy when a client is convinced to trust in our service just by seeing our showreel. But then I go around and watch other 3D Artist, freelancer, or even a 3D Company's showreel, a question always comes up after "How can I win over the client when their work is way and I mean waaay better than mine?"
So rather than being frustrated by that mindset, I just gave it a go for this year as Evan (our Co-Founder) asked the team to make the showreel without me being involved at all.
As i was standing in front of the monitor watching the showreel, i tried my best to hold in my tears of joy..
cause it reminds me of when and why we work on that particular project.
It made me realise that it's more about what happened behind the scenes, and the hardships of going through that project, which was during the pandemic.
Do we need one? What is its purpose? What benefit will it give us?
I see my self as a person who always tries to think and see something from several point of views, deconstruct, or find out more.
Now and then i watch other people's showreel, and it's always admirable. But then a question pops up in my head "What benefits will this showreel give us(the viewer)?"
It Seems like they are just throwing it online on their socials. whats the purpose for this action? Is it to impress people? but then I remember the book called "How to make friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie" that says "People want validation, respect, and to be looked up on." So yea, lets face it. I know for a fact us humans will have that desire to be recognized even if its just a small award or event here and there.
There are definetly tons of other point of views on how we can interpret this, which brings us back to "Why" we do what we do. Some people join competitions for the recognition, but others uses it as a media to push them beyond their limits.
At the end of the day, any kind of Industry always comes down to business, making money.
Therefore if it's about making money, is the purpose for a showreel is only to attract potential clients? So just sending it around to potential clients and hoping for the best? Well, that was what I believed years ago. Well of course it works now and then, and yes it makes me happy when a client is convinced to trust in our service just by seeing our showreel. But then I go around and watch other 3D Artist, freelancer, or even a 3D Company's showreel, a question always comes up after "How can I win over the client when their work is way and I mean waaay better than mine?"
So rather than being frustrated by that mindset, I just gave it a go for this year as Evan (our Co-Founder) asked the team to make the showreel without me being involved at all.
As i was standing in front of the monitor watching the showreel, i tried my best to hold in my tears of joy..
cause it reminds me of when and why we work on that particular project.
It made me realise that it's more about what happened behind the scenes, and the hardships of going through that project, which was during the pandemic.
We started this year with this animation, as our in-house artists wanted to improve their skills and to express theirself and their true colours onto the storyboard, camera movement, and colour grading. We also use this as our portfolio, and to promote our masterclass here in Bali which happened before the lockdown.
The most memorable moment of this project was when we were having a discussion about the camera movement, composition, and colour grading. We went through lots of trial and errors on every step of the process, which always brings us back to the reason of why we wanted to do this. Not just about creating a pretty animation but the message we wanted to deliver to the audience and to evoke emotion.
The biggest question in this project was how to make it seem lively without having any literal animals/humans in it. Otherwise, this project won't help us improve our skills and push us beyond our limits. So the team came up with several ideas, using sound effects such as the wind and air, and obviously animated trees. Then we start playing around with other things, which were birds! As said that we didn't want to have the animals/humans in the picture our artists decided to use the bird's shadows and add wings flapping sound effects to make it feel alive as this was quite a mainstream idea. The other idea behind the bird was also to give the effect of fresh air and serenity of that place. As you know, birds love quiet places.
We only managed to do 2 masterclasses, as the others were canceled due to the lockdown.
The most memorable moment of this project was when we were having a discussion about the camera movement, composition, and colour grading. We went through lots of trial and errors on every step of the process, which always brings us back to the reason of why we wanted to do this. Not just about creating a pretty animation but the message we wanted to deliver to the audience and to evoke emotion.
The biggest question in this project was how to make it seem lively without having any literal animals/humans in it. Otherwise, this project won't help us improve our skills and push us beyond our limits. So the team came up with several ideas, using sound effects such as the wind and air, and obviously animated trees. Then we start playing around with other things, which were birds! As said that we didn't want to have the animals/humans in the picture our artists decided to use the bird's shadows and add wings flapping sound effects to make it feel alive as this was quite a mainstream idea. The other idea behind the bird was also to give the effect of fresh air and serenity of that place. As you know, birds love quiet places.
We only managed to do 2 masterclasses, as the others were canceled due to the lockdown.
The team made this animation to start our movement in Indonesia which was to help Indonesian 3D artists not only to improve their skills but also to further sharpen the business mindset. And another purpose of this movement was to make sure the 3D artists in Indonesia isn't drowned by negative thinking because of the lockdown. We believe in times like this, that we need to stick together and improve our skills and to be ready for the next chapter.
It was just a simple animation, with a simple scene, but our artist decided to add the police car toy and fun music to convince the ones watching this video to think that rendering is fun and distracts them from the negative thoughts during the lockdown. This also marks our first online course this year!
The memorable moment that happened behind the scenes of making this animation was when we slept for 2 hours every day just to make sure that the movement was on the right track. Another memorable moment was when we did a live online review from 8 PM until 1 AM in the morning and then still doing a live talk to discuss the business side of Arch Viz especially on the mindset. It was very intense but fun! and as we were finally seeing the impact of this movement, it made us very happy and proud of what we were doing.
It was just a simple animation, with a simple scene, but our artist decided to add the police car toy and fun music to convince the ones watching this video to think that rendering is fun and distracts them from the negative thoughts during the lockdown. This also marks our first online course this year!
The memorable moment that happened behind the scenes of making this animation was when we slept for 2 hours every day just to make sure that the movement was on the right track. Another memorable moment was when we did a live online review from 8 PM until 1 AM in the morning and then still doing a live talk to discuss the business side of Arch Viz especially on the mindset. It was very intense but fun! and as we were finally seeing the impact of this movement, it made us very happy and proud of what we were doing.
This animation was created to promote our 2nd course, which was the exterior course, and this animation was about adopting the idea from Pohutukawa animation(first video) which was lively without any actual living being, by using the wind and animated trees, as well was wanting to make it seem like rendering is fun, and our artists came up with the idea to adopt the scene that he got from watching anime show (here, everyone loves watching anime) and at the end of the animation, adding the character Groot that was shouting "I am GROOOOOOOT!"
It was a very short animation, but for sure fun to make and this was actually the first time that we adopted something saw from an anime show to our rendering animation. It also made us realise, inspiration can come from anywhere, but its depends on how we want to incorporate it into our Arch Viz Animation.
The memorable moment was when we saw our student working very hard on their assignment, especially when learning the growfx, most of em were frustrated with the vegetation part. But When they can finally create their own professional exterior rendering. Their excitement became our fuel that kept us going, and that made us want to teach and watch them better everyday.
It was a very short animation, but for sure fun to make and this was actually the first time that we adopted something saw from an anime show to our rendering animation. It also made us realise, inspiration can come from anywhere, but its depends on how we want to incorporate it into our Arch Viz Animation.
The memorable moment was when we saw our student working very hard on their assignment, especially when learning the growfx, most of em were frustrated with the vegetation part. But When they can finally create their own professional exterior rendering. Their excitement became our fuel that kept us going, and that made us want to teach and watch them better everyday.
This Project was a made us come out of our comfort zone as we usually did things using 3Dsmax, V-ray, and Corona Renderer. But as demanded by the people to make a course which uses V-ray for Sketchup, we did it. The problem was we haven't touched SketchUp for a long time, but with time and toying around with it we managed to regain the skills to use SketchUp and create this animation using V-Ray for SketchUp. The idea for this video is kinda unique. It's a reference to a house in Vietnam, and the purpose was to make the audience feel like they're in Indonesia, but in the year 1945.
As we all know, 1945 was when World War II happened, and Indonesia claimed its independence on the 17th of August, 1945. Then a few days later the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombing happened.
But the animation still needs to look fun, not scary. Our artists came up with a very good idea, which was to use old-style radio sound effect that played the recording of our first President's indenpendence speech.
This Project was like a love and hate relationship, as there were 300 students back then but only 40 of them manage to send in the progress. It pissed me off during the online review knowing that 30 of them didn't put in any effort into the details, and just drops the 3d model from 3dware house. All 30 of them ended up being dropped leaving only 10 people that finished the course. From this experience, I can see that there is a gap in terms of mentality between SketchUp users and 3dsmax users in Indonesia.
Sketchup is a powerful tool, but it's too easy. Therefore people underestimate it and only want the easy way.
As we all know, 1945 was when World War II happened, and Indonesia claimed its independence on the 17th of August, 1945. Then a few days later the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombing happened.
But the animation still needs to look fun, not scary. Our artists came up with a very good idea, which was to use old-style radio sound effect that played the recording of our first President's indenpendence speech.
This Project was like a love and hate relationship, as there were 300 students back then but only 40 of them manage to send in the progress. It pissed me off during the online review knowing that 30 of them didn't put in any effort into the details, and just drops the 3d model from 3dware house. All 30 of them ended up being dropped leaving only 10 people that finished the course. From this experience, I can see that there is a gap in terms of mentality between SketchUp users and 3dsmax users in Indonesia.
Sketchup is a powerful tool, but it's too easy. Therefore people underestimate it and only want the easy way.
Aaaaaaand this event called 24 hours of chaos....
For some of you that already know me, I've been away from Arch Viz social media for nearly 3 years. I realised that direct selling was my biggest weakness therefore I took the time to improve my direct selling skills. The only way to overcome it is that I have to it my self thus through trial and errors I learnt a lot during those 3 years, not just direct selling itself but also about practical business.
And Somehow the Chaos Group team and Nigel Hunt (Sini Software) sent me a message asking me if I wanted to be the host for the Asia Pacific area for the 24 hours of Chaos event. I accepted Without a second thought, and that is because they (Chaos Group) has helped me a lot especially back then around 2013 - 2014 by asking me to be the guest speaker and speak in 4 different countries and also guess speaker on Siggraph Asia 2013.
For some of you that already know me, I've been away from Arch Viz social media for nearly 3 years. I realised that direct selling was my biggest weakness therefore I took the time to improve my direct selling skills. The only way to overcome it is that I have to it my self thus through trial and errors I learnt a lot during those 3 years, not just direct selling itself but also about practical business.
And Somehow the Chaos Group team and Nigel Hunt (Sini Software) sent me a message asking me if I wanted to be the host for the Asia Pacific area for the 24 hours of Chaos event. I accepted Without a second thought, and that is because they (Chaos Group) has helped me a lot especially back then around 2013 - 2014 by asking me to be the guest speaker and speak in 4 different countries and also guess speaker on Siggraph Asia 2013.
This movement will be the our vehicle and our destination will be the international stage and for us Indonesian 3D artists to get the exposure and spotlight we deserve! As I hope that we will have lots of fellow Indonesian 3D artists attending the event, we decided to bring a different topic, which was the business side of our industry.
Before the show, we thought really hard on how to create a video that shows the real 2G Studio, not just about our skills, animation or still images we did, and what iI also discovered during those 3 years, is the factors to people wanting to do business with you isn't always just your product, but they might want to do business with you cause you are you! Knowing this fact will also affect how you do your marketing. "Market-ing" itself is how you introduce yourself to the market.
We thought really hard on how to make sure people know about our company. Our culture and how we do things in Bali. So We finally came up with the idea to show our daily activities and add some rendering in between. We finished the video (the video is right below here) and represented it on the 24 hours of chaos event.
The other memorable part was that after this meeting ended, we got a fast track project from our loyal client demanding a big high rise project that needed to be finished under 14 days. We couldn't and wouldn't decline, so we ended up not sleeping for 3 days a week haha.
Please enjoy,
This is us, and this is our Island of Gods.
(Right under this)
We thought really hard on how to make sure people know about our company. Our culture and how we do things in Bali. So We finally came up with the idea to show our daily activities and add some rendering in between. We finished the video (the video is right below here) and represented it on the 24 hours of chaos event.
The other memorable part was that after this meeting ended, we got a fast track project from our loyal client demanding a big high rise project that needed to be finished under 14 days. We couldn't and wouldn't decline, so we ended up not sleeping for 3 days a week haha.
Please enjoy,
This is us, and this is our Island of Gods.
(Right under this)
After the 24 Hours of Chaos, we wanted participate in the non-commissioned category for the CG Architect 3D Awards event. We finished the image, and I asked if they wanted to do an animation and they agreed on doing so. (Well sometimes I feel guilty and wonder if they really wanted to or is it just cause I asked them :P) Then we all decided to incorporate an anime scene into our animation. We only had 1 month left to submit the animation and yet we still had so much to do such as the storyboard, setting tons of camera angles, and the hardest part is we have to use animated objects and sound effect. Trust me this was such a hard journey.
We ended up not sleeping for 3 days straight before the submission date, but the truth was even on the weekends we almost got no time to rest hahaha. But at the end of the day, everyone enjoyed the process.
During those 3 sleepless nights, I started to realise what I really missed during my 3 year absence. It was bonding with my team. I used to have a very close relationship with all of my team when we built 2G Studio. One of the reasons why I worked 3 years on marketing and direct selling was because along the way I lost track of my "Why" or my "Reason" , and I realised that it's because I have accomplished all my Goals. A big house with a pool, a big garden (front, center, and back part of the house), a nice car, a beautiful wife and cute 3 little kids and I even live in my heaven.. Bali! The fact that I have all I need woke me up and made me find a new purpose and a new goal, it set me once again onto the right path.
I can say, working on the 3D Awards project made me regret undervaluing bonds and reminded me that the time spent bonding with my team is priceless.
We ended up not sleeping for 3 days straight before the submission date, but the truth was even on the weekends we almost got no time to rest hahaha. But at the end of the day, everyone enjoyed the process.
During those 3 sleepless nights, I started to realise what I really missed during my 3 year absence. It was bonding with my team. I used to have a very close relationship with all of my team when we built 2G Studio. One of the reasons why I worked 3 years on marketing and direct selling was because along the way I lost track of my "Why" or my "Reason" , and I realised that it's because I have accomplished all my Goals. A big house with a pool, a big garden (front, center, and back part of the house), a nice car, a beautiful wife and cute 3 little kids and I even live in my heaven.. Bali! The fact that I have all I need woke me up and made me find a new purpose and a new goal, it set me once again onto the right path.
I can say, working on the 3D Awards project made me regret undervaluing bonds and reminded me that the time spent bonding with my team is priceless.
You might be asking why we wanted to go this far?
is it because want to win the award?
- Who doesn't? If we can go far and we can go together, why not?
Is it because the branding & reputation that you will get once you win the award?
- Maybe?
Well we can't deny the fact that, everyone wants to win. And Yes, we knew this wouldn't be easy, especially knowing the fact that one of our idols which is a company in the UK would also be participating in this event.
Lots of effort sounds like an understatement, the right phrase would be that we poured our heart and soul into this animation and it became a media for us to express ourselves. One of the reasons that we like this industry is that we want to create animation.
Did we win the award? hahaha of course not. You guessed it, our idol. We weren't even nominated for the animation, but who would've thought that we got nominated for a different project on the non commissioned category. (Check the picture below)
is it because want to win the award?
- Who doesn't? If we can go far and we can go together, why not?
Is it because the branding & reputation that you will get once you win the award?
- Maybe?
Well we can't deny the fact that, everyone wants to win. And Yes, we knew this wouldn't be easy, especially knowing the fact that one of our idols which is a company in the UK would also be participating in this event.
Lots of effort sounds like an understatement, the right phrase would be that we poured our heart and soul into this animation and it became a media for us to express ourselves. One of the reasons that we like this industry is that we want to create animation.
Did we win the award? hahaha of course not. You guessed it, our idol. We weren't even nominated for the animation, but who would've thought that we got nominated for a different project on the non commissioned category. (Check the picture below)
Were we Happy?
ABSOLUTELY!
Were we Proud?
100 PERCENT! more than we could ever dreamt of.
We never thought that we would even be nominated. There were thousands of images submitted from all over the world, and only 5 of them will be selected. I consider this as a BIG WIN! two birds one stone, this also brings Indonesia's name into this industry's spotlight. But then if you ask me which was more memorable the image or animation? My answer would be the animation.
The next question is why we chose 3D Awards event the place to create this animation? It's simple, if there were no events and due dates, we'd never finish the animation. Everyone needs a goal, a target to finish this animation.
Another aspect is I always believe that this 3D Awards event isn't actually about winning the prize, but about raising the standards of this industry. CGArchitect and all of the judges has responsibility to set the bar higher and higher every year so that us artists never stop learning and improving ourselves.
Personally as an artist I see this award or competition as a place for us to grind and improve ourselves. Just like a character called Goku which Im sure lots of you are familiar with, he likes going againts stronger opponents knowing he might die with the sole purpose to break his limits and go beyond. He is a true fighter. This award is the perfect place for us all to become Gokus!
"If you're afraid of your opponent, then you've already lost."-f0rest (a Counter Strike:GO Pro)
The memorable moment this time is that after getting nominated, we closed a deal with a new client who found us from the one and only CG Architect :P I hope they aren't reading this article. :D Im not sure how they exactly found us, but as long as they found us through CG Architect, I think that's all that matters to me :D :D
Although the quality is still far from perfect, especially compared the winner's animation. There's still a long road for us to reach that level. But still, we are and will always be proud of this animation.
(Below is the animation we submitted for 3dawards.)
ABSOLUTELY!
Were we Proud?
100 PERCENT! more than we could ever dreamt of.
We never thought that we would even be nominated. There were thousands of images submitted from all over the world, and only 5 of them will be selected. I consider this as a BIG WIN! two birds one stone, this also brings Indonesia's name into this industry's spotlight. But then if you ask me which was more memorable the image or animation? My answer would be the animation.
The next question is why we chose 3D Awards event the place to create this animation? It's simple, if there were no events and due dates, we'd never finish the animation. Everyone needs a goal, a target to finish this animation.
Another aspect is I always believe that this 3D Awards event isn't actually about winning the prize, but about raising the standards of this industry. CGArchitect and all of the judges has responsibility to set the bar higher and higher every year so that us artists never stop learning and improving ourselves.
Personally as an artist I see this award or competition as a place for us to grind and improve ourselves. Just like a character called Goku which Im sure lots of you are familiar with, he likes going againts stronger opponents knowing he might die with the sole purpose to break his limits and go beyond. He is a true fighter. This award is the perfect place for us all to become Gokus!
"If you're afraid of your opponent, then you've already lost."-f0rest (a Counter Strike:GO Pro)
The memorable moment this time is that after getting nominated, we closed a deal with a new client who found us from the one and only CG Architect :P I hope they aren't reading this article. :D Im not sure how they exactly found us, but as long as they found us through CG Architect, I think that's all that matters to me :D :D
Although the quality is still far from perfect, especially compared the winner's animation. There's still a long road for us to reach that level. But still, we are and will always be proud of this animation.
(Below is the animation we submitted for 3dawards.)
You might be asking,
So is the purpose of the showreel to show off? for us to show our capabilities?
- Well, we all know for a fact that there are lots of companies out there or even freelancers that does a better job than us.
If the main reason of the showreel was to attract clients and to convince them to want to work with us, how would you explain when two companies pitch for the same client, with the same price point, but has a difference in quality. Yet the client ends up working with the company that has lower quality?
My conclusion and answer for this is that it all comes back to how you build a relationship with your potential client, how you introduce yourself in the market and be so transparant that they feel like they've known you for a long time even though it's the first time they have direct contact with you.
One thing that I learnt from the past couple of years, is that its okay to show your struggles (its okay not to be okay), life isn't just about your success. It's more towards showing who you really are, the way you do something represents how you do other things as well. The only way to stay true to your self is by showing other people how you do business.
All the stories above was all I thought about summed up in our showreel. I believe everyone in my team feels the same way when watching this showreel.
For me making a showreel is a media to reflect, to see what we have accomplished, our struggles, and went through that year. I never thought that 2G Studio could go this far, and I am really grateful to have my team right now.
My name is Reinaldo,from 2G Studio, Bali, Indonesia.
2020 signing out...
see you all real soon!
2021, GAME ON!!
P.S. 10 years from now, I might laugh reading this :P
I hope Jeff reads my article and decides to add an emoticon in the text block, my article looks really dry :D :D
So is the purpose of the showreel to show off? for us to show our capabilities?
- Well, we all know for a fact that there are lots of companies out there or even freelancers that does a better job than us.
If the main reason of the showreel was to attract clients and to convince them to want to work with us, how would you explain when two companies pitch for the same client, with the same price point, but has a difference in quality. Yet the client ends up working with the company that has lower quality?
My conclusion and answer for this is that it all comes back to how you build a relationship with your potential client, how you introduce yourself in the market and be so transparant that they feel like they've known you for a long time even though it's the first time they have direct contact with you.
One thing that I learnt from the past couple of years, is that its okay to show your struggles (its okay not to be okay), life isn't just about your success. It's more towards showing who you really are, the way you do something represents how you do other things as well. The only way to stay true to your self is by showing other people how you do business.
All the stories above was all I thought about summed up in our showreel. I believe everyone in my team feels the same way when watching this showreel.
For me making a showreel is a media to reflect, to see what we have accomplished, our struggles, and went through that year. I never thought that 2G Studio could go this far, and I am really grateful to have my team right now.
My name is Reinaldo,from 2G Studio, Bali, Indonesia.
2020 signing out...
see you all real soon!
2021, GAME ON!!
P.S. 10 years from now, I might laugh reading this :P
I hope Jeff reads my article and decides to add an emoticon in the text block, my article looks really dry :D :D
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About this article
This article is about my thoughts about showreel, Do we really need one? and how they benefit us? Is it just to show off. to show our skill?
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