As a confirmation of what has been said by one of Pixar senior HR staff in Annecy, here is what Pixar artists have to say about demo reels.

http://splinedoctors.com/2009/08/more-on-demo-reels/

I must admit that I still don’t know what to think about the 4th bullet point:

“4) Don’t use those free Internet models. I cant tell you how many times we see the same 4 or five models. Yes, we know its hard to rig and find a good model to animate, but seeing the same rig for all these years is getting old. If you are gonna use a free rig, alter it so much so that you cant tell that its the norman rig or the animation mentor rig.Using the stock rig is just boring.”

Do they expect people to learn how to rig? I don’t have any problem with technical stuff like rigging or modeling but I am not sure everyone is really inclined towards that stuff so how much customization do they think is necessary when using “stock rigs”? Do they have any successful example?

AM summer 2009 showreel

AM just posted the new Animation Mentor showreel. Few of my friends were featured which is really cool and funny enough 3 of them are ex Blue Zoo staff from London.