 Welcome back to an FNA and today I want to talk about animation demo reels and even though FNA is for new animators, it's also for older animators and seasoned animators who are in that position where you do need a reel. Now, why do I talk about this? Of course, it's related to me losing my job and having to go and get a new one, but it's a general piece of advice that I give any students. Basically, when you start as a student, you work on separate shots. You might work on theses, but you can assemble several shots to make a reel. And with that demo reel, you apply for jobs. Now, the danger is that once you have that job, you stop working on your demo reel. Could be many different reasons. Maybe you just love that job and it's a secure job and you don't want to leave. Or even if you do want to leave, it's in a couple of years. And again, the job is secure and you kind of have a long term plan of maybe after a couple of years, I will assemble a new reel. Some of the jobs are more project based and you're going to have to look for a new job six months after a year after. So depending on what situation you're in, of course, what I'm saying today has different kind of meanings and you can apply this in many different ways. For me specifically in BFX, there is always that summer low. Basically, back in the day, you had the blockbusters that will come out in April, May, June, something like that, maybe July 4th, but that would be something that was completed on our end way earlier. So you would have kind of crunchy time during Christmas spring, and then there would be kind of a gap until it would pick up again in fall. So for me for over 17 years, there was always summer is when you might get laid off. So I always kind of had, I wouldn't see a reel ready, but always collected the shots, always had a folder with all my shots ready, but they were not assembled into one presentable reel. And that has bit me in the butt a couple times. Sometimes something happens or you see an opportunity and you're just not ready. It's just not assembled, the shots are not great, you should have done maybe a shot at home to kind of supplement your reel to kind of round it out. So always kind of had that problem. And once again, it bit me in the butt for more of that later. So basically as a general thing, you should always be ready to apply for a job either because you want to or because you have to. And that means always working on your reel either when you have a reel ready and you animate new shots, you kind of take an old shot from your reel, replace it with something new and always kind of keep it fresh and ready to go. And if you work in different areas where it's like games, VFX or a feature of TV, whatever, you might have even multiple reels. So one that's a bit more realistic, one that's more cartoony, whatever your needs are. And why is this important? Well, bringing it back to my case, I always kind of had somewhat of a reel ready again during the VFX times, but never quite. And sometimes you can apply for a job where you get job offers based on just your reputation, the stuff you have to be online that you posted and it's not quite a reel that you send. But with my recent layoff, I still had to create a reel and send it places where they would say, Hey, we would love to work with you. And then the question afterwards was, do you have a reel? So you always have to have it ready. Now in my defense, my last job I thought going to last till 2025. That's basically what the contract says. So I thought I got till then to reassemble new work and then have a new reel ready to apply for new jobs. But two, three weeks ago, unfortunately, the show that I was working on was canceled at Warner Brothers and I was out of a job. The first thing that I did was I set my LinkedIn badge to open to work. Now the whole job search and how I got a job and all that stuff around it, that's a separate clip that might come next couple of weeks. But once again, I did not have a reel ready. What I did have was a Star Wars reel, but I didn't only do Star Wars at ILM, but I had that reel ready because it was kind of a the end at ILM and I wanted to do like a made a fourth view with you type of reel. So that was ready to go. And then I had a bunch of shots that were more cartoony, which I put at the beginning to kind of assemble a reel kind of like that. It worked. It definitely got me interviews, but it wasn't if the flow wasn't quite right, because it wasn't cut to music, was just kind of shots kind of assembled. And there was some stuff missing. I didn't have enough lip sync pieces. So to me looking at what I have now, despite having a job now, I do want to continue and work on my own shots and kind of round out that feature animation cartoony aspect of my reel. And if you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen that I'm posting more shots and more talk about them because I'm going through older folders and looking at older shots like what can I keep? What would be good? So it's kind of like a kick in the butt again from losing the job to let's always have that reel ready. So again, having a reel is just the extra stability to react and be proactive. So either something happens to you or you want to go out and get something new and you got to have that reel ready to present it. Now this clip is as much as a piece of recommendation or piece of advice for students who are getting their first job and thinking this is going to be it. Just always be ready. But it's also for myself. This is for me reiterating the thought that I was always behind. There was always they had a couple of opportunities that didn't quite work out because the reel was kind of rushed. And that is now my pledge to not do that again. Of course, this is not a new revelation that no one has ever heard before. Everybody's always been telling, I've been telling the students and I've been told as well, you got to have a backup plan, you got to be ready, but you never quite ready until it happens to you. And actually, I would recommend that you look at the clip from Alexander that says no one is safe. Another huge layoff. A lot of people talk about his industry being volatile. We thought that Netflix was the big savior and now they're canceling things left and right. The industry is never safe and they're always ups and downs. And I thought I was ready. I thought I was used to the ups and downs due to the effects cycle of summer lulls and not having worked during that time. But then we're streaming the schedule kind of change. And it felt like this is going to be okay. Well, it was not. So the summary is have a reel ready, always work on your reel. It's good practice for you to see where you're at because you look at your reel and you go, this is cool and something is missing. And then you can work on that either if you can maybe mask for shots at work to compliment that part. Or you can't do those shots at work. So you have to do something at home to again round out and kind of diversify the reel in terms of getting more creatures, more human stuff, kids and like anything that's a bit more a better showcase of what you can do. And of course, it's there as a backup plan in case you do get laid off and need to look for a job quickly again, more on that later, or something where you are ready to grab an opportunity even though you were safe and everything was okay. Sometimes something shows up and it's really cool and you want to get that opportunity. Now, when it comes to them or wheels, I do have a series about that. You can check out that playlist or bunch of tips and tricks on how to assemble it, what to look out for all that good stuff. But that is that for me. This is the general piece of advice, of course tainted by my own experience, but it's a good reminder. It's a good reminder for myself to be ready for good and for bad. So hopefully that is helpful. Crashes, always comments are open. Let me know if you have any questions about that. I will follow up with another clip where I explain how I got my new job and what I did in terms of panic mode, red button, I had no job. What do I do? Bunch of tips about that. I hope they're helpful as well should come probably next week. And that's it. So thank you for watching. As always, thank you for your time. I appreciate that. And if you don't miss any of my other uploads and as my turbulence stay in this industry continues, I will probably have more tips. So if you don't want to miss those subscribed, that would be awesome. That way my channel can continue growing. Thank you for those that have subscribed that have watched my silly clips. That's it for me. All right. Thank you. I'll see you in my next upload.