How to Create a Killer Reel

Studio Dumbar2023

6 Oct

Written By Winston Duke

Hiromu Oka
@otp_otopi
Motion Designer

How to create a killer showreel

A considered showreel is the most important sales tool in the arsenal of a motion designer. Curating your best work isn’t the easiest of tasks, we pulled together a list of tricks to help give you the edge when it comes to editing your work.

01

Short & Sweet

Time is of the essence.

With ever decreasing attention spans, keeping it short and concise can help you stand out. We’d recommend 40secs max.

02

Pacey Track

As much as we love a good sombre song, we’re looking to capture people’s attention. A high energy track can help bring the viewer straight into the reel and never look back

03

Go With the Flow

Edit your reel as if you were editing a music video.

Use your tracks peaks, troughs and crescendos as an opportunity to cut your work to a beat.

04

Best Above the Rest

Start and end with your best and proudest projects.

Showing a breadth of work doesn’t hurt either, spacing out projects, highlighting unique parts and always show work you’d like to do more of.

05

Don’t overthink it

Your reel will never be perfect and that’s okay.

Don’t be afraid to edit or swap things depending on the audience, experiment with different music, add work in progress. Let your personality shine through your work.

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