Proposal

Overview/Introduction or Background - 
The career objective I would like to aim for is to go into 2D character design and animation. I reach this decision because it has always been my goal to get into this side of animation and design and I like to see dedicating my show reel to it a good way of improving my skills and learning new methods of going about it along the way.

Type of Animation, design or effects - 
I am going to mainly focus on 2D work, that applies to both my animating and design work.
This is because I've always found working in 2D a lot more freeing than working in 3D.

Format - 
I would like to have my show reel in a Quicktime format as this is a format I am mostly familiar with.

Purpose of my Show Reel - 
The purpose of my show reel will be to show off the skills I have learnt about 2D design and 2D animation.

Target Audience - 
I'm interested in going freelance with my work but I also like the idea of getting a position at an animation studio, so my show reel would be aimed at people directly involved with those things.

Animation Software and Hardware - 
For my show reel I will be using Adobe Photoshop for the initial character designs and then Adobe Flash for the animation side of things.

Proposed Total Running Time - 
I'm taking what I have learnt from Demo Reels on the amount of time to use in the show reel so, to make sure it does not become boring to watch I'm hoping to get everything in and shown in roughly 1 minute.

Planned Approach - 
I plan on approaching my show reel by designing some characters to begin with around some themes, then I will choose 2 or more (depending on how many of them I like) of the rough characters and begin to work on their design and them in different poses/expressions.
Once I am happy with the characters poses, expressions and colour, I am going to start by finding a sound bite that relates to the characters personality and animating a still lip sync with facial expressions.
This will be followed by a front and side walk cycle.

Showreel Examples

For my showreel I plan on looking at Character design in 2D and then animating any characters I design.
Here is an example of such things.

2D Animation Showreel example.

This reel has given me some good ideas as to how I am going to plan and lay out how my showreel should look based on whichever format I am showing off at various parts.

Looking at Demo Reels

I have been looking for an existing demo reel that is what I would like my show reel to be in the same style.
I have done this by looking at various 2D character show reels and have found one that I like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg76C0_F5bg
(Link would not embed so this needs copying to view.)

I like the way this reel is set out with the concepts for characters is set out next to what the artist would like for the colored and cleaned version.

I think I will use the example of showing a turn around as it goes along with the video, showing my progression along the character.

I would also like to include some life drawing in my show reel to show that I have tried to improve my understanding of the human form for my designs.