Video Of The Week: How To Make The Perfect Demo Reel

He reminds animators to adapt their reel to each company, and cautions against making it too long — in his view, one minute and three shots are enough. Each shot should demonstrate a different skill and the best one ought to come first. That said, the quality should never slip: “You’ll get judged on the worst shot in your reel.”

In the first episode, Haas uses examples to illustrate the elements that make for his ideal demo reel shot. For instance, he says that he likes to see a character “presented with a problem, [as] the character has to make a choice, and the choice reveals character.” He’s careful to note that much of his advice is subjective, and there are always exceptions. But his tips overlap a lot with those of Dreamworks animator Guillermo Careaga, which we covered back in November.

Haas is an experienced educator — he teaches at Animation Mentor, the long-running online animation school — and his manner is lucid and lightly humorous. We previously featured his analysis of the animated performances in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.