A video demo-showreel - help me out!
category: offtopic [glöplog]
Hey everyone
My university has a department for digital aesthetics and through my relentless spamming and enthusiasm, I have managed to spark a small interest in the demoscene. I'd like to compile a small showreel showing off some of the most cool productions from the later years (2007+ maybe), with an indication of why it is interesting. Simply put a showreel of maybe 8 different prods edited down to 10 minutes all in all, with a small text between each explaining in laymans terms what is interesting about it.
So I put it to you, my peers, to nominate different prods: What 8 (or less) prods should go in such an introductory showreel, and why? You are free to nominate just one, or go berserk and have 10. I'll do the editing of the video and its mainly for internal use (although I'll put it on youtube, obviously)
My university has a department for digital aesthetics and through my relentless spamming and enthusiasm, I have managed to spark a small interest in the demoscene. I'd like to compile a small showreel showing off some of the most cool productions from the later years (2007+ maybe), with an indication of why it is interesting. Simply put a showreel of maybe 8 different prods edited down to 10 minutes all in all, with a small text between each explaining in laymans terms what is interesting about it.
So I put it to you, my peers, to nominate different prods: What 8 (or less) prods should go in such an introductory showreel, and why? You are free to nominate just one, or go berserk and have 10. I'll do the editing of the video and its mainly for internal use (although I'll put it on youtube, obviously)
Inflorescence - MFX. Because its badass. And pretty.
*it's
goto demodvd.org and download :)
What will they be impressed by? Code? Design? Stuff that's hard with conventional tools? Might be better to show them stuff they'll be most interested in, rather than stuff we think is cool :)
nic0: good tip, show some of the prods that made it to the scene.org awards.
To some extent it depends what the aim of your presentation is:
1) to make kool demoshock to japanese brain (replace 'japanese' as applicable)
2) to show what the demoscene is really about
3) to inspire people to get involved
Of course you've got the Fairbrauschmeda releases that fall under "all of the above" - but the less-obvious choices will depend on what you're hoping to achieve. For example, if you're going for 2), it makes sense to include at least one demo on an oldschool platform... for 1) or 3), possibly not so much.
(For 3, I'd make the slightly controversial nomination of D-Four by Ctrl-Alt-Test: it makes the point that you don't *have* to be a GPU wizard to make something that the scene will (mostly) appreciate. And besides, it's probably going to be different to the other 7 prods you end up picking :-) )
1) to make kool demoshock to japanese brain (replace 'japanese' as applicable)
2) to show what the demoscene is really about
3) to inspire people to get involved
Of course you've got the Fairbrauschmeda releases that fall under "all of the above" - but the less-obvious choices will depend on what you're hoping to achieve. For example, if you're going for 2), it makes sense to include at least one demo on an oldschool platform... for 1) or 3), possibly not so much.
(For 3, I'd make the slightly controversial nomination of D-Four by Ctrl-Alt-Test: it makes the point that you don't *have* to be a GPU wizard to make something that the scene will (mostly) appreciate. And besides, it's probably going to be different to the other 7 prods you end up picking :-) )
Rasmus: the mindcandy dvds feels kind of old and stale - they won't really impress anyone except those that know what they are looking for (a la "wow that really rocked in 2004).
Psonenice/gasman: The purpose is definitely to make a kool demoshokk, but with an eye towards "cool with constraints" (since that is very easy to explain).
I think what will impress these guys are technical achievements such as "this looks awesome and you claim its an amiga/4kb?!?!" or something that is just so beautiful that it is is mindblowing. Thats why I want stuff from the later years, since while Tint is one of my all-time favourite demos, it is unlikely to impress total newcomers :)
Psonenice/gasman: The purpose is definitely to make a kool demoshokk, but with an eye towards "cool with constraints" (since that is very easy to explain).
I think what will impress these guys are technical achievements such as "this looks awesome and you claim its an amiga/4kb?!?!" or something that is just so beautiful that it is is mindblowing. Thats why I want stuff from the later years, since while Tint is one of my all-time favourite demos, it is unlikely to impress total newcomers :)
Don't bother showing stuff like 256b/4k, unless they'll understand the coding acheivement. Otherwise they'll see a demo that's pretty shit compared to the other stuff.
Also if you show a bunch of high-end stuff, that can be pretty motivation killing if the audience is thinking "shit, I'll never compete with that". Put some regular stuff in there too, or make the point that it's fun and rewarding just to take part somehow. Maybe show anything you've done, and talk about what it was like to make and show it?
Also if you show a bunch of high-end stuff, that can be pretty motivation killing if the audience is thinking "shit, I'll never compete with that". Put some regular stuff in there too, or make the point that it's fun and rewarding just to take part somehow. Maybe show anything you've done, and talk about what it was like to make and show it?
If you don't know what your audience expects (technological superiority? artistic skills? a message?), show them Lifeforce. It has all of these.
"digital aesthetics" sound like it might make sense not to go for code pr0n or effects, but demos with a good direction and overall aesthetic look to them. This already limits you choice pretty well... :)
they aren't coders but I think they would be able to compare for instance Lifeforce to Elevated and acknowledging the technical achievement in the constraints of the latter. It is after all a department that teaches (very basic) programming apart from digital aesthetics and so on :)
Let me try another way: Anyone got an idea for a mindblowing demo on a restricted platform (not PC) from the last 4-5 years?
Let me try another way: Anyone got an idea for a mindblowing demo on a restricted platform (not PC) from the last 4-5 years?
Stuff like:
Farbrausch - The popular demo, Masagin
ASD - Lifeforce, Animal attraction, Iconoclast
Traction & Brainstorm - Fairytale
rgba & tbc - Elevated (beautiful regardless of being 4k)
Candela - Fair play to the queen (a bit cheesy, but good flow and short)
Basically all post-2005 fairlight
always works.
If you want to show older stuff, some good ones (all different departments) are (imo):
Purple - Plastik (flat shading galore)
MFX + Lunix - Pornonoise (glow and alpha blending)
Mandula - Live evil (all in all good demo)
Replay - Fall equals winter (scene poetry)
Videos for those are on wurstcaptures...
This is all PC just stuff though. The demoscene is much more than that...
There's lots of good stuff on different platforms. Look at TBL for Amiga stuff (Starstruck, Ocean Machine) and recent Amiga demos (e.g. Jesus Christ Motocross). SFC (Five Finger Discount, Matt Current) for GBA. "Edge of Disgrace" or "We Are New" might be good C64 demos...
Maybe add short explanation of the platform (CPU speed, RAM, GPU?...) and the demo (year, 4k/64k/demo...).
Farbrausch - The popular demo, Masagin
ASD - Lifeforce, Animal attraction, Iconoclast
Traction & Brainstorm - Fairytale
rgba & tbc - Elevated (beautiful regardless of being 4k)
Candela - Fair play to the queen (a bit cheesy, but good flow and short)
Basically all post-2005 fairlight
always works.
If you want to show older stuff, some good ones (all different departments) are (imo):
Purple - Plastik (flat shading galore)
MFX + Lunix - Pornonoise (glow and alpha blending)
Mandula - Live evil (all in all good demo)
Replay - Fall equals winter (scene poetry)
Videos for those are on wurstcaptures...
This is all PC just stuff though. The demoscene is much more than that...
There's lots of good stuff on different platforms. Look at TBL for Amiga stuff (Starstruck, Ocean Machine) and recent Amiga demos (e.g. Jesus Christ Motocross). SFC (Five Finger Discount, Matt Current) for GBA. "Edge of Disgrace" or "We Are New" might be good C64 demos...
Maybe add short explanation of the platform (CPU speed, RAM, GPU?...) and the demo (year, 4k/64k/demo...).
"just PC stuff"
maybe Panic Room for a PC 64k...
Don't forget Chaos Theory. It is 64k, but people don't need to understand size constraints to enjoy this beauty.
I'd add a Still demo like Finally Inside or The Seeker for the direction. A demo from Plastic (Into The Pink) for the graphics and the movie-like feeling. Also, you could add something from Equinox (Frameskool) for something a bit different (there are oldschool feelings, but it's enjoyable for anyone).
I'd add a Still demo like Finally Inside or The Seeker for the direction. A demo from Plastic (Into The Pink) for the graphics and the movie-like feeling. Also, you could add something from Equinox (Frameskool) for something a bit different (there are oldschool feelings, but it's enjoyable for anyone).
So, did anything happen with this at some point? :)
...and they all got drunk and lived happily ever after. The end.
For events like this, I show the intro sequence of Moleman2. It's a very well done journey through the history of demo-scene. This is, what CC is for.
i don't really think you can impress someone from 'department for digital aesthetics' with 'cool amiga 4kb' (at least my several attempts to explain to art/content managing people why cdak or elevated are so impressive didn't meet any interest).
on the contrary, showing off poorly keyframed 64k or badly sounding 4k is spoiling the whole idea usually.
so IMO gloom's nvision selection is pretty adequate to day (and nicely done!)
on the contrary, showing off poorly keyframed 64k or badly sounding 4k is spoiling the whole idea usually.
so IMO gloom's nvision selection is pretty adequate to day (and nicely done!)
ton: I actually didn't make the final call on what's included in that showreel, I just wrote up a list (together with Gargaj and Steeler) of good stuff and passed it along to the guys at NVIDIA who picked their favourites and compiled the reel themselves. I made the soundtrack though.
The NVScene demo showreel is really very good, I would love to show it to some of my university lecturers, it sure would be nice if there was a higher quality version of it somewhere though :)
Maybe i'll cut one together myself, it becomes very hard explaining the demoscene to someone using words alone :)
Maybe i'll cut one together myself, it becomes very hard explaining the demoscene to someone using words alone :)
