Update

I haven't posted in a while because of other things taking over but I have made some progress today which I think is useful.

During the last meeting with Ken I told him that I've been struggling with myself to get into contact with people. I have a bit of a problem with thinking I'm going to be bothering people and so convince myself it's better not to ask than waste someones time. I know I need to get into contact with more than just Mike despite the fact his help has been invaluable so far (side note I've sent him another email recently which some more questions that cropped up as being useful during the current group project I'll post if I get a reply)

So in order to try and combat my fears I've been looking to find a way of asking for people who are willing or have some time to talk to me a bit via the forums on the 11 second club and while looking for the right place to post such a request I came upon an article posted by Andrew Innes titled "getting a job in games"

link: http://gamesanimator.com/?p=28

He mentions as part of the article what he looks for in game demo reels:
 "Great body mechanics, focus on real weighty actions. Less emphasis on acting."

also he links to another article which goes into a little more detail from 2008
link: http://fliponline.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/getting-animation-job-in-games.html

This helps confirm information I've found in other places. As he's shown his willingness to offer advice quite recently and currently has 5 years of experience working at natural motion I thought he might be a good person to contact for more advice. I just need to re evaluate my questions and figure out which ones he's already answered in the article but I'm hopeful of a reply.


In other news my showreel is slowly gaining footage that I'd be ok with showing other people which is good, I've readdressed a load of the issues with the fox run animation and am working on a set of animations which would act as an extension to an Idle when the fox sits down and looks around. This is being split into three parts in order to show understanding of the need for quick reactions to player input.