Demo Reel Dash
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With Demo Reel Dash, you’ll learn how to make and market your own brand of magic by spotlighting your best work. By the end of the course you’ll have a brand new demo reel, and a campaign custom-built to showcase yourself to an audience aligned to your career goals.
Cohort-based learning
Exercises & Project Files for Every Lesson
Technical & Creative Support Along the Way
Verified Credential Upon Course Completion
Course Overview
Your Demo Reel is probably the most important personal project you take on every year. It is a business card, a technical demonstration, and a bit of humble bragging all rolled into one. It is such an important part of your professional life, we designed an entire course to help out: Demo Reel Dash. Whether you are looking to prove your skills, pivot to a new job title, or promote a new project, seasoned Creative Director, Ryan Summers will teach you how to make and market your own brand of magic. Building a new demo reel may be the most difficult task you face as an artist.
How do you showcase your work so you will be confident sharing it with the world…and how do you make sure it gets seen? This course will guide you through the process of crafting the perfect reel that not only impresses potential clients and employers, but also aligns with your career goals. By the end, you’ll not only show your work in the best light possible, you’ll be armed with a campaign to share it with the industry.
What You'll Learn
Each week is jam-packed with intense learning. While you have some flexibility in how you tackle your workload, the course is curated in a specific order. We build up foundations that support more and more advanced techniques with lessons to practice your new skills along the way.
Discover the various types of Demo Reels in our industry and why you may or may not want to use them. Learn the differences between Show Reels and Demo Reels, and define who you want to be as an artist by listing your goals and aspirations. Then we’ll get your work organized, categorized, and ready for cutting a new reel.
This week you’ll learn how to tell a story using three reels: Montage, Show and Tell, and Narrative. We’ll show you how to add music and sound design to help influence the tone and pace. Finally, we’ll explore techniques to make your reel memorable and exciting.
Refine your professional goals and ensure that your reel aligns to them. Now it’s time to test your reel to ensure it is effective and engaging. Finally, we’ll prepare a launch campaign so your work gets noticed.
The final week of class is an Extended Critique! You can use this time to catch up, complete your demo reel and Launch Campaign, and ask any questions you may have.
What You'll Get
School of Motion courses are custom-built to provide you with an unmatched learning experience. We want you to actually enjoy logging into your classes, and we’ve designed our programs to be the most effective form of online education out there. In every course, you’ll get:
Join artists from around the world on our custom learning platform. Never learn alone, as you’ll have immediate access to a forum of fellow students to share work, ask questions, and improve together.
Each course comes packed with free project files, assets, and additional material to keep you learning and growing long after the course ends. Our exercises are designed from real world briefs, so you’re learning the skills you need to excel on your next project or venture.
You’ll be assigned a Teaching Assistant with years of experience in your chosen course. They’ll provide technical and creative feedback to guide you through new skills, improve your techniques, and provide encouragement along your journey.
Completing a course isn’t just about bragging rights. Once you’ve completed at least 70% of your work in a given course, you’ll earn a verified credential that can show current and future employers exactly what you’ve accomplished.
We all need a refresher now and again, which is why you’ll keep access to your course—and all the assets and project files—for the rest of your life. Come back to listen to exclusive interviews, review old lessons, and try out new techniques using your old assets.
You’ll gain instant access to our alumni platform, The Square. Here you can network with professional artists at every stage of their career. You’ll get access to new job opportunities and exclusive alumni events, such as meetups, virtual hangouts and reel reviews.
Upcoming Course Dates
Enroll Now
Our cohort-based leaning program runs on a designated schedule, so you’ll always have a group of like-minded artists working alongside you for support and encouragement. We offer multiple sessions each year, so choose the best start date for you and get ready to go!
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Course Instructor
Type Lover. Pixel Peeper. Light Bender. Pencil Pusher. Curve Operator. Throw in Root Beer Aficionado, Hockey Fanatic, and International Man of Art & Science, and you’ve got the general idea of Ryan Summers. He’s worked with the likes of Guillermo Del Toro and JJ Abrams, and is currently a Creative Director at School of Motion where he teaches students to design and animate for the wild world of motion design. He’s just as likely to talk your ear off about the Scientific Method as a Design Lifestyle™ as debate why there is no further-refined pop music than the unreleased B-sides of early Oasis. Please approach with caution, high fives, and a firm handshake. He will not bite.
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FAQs
How do I know if this course is right for me?
Demo Reel Dash is for students who have a strong grasp of editing software and want to prove their skills, pivot to a new job title, or promote a new project. If you're comfortable with Adobe Premiere or After Effects, this course will be a good fit. In Demo Reel Dash, you'll learn how to create a Demo Reel and get it into the hands of the audience that can help you take the next step in your career. You'll also learn how to identify what personal work you can create in the future to ensure your reel is aligned to your career goals.
What are the prerequisites?
If you have 20 seconds or more of work that can be compiled into a sequence, you’re ready. This course will help you assemble a Reel that can be maintained for the entirety of your career, as well as identify what personal work you can create in the future to ensure your reel is aligned to your career goals.
What jobs can I get with a Demo Reel from this course?
We specifically cover Animator, Designer, Generalists, and Director Demo Reels – but any artist position found in motion design can be crafted from the Lessons and Exercises in this course.
What is the required software?
The class will be taught with Adobe Premiere, but any editing software can be used – even After Effects, while not primarily used as editing software, could be used to complete a demo reel.
What is the course format?
Demo Reel Dash is a 4-week course. Lessons become available at a specific time each week but you can watch them and do your work whenever it is convenient for you. The lessons include pre-recorded videos, podcasts, PDFs and assignments with working files.
All student work is critiqued by our highly trained Teaching Assistants. School of Motion TA's are professional Animators with real life experience in the industry.
During the course you will be invited to a private classroom that contains all of the students and Teaching Assistants in your session. This is a great tool for connecting, asking or answering questions, sharing thoughts or insights, and winning cool contests!
How much time do I need to commit?
Demo Reel Dash is a 4-week course. You'll have the flexibility to watch the course content and complete your course work on your schedule. However, you can expect to commit at least 15 - 20 hours per week on course material. The video lessons are 1-2 hours in length. There are 6 assignments total. Assignments are typically assigned on Mondays and Thursdays with soft deadlines the next day. We have designated catch-up weeks built into the schedule so students have extra time to complete their assignments if needed. There is also an extended critique add-on for those that want more time with a Teaching Assistant after the 4-week course or need more time to complete assignments towards earning a credential.
Can I access my course content after the course ends?
Yes! Once you complete Demo Reel Dash, you’ll have lifetime access to all the course lessons and materials, so you can revisit them whenever you like. Also, if we make any changes to Demo Reel Dash following your session, you’ll automatically receive access to the latest version.
Please note: Video critiques change each session, so you’ll only have access to the video critiques during the session you're enrolled in. The written critiques you receive in your homework locker as well as the classroom content will also remain available to you forever!
Why can't I enroll?
There are lots of changes happening at School of Motion! Demo Reel Dash is getting some changes of it's own and will be offered again in the future.
