Omar Domenech’s Demo Reel

[Omar Domenech]

Hello everyone. 

After many many months of not being able to work, due to a combination of life really getting in the way and my laptop going dead, I finally got a friend to lend me his computer for at least two weeks so I could finish assembling a small demo reel, to at least have something to show since the footage I got over the months with everyone’s help could be enough. I’ll try doing some extra stuff with the time I’ve got. 

The thing is my laptop suddenly died on me a couple of months ago, and here in my country there aren’t many places that can fix it, so I took the opportunity that my father was visiting the country and asked him if he could take the laptop to New York where he lives. Once there he sent it to Dell, I had to pay 300 dollars but they fixed it, turns out the motherboard died, so they replaced it. All happy and good, the laptop is like new but now it’s stuck in New York, since sending it back to my country is a lot of money and no one is coming to visit any time soon. So the only thing I can think of is to sell it, but I have no idea how to sell something in the US and A.

@theluthier Kent, I remember Dennis once told me he sold laptops or something like that. Could you ask him if there is a way he can point me to the right direction? How is it that he sells laptops, online? If someone is interested, does that someone have to be in New York? I mean isn’t it the same problem if someone in another state wants the laptop, shipping and stuff would be costly? 

I don’t know for how much to sell it either but it would have to be cheap, since it is a 2 year old laptop, I took out the hard drives since it has my data, so no hard drives on it, it already went into the computer doctor and I sent it to New York without the charger, I have it here, so people would have to use one of their own or buy it separately. If I should post pictures of it, I could ask my father to take some.

@phoenix4690 Phil will remember this laptop as the one that even ants love. 

The laptop specs are:

-Alienware 17 R4

-2.9 GHz Intel Core i7-7820HK Quad-Core

– 17.3″ 2560 x 1440 120 Hz G-Sync Display 

– 16GB DDR4 RAM 

– NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB GDDR5) 

Here’s the link:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1358397-REG/dell_aw17r4_7004slv_aw_i7_7820hk_16_1tb.html/specs 

[Kent Trammell]

Man, sorry to hear about the technical woes you’ve run into. Generally speaking I would sell a used laptop like yours on Ebay in the US; Craigslist if I didn’t want to deal shipping and sell it to a stranger locally. But I’m not sure if @dbrown is privy to other laptop selling techniques I’m not aware of.

[Omar Domenech]

@theluthier  Thanks Kent, I had heard of Ebay but not Craigslist. Weird name, sounds like a man named Craig just made a list one day and that was it. Maybe @dbrown knows some other person that made another list somewhere. Here’s hoping. 

[Omar Domenech]

Ok, here are a couple of videos that, given I only have a few days left with this computer, will just have to be the final result. They are apart, but after a couple of different scenes rendered, I’ll make just one video edit of it all. 

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Cool Wireframes

[Matthew Fricker]

Very nice work Omar , very nice indeed.

Sorry to hear about the laptop 🙁 , hope you manage to sell it ok. 

[Omar Domenech]

Thanks Matt. Yeah I hope I can get at least something out of the laptop. Frankly I don’t even know what to but next, if to buy anything at all. I bought a laptop because I had given up on desktops, I had no luck with those, they all kept going bad one after the other, it was such a headache all the time, so I bought a laptop because they weren’t an inconvenience. But it was all in vain, this laptop died the same as all my other desktops did, worst even, because with desktops at least you could buy just the component that went bad, with the laptop it feels such a waste, when it dies, everything goes to the trash. In my case I was able to send it to repair but again, now everything goes out to sell. 

I feel bad that I wasn’t able to finish the reel when it had all the hype and help from everyone, instead it will be a very slow walk to the finish line now. 

[Phil Osterbauer]

I think you have the building blocks for a really good reel there! You just have to put it together now. If by chance you still have things for render, we are still here at the ready bud. 

[Omar Domenech]

Thanks a lot Phil, you’ll always be a good boy, the best boy. 

[Dennis Brown]

Sorry for the late reply! 

Selling on eBay is a decent choice, but the amount of people visiting eBay has reduced significantly over the years. I’ve found that when you sell through eBay, you end up selling your item for a price less than what its worth. These days, I will sell everything including systems on Amazon. Reason being, the price received is extremely fair, you can sell at the price it’s worth,  at an exposure time longer than a week, and fees are similar but with better exposure benefits.

If the laptop lost a lot of value over time, Craigslist is your best choice, where you don’t have to worry about too many competing prices, and you can sell your item with a flashy description at a higher price, but you’re  limited to the local area (though no better place than New York). Exchanges can be risky, and ask for cash only (lots of rubber checks). 

Those would be my top-two depending on the value. I hope that helps, and best of luck! 🍻

[Omar Domenech]

Alrighty, thanks Dennis. I don’t trust computers anymore, I haven’t had any luck with them in years. I think I’ll be buying a tablet next and just don’t have any computer at all.

[Omar Domenech]

@theluthier  Finally it is now what it could be considered as final. After all this time I’m too tired of seeing it, I can’t see its mojo anymore, all the hype is gone, but nonetheless thanks so much to everyone for helping making it, and thanks Kent for guiding me all the way and always coming up with new solutions to problems. I hope fresh eyes can tell me if it’s worth it. 

I made another version without the character since I didn’t model it, just in case, that’s why he is barely seen, but I wanted to have something like that in it. 

I’m waiting to see if I get the Visa, I think mid February I will know, if so it will be time to see if the reel is up to the task of job hunting in another country. Fingers crossed. 

Any feedback is welcomed.

Thanks so much everyone. 

Wireframes is always a must. People frequently ask how did you do that, the wires often help.

[Kent Trammell]

You should be SO PROUD of this @dostovel! I love the subtle premise you introduced into the reel: Each asset / project being teased as a toy on the kitchen table. That little touch goes a long way to show how much effort you’ve put into the reel itself in addition to each project.

Overall I think this showcases your skill as a digital artist capable of many tasks including, modeling, texturing, shading, lighting, animation, rendering, compositing and video editing. You’re a powerhouse and it shows.

My only criticism is that the music seems to be cut in a way that skips a beat around 1:14. Did you use Blender to edit the video?

PS: Make sure you post to the gallery!

[Omar Domenech]

@theluthier Thanks for the kind words, Kent. It’s been too long since I started it and I’ve lost all perspective. After seeing The Joker I’m like dude, that’s the lighting and composition I would’ve wanted in all this reel, that now I want to do it all over again. But yeah, maybe when I was 16 I could’ve had that luxury to try it all over again, now it’s impossible, that’s why I need to make 3D my actual job and not my sometimes side gig. 

So the audio part was frustrating. I didn’t want the music to just fade away, I wanted it to end proper, so I tried cutting it, but it always sounded weird, I have no clue how to work with audio. The video is set as unlisted so I could get some feedback and correct things I missed. I listened to that part of the song so much trying to stitched it, that I thought I hid it well, fresh ears is what I needed. I’ll start by trying to fix the audio and see if there is any other place I can stitch it together that matches and hides it better. 

I used After Effects to edit and do some effects after. I hope one day marriage laws change and Blender, After Effects and Photoshop can have a kid together, imagine the possibilities. 

[Cookie Dough]

That is CRAZY GOOD!
It’s just- It’s just amazing Omar!
I don’t know what else to say, well done.

[Kaj Suominen]

Good work Omar! That shows that you have wide range in digital arts.

[Author]

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