What Makes a Motion Design Reel Work (From the Hiring Side)

Written by Jennie Davis · Creative Producer

There’s always a lot of discussion around the “perfect” motion reel. How long it should be, what it should include, and whether personal work is an advantage or a disadvantage.

When projects require scaling a team, part of a creative producer’s role is finding artists who fit the style, budget, and schedule. In a market that’s more saturated than ever, competition for each role is high and reels are often reviewed quickly. Even when someone isn’t hired for a specific job, the goal is often to be memorable enough to land on a roster for future work.

After opening this conversation publicly on LinkedIn, one thing became clear. There is no universal rule. But every reel sends multiple signals to the hiring team, and tailoring those signals to the right audience makes a real difference.

Short, Intentional, and Well-Paced

In commercial work, capturing attention and understanding storytelling matter just as much as animation or technical execution. Strong pacing in a reel signals that an artist can make good decisions, understands briefs, and doesn’t require constant oversight.

A reel is one of the few places where a motion designer is in complete control. There’s no client brief to hide behind and no external constraints to explain decisions away. Because of that, longer reels can raise red flags when they prioritize personal attachment to the work over what the audience actually needs to see.

That said, pacing doesn’t always mean fast. Different roles require different signals. As Noah Wohl, Creative Director at Handmade, has pointed out, for highly technical roles like modeling or texturing, surface quality and execution may matter more than storytelling or rhythm. In those cases, longer shots or slower pacing can be appropriate if they clearly serve the role being hired for.

Even with that nuance, reels tend to land best when they’re edited with intention. Sixty seconds is often cited as the standard, but in practice, thirty seconds or less is often just as effective when the selection is strong.

Founder of Ginger Fox Studio, Giedre Elliott puts it: “I prefer shorter reels. Short intros, less than three seconds. Every second has to have value because you’re presenting this as your best work.”

Creative Director Dave Kelly from Oddfellows takes it a step further: “Dive right in. Save the name and logo for the end.”

Practical takeaway:

• Respect the first 10 to 15 seconds. Lead with your strongest shots and cut the rest.

• Save your name and logo for the end.

• If your work spans multiple roles or specialties, creating multiple targeted reels is often more effective than trying to make one reel do everything.

A Reel Is an Invitation, Not a Summary

A reel’s job is to create awareness of you and your skills. It isn’t meant to show everything you’ve ever done. Instead, it should give just enough information to make someone want to see more.

As Jon Quigg, Founder of The Quiggs, puts it:“Just give me enough to get me interested and then I’m going to pop over to your website to watch projects in their entirety.”

When a reel does its job well, it encourages the viewer to bookmark your work or move to your website next. That’s where full projects can be watched, context can be understood, and contact information can be easily accessed. The reel is simply the entry point.

A reel is just one way to create that invitation. In some cases, breaking the format entirely can be more effective if it’s done with a clear audience in mind.

Jen Van Horn’s self-directed, product-style video is a strong example of this. Instead of a traditional reel, she created a piece that spoke directly to direct clients, clearly outlining the services she offers and how she works. It wasn’t designed to impress other motion designers. It was designed to help clients quickly understand what they were buying.

It’s not a reel in the traditional sense, but it sends very clear signals. It shows audience awareness, intention, and confidence in positioning. And it did exactly what a strong reel is meant to do: make her memorable and open doors.

Personality, Personal Work, and Memorability

In a saturated market, being technically strong isn’t always enough. Many reels check all the right boxes and still blend together. From a hiring perspective, the reels that stand out are often the ones that make the person behind the work easier to remember.

Thoughtfully executed personal work can do a lot of heavy lifting here. It can reveal taste, humor, curiosity, and point of view in ways commercial work often can’t. In some cases, even showing yourself or a stylized avatar can help a reel feel more human and easier to connect with.

Nocky Dinh’s reel is a great example of this balance. She includes a significant amount of personal work, along with a playful 3D-modeled version of herself. Each piece feels deliberate. Together, they showcase her strengths in character animation while also communicating her personality and interests. You come away with a clear sense of both her skill set and who she is as a creative, which makes her genuinely compelling to hire.

As Ryan Summers, Creative Innovation Lead at Sarofsky, has pointed out, personal work plays different roles depending on what someone is being hired for. For junior and early-career designers, personal projects are often a huge plus because they show curiosity, taste, and potential. For senior designers with a strong voice, personal work helps signal vision and direction. For freelancers filling a specific role on a specific job, commercial work may matter more in the moment, but personal projects can still make someone memorable for future opportunities.

The common thread is intention. Personal work is most effective when it supports what you want to be hired for and helps the viewer understand not just what you can do, but who you are.

Practical takeaway: 

• Think of your reel as a trailer, not the full movie. Use personal work to add context and personality, not as filler.

What This Really Comes Down To

A reel isn’t judged in isolation. It’s watched in context, usually when hiring for a specific role and often under time pressure.

The reels that work best respect that reality. They show judgment through pacing, clarity through selection, and intention through what’s included and what’s left out. Length matters far less than whether every second earns its place.

There may not be a perfect reel, but there are reels that make it easy to trust the person behind the work. Those are the reels that get remembered, revisited, and ultimately booked.