You have to find your path, that's where the subjective energy comes from. The thing about a demo reel is that you're automatically focusing in on someone else'

You have to find your path, that's where the subjective energy comes from. The thing about a demo reel is that you're automatically focusing in on someone else's deep and subjective set of interests (or a group of users' various sets). So it's often way too objective (in terms of psychological distance) a lens through which to be able to see a good starting point for one's humble own self. Personally I eventually found my way in by focusing on lighting and procedural textures. I got really good at making decked-out spheres. :-) It's still a favorite doodling activity. In the process of learning I ended up contributing to Wikipedia articles on things like global illumination, and some of my texturing images are still up there. (And to this day I don't find the modeling part that interesting. One of my projects was in the 2005 Blender showreel I think, it was just a simple project that seemed fun and I couldn't wait to have the modeling part complete)