Number run - Richie Prado

About the AM clip:

As a general note, I would shift the timing of the camera so that the pan over happens a bit later. I think it would work a bit better if the character is leading the camera, as opposed to the camera doing it and giving away the joke so early. So have the start of the pan happen around x143.

Anim wise the ideas are pretty clear, the blocking reads well. The only thing is around x132. Is he crumbling the paper there? It feels like a move of frustration and then he has both hands together with that piece. But then the arm swings down and the piece of paper is all flat and nicely flowing along. That's the only part that wasn't too clear.

The other part was once he sees the number six. Since the paper crumbling part isn't too clear to me I wasn't sure about this: he looks at the paper, sees number 9, doesn't understand what's going on and turns around. Then he sees the number 6, looks at the paper and realizes that this is the door. But isn't he still reading 9? Shouldn't he turn the paper around and realize that he's been holding it wrong and that 9 is the right number?
That's my thought because since he's shrugging on x122, he looks confused and not exactly frustrated, so it doesn't read to me that he just read 6 instead of 9. ... This is now starting to be really confusing, hahahaha!
I think after he turns around and looks at the paper, he should turn it around and realize that it's actually 9 and not 6.

Pose wise, I would have on x121 a clearer silhouette when he holds up the piece of paper and his left arm. Try to move the piece of paper a bit up or down (you could have it higher and the screen right arm lower), in order to clear up the space between all those body parts. You can start with the higher movement on x105 when he reads the paper, emphasizing the action that he's doing.

Next step is for you to spline the whole thing (or at least to get rid of the stepped mode), so that you can work on the timing between poses and movements. For instance x184 to x185 is a big move, but it's happening over one frame, which is way too fast. That's to me one of the big pitfalls of animating in stepped mode. I prefer linear so that I can see how much time all the movements really take.

Another tricky part is the exit on x250 to x251. Whenever an object enters or exits frame, you want to have a little piece visible during the first (entering) or last (exiting) frame. Otherwise it will read as a pop. You need to ease into that intro/exit more. So once you spline it out, have at least the shin and the foot out and then nothing.

Hope that helps!
Cheers
JD