Friday, May 20, 2011

Wini Wang - Christmas - Critique



Hey,

you're definitely making improvements!

The main thing that stands out are the IK arms. It's much better, I'd just do another pass on certain areas:

- x19 to 26 the relationship of the arms with body is much better, so the IK feel has been reduced, the only thing that still feels a bit odd are the hands. The wrist stays in that downward pose and the fingers never move, there's not really any adjustment. It's as if the and and fingers are glued to the ball the moment she grabs it.

- x43 to 78 the IK feel is back, where the arms float independently from the body

- the ball adjustments are weird from x84 on, where again the wrists are totally glued to the ball and the wrist has a bit of a broken feel to it, as the rotation is so far down. Plus the arms overextend on and off during that section until around 120.

- x128 to 148 the IK arms are back!

- the ending is awesome, as one hand comes off, the rotation changes, and second little grab and her expression at the end all works, that's nicely done.


I would concentrate on those arms first and really nail that. The moment you have those IK floating arms, it kills the rest of the animation, because it's a technical issue that shouldn't be in a final shot. So because we go too far into finger stuff, facial detail, foot polish, etc. work on those arms in combination with the wrist orientation.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Chutinart Warunyuwong - Check in - Critique



This looks super cool, nice work! There's really not that much to comment on. But you want picky! Let's go one by one, starting with the woman:

- the screen right hand on the sign floats up from the beginning to around x24, so make that contact a bit more solid

- the finger gesture of the screen right hand around x30 is a bit even in terms of pose to pose. The fingers all move at the same time and they also feel a bit even on the closing around x48. So offset the fingers a tiny bit, mostly index and middle finger.

- the screen left finger/hand contact with the sign gets a bit loose from x185 to 202. I would make that contact stronger and simplify it a bit, no need to move the hand around that much

- the screen left hand sticks to the same pose after x218 and while the elbow moves around a lot up to around x235, the hand would have to inherit some of the elbow movement as well. That way it doesn't feel so stuck to the ground.

- there's something off about the screen right hand from x297 to 309, it feels like it's always in the same pose. There seems to be a little rotation when it goes down, but still, you could have a little sub pose after x297 and maybe rotate the fingers back when the hand goes down; something like that to push the contrast in poses

- There could be a little reaction in her face when he puts the case on the scale around x425. Nothing big, maybe just a blink, or a little wince, something in her face that reacts to that huge, heavy suitcase plopping onto the scale, so that she reacts to her environment.

- when he pulls his suitcase up, you have a headturn and an eyedart on her starting at x492. I would lead with the eyes. Keep the head still, like she's focused on her screen or whatever she's looking at. Then an eyedart screen right noticing that the guy is doing something and then the head follows/catches up with a turn.

- her facial expression feels very similar from x507 up to the end. You could have a little more emotion when she slaps him and/or when she pulls back and looks at him have her emotion change a little bit


Now the guy:

- the body and head feel locked from the beginning to around x11, as he goes up and down

- same goes for the arms/hands. They go down and up with the body and it all stops harshly around x12. It doesn't look like the hands are grabbing anything, they just float down and up.

- from x229 to around 303 the wrists feel a bit locked while the arms are pulling and being stretched. It's a pain to animate, I know, but as the forearm and elbow move around, the wrists would move 30 to 70% with it, so you'd have to keyframe the fingers so that they keep the strong contact point with the luggage handle. It happens afterwards as well, around the pull from x330 on.

- same thing especially for the screen left hand from x357 to 367. The screen left arm does a big move, yet the wrist orientation is totally locked

- the screen right wrist floats/rotates down from x347 to 351, then is locked despite the big screen right arm move to x372

- the screen right hand moves too quickly from x374 to 375, it's too linear, flatten the tangent so it eases out more
​- the screen right forearm moves a bit too independently from x157 to 162. I like the move, just move the upper arm with it a bit

- looking at the jaw line the head moves in a very horizontal way from x311 to 317 screen right. Add an arc and have the end pose lower so it flows more into the lowering you have later

- on that big body move back to x334 I would drag the head a bit more, so that the body and head are not so locked together, same as it goes forward to x344 (not as much though, just a little bit here)

- same with the head from x361 to around 367. The head feels like it's just moving horizontally, almost IK-ish, give that a little arc as well.

- same again from 391 to x397, the head feels very locked to the body

- his right arm has a little bit of an elbow wiggle after x508 and with that arm moving around so much the wrist would move with it a little bit more, so it doesn't look so locked

- after the slap on x516 he should move the hand back right away, as a scared reaction, something instinctual, right now he holds on to the suitcase a few frames after the slap and then slowly takes it away, which feels too delayed


Alright, you wanted picky, you got picky! :)


Cheers

JD