Anthony Merola - ball bounce - Critique

The ball bounce off to the right is much much better, well done! My only picky observation would be:
- when an object enters or exits frame, you should try to have a little piece of the object visible on the first frame for the entry or last frame before the exit. So the first frame is x15 where we see the ball fully. It would be neat to have one frame before that we see only as much as what you have on x18. If you don't have it it feels like the ball just pops in
- frame the shot down so that we can see ball impact on x18 and 38
- x47 the ball should be on a path down, but you have the ball higher than on x46

But again, much much better!

The second clip has the same entry problem (seems to be the same clip?), with the poppy entry on x15.
The bounce off the wall is good, I think it just goes too far to the left afterwards. The momentum of the ball will decrease over the course of the shot. Look at where the ball is on x38. Once the ball will bounce off the wall it would not go as far again. So the position on x58 is too far screen left. Have it more to the right next to the frame counter.
Overall it's really good, but then on x74 on the ball gets suddenly pulled down over one frame and then it it rolls on the ground super fast until x78 and then suddenly slows down. That whole area needs another pass, matching the quality that you have before that section.

Keep going! Almost there, you're super close!

Cheers
JD

Lukasz Burnet - Walks and swing - critique

Hey hey,

so I tried to find things that are wrong so I'm not just saying "Looks good!" but you know what, it looks good! Your work is really consistently strong and your speed is exceptional.

I really have to be super picky in order to write stuff and none of this is really a deal breaker. You could have this on a reel and you'd be set. Like I mentioned before, the only one that would need the most work is the swinging kid clip.

But first the Angry walk:

You could argue that the knees are popping a tiny bit, but you know, I kinda like that. It has the feeling of hard boots on a hard ground.
One little technical thing would be the back foot on x12 to 13 and to 14. The toes seem to go below the ground.
This is just a matter of character and depends on his situation, but you could say that the wrist holding the gun could be a bit stiffer since he looks angry and there would be tension in that arm/hand.
Another super picky thing. Front view. Screen right wrist. The wrist rotates down a bit fast over just two frames from x4 to 6 and then it stops that rotation. Once you loop it over and over you start to see it. :)

Happy Walk:

Again, nice work. Only thing I would say, and that applies to all walks, especially with big feet or shoes, rotate tilt the foot (rotate sideways, but not in Y, not up and down) when the heel touches the ground, like x0 and x1, so that the foot is not so flat (nothing is perfectly horizontal or vertical to the ground). Apply that to each step and to future walks.

Swing:

It looks already good, but like I said before, add some Y rotation to the swing chair and tilt one side down (front view). The swing is just like the foot in the happy walk, too horizontal and perfect to the ground.
One other thing, after both legs go up during the forward swing, they go down as she starts to swing back and both legs have a little pause and stop bending down, around the x19 area. It's subtle but you feel a weird little pause. It might just be because both legs are doing it in sync, so I would try to have only one leg pausing, that should help. Otherwise take that pause out and just offset the legs more.

That's it though! Nice work!

Cheers
JD

Lukasz Burnet - Sad Walk - Critique

About the sad walk. He definitely looks sad, given the hunched over body and facial features, and from a technical point of view, the animation is very well done! But. There is something in the movement that's slightly odd, some sections that stray away from sad.

Overall he feels almost too smooth. If I look at the body/head section in the front view, it's super smooth, where you don't feel like he's taking steps, you don't feel the impact of the body after each step. I think there's also too much countering hip and body action. That's only in the front view though.
In the sideview the arms feel too overlappy. It's mostly the wrist that has too much drag and overlap, so I would take most of that out.

Another thing that feels weird is that while the body is super smooth and slow, the legs feel too fast. It's a weird contrast to have them that fast while the rest of the body is so slow and smooth. It's not that you can't have someone walk fast while being sad, it's not that, but if I look just at the upper part he feels slow, when I look just at the legs, he feels fast. So I think that if you slow down the legs, it will just push the feeling of sad/disappointed more.

Hope that helps!
JD

Critique: Lukasz Burnet

Link to happy walk: here

Overall really cool!

The main thing that's a bit big is the finger/hand animation. That part of the body (especially the fingers) feel(s) too loose. I would keep finger overlap, drag, etc. to a minimum.

In terms of detail, make sure that your foot spacing is even so that there is no sliding. Take for instance (in the sideview) the back foot on x12 to 13. The spacing is suddenly pretty small during that part, whereas during the frames before it's much bigger.

Last thing, his left arm, as it swings back, feels a bit even in timing and as if he's pulling the arm back, but then towards the back end it slows down to a slow pace for a few frames. It's a picky thing but if you have time, check that section again.

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Link to Angry Walk: here

This one is cool from a technical point of view, but besides the angry face and the fist, it's not really that Cowboy-ish angry to me. I could see this more on an angry Grandmother cycle. :)

Same thing about the feet as the above clip, check sections like x2 to 3, where the back foot doesn't move in space anymore, but stays put and pivots out of the toe area. If you'd pull the whole guy from A to B for walk, the foot would slide on the ground going forward.

I would delay the overall hip animation by two frames. The hips go up right (or even one frame before) the foot is really on the ground. But the hips should go up once the weight is on that leg, which happens after the foot planted and the character lifts the other foot up.

Something else that makes him not that angry is the swingy gun arm anim. It looks cool, but it's so loose that there is no tension in it, taking away from the angry feel.

Looking at the front view, the head rotation in Y seems to stop pretty quickly when it turns to the left, once it reaches x19.

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Link to Cowboy dying: here

It's a fun piece, but what are you trying to show? What skill set do you want to incorporate in this clip? If it is for pure mechanics, then keep on going, and here a few notes:

Not too sure if it is due to the camera lens, but visually, the guy looks off balance at the start, especially around x33 to 85. He would fall over to the right.

Starting around x44 the gun is aligned right where the screen left leg is, forming a tangent. Since you should rotate the body back a bit for better balance, you can then move the arm and the gun more screen left for a clear silhouette.

At the end, it would be neat for his hat to come off, since it's such a heavy fall.

Then, once he's on the ground, tons of bug crawl on top of him. Or, a vulture lands on him, since he's dead. :)

Walks - Lukasz Burnet

Sad walk clip

Overall this is a great way to present cycles. Side and front, plus a perspective view, all in one move plus frame counter.
Let's look at the sad one:

Very nice blocking, there's already a lot of nice detail work in it and the overall attitude is there, he is definitely not happy. :)

Let's look at the technical part. Always check the root first, since fixing the root will change the animation of your legs. The root's movement looks good, there's nice little side to side movement in the front view and the up/down movement has a nice rhythm to it.
Looking at the feet, you always need to make sure that the backwards translation moves in a linear way. The moment the heel touches the ground and the toe lifts in order to take the next step, there can only be two keys. Beginning and end. If you have any other keys and that movement has uneven timing in it, then you will have a foot-sliding problem once the character moves from A to B and not in a cycle anymore. The spacing on his left foot at the start until the lift off shows uneven spacing, so do another pass on that so that it is fully linear.



One area with the suitcase will need some slowing down. From x11 to 12 is a pretty big move over one frame and given the medium weighted suitcase, it's too fast and kills the feel of weight.

There's another one frame hiccup (looking at the front view) in the screen right hand. It goes towards the left on x16, then a bit more to the left to x20, then a much bigger move to the right on x24. You still have a few frames inbetween to make that work once you spline everything, but keep an eye on that section.

Another potentially troublesome section happens right when the clip loops. The suitcase and the screen right hand (looking at the front view) move quite a bit over one frame during that loop section. You will have to adjust it.

Last one could be in the head, from x11 to 12, (front view) how the moves to the right.

Those are the only spots that jump out to me right now. The important thing is that you move on to spline mode. Stepped mode can be very deceiving in terms of timing. It can look cool when it snaps from pose to pose, but when it's all splined, it's a whole other problem to make it look as cool and retain the timing (the more keys you set in stepped mode the better).
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Let's move on to the happy walk.

Great blocking again, all the attitude is in it. That's how blocking is supposed to be, you don't leave anybody guessing in terms of ideas. It's all there.

Same issue here though with the spacing of the feet. Let's do another pass on those in order to eliminate the slipping.


The finger pose could be a tad more relaxed, given his happiness. Take x14 for instance, front view, left hand, fingers: they are pretty straight down, curl in the pinky and ring finger a bit more, in oder to get something like this:


One detail thing though on the finger. I'd tone down the drag on the little finger (pinkie) on x7 (sideview). Keep drag and overlap on fingers on a super minimum in general. Otherwise it's starting to feel too loose and swimmy. Kinda like the rubber hose animation style. :)


But all in all, it looks great. So big step now, put it all in spline and see how that looks like and adjust from there.

Nice work!
JD

Great examples

Check out Marcelo Sakai's reel if you haven't already:

Marcelo Sakai animation reel

and here Lukasz Burnet's clips, showing a huge variety:

Luke_Reel2

My Horse And Me 2

LukeBurnetTestAnim

Stephan Brezinsky's old lady with the speaker is awesome!
Reel Stephan Brezinsky

And here Uldarico Lim Jr's reel:
Demo_2009