Michael Baran - Snowman - Feedback

The clip looks definitely better! I wouldn't change camera angles so late in the game since you're working on poses that work for this current camera. Breaking up the shot can be nice, but is not needed. If you break it up, you could add a close up when he stops rolling the ball and catches his breath, after that you can go back to the previous camera.

Animation wise it's coming together, but the arcs still feel a bit blocky, as if you keys on linear instead of spline. In terms of detail you'd have to work on finger poses (they stay mainly the same, especially during the very last pull/push). But before you get into that I would concentrate on the believability of the weight and the timing between poses.

Let's take for instance the first two pushes and then the segment where he steps away from the ball. Look at the timing and arcs of his arms. They kinda float up, then to the left then down. What I'm missing is a nice flow and rhythm of movements. Both arms move almost in sync. The root's movement also feels a bit blocky. Without contrast of movement and proper weight (like arms around x65 to x95) the animation tends to feel slow motion-y.

I would pick out separate sections, for instance the first push, then the 2nd push, walk backwards, side steps, etc. and work on those sections alone, separately, until it feels right. Shoot reference, act it out, time out how your arms swing and move. And try to act out exactly what you animated there. Try to pantomime your exact timing of animation and you'll notice areas that feel off.

Without specific timing the clip ends up being just about mechanics and the personality of a character is lost. The closest you get is during his pause where he wipes off his forehead and at the end during the finger taps.

I hope this makes sense...

Michael Baran - Snowman - Critique

​Alrighty!

The pause works better, but I think you could still shave off 10 frames or so. Did you change the timing on the snowball resting before it falls? That feels a bit too long too. It could land on him around x460 already. Sorry if I didn't catch that before.

The dirt adds good stuff to it. Overall though he feels a bit even in timing. Nothing crazy, but a few zippier actions here and there for contrast would be good. For instance when he leans back for the puff around x99, he could accent that air blow with his head. Looking at it, it's probably more the arms that I'm reacting to (being even in timing), when he lets go off the ball at the begining around x70 and on. You don't have contrast, but there's just something even overall, hard to put my finger on it. But one thing that will help is to really track down your arcs. I think for the next version, I would do a limb pass and track arms, elbows, feet, knees, body of course, etc. and work in your arcs and get rid of pops.

Michael Baran - Snowman - Critique

​Hey,

That's a lot better! I really like the pose on x154. He's tired, yet happy and it's a great from x137 (typical forehead sweat wipe) to 154 with a more original take on that forehead swipe! Nice!

The pose on x84 is a big broad though. If you look at just that frame, it could a moment where he gets shot by a sniper or something. :) I would tone that down a lot more.

I'm not too sure why you have that long pause from x170 to around x208. He seems suddenly really intense, as if he's thinking about something really serious. But then he just continues with the roll. What was that moment about?

I would flesh out those two sections (sniper & serious thinking) first before going into further breakdowns and spline mode, so we can see the overall timing and flow of the shot.

Michael Baran - Snowman - Critique

Looking better and better!

I think you could push the personality even more though. The beginning works well and I like the pause and the tiredness around x90 to x110. After that he gets really exhausted where he feels dizzy and starts to swing his arms around, x148 area. Is he drying off his wet left hand afterwards? That section after x110 to x180 is a bit unclear and I think you could use that time to really drive home the point that he's ear and stoked about the first snow (as you mentioned before). He rub his hands in an excited way, do a little excited dance or any other pre-rolling-the-ball posing that shows his eagerness despite his exhaustion.
I wouldn't lift the ball as high on the first try after x264. The height and speed of that first lift is a bit too much and fast, which takes away from the weight.Same goes for x288 to x295.
Watch out for the timing where he hits his head on the ground, around the x380 area. Treat the timing of the head up/down like a bouncing ball, and favor the hang time so accent that moment. The up/down feels a bit even, watch your Y curve.
The finger tap is great, but you could have it happen a tad later, maybe around x465 for the start point.

Hope that helps!
Cheers
JD

Michael Baran - Snowman - Feedback

Cool! I like that camera angle much more!

I think the general idea is there and you have all the main poses in there. Now, before you start adding breakdowns and extremes I would think about his character and his emotions. Right now he's just going through the steps and mechanics of rolling the ball. What's missing is the state of mind. Character wise I would have to read him as robotic. There is no indication if he's enjoying himself, or if he's tired, cold, frustrated, in a hurry, etc. etc. What if he's tried to roll that thing up onto the body for the past two days? He could be really tired. And when the head falls on him, he could smash his fist into the ground because he's just so fed up with it.
Or he's really patient and after the head smash he's just tapping his fingers as in "Hmm... really? That shouldn't have happened.".

I hope that makes sense. The timing of how he pushes the ball, how he repositions himself will tell us something about his character and mood. Give the audience something to connect with.

Cheers
JD