Dog (updated) - Aditi Bhandari

About the dog (can you add a frame counter?):

Don't want to have him step on the lid, huh? ;)
But I like that there is some sort of interaction with it at the end though.

It's working better, but there are still some of the same areas that would need a bit more tweaking:

- starting at x52 the back paws are still fairly locked (in Y rotation) and even though they go up and down, they are both in sync and they don't feel like it's a movement driven by the legs, as some form of keep alive or compression. They feel too much like they are independent and with the somewhat swimmy/spliney timing they just stand out. The dog feels like he's wearing high heels.
- his right leg/paw starting around x96 to 133 is still in a weird pose. It's too straight down and it's not moving in terms of bending in the paw or elbow area. It's just one big stick hanging down for a long time. Maybe add a little adjustment grab on the garbage, or a curl up - hold - then curl down again, etc. but try to get away from that stick pose.
- the head on x101 to 108 still feels like a Go-Go-Gadget moment. :)


It stretches out too much. A dog can really stretch, but it feels so isolated in the neck area that it looks weird.

From a behavior point of view it's still a bit weird how the dog goes from sniffing the ground around x33 to immediately going for the garbage bin. I still think it needs a little moment of thought inbetween that move. Some thought process of how "floor - meh - oh! - THAT'S IT OVER THERE!", but not as big as the moment after the guy walks by with his bag.

That's all!
Cheers
JD

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).
________________________

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

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

Reel Feedback - Stephan Brezinsky

http://stephanbrezinsky.com/media/reel-StephanBrezinsky.mov

Stephan asked:

... can you explain to me what is it about the granny clip and the two following ones (walk cycle and jump) that you feel make them the strongest on the reel?

My thoughts on those clips:

granny clip - what cracks me up from the get go is the contrast between the set and the character. It's an old lady with a HUGE sound system. Then I like the contrast between the slow build up as she's looking for the right button to push and the huge impact the speakers have on her.
You know that the impact is going to be huge given that contrast, but what's funny is that she gets a bit closer before she pushes the buttom. The little walk up to the speakers is also funny anim wise. And you don't have her push it immediately, but it's with one swing up and then you have her push it. So all in all you're really drawing out the anticipation to the pay off. Since the audience knows roughly what's going to happen (at least they expect something given the "old lady vs. powerful speakers" set up), they're waiting for the pay off, but by drawing that part out, by prolonging the anticipation, you make the pay off that much stronger.
The pay off itself is really funny. It's great that she doesn't get blown away (like Marty McFly in Back to the Future for instance). She slowly gets pushed away. The fact that she fights against it shows character. It's not just a physical exercise, it shows what a character is doing when confronted with a conflict, which is always something you should strive for in your clips. When people have to make choices, that's when they get interesting.
The cheek flapping is awesome, same with the hair, the glasses fly away and at the end she's punching the remote. You build on the desperation of the character and consequences of the sound. Awesome.

About the walk and jump - I like the presentation but anim wise they feel very polished, the walk especially. It shows a good understanding of polish.

Nice work!
JD

Thief - Critique - Uldario Lim Jr

http://www.animatedlim.com/FreeCable.mov

Except for the beanie and the grey clothing, I wouldn't have guessed that it's a thief. So if that's your angle, then I would do something much more obvious in terms of thievery. The gear change of emotions could also be more contrasty. For example, he's totally concentrated on stealing that TV, then the owner comes down in his pyjamas and sees him, the guy then switches gears and totally "acts" like he's the TV installation guy, and then as he sneaks out he's back in thief mode. Does that make sense? If you can understand all those beats and what's going on, without a thief clothing, then you succeeded. Having the guy look like a thief helps a lot, but try to act things out so that the persons behavior also informs the viewer that he is a thief. If it's at night, he'd careful to be quiet, so the movements would delicate. A regular TV installation guy wouldn't move like that, so that's already informing the viewer as to who that character is.

Also, think about tools he might use, that could add some funny things to the situation. Screw drivers, cables, little lamps, etc.

Hope that helps!
Cheers
JD

Reel - Jim Levasseur

Even though Jim says it's old :) there is still good work on that reel, so check it out:

http://jimlevasseur.com/anim/jlevasseur_animReel2009_h264.mov

Reel - Richie Prado

About the clips. What's the company you really want to work for? It's always good to know, so you can tailor your reel towards it.

You have a lot of clips on there, but yes, like you said, they would need a bit more finishing time. The first clip is pretty cute, you could finish that one up. The 2nd one cracks me up because I used the same sound clip :) There are some funny moments, but it's a bit overacted. 3rd clip is okay, not sure about Jack Black voice though, he's a bit overused. I like the sound clip of the next one with the police, but I think the acting could be stronger.. The one with the girl and the guy leaning against the wall is the weakest of the bunch. The last one is great, I would definitely work on that one. So all in all, the last one for sure, re-use the sound clip with the police guy, keep the first one for pantomime.

What's overall visible is the same type of composition for the shots and the basic use of the rig. In order to stand out of the crowd, we will have to work on a more cinematic feeling and push the acting. Adding some clothing and bit more set design would help.

I think you're work is good, but it could be stronger acting wise (acting choice wise). I don't think you're going to have too much trouble landing a good gig, but for the top companies it's going to take a bit more work. Focus on one clip and finish it, going through all the polishing detail work for that extra special touch.

Let's finish up the pantomime shot first and then go from there!