Nancy Lai - Creature - Critique

Hey,

overall this looks GREAT!!! LOVE IT!! You made fantastic changes to it!

My only tweak would be to have something like this:

The first time I watched it, the only thing that felt strange was he was jumping up onto bridge, while she's running away. You could argue that he wants to use the bridge to swing further forward to catch her. But I think it would be cool to add one more thing prop wise that really motivates him to get onto that bridge.

So I wouldn't change the camera and anim wise, the only thing that would need some tweaking is from x187 to 201, how his right arm goes back. It's cool how he's pulling himself forward, but if a car is underneath the hand, it would look like he's pulling the burning bar towards him. The hand would have to lift off first and then get onto the ground.

Other than that, I think it's great and your stumbling idea you mentioned for her is a good idea.

If you're okay with that car change, we can start attacking the shot anim wise to refine it. There's a lot of work in it and I would suggest you cut the shot into separate sections. A good first chunk to work on would be from x1 to x100, then from 101 to x185 and then from x186 to the end. These are rough numbers but it feels like during those sections you have separate beats (looking mainly at the creature). Of course that's just a suggestion.

What do you think?

JD

Ji-Hong Kim - Bee - Critique

Hey,

looking good! My only thoughts would be:

- after x1904, he moves suddenly super fast to the right. I'd add a few more inbetweens so it's not so super zippy

- watch out for the foot pose from x1945 to 1948. The foot is rotated at the same angle throughout, so it feels stuck in that pose

- on the plant, I'd move the foot a bit more forward

So on x1948, move the foot a bit more screen left, based on how the foot would fall on x1947 (above pic)

- The pose on the foot on x1950 could have more of a foot roll in it, so it doesn't feel so stiff:

- and one frame later, it feels like the legs go a bit too far over one frame, which gives it a poppy feel:

- even though you have a moving hold after x2004, I feel you can add one more distinct move on x2005 that transitions into the hold; right now he comes to a fairly abrupt stop

- the grab after that I would delay to around x2031ish, so that it's more in sync with the music; same with the last pose around x2064; right now they both feel too early

- I'm assuming it's breathing around x2085, but he moves down a bit too quickly, it doesn't feel like heavy breathing or even a forceful exhale, it starts too quickly

Almost there!
JD

Katrin Albrecht - Bag - Critique

 Hey,


This is looking pretty good, I like where you're going with this! And the order of things, what he does and when he picks things up works great.

My overall comment would be that you could speed the whole thing up. In quicktime I watched it twice as fast and it still worked. Sure, there were moments where pose changes popped because of the new speed, but overall, it still worked. That was my first impression, that it was a bit dragging overall.

The other thing was posing. As you continue you will have to make sure that the silhouette is always working:

So for instance, on that frame, you wouldn't have his arm aligned with the outline of the body and bleeding into the line of the leg. My horrible drawings are probably more confusing than helpful.

Also, watch out for poses like the above one, where he looks very relaxed and normal. I'd make sure to always have some back and shoulder strain. So, shoulder up and back arched back to emphasize that feeling.

There are also some cool moments which get almost lost, like here:

I like how he uses his foot to open the door, but that moment is very fast and silhouette wise we almost miss it. I'd take those details and key moments from the reference and push it, timing wise and pose wise so that they're more readable.

But again, it's a great start! You're on the right track!
JD

Ji-Hong Kim - Bee - Critique

Let's get to the shot!

- on x830 to 831 both arms move down at the same time; don't forget to always offset them so that nothing moves in sync, even if the offset is only a frame or two

- ok, this one is not picky; watch out that you have arcs in his arm movements:

- I would put the bee a bit more screen left so that it's not overlapping with the stick:

- here we have the arc issue again:

- the elbow pops out from x901 to 902:

- from x905 to 906 and on, the whole body moves at the same time, and stops pretty much at the same time on x909; the main move should originate in the root, dip down for the anticipation (which you have), but then be the main driver and have the arms drag more; so delay their movements and keep those arcs going, both on the root (I'm tracking the his bowtie) and his arms:

As a whole, the shot looks good, you just have to make sure to get those arcs in (seems to be the main thread of this critique). But I've mentioned the arc issue on previous shots as well, so for future shots, I'd really make sure that you go through a list of things that each shot has to have (correct spacing, no pops; arcs; clean silhouette; etc.)

Hope this helps!
JD

Yuri Perrini - Suitcase - Critique

The shot is coming along really nicely! Don't worry about your workspeed, you're doing great and it's important to have the foundation and poses right!

I like how you incorporated your reference into your anim at the end, the timing and poses work very well!

I would concentrate on finishing it up, so that the whole thing is blocked out and then I'd spline it, so you can see what's really going on timing wise.

Here my thoughts on some of the poses of what you have so far:

- At the beginning, I would move the ticket holding arm a bit more screen left, so that the ticket is sticking out a bit more to the left and so that you have more negative space between the upper arm and his chest.

- same thing when he looks down, I'm move both arms out more, so that the silhouette is cleaner and the hands don't overlap so much with the body.

- when he's pulling the suitcase up, it moves straight up, but if you look at the angle of his arms, the suitcase would rotate towards him a bit and get pulled up and back more

- when the handle breaks off, I would have it rotate more to the left, so that the handle is not overlapping with the body; and by doing that you will see more of the bent arm for a cleaner silhouette; right the we can't really see the elbow, so if you do the squinty test the SL arm looks more like a stump :)

But that's it! Keep going so that we can see it all blocked out, then spline it and we will fine tune the timing! Looking great though!

JD

Elena Dae - Wolf - Video Critique

Watch the video review here.

Arthurnal - Obstacle Course - Critique

Hey,

so you're saying you did this shot in three days??? Holy moly, that's awesome!

Here my thoughts:

- I need a frame counter in it :)
(will use quicktime frame counter)
=> it feels like the camera is a bit too close up until x72:
- the guy is hugging the frame too much at the beginning:

- same thing around x35

- and then later around x51

It's okay to missframe so that the it looks like the camera guy has a hard time finding the character, but in your case your character is consistently hugging the top frame, so that you want to yell at the camera guy: "Frame up!!". So you either frame up to follow the guy more or you pull the camera way so that there is more head room.

- anim wise I feel like the drop around x24 could use two more frames, it feels a bit fast

- same with the up on around x31, I'd add two frames as well during that move

- I'd add a frame or two at x113, when he jumps up; from the antic to the jump you have a linear key, which makes that jump a bit poppy at the beginning, so ease out of that antic more

- same during the last swing around x151, I'd add a frame or two as well, it's just suddenly zippy in that section

- and one more frame after at x175 after he slides down; he slides and then pops into his roll, but at x175 he could be closer to the wall with that added frame. If you really want to keep this and the zippiness, I would at least rotate his chest and head back on x175, so that it feels like the feet are stop the slide and the body snap forward because of that, but it's just the lower body and the chest and head drag for a little bit before he dives into his roll

Once okay to be zippy and fast, but there are section where the body movement is finishing an action through physics (like the first hop around x23), so when a character is supposed to land, but it looks like he's being pulled down because he's so fast, then it feels weird (at least to me). It's as if some outside force helped him with that movement.

But overall it's a great clip with a lot of cool moments and ideas.

JD