Akem Singh - Ball and obstacle - Critique

​The clip looks good!

It's overall pretty much done, I have only a few little areas in mind that would need tweaking:

First bounce feels good up until around x14. After that the ball seems to get pulled to the left. The momentum increases and the arc gets stretched out. I would adjust the spacing backwards from x14/15 on, so that you don't have to change all of the rest.

Watch how far screen right the ball goes after the bounce on x20 to x26. After x26 it feels as if the ball is slowing down in midair and doesn't travel as far to the right anymore. So check your spacing and adjust the arc.

Watch where you're leading the ball from x31 to 32. If you'd follow that line up it's pretty steep. But from x33 to around 37 it feels again as if the ball is getting pulled to the left. I would angle the blue object more down (left side) so it would make sense for the ball to go that far to the left and with that arc.

The roll up is good, although you could speed it up a bit more, especially during the x080 area, so you can really feel how it accelerates during that part.

There's another section where the ball feels like it's being pulled to the right, from x94 to 97. The rest is great.

So overall good, just little things here and there!

Jessica Toth - Ball and tail - Critique

The ball bounce looks great and the tail overlap works very well. I only have a few little notes:

I would speed up the first bounce a tiny bit or not have it bounce as high and to the right. It feels a bit slow compared to the other bounces. I know you want to ramp up, but the up and down on the first one seem slow as if the ball is controlling the up and down.

On x61 the ball moves very fast to the right (the previous bounce didn't go as far to the right and wasn't as fast), so I would tone that down. It's almost like a little pop. And you could take out at least one of the tiny little bounces at the very end. There are so many and they're so fast, that the ball feels as if it's shaking.

Joseph Taylor - Mom and Baby - Critique

​First off, the clip looks really great!

The mother is great, I love how she readjusts her grip on the seat around x210 on. Cool detail.

The baby needs a bit more love I think. What stands out mostly is when he swings his arms around at the beginning and at the end (love his business around x110 to x130, awesome). I would involve the chest and shoulders more during those parts. The arms feel a bit too separate. Think about how the arm swing will affect the shoulder and chest.

Same with his legs, they feel too IK-ish. Watch out for overstretching, like from x59 to 60. Areas like that feel too poppy. The toes are also pointed up all the time and there's almost no change in rotation during all the kicking. Babies don't have that much control over their foot rotations. So have them point up and then to the side as well and when the leg pulls back, rotate the foot a bit more down, so it's not always pointing up.

One last detail thing, your light pole disappears on x45.

Almost there, nice work!!

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

Joseph Taylor - Help you - Critique

​woman:

- push the "Anybody" lipsync. "any" will have a much wide mouth shape than what you have now.

- the two cigarette puffs are very similar in timing. Change one up a bit for contrast.

- there's a body pop (looking around hip area and hand/elbow area) at x257

- her finger business around x356 feels to even. The back and forth timing is the same. The fingers also feel detached from that action. Add some ambient movement to the other fingers and the wrist.

- on "myself", on that forward lounge, she could half way during that forward move lift her shoulders and drop them, as an accent.

- on "I'm doing alright", as she goes back, she could lower the shoulders

- weird screen left upper arm geom change over two frames starting at x289


guy:

- "help yourself" lip sync is great!

- the rest of the lip sync needs some pushing: introduce arcs in the corners of the mouth. "we TRYING to help you", lower the jaw more on "trying". You can hold the "you" shape for a few frames longer, you don't always have to close the mouth or go back to default pose; "HOW long", "how" could be pushed, again, bigger jaw drop; second "help YOU" I would hold the you shape a bit longer as well

- as his head goes up and hand goes up around x96 and face opens up, you could also raise the shoulders a tiny bit

- "for how long", you could keep his mouth open after "long" until he starts the new line, so he feels a bit more engaged, not need to always close the mouth.

- I wouldn't have his hand so flat against the camera on x116. Keep it rotated away from us and push the finger pose a bit more. What you have on x105 is great, that's an appealing pose. x109 has a default hand with a wrist really bent over, it feels a bit broken. x179 works much better.

Hope that helps!
Cheers

JD

Aditi Bhandari

The clip is coming along nicely!

I like the body action of the main guy! The gestures and head accents work well.

What I would work on on your next pass is the lip sync, mostly the 2nd half. From the beginning to around x144 is pretty good. "... office locked in the John (sp?) again ..." feels a bit even in the opening and closing timing. Play around with the corners of his mouth, adding little arcs and add rotating the jaw sideways as well for some off-default accents (so that the main concentration is not resting on just up and down).

The second half feels unfinished, as if you're syncing only half the words. I think you simplified it too much.

Gotta admit, the nut throw is still a bit awkward to me, but it does work a lot better with the throw on "locked".

The glass is reaching the mouth a bit too early. It looks like he's still finishing "paper" and he's already drinking. Try to delay that move a bit.

The background guys are coming along. I'd add a bit more ambient business to the guy sitting and the bartender could need more "thinking". He's busy with this bar, preparing something, so add a few eye darts at the beginning (good old "throw in some eye darts" comment...) before he turns over. Even afterwards, he feels a bit too stare-y. Some variations to his mouth would also help get away from the dead puppet feel. It could be one way at the beginning, change during the turn, then again when he looks at him, etc.


Keep going!
Cheers
JD

Stephan Brezinsky - facial take - Critique

​That's looking good already!

What you could do in order to push it a bit further is by offsetting a few components. For instance, the first pose, in order to get rid of the symmetrical look, vary the eyebrows and the mouth shape. The first look is a bit generic.

Then, for the take, right now everything is moving at the same time from x1 to x2. Think about what he's seeing and the fact that he's seeing something means that his brain needs to deconstruct the information first. Your guy could get slapped from behind his head and the way he goes down would work. But in a take, give it a few frames to anticipate the down. So his eyes could widen for two frames, same with the mouth, etc. He would go from the current "happy" to an anticipation with a face reading "What did I just see?" and you could lift his body up a bit, so that the body does a little anticipation as well.

Then on the down, since it's pretty fast, you could raise the eyebrows as the head goes down, as if they are dragging and overlapping (so you'd lower the brows when the head goes up again; kinda what you have but you could delay the frown a few frames). On the head down you could also stretch the head and squash it around the x6 area. I'm talking about feeling the squash/stretch, not really seeing it, it's a more subtle application of that principle.

Track the spacing and arcs of the nose. On the way down and up it's following almost the same path. You could exaggerate the arc a bit more, same during the settle where the nose path would be a little loop as it settles. Nothing crazy, but a bit more pushed than what you have now.

The ending works well and the facial expression is more asymmetrical than the beginning one.


Hope that helps!
Cheers

JD