Sebastian Kalemba - Walk - Critique

The walk is funny!

I would smooth out his left hand rotation or just slow it down a bit during the loop. There's a quick rotation, which could be okay, but it stops also very abruptly and doesn't ease into that stop that much. Playing it at full speed it looks a bit poppy.

In the front view, I would tweak the arc of the screen left arm. As he swings it forward it has a C curve, but on the way back it follows that same arc. So it feels like it's a poseA to poseB back to poseA thing. I would it have an underarc as it swings back, so do a C curve and then a flat underarc back, so it's more like a squished O (like the other arm, idea wise, but not too similar of course). You should try to have a poseA to poseB, back to poseC type of structure with different paths between each pose, using arced curves. Whew, that was a mouthful.

In the front view again, watch his head as it swings from right to left. It's a pretty quick move and again with a quick stop. Slow down that stop.

Sideview: watch his right foot on x14. It stops until around x17. If you have that guy walk from A to B, the foot would be sliding at this point.
Same thing happens to the other foot from x0 to 4.

Watch as the feet lift off, like the right one on x6, then stays in the same position on x7 and then keeps on moving. Watch the spacing during that section.

Given the swingy nature of the guy and rhythmic walk, you could push the hips a bit more going up and down, to really sell the weight shift and how each leg pushes one side of the hip up during each step.

Sideview: I would move/translate the head more forward and backwards. Not rotating up/down, but adding head pose where the head sticks out to the front more (while keeping the nose straight and not down/up). Same thing going backwards. It doesn't have to be big, but enough to break up the shape between the head and the upper body. Right now they both feel like one unit.

Reminds me of Gene Wilder in Transamerican Express. :)

Hope that helps!
Cheers

JD

Critique - Igor and Groovy Walk - Sebastian Kalemba

Hey,

it's getting better! There are a few little things to look out for:

- the head drop from x37 to 41 through the loop is a bit fast
- when the fist plants on x19, it's a tiny bit fast as well and the sticks like IK, so I would add some sideways rotation for the wrist to show compression
- look at the fist position in relationship to his right foot on x19, then again on x36. The wrist is much further back behind the foot, which means that's sliding backwards. But since he's pushing on that arm for support, it should be planted just like the foot. So the wrist on x36 should in the same position in relationship to the foot like on x19
- the feet seem to slow down as they move screen right, but as long as they are on the ground the movement has to be linear, no keys inbetween and no flat tangents

About the groovy walk:

Hahahaha! Nice attitude!

Good start! I'd just watch out for those legs during the forward move. In the front view the really snap back before the plant, you will have to slow that down by a few frames.
Careful during the looping switch, the arms pop in a new position, same with the root.
Once you get more into it, you could add a bit more overlap in the head, or have him lead with the head, but either way, right now it's a bit too in sync with the upper body. The head and the body move as one unit, instead of broken up in terms of timing.

Nice work!
Cheers
JD

Igor Walk - Sebastian Kalemba

The clip is coming along nicely!

A few things though:

The thing about cycles is that you should be able to grab the master controller and move the character forward at a certain speed and it would look like the character is walking from A to B.

But once you start introducing different lengths of foot steps and pauses between steps, it will make it difficult to just move the character using the master controller. At this point, it would be easier to animate the character directly going from A to B. But maybe that's just me.

As a test, grab the master controller and pull the guy to the left so you can see what I mean and how tricky it can get.

Besides that, here a few other parts that would tweaking:

- always check the root first, since that area will influence all of the other animation. I think the up is a bit linear, not by much, but I think you'd benefit from starting the up movement a bit slower, then speeding up towards the end. But keep it going up ever so slightly and stretch out that slow going up and slow coming down moment. Right now you go up quickly, then from x13 to 14 there's no more movement in Y. Stopping like that after such a quick raise makes it look too blocky. Keep the up momentum a bit more and then go down, give it enough hang time.
- on the up movement from x8 to 13 you could drag the head a bit more, so rotate it down on the way up. Then on the way down to x23 you can rotate it up for another drag. Basically, a bit more overlapping action would be nice, since he's not that in control of his body. It's okay to bring up the head first around the x30 section, because he's leading the body with the head, he's trying to get back up. But the move is a tad too fast and definitely comes down too fast. You will have to extend the length of the cycle in order to put it all the proper timed movements in there.
- The arc of the head moving up could also be broader. If I look at the front view tracing his nose you get this:

Your arcs are very angular, so give them enough room to really curve around.
- looking at the side view, the fist that comes down to the ground is moving back faster than the foot, which means it's sliding. It would work better as a push off (which I think is intended here), so it will have to move screen left as far as the foot is.
- his left arm could drag a bit more during the big up movement from x25 to 33. Right now the arm goes up with the body and it should be delayed a bit.

Those are some big changes body and timing wise, so I would start with these notes.

Cheers
JD