AnimD News : 18 oct 2011

Hi Guys,

We wanted to keep you in the loop with the Anim Dailies reviews.

At the moment all of us are a little busy with schedules and overtime, and that's the main reason for not having posted new reviews online for a while, and we do apologies to all of you that have submitted your work to us and are still waiting for a review.

We will definitely be back on track soon with lots of new posts, but unfortunately we can't give you an exact date as yet. And to that end, can we ask that you hold on submitting new work until we have had a chance to catch up, we will post again when we are ready for more submissions, thank you.
So if you want to discuss your animations, with other members, or have any other questions, the forum will still be open for anyone to use, and also, you can follow us and stay in touch on the AnimDailies Facebook group .

In the meantime if you happen to be around London and you want some feedback on your work, we would suggest you to also check out Bring Your Own Animation - London. Its free for anyone that is interested, there are plenty of very good professional animators giving feedback to anybody who wants it. It happens once a month, subscribe to it on Facebook for details.


One last thing, can you guys please, PLEASE , keep the links to your vimeo/youtube reviewed animations, alive?! We are noticing that few of the finished animation reviews posted are disappearing right after we posted the review on the blog, if the animation is not visible for everyone to see there is no point for this blog to exist!! This is a learning place and archive for everyone to look at and eventually learn from one another!

Thanks guys.


-Anim Dailies.

- Guy Zinger
- Airguitar

Hi Guy, thanks for posting your animation test .

- The first suggestion we always give, is to shoot video references of yourself doing the same exact shot, than study whats appening in your body parts while you are doing that.

- Also, improving the initial pose of this shot, will help and improve the all idea , (air-guitar-world-championships) just by looking at some image from google, you can see how real guitarist/air guitarist would hold their guitars.

The first pose of this shot is also the MAIN pose, the one that tells the story, try to GET the nice "giutar player" feeling in it.

- Feets seems to be stuck on the ground, going from one pose to the other, you should take more in consideration the weight shifting and what happen to the upper body.
A suggestion is to try to get away from the pose to pose feeling for a more refined polishing.

- In general, it lacks of weight, try the same movements yourself expecially for the arms, it you pay attention carefully you will notice how the overlaps between body and arms works, and what your body mass is doing while moving your arms around .

- We always suggest to do some research before starting any kind of shots, i know sometimes is difficult and you want to " jump into it ", but try to force yourself on doing a nice planning and research before beginning of any shot, usually is always better to know what you want to achieve, before starting.

There are lots of video on youtube to have a look at :



Hope you will keep going with it, the shot is looking good, you need to refine a little bit more the posing, and working on the phisicality of your character.
Thank you for your submission .

-AnimDailies

Valérie Sollie - Demoreel

- Valérie Sollie

- Demoreel



 Hi Valerie

Thanks for posting your reel. Its nice to hear you attended the Bring your own Animation event. I've been a few times myself, and its sad to hear that there wont be any more of these after this months event.

1) Looking at your reel i would say that a lot of the actions look like the right sort of actions but executed with less developed physics.

2) For example, i love the girl pushing the chair up the stairs. The action feels solid and i can imagine doing it that way myself. I would just look at making the animation more fluid, organic and smooth in this shot. At the moment it feels a little blocky and sharp but with good actions and weight.

3) The ballerina needs some good live action reference to bring it into the real world. She feels quite blocky and unnatural, a little bit like stop motion. Look at some ballerina reference or try to act out the shot yourself. Ballerinas are usually very fluid in their movement. Try to capture this in your animation.

4) For the horse you can really look at some good horse reference. Horses rarely just step with thier front legs as yours does at 00:06. Get some horse reference from you tube or some other site and follow it closely. Horses really need to move exactly like real horse to work as an animation. Reference is the key.

5) The girl sliding in the run looks like the slide is a bit unnatural. The run seems quite slow, then the slide is rapidly accelerated. I would try to keep the run speed and the slide speed more or less the same.

6) The end of the slide feels like it accelerates again then comes to a sharp stop. I would try and get the running forward to blend in with the end of that slide, so we feel the change from side ways sliding movement to running forward movement happening because of the legs, and not just because shes stopped sliding. It will be a smoother transition than slide-stop-run. I love the jump at the end

7) Look at the general animation in the last two shots. Its very blocky and needs to be carefully managed. Make it fluid and film reference of yourself acting out all of these actions. Notice how your body moves frame by frame and copy the timing and spacing. This will add realism to the actions.

Thanks for posting. I do love the solid action on the chair lift. This is your strongest piece for me.

Thankyou

-Anim Dailies

Iestyn Roberts - Cartoony Baseball Swing

-http://vimeo.com/26918115
-Iestyn Roberts
-Cartoony Baseball Swing

Review:

Hi Iestyn,

Thanks for sending this, it has the makings of a solid piece. Here's a list of a few things to look at to get you started.

- Have him roll on his front heel a bit at 1 sec. Stretchy legs are fine to use when there is reason too, but I think you should 'feel' the stretch and have it recoil, rather than see the stretch as clearly as you do here.

- His action when stepping forward could potentially work and be a funny motion, but at the moment it feels quite stiff and clunky. Try and add more of a bounce and arc to his hips to stop them from moving so erratically, and follow this motion through the rest of his body. You may need to add a few more frames to this section too. Make sure to offset the bounce of the hands by a couple of frames to give them some overlapping motion.

- When he raises up high at 7 secs he takes his eyes completely off the ball and loses believability in his actions, which in turn makes him feel less alive. Be aware of what the character is thinking at all times.

- Make sure to track the arcs of the hands as there are some linear moves and sharp angles in their paths of action.

- Lastly, bring the piece to a conclusion. It seems to end prematurely, if he is to twist himself up make sure to finish the action so the audience sees a resolution to the shot.

If you haven't already seen it, have a look at this Goofy short. It has some great baseball pitches in it, and although they are massively exaggerated they retain their believability as the exaggerations make sense within the context of the game.



-Anim Dailies

Juan Carlos Flores - Reel

- Juan Carlos Flores

- Reel



Hi Carlos

Thanks for posting your reel.

Looking at the first and last shot as requested, it seems that the same issues occur in both and i feel it would be better to issue a general set of comments that cover both shots.

1) Feels very pose to pose throughout. Its blocky, and has a spliney CG feel to it. I would look at making the actions more organic and natural. Make them feel like they exist in the real world.

2) Act out the shot in front of a camera and see how your body moves frame by frame, using the same timings. This will add realism to your animation, which in turn sells the idea.

3) Theres no follow through on many of the moves. Imagine the body moving quickly from one point to another. The arms and head wouldn't stop at the same time as the body, they would continue for a few frames and then settle.

4) The arcs in your animation are in most cases quite angular (you dont want to feel a straight line between two points in your animation). Look at producing clean arcs that feel fluid and natural.

5) Look at the bounces and impacts in your animation. Sometimes they lack weight. Look at animating a bouncing ball with a rag attached to it and you will begin to understand the physics necessary for any sort of animation. The ball (or person) if bouncing up would slow down at the apex and then accelerate toward the bounce. The rag would follow on after the ball like a tail swinging down on impact.



These comments obviously are quite general, but i think addressing points like this in your animation would really improve it. Then we can address other elements.

Hope you found that helpful.
Thankyou

-Anim Dailies

Some News!

In reply to some of the questions/feedback we have received in the last few days :


- Yes! We are still alive, we do apologise if sometimes we seems to not post reviews, but we are in between deadlines and crunch times, and managing also our lives is not easy!! So, please bear with us if you don't see your work being posted soon, this means that we are working on it and it is on its way!

-We want to clarify that the reviews are done by all of us, it can happen that some of us are busy here and there so the rest of the crew is taking care of it, but generally all of us look at your work.
The name under each post is the person who published it to the blog, this doesn't mean it was only them who reviewed your work.

- Please!!! Be aware that if you submit a Demoreel it will take much longer to review than a single shot, since a Demoreel could also be a 2 minute collection of 10 or more animations. It is not an easy thing to review and takes us more time to do so. Having said that, you can submit your demoreel if you want, but we would really much prefer for you to post on a shot by shot basis to make things easier for us and faster for you. Or single out a specific shot from your reel that you would like reviewed.

- The problem with the Autoplay of vimeo Videos should be fixed now. Also, when you submit your work to us, in the vimeo embed link, you can turn this option OFF than copy and paste the link. This will help us a lot. Thanks!

- We do not have a twitter, but we do have a Facebook group! Feel free to join. We are more likely to post news and discuss about the blog/forum as it's much more easy for us to manage it.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/animdailies/


- We now have a new animation section in our forum , it is called " Let's Animate! ".
Here you can post your animation materials if you are looking for feedback from any user. Keep in mind that if you want feedback from the Anim Dailies Team, you will still have to submit your work using the normal form. (link is up left on the forum or up right on the blog, the section " How to!? ").


-For any questions or information, please contact us on the forum or on the facebook group.

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-Anim Dailies

Suresh Padmaraj - Animation Showreel

-http://youtu.be/wljOtPqomiQ
-Suresh Padmaraj
-Animation Showreel

Review:

Hi Suresh,

For a first time reel I think you show some potential. In general though everything is quite evenly spaced which results in some slow and floaty animation. Animation is all about contrast, you should try and have a variety of speeds of motion to add interest to your work.

Creature walk: Nice and smooth but a bit weightless. Watch some reference of quadrupeds walking, you will notice that they have to straighten and lock their legs as they carry their weight. Bent legs give the illusion of a very light creature, try straightening them on the passing positions.

Waiting boy: The timing for all his actions is roughly the same. It would be more interesting if when he looked round at the start he appeared to hear something, which makes him whip his head around faster. He could then have more of a reaction when he realises that whoever he is waiting for has not arrived. This would bring some contrast to the shot, and also serve to make him feel more alive. As we often say on this blog, reference would help a lot here to give you ideas and help with your timing.

This is how Blue Sky animator Jeff Gabor uses reference for his character work. Watch and learn.



Older man: Again, this is very light. The man appears to float across the room, find some reference of a man in his 60's and watch how he walks. Try and add some character to the man's actions too, we as a viewer don't know what he is thinking. Why is he in this room? Is he scared? Is he looking for something? Is someone looking for him? Is he allowed to be there? Make sure you know why you are animating before you start.

Girl walk cycle: This is better as it has less of a floaty feeling. Make sure you get a proper foot roll as the feet leave the ground, and that they overlap through the passing position. Right now they leave the ground with a 'click' and remain at the same angle when moving forward.

See this for more info: http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/put_it_there

Moom opening hatch: This has the right ingredients but has a very 'pose to pose' feeling. Try breaking things up by overlapping the head and chest a bit in your breakdown poses. Again, reference will help you bring more interest to the shot. If you had reference I think you would see that your feet wouldn't stay locked to the ground as they do in your shot, and that the performance of pulling the door would be more interesting. This is a fine exercise, but always try and bring something of yourself into the work. He might readjust his position to try and get a better hold on the door for example.

Thanks for submitting, keep going with it!

-Anim Dailies.

Payne Nehemiah - Hoot-a-Nanny

- Payne Nehemiah
- Hoot-a-Nanny



Hi Nehemiah , i like the style and energy you have in this shot, i think is at a good stage, here few things that you could work on :

- Generally watch out fore the " IK " arms, in few parts of the shot, your hands are "sticky" while your chest is moving, creating that "puppet on strings" kind of feeling, you want to be carefull with that.
-Be carefull on not completly "stop" your character when you hit a pose, even thou is a very stylized animation, you dont want your character to become a statue, you can avoid this problem by carefully working on your ease in/out.
-In some parts i feel that you are not following the arcs correctly, on the arm swings for example, even if is a pretty straight movement from one place to another, you can put that on a very subtle arc.
-Even if is a very stylized animation, snappy and cartoony, you neer forget about Weight, correct Spacing, Gravity, Phisicality and Force!
-Work on the elbows ik pole vectors, try to understand how the character goes from one pose to another, at the moment it seems to do the same "take" all the time, i think is because of the head overlapping/overshooting with the same timing.
-Work on your spine and head, are they connected one to the other? You don't want your character to feel like is moving without a purpouse, you want him to be Alive and breathing, at the moment feels a bit like he is movig on the "audio beat" .
- And very important, do some references! doesn't matter if is cartoony, snappy or an impossible take, act it out yourself , it will give you ideas on the actual acting.

Good luck with the shot, is very funny, thank you for submitting it!


-Anim Dailies

Fielding John - Suitcase

- Fielding John
- Suitcase




Hi John, thanks for your submission, i think that for a rough blocking is not bad, even thou, is pretty tricky to comment on a very rough animation withouth knowing what should append in this shot and what is appening before and after this shot, since i is just a shot on his own and not part of a short film, here are few comments :

-don't know if is a rig limitation, but the mouth shape except from the first "smily" pose , seems to be the same pose all the way trough the shot, since is a blocking with few main poses, work on every aspect of the character, and try not to leave anything behind.
-She seems to change quite instantly her mood while reaching for the suitcase, maybe you can gradually change her mood, keeping the first smily part a little bit longher, than she open the suitcase, since she is not looking inside(maybe she is thinking to something else at this moment), than she can't find what she is looking for, here she gradually change her mood, untill she look inside and realize that what she was after is not there.
-I think the "surprise" take is a bit too extreme compared to the first part, where instead you kept everything more realistic and subtle .
- Also, have you used references? have you tried and act out the same shot yourself? it really helps on giveing you more ideas and also it makes you understand what is appening on the body, so i suggest you to do that as well.

Keep going with this shot, do another pass in stepped if you like, working on the facial expressions a bit more, but then move into spline, there, you will understand the timing better, because you will have more "informations" to work on.

Good Luck

-Anim Dailies

Amos Michael - Bloated Codfish Acting

- Amos Michael
- Bloated Codfish Acting


Hi Michael,

Great work, very nice especially for a first dialogue shot. Obviously you already have it very tied down, so here are just a few things that might help improve it.

-The head of the guy in the floor feels very light when moved by the speaker, it is pushed and moved far too easily for a head that is rested on the ground.

-I think there is a missed opportunity for some confusion and internal thoughts to show in the face after he says "is it you?", maybe he moves into his second wide eyed expression a touch too early. It would be nice to hold on his squinty look a bit longer so we feel him answering his question internally, which would be illustrated by his change of expression after the line. Also, I'm not sure what he is thinking when he he has his wide eyed look? Is he literally looking to see who he is? Or playing the part of a madman as he knew before he knelt down exactly who the guy was? I think it might be stronger to hold his 'angry eyes', and after he says "is it you?" add some eye darts to show some internal dialogue, or have him glance over more of the body on the ground as he makes his decision.

-After he says "it can't be" I see you have him look to the side, which is nice as it show's that he is still processing his thoughts. I think you could amplify this a bit with a blink or half blink, or maybe more of a squint as he changes his eye focus to the side.

-Arms: Watch out that you don't break the wrists, at around frame 180 the hand with the gun is at a complete right angle and looks broken. Also make sure to iron out the marionette/puppet feel the arms sometimes have, like they are being driven by the hands. His left arm snaps quite strangely at f180, to achieve this move you should add some twist to the chest as it's not affected by the arms at the moment.

-This is a style choice, but for me his head is a bit too 'floppy' as he stands up at the end.

Thanks for submitting, good look with the rest of your course!

-Anim Dailies.

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-Anim Dailies

Anton Brand - Rouler Des Mécaniques

- Anton Brand
- Rouler Des Mécaniques



Hi Anton,

You have a pretty successful piece here in terms of storytelling and shot selection, and are clearly knowledgable in the technical aspects of CG animation. In terms of character animation I think you have the 'bones' of the performance there, but some more work on the two intro shots of each character is needed to really bring them to life. If you haven't already, shoot some reference of yourself. It's a quick and easy way to come up with different acting ideas, and is invaluable when getting into the finer details of your animation.

Red driver:
15 secs to 18 secs.

This is a nice subtle character in contrast to the burly yellow driver. Subtle acting is always the most difficult as it's hard to create the illusion of life when they aren't doing much, and we have to rely a lot on the eyes which unfortunately are difficult to see due to the sunglasses. Maybe you could cheat and lighten his lenses a bit for this shot?

It might be nice if he strokes the steering wheel a little with his screen left hand as he daydreams. If you choose to try this make sure you keep it small and subtle, it shouldn't distract the viewers attention too much.

Yellow driver:
34 secs to 37 secs.

You have all the right pieces here, but the actions seem too disconnected and robotic as they are now. Try involving the whole body in each of the moves, for example never leave the torso completely static when moving the head or the arm, they are all connected to the same skeleton and your animation should illustrate this.

When he pulls his arm back from the steering wheel try and add more of an arc to the path the hand takes, at the moment it is very linear. Also make sure to give him a more natural hand pose after he lets go, never leave a hand looking like all the controls have been set to zero.

When he is 'rocking out' his body is pivoting around his chest which looks quite unnatural, make sure that he pivots from his waist so we feel the connection with the seat.

His head move at around 35 secs is a little ambiguous, what are you trying to communicate here? I think he is looking his opponent up and down, but it might be nice if he seemed even more confident. Maybe he could tilt his head down to look over the top of his sunglasses, revealing his eyes to his opponent and making him look more aggressive?

Break up his last gesture so that his arm move and facial expression change aren't happening at the same time. One should lead the other.

Thanks for submitting to Anim Dailies!

-Anim Dailies

Sidhom Jonah - Did I Make The Team?

- Sidhom Jonah
- Did I Make The Team?


Hi Jonah

thanks for sending us your animation test, here are few notes that we hope you will find usefull :

-Generally it has a very pose to pose feeling, you might want to loosen it up a bit, start working from the spine main control, work into the phisicality of his body, you could start with the main mass, and weight shift, than move to the legs than up to the head and arms and all the details.
- Avoid twinning, with the hands coming up at the same time, when he is going to catch the ball, you can offset a bit the timing and the posing and still keep the same feeling.
- When he catches the ball, you could add a bit of reaction going through his hands arms and body, like a little overshoot and settle down.
- Also you could push this pose a bit more (around f 78), he is quite scared by the ball beingh trown at him, you could lift some more his shoulders after the catch, and maybe keep the pose few frames longer to make it read better.
- I find it difficult to read his emotions, where/what is he looking at the beginning, he seems lost, you should clarify this with his eyes.
- When he get hit by the ball, at the end, you could add a reaction to his body, from the hit, at the moment seems to stop there, he could loose his balance a little bit more, maybe stepping to the side.
- Generally he seems "stuck" to the ground with his feets, try and add some stepping moving around, one step when he gets the first ball, and another small one maybe when he gets hit to the head.
-Also, try and add a bit more weight to the second ball, reducing the space between the head beingh hit, and where the ball is falling at, after the hit.


Keep going and good luck!

-Anim Dailies.

Lianne Cruz - Reel

-Lianne Cruz
- Reel


Hi Lianne,

Thanks for the kind words about the blog. I think you show a lot of potential and its a good sign that you're critical of your own work.

Few comments on your two dialogue tests. I really liked the subtext in your acting performances but I did find the mix of spline and stepped keys distracting.

(1) Dialogue 1:
(a) "mathletes"
This could be stronger - I would accent the dialogue by squinting the eyes on "m" and then popping them wide open. I expect to see the jaw open on "le" and close on "tes". On adding this I might rotate the head back up to support it.

(b) "queer"
I would like to see more intensity and frustration in the performace. You could try adding tension to the fingers with a stronger hand pose, and perhaps adding staggers to make her feel like she's boiling over.

(c) "I'm a pusher"
She's mimicing the girl with the intention of making her look and sound stupid, I would like to see a change in the way she moves to reflect this. I would suggest filming yourself as reference, and really play up the sarcasm. I would also go the other way with the facial expression, starting with a squint and then accenting the "p"s by widening the eyes.

(2) Dialogue 2:

Girl:
(a) I think she could be more anxious from the start - nervous finger drumming on the car door might help get this idea across, and even some eye darts towards him and then quickly looking away if there's time.
(b) As she kneels down her screen left hand needs more work - try spreading the fingers and/or adding a little push away from the door.
(c) Her expression in the last shot could be a more hopeful almost pleading one. I think there's enough time to add a little widening of the eyes and maybe a tightening of the lips as she awaits his answer with slight trepidation.

Guy:
(a) The connection of his elbow to his wrist sometimes feels too independent. I would expect to see the hand compensate for any translation in the elbow.
(b) Similarly have a look at the connection between his knee and ankle. I would expect to see the foot roll to compensate for a move in the knee.
(c) His left knee swims a little bit - it would be difficult to move when your weight is resting on it.
(d) When he looks from her back to the tyre, the timing of the chest, head and right arm needs to be broken up - they all hit the final pose at the same time.
(e) His lip synch seems underplayed - for example on "yeah yeah", I would like to see a tighter shape on "y" which broadens into "eah".

Regarding your polishing, in general, something you should concentrate a bit more is, the phyisics of your character, working more on how gravity affects his mass and the different parts of the body, also very important are the connections and the weight between those parts.
This is the main principle of "Force", why is that part stopping? How does it connects to the rest? What append to the character if this or that part is moving?

Hope you find this useful, good luck!

-Anim Dailies

Hena Prikhodko - Wolfman

- Hena Prikhodko
- Wolfman


Hi Henady, thanks for posting, here are some ideas that you might want to consider :

Glasses man:

- You could try and characterize a bit more this character, a suggestion could be starting the shot having him adjusting his glasses to see better whats going on, try to clarify "who" he is .
- You could keep this character more subtle and stady while getting closer and closer to camera, have less of a " HIT" when is "asking the question", you really need a small gesture here, even just a small tilt of the head to the side, i think would work better.
-Is a bit difficult to understand the state of mind of this character at the moment, is he worried? is he quesitoning himself? was he just passing by and is he surprised to find this guy there? whats going on in his head?
When you have defined that, you can move into the main facial expression that will tell what the Character is thinking.
- I would try and Keep his eyebrows less snappy, at the moment they seems to go up and down a bit too fast.
-You could have him keep moving forward in a less pose to pose way, working also on the phisicality a bit more, at the moment it seems to do two prefectly equal steps , than stop and reaching with the arm, all of this seems to have the same timing.
- To build up more tension you could try and have him go closer and closer almost to touch the other guy's back.

Wolf Man :

- When is quikly turning, seems to be doing an half cartoony take, also seems to go quite down left on the frame, almost off screen, while doing that, i think you could treat him as a more realistic looking Creature.
-I would try and have him turn first with his head, followed by the chest and the body, to finish into a scream, that is going trough his all body.
-I dont know how the facial rig is, but you should try and push his face into a more scary looking, screaming face.
- you can also try to play a bit more with the camera angle, tilting down a bit more the overshoulder camera. So to have the wolfman lower in frame, maybe a bit more crouch on his knees, rises up a bit or just heavily breathe, and turning up and screaming at him .


I think you are on the right path, you should keep going and push this little excercise a little bit more.
If you havnt done any references, you should act out all the 3 shots and record yourself, it is always a good idea to do that, it keeps your immagination going and also makes you understand what your body/face does in those situation.

Good Luck!

-Anim Dailies

Soni Dhaval - Demoreel

- Soni Dhaval

- Demoreel



Hi Dhaval,

Thanks for posting your reel.

-I think you have some nice ideas here. I think the thing for you really is exactly as you say, that more time and attention needs to be spent on the animation. Its good that you recognise this. It means you can give your work that much needed attention before showing it

-It cant be said often enough that live action video reference is crucial to good animation. Filming yourself doing the action or something close to it will give the animation that edge of realismn and weight. You can really breakdown your moves, frame by frame and see whats happening with your body.

-Youre story telling skills are clear, and really like the emotions in the last shot. Everything is told with the eyes and the body language. I think you really just need to look at incorporating the correct physics into your shots. I also like the two guys at the bar, especially when one of them says "is that right". It feels like a very natural move that comes out of good observation.

-Having said all that, i love the weight of the first shot. But his spin through the air looks somewhat clicky and mechanical. I really want to feel the fluidity of that motion.

-The bird wing flaps are sticky and so are the fishing guys general movements. He feels light on his landing and somewhat unreal. I think this comment applies to the reel in general: Really look at getting fluidity and weight into your animation, make the actions feel organic. Its ok to go for a snappy style, as long as you sell the weight of the character.

Good luck

-Anim Dailies

Jen Stefanski - DemoreeReel 2011

- Jen Stefanski
- DemoreeReel 2011



Hi Jennifer

Thanks for posting your work. Im glad you like the idea for the blog

-I would first say as a general note (one that seems to come up quite a lot on the blog), is that you need to look at the physics of your shots. Look at the weight, balance and fluidity of your animation. This is best helped by filming yourself acting out the shot and then playing it back frame by frame to see what happens. You can use the exact timings and movements for your shot, and it will give it a the sense of realism youre looking for. Especially in your dialogue shot.

-In the dialogue shot i would say the biggest problem is that the guy seems ever so slightly incoherent in his actions. We want to feel that strong and steady build up from reluctant self restraint to extreme anger. Theres a real underlying tension to the shot and we need to feel it. Its really about posing out those expressions in the story, from concentrating on the task at hand, to tense irritablitiy, then anger and then extreme anger. Film yourself acting out the shot and try to make it as natural as you can.

-After he picks up the card i would look at it, then have a little movement of the eyes to the right to show that hes aware of someone, then back on the card before the first word. You could have a small nod on "told" a small shake on "never" Then look 3 quater on "interrupt", then completely around and hit on "working" . These are the accents, so use these moments for the transition to each level of anger. Try just posing out the shot on each of these accents.

-Keep the eyes and brows steady between each pose, they feel like theyre swimming (always moving). And make a strong pose in the eyes and brows for each emotion.

-I think "interrupt" needs to look more angry and then "working" needs to be full of rage. His face isnt really feeling it (perhaps because its so profile instead of three quater?) although his body pose is stronger.

-All in all i like where youre going with this dialogue shot. Its got some nice ideas. I like the fact that he destroys his own card house, but perhaps we could have a more shocked frustrated reaction to that?

-Whats with the duck? I hope you wont mind if i say ts not helping your reel
I think the duck needs to have the same level of attention paid to it as your dialogue shot. again look at the weight and balance of it. he feels too light and sticky. Make it feel like it really exists in space. Give it some duck like movements. Study a film of a real duck and incorporate this into your work.

-The dog is a fun little stylized piece of 2D, but shouldnt be the first thing on your reel. Try animating a 3D one and see how it goes.

Hope you found this helpful.

-Anim Dailies

Anuj Garg - Baton Bunny Blocking

- Anuj Garg
- Baton Bunny Blocking

Hi Anuj,

Thanks for posting your block. Im intrigued that you've decided to re-animate a classic bugs bunny scene.

I have to admit i wasn't thinking about the famous Bugs Bunny short when i first watched this and so was a little confused as to what was happening. I think its because the original has a build up to the story which makes it clear hes conducting an orchestra. Its easy to imagine that this guy might be performing a magic levitating trick of some kind.

-I would think about including the original shot just before your opening shot, where we see the orchestra ready. This sets the scene for your close up.

-I think the part where hes suspended in the air needs to include the tension that we see in the 2D version, his body vibrating with the noise.

-When you do the spline animation, I'd also look at making this version slightly more weighty so we see the physics at work. Not quite so 'held pose to held pose'. This will really sell the character in 3D space. Make it work better in physical animation terms than the Bugs Bunny original.

-The finger at the end looks to me like hes pointing at something rather than conducting those two notes. (I think the original does this too). Id have that finger swing from side to side without moving the hand much (like a conductors baton)

Thanks for revisiting this classic

-Anim Dailies

Rathod Kirti - Dialog Shot

- Rathod Kirti
- Dialog Shot

Hi Kirti

Thanks for posting your character test.

Its not bad, and i like the layout. There are a few things that could really make this work better.

- Now you've animated a version of this, Film yourself acting out this scene. Watch the film back and watch how your body moves. Look at all the little things going on in your eyes, brows, mouth and hand gestures. Look at the way your body moves with those gestures.

-The dialogue is an interesting one, because the character is criticising someone for doing something really annoying, but something which ultimately benefits that other person in a big way, and this really infuriates him. Its adding insult to injury. So we need to feel him starting out angry. Then in the long pause, the frustration that the other guy has benefited himself by doing something stupid is overwhelming and it erupts into rage.

-When the guy reaches over table on "something like this" his hand gesture feels a little confused to me. I'd try having his palm open face up and gesturing at the other guy like hes wearing something really silly stupid off camera. You could even have a little look up and down with that. So he looks disgusted. Then that disgust boils over into rage.

-The moves at the end need to be bigger. It feels like he makes minimal effort to knock that tray over. And whats on the tray? Its not clear to me. Perhaps the tray is just an object for him to knock? We need to really feel his anger. Perhaps have him raise out of the chair , smash the object aside and stand with his hands on the table?

- When he says "dumber" Id try to offset the actions slightly. It feels like everythings synchronised. Again look at some live action reference of yourself acting the scene.

I like where its going, but try to shoot that video reference. It will help you a lot.

-Anim Dailies

Matt Mitchell - Break Dance Dobby

-Matt Mitchell
-Dobby Dance

Hi Matt, this is a very nice test!!

I think that generally phisics are not OFF as you say, but "stylized" instead, i think that the timing is very nice, the way he jumps off and land is very cool.

Few things that you could maybe work a little bit more are :

- Try and add a little bit more weight generally, i think that you can achieve that by "keeping" the same snappy feeling but, carefully working on the Spacing a little bit more.

- The stepping needs more work, in some parts feels like you have took the timing correct from some sort of video reference, and applied that to the character. You have to be carefull with that(if you did that ), since the proportions are different, the feelings are going to be different as well, in this case, you will need another pass of polish for the spacing, where you will have to make it phisically more correct for the character proportions (hes got really skinny legs and big feets, short upper body and belly!).

-When he first gets up, the first step with his left foot, is a bit too quick going forward, the same with the second kick, the space between some of the frames(there is no frame counter unfortunately) is a bit too far apart, it catches my attention.

-When he is DanceStepping around, you could had a little bit more of an impact of the feet with the ground, also some of the legs movements feels light because is moving quickly from one side to the other and sometimes the push feels not enough, try giving it more frames on the push off.

- I really like what is going on with the arms.


Generally, Weight is expressed by Timing, Spacing, and Posing, thats why is the trickiest bit to get correct .
I think HERE there is a nice explanation, which could be useful to anyone reading this post.

Keep going, is really nice , and thank for posting it!

-AnimDailies

Rogers Nichola - Showreel

2011 Showreel from nichola rogers on Vimeo.

-RogersNichola
-Animation Showreel

Hi Nichola,
Thanks for posting your work

-I know that you've not been able to devote your full time to the animation, so taking this into account, i would say generally, before you get into the detail of this animation it would be a great idea shoot live action reference of yourself acting out each move. This will give you a precise idea of the physics and weight involved in achieving those poses. Then there's less danger of you ending up with something snappy and light.

- The eyes of the boy need to be animated, so they dont look so wild and staring. The extreme eye shapes for each surprising wide -eyed statement the boy makes, will sell much better if they relax somewhat in between. And use the blinks carefully. Again, look at your film reference.

-Take a look at using a better rig. There are a few good free biped rigs going around like the Morpheus rig, or you could use an automatic rigging software like Set Up machine2 to rig your character a bit better.

-when the character falls down at the start of your reel either have his head properly hit the ground where you see the impact and then him shaking to recover, or make sure it doesn't hit, but feel the weight of the impact in the arms and shoulders together with a head overlap. Make sure we register the weight and drama of that fall.

- For the character pulling the invisible object, i would make the object visible and also place a point of reference on the ground behind so we can see when he's being dragged along. At the moment its a little ambiguous as to which point hes being dragged or just stationary with the object.

-The running guy has a somewhat jerky feel to his run. Like he speeds up and slows down with every step. Try to look at making his run more uniform in its forward speed.

- For the walk we need to feel the hips pushed up by the leg thats supporting the weight so we get a rocking motion in the hips which is then counter weighted by the angle of the shoulders. Try to make it fluid, organic and without any snappy movements.

Really looking forward to seeing a later version of the story animation

Thanks

-Anim Dailies

Omar Elhindi - Sophistication

-Omar Elhindi
-Sophistication

Hi Omar,
is a nice test, i think you've got already a pretty good animation.

Few notes on something that you could work a little bit more :

-The lipsync, feels a little bit off sync (1 or two frames) i dont know if is because of the streaming video, or not, but its worth a try, offsetting it of 1 or 2 frames, and see if it is working better.
-After he says, "..family does", the overall mouth animation, is more rough than at the beginning, i feel that from this point on, you should focus and work a little bit more on that(mouth shapes and more inbetweens), it feels "less animated".
-After bringing the overall animation at the same level, you could go into it again ,adding another pass of polishing, starting from the head motion to the eyes and eyebrows, than the mouth, think about how the muscle of the face works, you may want to achieve an organic like, fleshy feeling to it.

I really like it, it shows potential!.
Good Luck.

-AnimDailies.

Daniel Moreno - Gaining Consciousness

- Daniel Moreno
- Gaining Consciousness


Hi Daniel

Thanks for posting this nice little idea. I think discovering that youre impaled on a metal rod might be quite disturbing and it would be nice to see this emotion in the character.
You could shoot reference for this by sitting on a high stool or even perching yourself up on a wall.

I like the movements, although i think if you shot yourself doing this and acted the emotion of decovering your limbs for the first time, you might move a little less theatrically in parts. His left hand (screen right) for example, seems a little unnatural in the way it almost brushes past the face. I think he'd maintain a distance between his face and the hand so he could focus on it.

Also starting with the feet, you might expect the character to notice immediately that hes suspended. I would imagine his sphere of awareness to begin with his hands closest to him and then extend to his legs and feet, before finally becomming aware of being impaled on a metal rod and being disturbed by it.

I like the right foot rotation, but look at the first few frames of that motion, its very fast rather than a good slow-in.

The landing is a big move and can be worked into. It lacks some weight and feels linear in its movement. This is the biggest action in the entire animation and needs careful attention. Film yourself pushing yourself off from a high wall or a stool and look at the motion and timing of your landing. Live action video reference is the key to realism in your animation, and will make this nice little idea come to life in a believable way.

-Anim Dailies

Bardoloi Vishakha - DemoReel

-Vishakha Bardoloi
-DemoReel

Hi Vishaka,

Its really encouraging to see a strong piece of acting animation based on a line from the classic: Singin' in the Rain. Its an eloquent animation that actually sums up the life of an animator quite well, specially when working late! The look in the glass at the end is a very poignant moment indeed. We feel his loneliness with the glass and its a very strong.

There are a couple of things i think would really help this animation.

-When he blinks on "lead lives" its somewhat distracting. Im looking at the eyes at this point and i feel for an instant like i lose him. Id try to avoid too many blinks in a facial animation and if you really need that one, id make it a relaxed half blink, with a slow ease out.

-I think its important to hit the pose on "glamour and romance" an instant before the words come out, it feels like hes trying to catch up with the dialogue at this point and its a little sharp. Its a very subtle thing but i think it will help a lot.

-The guy pulling the weight feels quite solid. Try to inject similar weight and a general sense of mass into all the characters, they often feel quite light in thier movements. Its really about the gradients of your curves, and making sure you have a good slow-in and slow-out, holding etc. This is where it really would help to film some live action reference of yourself doing the actions. Look at every few frames of the animation and ask yourself if something feels a little fast or slow, or too sudden in stopping.

For example, the left hand of the drunk when hes wiped his face drops down and just sticks in the air. This really needs to swing back and forth. Also his fall on the ground feels light and bouncy. Hes basically going to go down like a sack of potatoes being drunk, its going to be a hard fall, feeling his body rotate with one very low level overlaped bounce traveling down the body. Hes not going to bounce 3 or 4 times, you'll just feel the rotations as he settles at the end.

-Look at breaking up the timing of his steps, they feel a little regular.

-The character jumping back in surprise doesnt have a settle. He lands from the jump and just stops dead. Have him come out of the bounce. Also im not sure about his emotion building up to the touch. Is he angry with himself for being scared? or stretching? It seems unclear to me.

-A good excercise for defining the weight of an object is to animate three balls, all the same size. But animate one as a ping pong ball, another a beach ball and the third as a cannon ball. See how they behave differently from one another. Then you'll have a better understanding of the physics of your characters. Create the illusion of Mass and gravity.

Overall, i think its a nice reel with some strong acting. You can make it a great reel by checking the weight of your characters.

Thankyou,

-Anim Dailies

WilliamsnMichael - Spencer : Short film

-Michael Williams
-Spencer - Short film


Hi Michael,

I really like the idea of the dark basement. However there are some story elements that left me feeling quite confused, which i'll come to later.

-When the guy peers around the corner the second time i would try to make sure the pupils are visible. The eyes are the first thing you look at in any character and its important to get them right. Try to plant his fingers firmly on the corner of the wall.

-As he nervously approaches the entrance to the cellar I would look at his side to side motion. It feels sticky. I think the general weight positioning over each foot is good but there are strong glitches in the animation that really make him look light (this glitchy light movement comment applies to most of the film). I would film your self acting all of it to get something more natural. Check how many steps you take and how far apart they are. Look at how your head and arms move with your body. Great animation comes out of great reference. Think about gravity, weight and balance in your character, together with fluidity and mechanics.

-I like the camera rotating slowly back down the stairs, it feels very Alfred Hitchcock. If the guy casts a long shadow on the wall next to him the effect would be even better.

-When stepping down the stairs he seems to keep the same centre of gravity with each step. Shift his balance.

-The miss step and fall down the stairs feels quite erratic and awkward with the camera rolling, bouncing and pulling back to the other side of the room, then cutting to a close up. Animate the camera as if you were there holding it and filming the action. Your movements would be offset to follow the action rather than sync with it, and make the landing happen right in front of the camera, don't go to the other side of the room first. Concentrate on getting the fall working before worrying too much about the camera moves.

-The wrists of the character often bend unnaturally with the arm, like they're broken. Good Video reference will help with things like this.

-The eyes should lead the head rotation left and right, they generally feel quite erratic at times.

-The story gets very confusing for me toward the end. Who is the white haired guy? Is he a ghost? Why is he so small? And where's the end of story? There doesn't seem to be a conclusion. The cut and story telling here would have really benefited from good planning with a story board (thumbnail sketches, telling the story in picture form). This way you'd know if the story worked before you started animating.

-Try simply telling the story with pictures and see what you come up with. Any good story can be told this way.


-Anim Dailies

PefferLee - 1 year DemoReel

-D. Lee Peffer II
-DemoReel


Hey!

I think this is a really nice reel, it shows lots of potential, especially after only one year of animation, so congratulations!.

A few thoughts of what you could improve :

-The spiderman Jump, is a really good excercise and is also well executed.
I think lacks of a bit of weight, that is mainly because of how Snappy the timing is, in both the push and landing.
To make it feel more heavy, try and play a little bit more with the timing(slow in/out), you should imagine that the character is making a physical effort, in pushing and catching himself.
Something that you need to know, is how gravity and momentum works, study references of freerunners(for examples), they do all those kind of crazy moves!.
Also, you have to make sure that the posing shows the weight as well, for example, when he catch himself on the landing, with his hands, the more you can feel the "pressure" in the hands,arms and shoulder pose, the better!.

-The 3 guys Acting :
The acting of the blue guy has some nice bits in it, is well thought!.
-The main issue, is a general stiffness (for all of the 3 characters), expecially in the facial acting, you can push a little bit more the Eyes/Eyebrows animation.
-Sometimes is difficult to understand(blue guy), where and who is he looking at, make the eyes acting, clear first, than the rest.
-The hands, since they are really(REALLY) big, try to find a more appealing pose, and limit the gestures, (between "taxi" and "insane" for example) you already have lots going on(same applies to "everybody's", the hand quick movement), i think you could loose one or 2 of thosoe "hits".
-The last hand gesture, with both hands togheter is nice ("in a hurry").
-You might want to smooth and work a little bit more the head motion (blue guy), it is sometimes "clicking".
-The middle guy(yellow) seems instead to be "drifting " back and front without a purpouse, since he is doing something(trying to eat), you could work a little bit more on him, facial and body to make it clear on what he is doing.

- The stop motion animations are really nice excersises, is a really nice touch to put the "Trollface,and Fuuuuu", :)!
-I also think you did a good job on the 2d tests, is always good to practice 2d animations, and to show them on your reel.

-If your intend is to apply as character animator, you will not need to show your modeling skills.
You could edit your reel, by showing your 3d test at the beginning, followed by the 2d and stopmotion ones.
Try to keep it short, max 1, 2 mins, and keep only the best shots.

-Anim Dailies

Martin Haglund Eriksson - 11 Sec July

-http://youtu.be/cCHKZKglws8
-Martin Haglund Eriksson
-11 Sec July

Review:

This is great, I love that that you kept it subtle for the first part. It's even more impressive as you've only been doing his for 6 months! In general the acting choices are good, he feels believable and has quite a lot of life to him. Here are a few thoughts that I think would help make it even better.

- He feels a bit lifeless for the first two seconds. It would be nice if we saw his reaction to whatever his friend has just said to him, something that shows his utter disbelief. Maybe he could be looking at him at the start and we see a small reaction, something as small as a blink and a small grimace or frown, before he looks down to the table in dismay. He could even open his mouth as if to speak when he glances up at him, but he can't get the words out as he is so shocked at his stupidity!

Or if you intend to keep him looking at the table as he is, try and amp it up a bit with some heavier breathing in his chest and more anger in his eyes. Some tiny eye darts will help to show his inner thoughts.

- For the line "and totally redeem yourself!", I feel as though his facial acting should be excited rather than angry?! To me this line says that he thinks his friend has made up for all his past stupidity, so I think it would be cool if he has a big dumb grin on his face and excitement in his eyes! It would also be a nice contrast to the anger in the first part.

- I like that you put some eye darts in on "like this", but I think they're a bit too quick, try and hold on each extreme for at least 4 frames. And make sure you vary the timing, for example don't just hold for 6 frames each time.

- When he stands up at the end it would be nice to get a bit of overlap on his head.

- His head also stays a bit too level when he moves forward towards camera, rotate it forward a bit as he starts to come towards us for a bit of anticipation.

- Try and offset the fist slam from the head nod a bit more.

- The screen left shoulder sometimes feels a bit too disconnected from the chest.

Great work on the whole, we look forward to more!

- Anim Dailies

Barry Nardone - Beast Slayer

-http://vimeo.com/24369735
-Barry Nardone
-Beast Slayer

Review:

Barry thankyou for posting, its a great little action sequence. Nice poses. I like it. There are a few things you could do to make this work better.

-It feels a touch CG or unreal in its movement and needs more natural weight and mass. For example, the beasts swing seems a little light. If there were more cushioning, wobble, follow through and settling, it would feel like there were more of a mass and weight to the character. He looks like a big fleshy beast to me and id want to get that into the character. After all hes missed the little guy and we really want to feel the weight of his arm pull the torso around as he tries to regain balance. His arm seems to move a little fast for its size. Look at fine tuning your motion curves to achieve this.

-Film yourself going to grab something and missing it and see what happens to your body. You might even find yourself stumbling forward. I noticed a step just after that swing and i think it might work better if it came a little earlier right on the end of the swing, as a stumble.

-Just a note about camera animation: Make sure that the camera follows the action and doesnt sinc with the action or precede it. The camera can add to, or take away from any animation depending on how it moves with it. Animate a camera as if you were holding it and following the action. Theres quite a lot of space at top of frame and i think you could bring the camera closer (tilting up to follow the action). It would make it more dramatic and readable when the little guy jumps behind.

-I love the fact that the little guy jumps out of sight and leaves the beast wondering where he went. And the angle of the jump and its roll feel really good. Again there is some tweaking to be done to the weight of the character. Its ok to do big jumps if the landing is suitably heavy.

-You mentioned the little guys energy, and i think its because we dont feel him being tossed around up on the head of the beast. I want to feel him hanging on with his weight being thrown from side to side. He might even lose footing and scramble to get back up. Offset his side to side movement from that of the beast.

-The slice around the beasts neck with the landing is a little too theatrical, convienient and light for me. I'd seperate the cut and the dismount, so we can read them individually and make both of them solid actions. When the little guy lands make it heavy and the we want to feel an anticipation and push off to the start of his run.

-When the beast grabs his neck and falls it could be more dramatic in posing with him flailing bacward rather than just slumping down, side on to camera.

Its a nice action sequence with some great posing. Well done.

-Anim Dailies

SharifulIslam - Lier Acting

-http://vimeo.com/26391853
-Shariful Islam
-Lier Acting

review:

Hi Sharif, thanks for the post! Well done for participating in the 11 second club, I think it's a good way to learn as the looming deadline is a great motivator. I like the setup of your shot, it's a nice and clear idea. Here are a few pointers to help you push it further.

-Eyes - I think generally the eye directions are working well (though his eyeline feels wrong from frame 260 if he is meant to be looking at the cop, maybe make him look a bit further screen left), the main problem is that it's hard to read his emotion.

Try and get some asymmetry into the brows, at the moment they are mirror images of each other most of the time. Try and push the shapes into stronger poses. When he says "I've done a lot of lying in my time", we as the audience should be able to see him remembering those lies, and we read that in his eyes and brows. Try raising his screen right brow higher than the left at frame 66, even push the screen left one lower down a bit and see what happens. This should produce a more interesting expression - one that shows his internal thoughts more clearly. You could also rotate his head further screen right at this point.

-This is a great tutorial from Victor Navone on facial takes which will help: http://www.navone.org/HTML/Tutorial_DashTake.htm

-Lip Sync - Make sure you hit the closed mouth shapes. For example the lip sync for "I'm a pretty good liar" doesn't read. If it helps film yourself saying the line and analyse it.

-Gesturing - Be careful with your arm gestures - remember your character doesn't have to wave his hands for every line. Try removing the arms gestures for the "I'm a pretty good liar" line, instead he could maybe just gesture with the fingers of the screen right hand - I think this will make his acting more 'self assured', plus the shot will then have a nice build up to the final explosion. On a related note try not to have both hands/arms gesturing at the same time - this is known as 'twinning', adding some offset in the timing of the arms gestures creates a more visually interesting motion.

-The motion on "...belts" at frame 230 is too fast, add an extra in-between between frames 230 and 231. In the new in-between make his hand favour the pose of 230, so that the head leads and we get some overlap on the hand. Whilst a quick movement like this can be done, some overlap on the head at the end of the move will help to convey more weight, the sudden stop makes the character appear to be very light.

-Reference! If you haven't already, shoot some reference of yourself acting out your shot.

-Anim Dailies

Nathan Thomas - Reel Review

-http://vimeo.com/26709349
-Nathan Thomas
-Reel Review


Review :

It's a nice demoreel! There is some solid work on there, and you show experience of different styles of animation.
Nothing stands out as being bad and so doesn't bring down the impact of other shots.

Some thoughts:

-The first shot of the woman is looking good, some nice facial shapes and strong posing. I think there is room for the realisation to show in her face after she says "...bald gangly!", try and show her expression change before she pulls back - maybe widen the eyes, raise the brows a bit, show that she is shocked at what she has said because she thinks of herself as a "nice person".

-What did you do in the car shootout game clips? Did you animate everything by hand, including the cars and all human characters? Or is it cleaned up mocap? Did you animate the cameras? I think it's a valid choice of work and is evidence that you can work in this style, but just make it clear what part you played in it's creation.

-If you were looking to edit the reel a bit you could do without the 'running and hitting the tree' shot, and the guy being chased by the big monster. The second one especially suffers from a lack of weight in the motion.

-Anim Dailies

Ankit Gokani - Demoreel

-Ankit Gokani
-Demoreel
-http://vimeo.com/25892369

Review:

For a first showreel I think you've made a great start. Its a good choice of dialogue to engage the viewer and to create colourful contrasting characters, and I like your simple setup and staging. I also think you're hitting all the right beats, and the acting choice for the screen left guy is pretty good, he's doing all the right things.

Things you could improve are:

(1) Screen right guy's acting choices:
(A) I think you could make this scenario more entertaining and clearer by having stronger acting choices. The screen right character could start by looking really happy with himself, perhaps cocky even, and is trying to show off and even disturb the screen left guy, who is clearly minding his own business.
(B) There's a laugh in the audio at the start which is missing in his performance.
(C) There's a pause between getting his friend's attention and "great plus" which is an opportunity to both nod at the key fob to draw the viewers' eye and also show that he think's its impressive. This would make a nice contrast in the final shot where he's completely deflated.

(2) Adding polish: there's a few spots where the animation feels a little clunky and could be smoother. Check the arcs and spacing controls, particularly on the hips and hand.

(3) Sound seems offset to the visuals, might be a problem with the way its uploaded.

Bonus Review :


I know you only asked for feedback on the first shot, but its great to see your cycle work added to the reel and thought you might like some feedback there too. Cycles demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the structure, weight and balance of a character.

Things to improve on the cycles are:

1) The girls hips tilt in the opposite way to what I'd expect. As she places her weight on a foot, that foot should support the weight of the entire body, so her hips should then tilt down on the other side as the other leg is lifted. As a result of this, the spine would arc to counter this weight in the opposite direction to what you have, so she stays balanced.

The hands are a bit late. Each hand should lead the opposite foot forward (They also act as a counter balance). Try walking around and noticing whats happening as you do it. Even better, film yourself doing it, and play it back!

2) Its great to see a horse trot cycle. First of all (looking front on) i would bring all four feet in toward the center of the horse for a more natural pose. I wouldn't lift the front feet quite so high compared with the back feet. Look carefully at Muybridge examples. Muybridge is a great source of animal and human motion reference for animators

Try to make the hip and chest motion less clicky. We want to feel the natural weight and bounce. And offset the front and back by a frame or two, taking care to keep the impact on the foot fall. At some point we'll post some motion curve examples for good hip and chest weight.

The head and neck will also benefit from feeling the impact of the front feet with some follow through.

3) A good rotary gallop with weight is challenging, so congratulations on giving it a go and putting this one forward..

I would look closely at the posing here. The front and back feet feel squashed at times. The ankles going into the thighs etc. Look online for some good (slow motion) cheetah running reference.

Also the chest and hips don't feel like they are bouncing from the impacts of the feet. In fact i don't feel much weight in this cycle. Look at the timing of this, and try to achieve the kind of rolling wave motion that you get through the spine of a cheetah. You want to feel the body is springing the cheetah forward with each push off from the back feet.

Its a good starting point though, well done!

4) The man jumping up to the bar needs a fluid swinging motion. Try key posing him at the extreme of the swing, back and forth, than play with the timing of those key poses off-setting feet to get the kind of swing you want, adding a more emotive straining leg motion if you want him to struggle at the end.

The timing of his look up to the bar at the start feels quite sharp and late. Make him look up a touch earlier so he has more time to see it before jumping. Think again about his motivation. If hes feeling very sure of him self at the start, he could do something to communicate that as well as the hand rub, like nodding for example.


-Anim Dailies

Dog Leaves Shed

Josh Wedlake

Hi Josh,

We really like the style and composition of this - mixing the 2d and 3d works really well and overall there's a lot of great things happening here. You demonstrate a good understanding of the principles of animation, there's some nice subtlety, overlap and weight. Things we think you could improve are:

Man

(1) whats the man's motivation? this would determine how he lifts his head, but as a general rule I would offset the head rotation relative to the chest/body - as he looks up the head should lead the action.
(2) adding a small amount of overlap on the head as the body weight goes up and down would convey more weight.
(3) mans left arm is a little static and could swing more as he steps towards the door, having the starting position closer to the door would give the arm somewhere to swing to.
(4) the angle of each foot in the passing position is almost vertical, I would consider reducing that to a more natural position.
(5) the left foot sticks slightly in the passing position on the first step, I would smooth the rotation out to reduce the amount of time on that pose.

Dog

(6) the dog last few steps with the front legs seem slightly overstretched.
(7) the last step has a slight hesitation and the passing position is a little high. I would reduce this.
(8) the dogs head becomes quite static at the end - what's his motivation, he could be sniffing around.
(9) there is a rocking horse quality to the body which needs to be fine tuned - look at some reference of a running dog and analyze.

-AnimDailies

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