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