MOUSETRAP - Animated Short

[Kramerica]

Yikes, no replies... Allow me to get the ball rolling with some criticism. There is a problem with the shader settings which causes the cell shader to shade only whole polygons. This can be fairly distracting, and really detracts from the style we were trying to achieve. Secondly, and most glaringly, the animation is very inconsistent. This is a result of having three animators with very different levels of experience working together. However, we each stuck to only animating our individual characters, which I think sort of gives each character it's own personality.

[Obraxis]

Hi there.

I find that the camera is moving quite a bit, and is often distracting me from viewing parts of the image. It's also in what seems to be the wrong place often, which again confuses me as to what I should be looking at, and im not quite sure who's Point Of View the jumpy camera is meant to be.

The animation of the characters is also kind of robotic. For instance, the dog's head moves along only one axis when turning his head. The is also very little follow-through on arms, legs, or squash and stretch. A lot of the poses arn't very strong either so it's hard to work out what the character is feeling.

The shader seems ok, my main problem is that the characters are all very similar in shade and color which makes it hard to make out who I'm looking at.

I dont mean to be harsh, but this is my honest crit which I find is always good because it makes you learn more than just 'looks good' 'great' or 'needs work'. :)

[gavlew]

Hello

Funny thing about this site, some threads seem to get loads of responses and some none at all! Anyway I just downloaded and watched your animation so thought Id tell you what I thought! I like the story- nice twist on the typical tom and jerry thing. I was always very disapointed that tom never caught that annoying little criter, yeah perhaps he just enjoyed the chase!! Your right about the cell shader being a bit anoying, have you managed to sort this out?

With regards to the animation: as a whole I felt that it was a bit floaty, not enough contrast between fast and slow movements. Some of the poses wernt very strong also, giving the animation a rather undynamic feel.

Also perhaps it would have been nice if the volume of the music had gone down after the opening credits as it is just a tiny bit anyoying at that volume the whole way through

keep up the good work!

cheers gavin

[Kramerica]

Thanks guys. Really. Believe it or not, these are crits I haven't gotten before. You are right about being harsh. This is why I post on CGTalk. Can never seem to get these honest crits from those around me. The dog and cat character were done by my groupmates who haven't had experience with character animation, but I think my animation style in general is still too floaty, and my poses could be stronger.If its not too much trouble, Obraxis, could you be specific about which cameras are confusing. There were a couple we were hoping to redo, but I want to make sure we don't miss any. Thanks!

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