Latest Personal Demo

[the alsoran]

The alsoran thinks Mr Hotdog retired some time ago. You clearly display a complete lack of understanding of timing, weight and pose - the fundementals of animation.

However, looking at the dining-table scene, it looks like you are competent at modelling and lighting, and it may be worthwhile to concentrate your efforts in that area.

[theBIGmack60]

Heyhey.

Cool concept on the hotdog guy, i wont be able to look at a hotdog the same now! haha.

Your lighting and modelling is good. Some parts of the animation i thaught were pretty sweet, all the kung fu stuff with the fork was good, except it needed to be faster in pace to really put out the fact that the hotdog can lay down the BEATS. All the secondary motion for the wobblyness of the hotdog was good too.

There is some need for improvement:

Timing:
Where we meat (PUN INTENDED :P) the hotdog character, the way he comes out of the bun is wierd, at first, i didnt know what i was looking at as well as what was going on. To help this, don't have the arms move, then directly after the arms stop, the legs start to move etc. Have the character kick around with all limbs visible so the audience knows there is something humanoid in the bun that is having a hard time getting comfy or waking up. There are many ways to deliver the surprise that the thing tossing around in the hotdog bun is the hotdog itself. Also, Keep that streaching yawn pose, it works.

Another part where timing jumped at me was the bit where the hotdog looks at something the camera isn't showing and becomes scared and runs off. The facail expressions were great! Have it go way faster though, there is even a pause between his last gasp and when he runs off that made me go "why is he stopping?". If somebody was to see somthing scarey, all of the poses you had could occur, except that it would happen waaaay faster.

Moving holds:
In many motions, you have parts of the character that freeze in space (characer scratching his side after the "A animation demo" title) In real body physics, stuff is always moving, things may stay still, but there is always slight movement. If you have any part of the characters body freeze in motion, the character looses its liveliness and looks really awkward, especailly to pro animators, they spot that stuff in an instant an they toss demo reels that have it.

Wieght:
The bits with the balls (especailly the juggling) was iffy. Using different balls is great for demonstrating wieght, the only problem is that the beach ball stopped fast and irregularly and had the same wieght properties as the volly ball and soccerball during the juggling. It should REALLY float around since its so light.


Don't get discouraged! You definatly show that you can make your character convey action an purpose and that is great! Just concintrate on your timing and wieght to tighten up the animation.

Best of luck

[Sherif.Nagib]

The alsoran thinks Mr Hotdog retired some time ago. You clearly display a complete lack of understanding of timing, weight and pose - the fundementals of animation.

However, looking at the dining-table scene, it looks like you are competent at modelling and lighting, and it may be worthwhile to concentrate your efforts in that area.

Tell him about his mistakes instead of bluntly discouraging in such a way .. some people are still learning for crying out loud !

[M Carter]

I think I would agree that the timing needs a lot of work in your animation. Overall a lot of things seem to float and lack a proper weight to them. Acting this out for reference is a good way to get timings down. Just consider how much he and his appendages weigh at all times. The good thing is I think a lot of your poses are pretty much there. Many of them have nice sillhouettes and disply the actions well, its just the transitions between them that seem problematic. Also, really concentrate on overlapping action. A lot of your poses seems to sort of tween into each other with no anticipations, follow through, or overlap. As a result things appear stiff, so I would try to loosen it up some more with overlap. That's also just a part of weight and physics too, not just to make the animation more fun to do and watch (which of course it does:)). Overall I think you have a pretty strong sense of posing, which is good. Often a good pose can help build in all the other principles, maybe you just need to do more breakdown poses instead of the computer take over the inbetweens. It's more work but it gives you lots more control.

[the alsoran]

*Sigh* - when someone can fail on so many levels to produce a bouncing ball, the most basic and elementary lesson on the priciples of animation, they are only best served by a dissuasion from the medium to pursue more attainable goals, learning or not.

[lumberyard]

the alsoran, what are you worried about competition?
we've all got to start somewhere, so keep it up! you'll learn from every effort!

[BMunchausen]

Man, that's absurd Alsoran. Telling someone to stop trying to do animation because he's not immediately good at it just plays into the myth of "talent". I think the truth is that anyone can grasp anything if they just work hard enough at it. As other people here have said - give new animators a break.

[psparey]

That was well cool. well done m8. I could not critic it in any way cause its far better than i could do. Im currently working on a project and it wont be anything compared to your animation. Dont think ill be posting it here though too scary. The constructive criticism is totally needed for any project, but not a good slating.

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