Demo Reel: Character Animations

[shrapnel2389]

looks good except that the bow has no string on it :)

[battlefield3d]

im not sure if it is my computer but there was about 4 or 5 seconds of black before anything showed up. i wasnt sure if that was meant to happen or not.

[phreakage27]

Thanks for the replies...

Shrapnel - The archer and the knight on horseback are not my models...I only helped rig them and then do the animations. The other two models are mine and everything was created in 2 months time.

battlefield3d - it's not your computer...there is some blank space at the begining. When you make VHS tapes it's good to put some blank area because the tapes have some non-recordable area the the begining.

Everyone else...I have one request and I think it is not out of the question...If you take the time to download and watch my reel would you please take the additional 2 mins to post a reply...I could really use the feedback...thanks :)

Again...I should be putting up more formats/resoulutions later today so you don't have to do the large download if you don't want to.

[switchblade327]

Not bad.

Here's a few pointers:

-Lose the dead space at the beginning. You're right about VHS but there shouldn't be any lag on an AVI. Similarly, I'd speed up the name logo. When reviewing reels, yours usually isn't the only one so we want to get to the meat of it asap. You probably won't get hired for a name logo :)

-1st walk-Add a little movement to his arms. His other hand isn't sticking to the gun.

-1st run-His head is really stiff. Make it bob a little. Should be very subtle.

-Gun idle-The point of a rifle stock is to brace against one's shoulder. Right now its resting atop his elbow. You should move the gun forward a bit to put it in the right position.

-Minotaur guy-Try making his chest lag behind the timing of his legs and his arms lag even more. Get rid of a couple frames of downward motion on that stomp; there's not enough impact. Full height to the ground should be 2 frames tops. Camera shake would help reinforce that impact.

-Guy riding horse should be getting jostled around a bit more.

You seem to have a tendancy to draw out actions that should take place faster. The stomp, the horse falling and archer firing all take too long. All those actions should be faster.

Hope this helps.

[Dennik]

For the web and tape versions of your reel, you should kill the first 20 seconds INCLUDING THE LOGO ANIMATION. Better put a 4 second fadein fadeout of your name and title in black and white. You are not going for a logo designer are you? Always have in mind that the people seeing your reel have seen hundrents of reels before that, and they are not going to wait 20 seconds untill your animations start.
I understand that you've worked hard on those animations, but seek some feedback before you finalise them and start recording on VHS.
CGtalk is mainly a modeler's forum, you won't get any good criticism from here. Go to http://cgchar.toonstruck.com/forum/index.php instead for more valuable feedback.
All your animations need more work unfortunately. :shrug: They are decent, but don't make you go WOW.

[captain3d]

Hi

Good effort but not quite there. There are nice touches dotted through the reel like the feet of the first runner, the little head look after that, the horse scratching the ground but...

the big mace thing looks too light and bolted to the hand, the horse is especially stiff - maybe because the model only bends where the legs join the bodybut the back doesnt flex at all. The horse leg scrap has a more natural feeling. The horse rearing up is maybe the worst as the weight is all wrong for lifting the front feet.

Im being pretty hard here as I think thats what you want. The first thing I would reckomend is to get hold of a video camera and fim yourself doing some of those actions. Take the mace and shield - make yourself a few props with that kind of weight and swing them about and realy look at how the body compensates.

Your current animation looks like a good effort for someone that wasnt allowed to look at reference, but that is a mistake that any company will see.

Oh yeh get rid of the titles just put a block of plain text with your name skill title and contacts.

Your on the way well done....Phil

[switchblade327]

[QUOTE=Dennik]
CGtalk is mainly a modeler's forum, you won't get any good criticism from here. QUOTE]

While the modeling part may be true, I resent you saying you won't get any good criticism here. While he'd be better off asking in a more animation-centric forum, some of us do make our living as animators and have reviewed a demo reel or two.

[Dennik]

switchblade327: Don't get me wrong. I wasn't talking about animators in here giving bad advice. As you see, you only have 5 posts, and Captain 3D (loved your 3d shorts man) has only 33 posts! So chances are few modelers will pass by the thread, and throw a "Hey thats good work!" ;)

[switchblade327]

Good point :)

But now I have SIX whole posts!

[RayenD]

Hey Phreakage!

First, remove first 19 seconds, most reviewers will press fast froward on black and stop in the middle of your reel. There is no need for it.

About animation. Well, animation is about exaggeration, even realistic human movements have to be a bit overdone to be clear. Most of your actions are unclear and underanimated. There is alot a lot of technical mistakes - linear motion, tweens ), no sucessfull breaking of joints, no overlap, messed up timing.

Lets look at one particular clip - the guy with the mace

- he hits with his mace, everything goes down at once (tweens, no breaking of joints)
- the model suggest a big mass, but he bounces back when he hits the ground - why?, he should stay then recover
- he does not use his shoulders
- his right arm moves as a whole but at the same time he holds (I suppose) heavy object.
- he is cycled 3 times?

I'd suggest getting a book like "Animator's Survival Kit" and do some bouncing ball exerices first. Heavy bouncing ball, light bouncing ball, two bouncing balls hitting each others.

The best cycle is second run, still need some work though. Keep working, you for sure have a potiential, just some practice and you will be set!

[switchblade327]

Hey RayenD,

That's phreakage27's demo reel; not mine.

[RayenD]

Opps, sorry Switchblade and Phreakage! Edited. It's extremely hot here today.

[jasbakleo]

that was a very good demo animation,since my experience in this field is basically none, I won't comment on anything other than the movements are realistic and smooth. I'm new in the making anything based the in cgi realm, I hope to though.

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