Improving My Poor Reel

[MCHammond]

Hi Idrisguitar

Overall I like the shots you have chosen, I think they are a good choice to demonstarte animation skill. I would keep the box lift animation in your reel as it is a good example of weight and interaction with a heavy object. What you need to do now is refine the shots you have. I wouldnt add anymore dilouge than you have already, your not likley to get a job doing that sort of thing for a while, consetrate on the body mechanics thats what will get you your gigs.

First of all I will start with possible improvments for the presentation of the reel:
1. I wouldnt display your animations in ShadedWireframe, it only makes your characters harder to read.
2. You seem to be missing a frame on the first animation it goes black during the first secound of animation
3. The left side of the screen on the first shot changes colour and location, its distracting.
4. Get some decent props for the shots you have, I know it does not effect the animation but it can effect your appearance to HR if your work looks amateurish.
5. The cup in the secound shot looks wierd unlike a normal cup/glass I would use a more recognisable shape because it effects how you hold it.

Now the animation overview:
1. All your animation shots lack weight and overlap/followthrough to some degree.
2. You use IK arms when you should be using FK at times.
3. Your characters Lock when they are not moving.
4. You need to animate the shoulder/collar bone of your characters, they are a part of the arm and move when the arms move.
5. You need to track your Arks and spacing.
6. you need to offset you keys, at the moment everything happens on the same keyframe.
7. watch out for pops and pauses in your spacing
8. watch out for over extended or popped arms

Shot One:
F102 is all messed up
F118-119 are too close together he looks like he stops.
F131 The foot does not contact the wall it seems to twist in front of it, have the ball make contact and his body compress all that momentum of him running needs to be converted from one direction to another.
F155-167 It looks odd having him move from left to right without losing any height, I would track a parabola up and then down on his hips and head
F225-233 Track the hips, they are barely moving in thouse frames.
F240-254 Track the arks on the head and body he is rotating all his body at the same time and then popping into his run.
F298-305 His toes hit the floor but he then has no reaction to the ground, each part of his body need to successively react to the floor, first the balls of his feet then the heels then the knees, Hips spine neck and head, add to that the followthrough on the arms to absorb the energy.

I will do the other shots if you want and I have time?

[idrisguitar]

I would be extremely grateful if you could spare the time to break down all the scenes. Your expertise is definitely at an advanced level and your advice would be crucial for me to improve. Honestly though, don't worry if you are too busy.

The advice for the first scene is amazing, and I'll get to it right away.

One Q: Can you tell me when I use IK or FK at the wrong times? (the rig in the final (capoeira) scene only has IK controls, don't know why I did it..... :()

I believe I have enough potential, but am missing some of the in-depth fundamentals. (although I'm studying and practising all the time) but with one post you have helped massively, and hopefully once I get a work-flow/check-list written down and I can progress at a faster rate, without running into the same problems.

Thanks a sooo much, you have been an unbelievable help with this one post.

~
Idris

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