Cheers AL_KEATON, Here is a Mirror download big thanks to 'James:
Valentina, ya3: I didn’t think i was making a funny film, but its so great that you guys find it so,
Ahmed, Thanks also- 
I have just graduated and looking for employement, if anybody is interested then please see my contact details on my film or website.
Thanks
Been watching it over and over again for some time and I just noticed something :rolleyes:
The bit where he hits the ball, you dont see it hit it, he just pretends he is hitting it, or is it my eyes playing up on me again lol
Sweet job dude!
However the foot-crashing-through-the-grond-counter hit 3000 times!!! Now you know why no one animates white shoes on the black ground…
It had a nice style in the begining but the whole magic part didn’t come through, some parts were very good but the foot and shoulder are extremely distracting.
Was that a lens flare in the begining? Lens flare = no
Some nice motion here and there but not much overlap and followthrough.
well hmm where to start… crashing, lense flair of doom, or stiff animation? hmmm lets start with teh last. the tail which could have some super sweet secoundary action , but most of the time it is jerky and stiff. soem of the poses, especially when the mokey has his arm at nighty degrees are really stange looking, it might be proportions or somthing. the camera angle could use some work as well. use and extreame upshot for your MJ dance moves to really show off. Lets see just scrap the lense flair at the start of the show, its just lame, there isnt even a visible light in that scene ad most people have gotten sick of lense flairs ever sense photoshop 2.0. now about the crashing, i know that its impossible to have a scene with no crashing, and somtimes yeah you need things to crash. but every single shot has a bunch, and big mistake to put white soals on his shoes, you can see so easyly the crash. if you still want attenion on his feet make the tops of the shoes white, or put some dots on the side. hm well i guess thats it, you should have gone for a shorter pice and made it super sweet, quality over quantity right? ok so i dont sound like a totaly hard ass it was good, but if you take soem of this into consideration it would realy shine. -M
Well, i dont know what to say, … its a dancing monkey, in a set that wouldnt even show up in a “b” movie. Its good to see you followed through and finished it but maybe you should go back and clean up those crashes. props for not having any “poping”, but since he is dancing, etc. maybe a pop used correctly could enhance the motion. speaking of which, are you a character animator, or a motion animator. all i saw was motion, you could put any character in that scene and it would be the same. character animation doesnt have to be giant and grand. how many disney, pixar, dreamworks, etc. movies have big dance scenes (3d movies not 2d movies). if you want to work on music videos you should not be using a monkey. its nothing like a human, and simply showing a monkey crash around the scene without interacting with any other characters wont cut it with a company. you need to show them you can make the same thing they are making right now. otherwise why would they hire you? just so you can make lesser products?
well good luck on cleaning that thing up. you might be best to take it and cut it up into animation chunks then mix them into more animation to show you can do different things. as it is you seem to be to worried about the fact is has a story or some form of linear cohesion. show me you can animate someone dacing, runing, crying, interacting with anouther person, falling down and dieing, i dont care, just not anouther dancing monkey.
is that a hole in the tree, a spider web or some broken class from the ball???
oh ya i forgot the tail, the tail has more animation when you can only see its shadow than it does when its actual on screen. the tail of a monkey could be used to excentuate its mood, dont just have it flap about because it should be moving.
oh ya, your website says “animation - modeling - welcome” what are you saying? is “welcome” a new job i dont know of, or are you saying animation or modeling jobs are welcome, its right at the top of your site. if someone doesnt understand what you want to say, then they cant trust you to try to express what they want you to say.
well good job and good luck if you keep working you can make it happen,
well i have to take back my comment about only having a dancing monkey, i found your demo and you have pedro dancing with a cactus and not getting on a motorcycle. and then 3 minutes of black, i know its good to have black at the end of a vhs demo reel, but try and cut it for the web. it makes everyones downloads that much slower. its just sloppy. its good to know you cut animation into parts to show what you like best.
keep on truckin
Thankyou guys for taking the time to crit my animation,
Heey KingBruce, your right he acts like he is hitting a ball…just a part of his ‘dance’!!
Hyndra7, thanks man, Lens flair no? lol, I like it man,
The shoulders really that distracting huh? wish i could re-do it now. :shrug:
Hey Saladbar, Thanks for the reply, il take that all in, cheers. The lens flare is an artistic choice, i know that in the 3d world, lens flares are a cliche thing to use, but i’m not scared of that, just because it’s cliche doesnt mean i cant use it right? and i think i used it very sparingly.
Hi there Phillycheese81,
speaking of which, are you a character animator, or a motion animator. all i saw was motion, you could put any character in that scene and it would be the same.
I’l start by saying that I wanna find work as a character animator,
But im an animator, motion or character,
is that a hole in the tree, a spider web or some broken class from the ball???
haha, great one:rolleyes: well i thought of it as a film set. So i can try and stretch the imagination, -“it’s what ever you wanted it to be”- is what my teacher used to say when she couldn’t answer a question, so i’l say that too…
Totally agree about the tail, had some setting up trouble with that, should have just animated FK instead of spline IK 
no excuses really
oh ya, your website says “animation - modeling - welcome” what are you saying? is “welcome” a new job i dont know of, or are you saying animation or modeling jobs are welcome, its right at the top of your site. if someone doesnt understand what you want to say, then they cant trust you to try to express what they want you to say.
This thread was supposed to be about my film, but thanks anyhow for pointing that out, but if you look at it. The colour of ‘welcome’ is Red (like my name) which seperates it from ‘animation, modelling’ so what im saying is ‘rodikaya, welcome’, not as you suggest “animation, modelling, welcome” No ones ever mentioned that so i will maybe re-think the position…
well i have to take back my comment about only having a dancing monkey, i found your demo and you have pedro dancing with a cactus and not getting on a motorcycle. and then 3 minutes of black, i know its good to have black at the end of a vhs demo reel, but try and cut it for the web. it makes everyones downloads that much slower. its just sloppy. its good to know you cut animation into parts to show what you like best.
Do i know you from somewhere? LOL someone i know says ‘pedro’
hahaha
Thanks alot man i will keep trucking!! I’d really like to see some Pro work, maybe you got a website or links i can download and have a look. Cheers
Suprise suprise, i guess today is full of suprises, you managed somthing some dont; take crits well, even when given on a final version page instead of WIP. good job.
I will check around for stuff but you need to choose, animation/modeling. people who can do both, dont for a living. until you are making a living, choose one. so you can do your best at that.
why do you want to see work?
do you know what you have to work on to improve yourself? do you want new theorys? do you want good examples, or somthing pretty?
focus, focus, i have a friend who is into theory and anouther who is into art… i have some WIP on cgtalk. i am currently working on a new character in teh focused crits.
anyways…
if you know the difference between FK IK and Spline IK then you should be able to go back and fix those crashes. you are just shooting yourself in the foot. if you are starting at the bottom there isnt someone to come along and clean your work for you, you are doing that for others.
dont stretch the imagination. if you rerender it, fix the spider web. someone will look at your demo reel once and only for 90 seconds. dont give them any reason to wonder and hit the eject button.
Suprise suprise, i guess today is full of suprises, you managed somthing some dont; take crits well, even when given on a final version page instead of WIP. good job.
Haha, were you just trying to really get under my skin,:applause:
if you know the difference between FK IK and Spline IK
Hahaha, you really are trying
Nice one Philly.
why do you want to see work?
forgot to answer that, I wanna see your work so i can try and understand where your Crits are coming from. I can clearly see your a pro…ahhh got 2 go…:shrug:
I would have to agree with a bunch of stuff being said. However, regardless of the lens flares and such, watching it, I really cannot get past the crashing. As an animator, the worst thing a person can have is crashing. It is the most obvious clue that something is 3d, regardless of the fact it is supposed to look 3d or not. Real life things do not crash and things don’t crash in 2d either. To someone without a trained eye, crashing can just feel weird, even if they aren’t aware of it. It is one of the first things people will look for when they are checking your reel. There is just far too much of it in this animation and the fact that you were not able to catch it while working on it will discourage possible employers from considering you.
As for the animation, it is basically just motion. There are some good poses and ideas and a lot of potential but to be a good character animator you must make your character feel like he has the attitude to match the moves. Anyone can be taught to set keyframes, but it takes a lot of work to get the little subtle movements and the weight of the character.
Cinematically, to each his own. If you are happy with camera shots and use of effects then that is cool. Everyone has their own taste.
I mean it could be really cool, but there are problems holding it back. Even if you never do anything with it, I would suggest fixing it anyway for yourself. Best of luck.
Thanks Hammy, I guess in my defence i should say that the only reason the feets crash is because it was animated on a different surface, it’s no excuse really i should have been keeping an eye out for that kind of stuff. If i was to just show previews (opengl’s) then i may be better off, i can just udjust the floor, I guess thats why alot of animators Dont bother rendering personal stuff out for employers, it can easily like you say give an employer a reaon not to employ me. Well atleast i’m learning.
Cheers
So did you choose animation or modeling?
I am a modeler, but i can recomend the work of my animation friends.
The things i said about your work are not to get under your skin, they are remarks to help you understand the industry.
choose animation or modeling and i will pull out some examples.
Keep working that weight shift…
So did you choose animation or modeling?
I’ve always chosen animation, but i enjoy modelling, lighting, compositing just as much. Sometimes I find it difficult to stop doing all those things and concentrate on animating, but im working on changing the way I work.Starting from the switch from max to maya (for personal reason)
*Yeah i’ve come across your models!!- You sure are a modeller alright, Not my cup of tea’ in style, but its great stuff.
I don’t mean to be ungrateful but i’ve seen a heck of alot of short films and student animations, some totally amazing and some totally awful. I have learn’t from them. But you probably know better than me that Actually doing a short film from scratch on your own in a limited time-frame is such a hard thing to pull off. We can spend all day talking about how my film could have been better, and kindly you and others have highlighted some of those more clearly for me.
However saying that I’d still welcome any examples of animations you want to show me- Who knows I might learn something new- and i’m not gonna say no to that.
Thanks
Rodi.
-Weight Shifting on OverDrive!!-
Other than some slight crashs I like this quite abit.Hard work,but it payed off,Fun dance.Good job.
great. love it. the end is the best the “ppl on the street gonna be like are you the monkey man? an i’ll be like i’m the monkey man”… be cool if he rolled the ball back w/ his foot onto his foot then kicked it up before he hit it w/ the bat :D…
Natethor, thanks alot-
PC-Junkie, haha, yeah, that bit has got me the reputation as the ‘Monkey Man’
be cool if he rolled the ball back w/ his foot onto his foot then kicked it up before he hit it w/ the bat :D…
now thats a cool idea!!
Mucho’ Apreciated!!
All the main points have already been brought up but I’d like to add to what has already been said…
I remember your previous animation work, probably from a year ago and your style does stand out from the crowd…but…
Your ‘character’ animation work hasn’t improved. As already mentioned there are lots of interesting poses but there’s no real feeling of weight. It’s as if your characters are being held up on strings. Have you experience as a puppeteer?
I have no doubt you will have only spent a fraction of your time practicing character animation - yet if you are serious about finding work as a character animator, you will have to practice the basics until they are second nature.
The technical problems have already been highlighted too - namely the feet popping through the floor and the shoulder rotation.
You have probably started to get a taste of life in the Digital Animation industry just from some of the points brought up by other people. Things like ‘don’t want to see a monkey dancing’ and ‘don’t use lens-flares’ show how anal and artistically immature the industry can be. Comments like these, you will have to accept and account for while you are looking for work (and working in) this industry. If you feel strongly about your need for artistic expression, then perhaps you should be aiming to work in independent animation.
On a more positive note, you are well on your way. It shouldn’t be difficult for you to sort out these problems. Use your monkey character, think deeply about the way the audience would expect him to move and behave, put together a few quality clips showing off the important elements of character animation and you should be able to get your foot on the first rung of the ladder.
Remember: take note of the kind of work different companies are likely to look for and give them what they need.
Hello GingerHammer, (love the name) Never done any puppeteer work, but 3d animation is very close to it. Most people have said to me that my character animations have really improved since last year- some havent commented (not sure what to think of that) The stuff i try and do now has more life to it than previous attempts i think- will have to try harder!
If you feel strongly about your need for artistic expression, then perhaps you should be aiming to work in independent animation.
I do feel strongly about my art work, -so should any other artist- but i’m completely contempt with exploring all that in my spare time, and who say’s i can’t do that in a production studio, i’m sure i can get some of my artistic influence in there, otherwise it’s not an ‘art’ is it?.
Like everybody else, i want to improve so much more and become one of the ‘Best’ so I do need a good studio to work in, to develop myself- I Got myself my 1st interview next month at a really great studio, very excited about it, i think i have a good chance but im certainly not celebrating until i actually am offered the job…I know it wont be easy, so wish me luck
Robin3D, Thanks man, I’m a big MJ fan, i hope people don’t think I was making a joke out of him, he is a great inspiration!!
Over and Out!-Rodi
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