After months of deliberation, I've finally come around to going public with my demo reel. It's in a perpetual state of development and I do plan to add and/or pare down some scenes where necessary. Any constructive feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated.
Hi there, just had a quick look at your reel & have a couple of thoughts- will try to have more of a proper look very soon & give some more coherent feedback!
Anyway- the realistic human head bit's very nice in my opinion, as the expressions in the acting work as well & the lipsync looks good too. Possibly this bit should be first up on the reel, best piece first & all that. I think the runs need some more work-the one on the green shorts character is quite snappy & for me is cycling a bit too fast (which might stop some of the snapping anyway). His arms seem rather floppy too- & they aren't as much like this in the variety of walks you have in the reel which are of a higher quality than the runs. The generic/normal walk on the green shorts character works well, as does the walking through the woods & the stompy walk is nice too. I think on the wall pushing sequence you're most of the way there- you need to make sure the hands stop drifiting away from the wall in places as then you lose the weight & strain of the action- make sure you really push the poses to a plausible extreme too & then you've won half the battle!
I'll try & get back to you on some of the acting bits & anything else that jumps out, but don't get disheartened as there's some genuinely nice stuff there. I've posted my reel on another thread here so please feel free to rip into it!
Yeah, runs are often tricky because they occur in such a compressed amount of time. That frantic run cycle is actually 6 or 8 frames (per step), so I think the timing is standard. I completely agree with what you were saying about the flashing bits. It's strange because no matter whether the arcs, the follow through or the weight are there, it doesn't mean a thing if it doesn't have time to register. Incidentally, the arm movement during his run is probably the thing I'm proudest of.. although I can understand where you are coming from. I just wanted it to have a manic, limber, cartoon-like quality to it, so I really pushed the joint breaking.
I think I agree with you 100 percent on the wall push. The only thing that irked me, even as I was animating it, was the fact that his hands kept drifting. Luckily, I have since familiarized myself with IK a little better and I'm pretty sure that should allow me to keep his hands locked in place the next time I decide to revisit that exercise.
As I mentioned in my previous message, I thank you once again for taking the time to watch my reel, much less post detailed (and helpful) feedback.
Much obliged! :)