Body Mechanics study... critique welcome

xel

Hey,

Just joined the forum but been here for a whilst now and thought I'd become a member. I'm currently a student studying animation and have been working on a body mechanics shot that I feel is close to being finished, but would like maybe some advice from other people to try and improve it. 

Any recommendations would be much appreciated. 

https://www.syncsketch.com/sketch/174610#218556

AGoodFella

Cool stuff.

First of all, this is a lot of work. I would consider cutting this down a lot. 

Overall thoughts are it isn't too bad. There seems to be a lot 'jank' and the timing could be improved. There are some mechanics issues as well.

Cut this down into a smaller piece and concentrate on main poses. Post an update and we can help.

xel

Thanks for the reply AGoodFella. 

Unfortunately I can't really cut it down in time as I am working to a brief for university and it has to be this long (20sec). I'm not looking for frame to frame feedback (although I wouldn't complain) but your advice on the "jank" (unfamiliar with that term, jerky?). 

tholmes3d

I think "jank" refers to the fact that the timing feels very inconsistent. As an example, around f136 he seems to pause during the landing, then he rolls extremely fast. Again at 381 his body shoots forward, not matching the action before it. There are many more cases, but these are 2 clear examples. 
As an overall note about consistency, there seems to be a mix of more realistic and slightly more cartoony actions. The foot plant around f342 for example feels a bit more cartoony to me, as does the lack of weight in areas, like the foot plant off the wall around 184.

There's definitely good work in here and I'll be awesome once it's all brought to the same level. Looking forward to an update. 

HeXiFy

I'm gonna leave some feed back in there, I'm not going to attempt to write everything down because there's just so much wrong with it... The main things that really jump out are;

Timing, actions and movements that defy physics, no consistency, joints penetrating, limbs penetrating through.

xel

Thanks tholmes3d and HeXiFy for the feedback! Much appreicated. Also for the frame reviews on the link, it's super helpful and I will be going through them and trying my best to fix it. I'm still very much a beginner at this so it's invaluable advice. Will hopefully be posting an update soon with fixes but I may just take the feedback on board for my next animation (and make it shorter!) 

HeXiFy

Sounds good, if you can take good criticism and apply it to every animation and just follow through with the 12 principles, you'll be golden. Good luck!