3d Game animation critiques

AlexAng

https://syncsketch.com/sketch/FBALHwm8oZ3i/

Hey all I've got a few clips lined up and I'm getting them ready for putting into a portfolio but would like some critique before I put it all together.
I've got some in progress game clips all set up on a sync sketch space and was wondering if anyone had any feedback. If nothing else just saying which clip you like the most would help me out.

Nixellion

Hi! Cool stuff, fun ideas there!  

So, the first animation, the guy with the chain. A few things:

1. It's really important to get the arcs nice and smooth, especially with the visible trail. It just looks dirty and unpolished, and many studios won't accept animations with even cleaner arcs (but still with small defects) and without a visible trail. That's the first thing that would affect even an untrained eye. 
2. Camera rotation - I don't think it helps. It's confusing, and especially on smooth background with no landmarks it's not even apparent whether the camera is moving or not. You either need to lean into it, and make some cool camera animation that really sells it and add some checker texture or something like that, or don't move the camera. I mean there's some pillar in the background but not sure if that's enough. Though I don't feel strongly about the camera motion.
3. Poses. The concept is cool, but many poses could use another iteration. Make them stronger, maybe more exaggerated even, with more readable action curves.
4. The chain\rope, it looks like it bugs out. Improving that would make things look a lot cleaner as well
5. You need to sharpen key poses, so they read better, add some sharper motions, there has to be some rhythm in animation

Running animation - overall looks good, depending on style and context of the project it could work. I would maybe add some stronger up and down motion

Creepy monster. Mmmh... Hard to judge, but elbows might need some work, they kinda snap all over the place

Wizard run is probably the best. But I think you should cycle\loop it, right now it's not cycled. Monster as well, actually.


I left some scribbles, hope they are visible and helpful.

AlexAng

Nixellion said:

Hi! Cool stuff, fun ideas there!  

So, the first animation, the guy with the chain. A few things:

1. It's really important to get the arcs nice and smooth, especially with the visible trail. It just looks dirty and unpolished, and many studios won't accept animations with even cleaner arcs (but still with small defects) and without a visible trail. That's the first thing that would affect even an untrained eye. 
2. Camera rotation - I don't think it helps. It's confusing, and especially on smooth background with no landmarks it's not even apparent whether the camera is moving or not. You either need to lean into it, and make some cool camera animation that really sells it and add some checker texture or something like that, or don't move the camera. I mean there's some pillar in the background but not sure if that's enough. Though I don't feel strongly about the camera motion.
3. Poses. The concept is cool, but many poses could use another iteration. Make them stronger, maybe more exaggerated even, with more readable action curves.
4. The chain\rope, it looks like it bugs out. Improving that would make things look a lot cleaner as well
5. You need to sharpen key poses, so they read better, add some sharper motions, there has to be some rhythm in animation

Running animation - overall looks good, depending on style and context of the project it could work. I would maybe add some stronger up and down motion

Creepy monster. Mmmh... Hard to judge, but elbows might need some work, they kinda snap all over the place

Wizard run is probably the best. But I think you should cycle\loop it, right now it's not cycled. Monster as well, actually.


I left some scribbles, hope they are visible and helpful.

Thank you so much, I can see the draw-overs and they help a lot. There's so much arc tracking I still need to do to get the first clip where I want it. I'll work on all the rest of the clips too as I move forward.