sample mentoring
Below are 3 examples of what my animation critique reports look like. I've also included an indication of the time it took for me to do them, for you to assess your budget expectations. Note too that reports are sent via emails, with picture attachments, upon receipt of your video and payment. Live follow-up Skype conversations can be booked additionally, if required...
01: STUDENT ANIMATION/LLOYD: 43 minutes
Original animation submitted.
Thank your for giving me the chance to review your walk cycle Lloyd.
My first impression is that your animation is falling into a number of traps that student work can often fall into. Seeing your rendered version from this angle only does not help. Nevertheless, here are a few initial comments I have. Namely…
1) The arms and legs are out of sync: A 'generic walk' requires that the arms move in opposition to the legs. In other words, when the right leg moves forward the left arm swings forward too. Similarly, when the left leg moves forward the right arm will move forward. Do a few natural walking steps yourself right now and you’ll see this happening - especially if you can watch yourself in a tall mirror. Alternatively, have someone else to walk slowly for you, so you can observe what their arms and legs are doing. If you can film this in slow motion and play it back several times, it will make it even clearer to you.
2) There is no ‘up and down’ movement in the action: When we walk our body rises and falls in time with the legs action. Specifically, we rise on the ‘passing position’ and fall on the 'stride positions'.
The ‘passing position’ is the point in the action where the 'contact leg' (the one with its foot on the ground) is directly under the body - with the ‘free leg’ (the one in the air moving from the back to the front) coming through in something like a 'number 4' position. (Indeed, I often term the passing position as the ‘number 4’ position as that’s the shape the legs make if the walk is traveling from right to left.) When the contact leg is under the body its pretty much straight – hence the hips (and therefore the whole body) being forced upwards above it. However, on the full stride positions – when both legs are angled forward and back, touching the ground - the hips (and therefore the body) move downward. Consequently, as the walk cycle progresses the body will have an ‘up and down’ action.
3) Lack of flexibility in the head, neck or hands: With the hands you need to bend each one back slightly as its arm come forward – and then forward lightly as the arm swings back.
For the head and neck, if you put a slight downward direction on the head when the body moves up (i.e. the ‘passing position’) and angle it up slightly when the body goes down (i.e. the stride positions) there will be a great deal more flexibility in its movement.
4) Clipped stride action/front: To give your character more fluidity and range on the stride action, you might just swing the lead leg a little higher and forward of the following ground ‘contact’ position, just before it touches the ground.
5) Clipped stride action/back: Similarly, just after the full stride position, you might keep the back toe on the ground a little longer, rather than bring it back through to the passing position. This will give an added impression that that leg is pushing the body forward as it goes.
Now I would add that there are other things you can do that will add to the overall naturalness of the action. But they may just confuse you with so many other things to work on right now that we’ll deal with those on another occasion.
Finally, below I've added some draw-over images that might clarify what I’m talking about...
(Please remember that these drawings are indications only and you will need to experiment with the degree to which you make these changes. The principles I'm indicating will work but trial and error will teach you the degree to which you express them.)
Arms/Legs:
My first impression is that your animation is falling into a number of traps that student work can often fall into. Seeing your rendered version from this angle only does not help. Nevertheless, here are a few initial comments I have. Namely…
1) The arms and legs are out of sync: A 'generic walk' requires that the arms move in opposition to the legs. In other words, when the right leg moves forward the left arm swings forward too. Similarly, when the left leg moves forward the right arm will move forward. Do a few natural walking steps yourself right now and you’ll see this happening - especially if you can watch yourself in a tall mirror. Alternatively, have someone else to walk slowly for you, so you can observe what their arms and legs are doing. If you can film this in slow motion and play it back several times, it will make it even clearer to you.
2) There is no ‘up and down’ movement in the action: When we walk our body rises and falls in time with the legs action. Specifically, we rise on the ‘passing position’ and fall on the 'stride positions'.
The ‘passing position’ is the point in the action where the 'contact leg' (the one with its foot on the ground) is directly under the body - with the ‘free leg’ (the one in the air moving from the back to the front) coming through in something like a 'number 4' position. (Indeed, I often term the passing position as the ‘number 4’ position as that’s the shape the legs make if the walk is traveling from right to left.) When the contact leg is under the body its pretty much straight – hence the hips (and therefore the whole body) being forced upwards above it. However, on the full stride positions – when both legs are angled forward and back, touching the ground - the hips (and therefore the body) move downward. Consequently, as the walk cycle progresses the body will have an ‘up and down’ action.
3) Lack of flexibility in the head, neck or hands: With the hands you need to bend each one back slightly as its arm come forward – and then forward lightly as the arm swings back.
For the head and neck, if you put a slight downward direction on the head when the body moves up (i.e. the ‘passing position’) and angle it up slightly when the body goes down (i.e. the stride positions) there will be a great deal more flexibility in its movement.
4) Clipped stride action/front: To give your character more fluidity and range on the stride action, you might just swing the lead leg a little higher and forward of the following ground ‘contact’ position, just before it touches the ground.
5) Clipped stride action/back: Similarly, just after the full stride position, you might keep the back toe on the ground a little longer, rather than bring it back through to the passing position. This will give an added impression that that leg is pushing the body forward as it goes.
Now I would add that there are other things you can do that will add to the overall naturalness of the action. But they may just confuse you with so many other things to work on right now that we’ll deal with those on another occasion.
Finally, below I've added some draw-over images that might clarify what I’m talking about...
(Please remember that these drawings are indications only and you will need to experiment with the degree to which you make these changes. The principles I'm indicating will work but trial and error will teach you the degree to which you express them.)
Arms/Legs:
Up & down on Passing Position:
Fluidity on head and hands:
Forward leg action before the contact position:
Backward push action on rear leg:
Note: Critiques and mentoring text and images may be longer or shorter, depending on the amount of comments that need to be made.
02: STUDENT ANIMATION/XUNG: 35 minutes
Original animation submitted.
Thank your for giving me the chance to review your animation Xung.
What a delightful scene you’ve created here… and especially impressive considering that you are a first-year student at AIE-Seattle! Nice work! In fact, it’s so good that its difficult for me to find too much to critique here. That said, I would like to advise you about ‘twinning’.
Twinning is where two limbs are animated identically, on the same keys, as a mirror image. You are doing it here with the arms moving forward, back and up. I believe this part of your animation will look a little more natural if you put slight variations in the arm movements - one moving very slightly different to the other, or one moving slightly later than the other. You can see a brief lecture item of this at the end of the video on the homepage of my ‘The Animator’s Friend’ website. It should make this much clearer to you when you see it.
Also, be award of a thing called ‘successive breaking of joints’. This is a long-term Disney animation term, meaning that major actions in the limbs of the body are not even or all done at the same time. Instead they subtly follow a sequence of movements – from one key moment to another. For example, when an athlete throws a javelin the order of joints coming into play, one after the other, are… i) hips, ii) shoulder, iii) elbow, iv) wrist, v) hand and then finally vi) fingers. Each unfolds, one after the other.
Therefore I would suggest doing a little subtle version of this on the arm action when they open the box lid. I’ll sketch out my thoughts here showing that the lifting action could well stem from the wrists on the lift, taking the box lid beyond its final position, then coming back down to where you leave it. Try it to see if it makes a difference?
Otherwise, terrific work Xung. Keep it up!
Here are the draw-overs I’ve done for you...
(Please remember that these drawings are indications only and you will need to experiment with the degree to which you make these changes. The principles I'm indicating will work but trial and error will teach you the degree to which you express them.)
What a delightful scene you’ve created here… and especially impressive considering that you are a first-year student at AIE-Seattle! Nice work! In fact, it’s so good that its difficult for me to find too much to critique here. That said, I would like to advise you about ‘twinning’.
Twinning is where two limbs are animated identically, on the same keys, as a mirror image. You are doing it here with the arms moving forward, back and up. I believe this part of your animation will look a little more natural if you put slight variations in the arm movements - one moving very slightly different to the other, or one moving slightly later than the other. You can see a brief lecture item of this at the end of the video on the homepage of my ‘The Animator’s Friend’ website. It should make this much clearer to you when you see it.
Also, be award of a thing called ‘successive breaking of joints’. This is a long-term Disney animation term, meaning that major actions in the limbs of the body are not even or all done at the same time. Instead they subtly follow a sequence of movements – from one key moment to another. For example, when an athlete throws a javelin the order of joints coming into play, one after the other, are… i) hips, ii) shoulder, iii) elbow, iv) wrist, v) hand and then finally vi) fingers. Each unfolds, one after the other.
Therefore I would suggest doing a little subtle version of this on the arm action when they open the box lid. I’ll sketch out my thoughts here showing that the lifting action could well stem from the wrists on the lift, taking the box lid beyond its final position, then coming back down to where you leave it. Try it to see if it makes a difference?
Otherwise, terrific work Xung. Keep it up!
Here are the draw-overs I’ve done for you...
(Please remember that these drawings are indications only and you will need to experiment with the degree to which you make these changes. The principles I'm indicating will work but trial and error will teach you the degree to which you express them.)
Twinning avoidance
More fluidity in the box lid lift
Note: Critiques and mentoring text and images may be longer or shorter, depending on the amount of comments that need to be made.
03: Student animation/MEGAN: 1 hour
Original animation submitted.
Thank your for giving me the chance to review your walk cycle Megan.
It is unfortunately that you have a rotation going on all through as this weakens your animation when there is not movement in the character. Also, it makes it harder for me to analyze a lot of the action you are attempting. However from what I can see…
1) There is hardly any ‘up and down’ movement in the walk: This is a common error that I have to point out so many times when seeing different examples of student animation. When we walk our body rises and falls in time with the leg action. Specifically, we rise on the ‘passing position’ and fall on the strides. The ‘passing position’ is the point in the stride where the contact leg (the one with its foot on the ground) is directly under the body, with the ‘free leg’ (the one in the air moving from the back to the front) coming through in something like a number 4 position. When the contact leg is under the body its is pretty much straight – hence the hips (and therefore the body) being forced upwards above it. However, on the full stride positions – when both legs are angled forward and back, touching the ground, the hips (and therefore the body) move downward. Consequently, as the walk cycle progresses the body will have an ‘up and down’ action. I acknowledge that you have a little ‘up’ action on your passing position but it is not enough with such a tall, lanky character. I therefore believe that by creating a straighter contact leg it will have the effect of pushing the body up higher, giving the entire thing a much more natural look.
2) Lack of flexibility in the hands: With such and elegant character like this you need to add more fluidity and elegance to her action. Therefore consider putting my fluidity to her joints – especially the wrist joints. To do this I would suggest that you need to bend the hands back slightly as the arms come forward – and then forward lightly as the arms swing back. You might even experiment with a little more bend in the elbows as the arms move back too… although this has to be subtly done otherwise it could be a little too much distracting. Certainly the adjustments to the hands will eliminate some of the rigidity you have in the arms right now.
3) Clipped stride action/front: Your leg action is definitely too clipped and limited. This is a tall rangy character, so you need to apply that kind of action to the legs too. For example, at the front end of your stride you might swing the lead foot a little higher and further forward before the foot comes down to the ground on the ‘contact’ position. Also, consider the foot hitting heel first, rather than the flat foot action you have now… although you might consider a more pointed toe on the ‘forward and higher’ position? (But experiment here, it might not help!)
4) Clipped stride action/back: The biggest weakness you have with the stride action is that there’s not sense of drive from the back leg. Therefore, just after the full stride position, you might just force the back toe further back on the ground for a few frames longer… rather than it coming straight up towards the passing position as it does now. This should certainly add a sense of the back leg pushing the body forward in a more assertive and confident way.
5) Balance and weight shifting: Finally, when you shift poses from one side to the other, first slide the free leg across to its final astride position before shifting the weight to it. Right now you do it all at the same time which is making it unrealistic and floaty. In reality we have to first shift our balance over our contact leg before we lift our foot and place it somewhere else. When that free foot is in place where it needs to be, we can then shift our weight to it… but not before.
Other things are evidently needing fixing, such as adding more fluidity and flexibility to the torso and hair. But with all the suggestions I have made we might leave that till another time.
Finally, below I've added some draw-over images that might clarify what I’m talking about...
(Please remember that these drawings are indications only and you will need to experiment with the degree to which you make these changes. The principles I'm indicating will work but trial and error will teach you the degree to which you express them.)
It is unfortunately that you have a rotation going on all through as this weakens your animation when there is not movement in the character. Also, it makes it harder for me to analyze a lot of the action you are attempting. However from what I can see…
1) There is hardly any ‘up and down’ movement in the walk: This is a common error that I have to point out so many times when seeing different examples of student animation. When we walk our body rises and falls in time with the leg action. Specifically, we rise on the ‘passing position’ and fall on the strides. The ‘passing position’ is the point in the stride where the contact leg (the one with its foot on the ground) is directly under the body, with the ‘free leg’ (the one in the air moving from the back to the front) coming through in something like a number 4 position. When the contact leg is under the body its is pretty much straight – hence the hips (and therefore the body) being forced upwards above it. However, on the full stride positions – when both legs are angled forward and back, touching the ground, the hips (and therefore the body) move downward. Consequently, as the walk cycle progresses the body will have an ‘up and down’ action. I acknowledge that you have a little ‘up’ action on your passing position but it is not enough with such a tall, lanky character. I therefore believe that by creating a straighter contact leg it will have the effect of pushing the body up higher, giving the entire thing a much more natural look.
2) Lack of flexibility in the hands: With such and elegant character like this you need to add more fluidity and elegance to her action. Therefore consider putting my fluidity to her joints – especially the wrist joints. To do this I would suggest that you need to bend the hands back slightly as the arms come forward – and then forward lightly as the arms swing back. You might even experiment with a little more bend in the elbows as the arms move back too… although this has to be subtly done otherwise it could be a little too much distracting. Certainly the adjustments to the hands will eliminate some of the rigidity you have in the arms right now.
3) Clipped stride action/front: Your leg action is definitely too clipped and limited. This is a tall rangy character, so you need to apply that kind of action to the legs too. For example, at the front end of your stride you might swing the lead foot a little higher and further forward before the foot comes down to the ground on the ‘contact’ position. Also, consider the foot hitting heel first, rather than the flat foot action you have now… although you might consider a more pointed toe on the ‘forward and higher’ position? (But experiment here, it might not help!)
4) Clipped stride action/back: The biggest weakness you have with the stride action is that there’s not sense of drive from the back leg. Therefore, just after the full stride position, you might just force the back toe further back on the ground for a few frames longer… rather than it coming straight up towards the passing position as it does now. This should certainly add a sense of the back leg pushing the body forward in a more assertive and confident way.
5) Balance and weight shifting: Finally, when you shift poses from one side to the other, first slide the free leg across to its final astride position before shifting the weight to it. Right now you do it all at the same time which is making it unrealistic and floaty. In reality we have to first shift our balance over our contact leg before we lift our foot and place it somewhere else. When that free foot is in place where it needs to be, we can then shift our weight to it… but not before.
Other things are evidently needing fixing, such as adding more fluidity and flexibility to the torso and hair. But with all the suggestions I have made we might leave that till another time.
Finally, below I've added some draw-over images that might clarify what I’m talking about...
(Please remember that these drawings are indications only and you will need to experiment with the degree to which you make these changes. The principles I'm indicating will work but trial and error will teach you the degree to which you express them.)
Up and down on 'passing position'
Fluidity on hands
Clipped stride action… front and back
Weight shift
Note: Critiques and mentoring text and images may be longer or shorter, depending on the amount of comments that need to be made.