Critique - Baseball

Hey,

the baseball clip looks awesome, nice work!!

Last things to nitpick about. :)

I would make the head turn around x118 about two frames faster, so it's a tad snappier, for dramatic effect.
Check the screen left leg around x26. As he gets up the leg is bent and then extends, then bends again. That transition happens very fast, so if you could soften that a bit. Same thing on x46 where it extends, but it kinda locks into that position. Soften that as well. On x171, when the screen left leg takes that step and foot plants, you raise the body and the screen right leg extends. Since all the weight is on the left leg, rotate the hips up on that side so we see the weight shift.

Continue the swing in his right arm after x154. You swing it forward but then it comes to a halt and pauses, then swings back screenleft from x158 on. Keep that move going from right then to left during that pause.

Last thing: check his left arm from x125 on. You extend it and go into a nice arc until x128. You overlap with the glove on x129 which is good, but I would move the arm up a bit as well and then lead into x130.

That's it! 99% there, looking super sweet!

Cheers
JD

Sick - no class tonight

I tried to fight as long as possible. I know it's a hassle for some of you guys to come down to school for just one class. Sorry to mess that up. I'll email out make-up dates for this class. Sorry for the late notice!!

Feel free to email me your clips for critique!

(don't forget to send me .movs, check the F.A.Q. on how to use the h.264 codec so that the files are small).

Kinovea - new tool for my students

Thanks to pateta3d over at the 11secondclub forum I've finally found a player which lets you step through a movie frame by frame, but which also lets you draw on top of it. There are many more features included, so take a second and check them out @ the kinovea features page.

The player is free, so there's no cost nor hassle involved. I would use the mirror download link (the other ones gave me corrupted files).

From now on I will be critiquing movies using that player. The file with the included notes will be saved as an .mkv file. The cool thing about is that each frame containing notes, or drawings or whatever feature you use, is listed one after the other below the clip and tool bar (one in this example screen shot).

The only drawback (so far - the next big software update will fix it) is that audio is not supported. So for dialogue clips I will still use quicktime for playback and switch to kinovea for notes. Hopefully we can use it in class (I assume the lab techs need to allow the installation of new software on the school server).

Cheers
JD

How to use Reference by Jeff Cooperman

Head over to Jeff's blog for an awesome post!

Open Season 2 - Trailer

- found @ Cartoon Brew

Critique - Chair

Well done!

Big things that stand out:

the quick body up movement on x33 to 36.

The lean down after x100 still feels weird, the head and body are still fighting each other. Maybe add a beat before he leans over. It's just a bit too even. Maybe start slow and do more of a slump at the end? Something with more emotion. Right it's a bit too much like a deflating balloon. :) A few expression changes in his face could also help.

Watch the hand that holds the armrest, after it let's go. The hand rotation stays mostly the same and the arm overall is a bit floaty.

Add a little bit of overlap in the head when his sits on x80, and a little bit in his right arm, so you feel the weight. The momentum of all the weight suddenly stopping because of the chair has to continue throughout the body parts that are not stopped by the chair (hope that makes sense).

Cheers
JD

Critique - Monster

Looking good, nice progress!

I think you could slow down the hand ground pounding by maybe 2 frames, which will make him look bigger. But without a tree or little humans around it's tough to know what the real scale is. What could be cool is to have a little guy run away from him. Don't shake your head, hear me out! :)

Look at x5, tilt the big guy's head a little bit so he's looking at the ground. Hold on. Let me draw it. (see attachment). So he's looking at a little guy running away (quick'n dirty runcycle). That way we introduce some motivation for the monster and some context.

Then with the spear (which then could be a little bit shorter) another guy is saving the little guy and distracting the monster. Continue with what you have though. Just make the transition between poses a bit more fluid. Right now it feels a bit too pose-to-pose.

Hope that helps!
Cheers
JD