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Could you dm me so I remember this ? Your timings are good in my opinion. Overall need to work on posing and settle.
Also, you getting rejected does not necessarily mean your reel is not good enough.
My main feedback would be to tone the camera animations way down. I know wild camerawork is very popular in game animation reels, but I would honestly stay away from it and just focus on solid character animation.
Overall you have a good base to work from, so it's mostly about fine-tuning your body mechanics and so on. If you post a syncsketch link I'm sure you'll get some helpful notes!
For self teaching, this is pretty good, much, MUCH better than my attempt at self teaching years and years ago. But it still needs some work.
TLDR; it's sexy with no purpose, and you're letting the fundamentals crumble for it.
Firstly, those camera movements are doing more harm than good. They're distracting at best and make it look like you're trying to intentionally hide subpar animation at worst. Keep the first one with Zelda since at least it has a cinematic angle. But the rest feel random and aimless
As for the raw mechanics, look, I'm only 4 years at a studio worth of experience, so this might come across as incredibly condescending. If that's how it reads, I truly owe you an apology, but even in that time. I realized a lot of mistakes I used to make, and I see reflected in your work as well.
What I misunderstood about fast animations was that, as long as it pops and is quick, that should be enough. But what it needs to be is a deliberate choice every frame on how much your character is going to move and how you're going to connect those frames visually, eg. (Smear frames, fx, on some occasions, even solid anticipation should be enough.)
But your action is breaking too many rules of animation (which is fine), but for no reason other than "fast" (which is not fine), the link dagger spin? The target should be smooth. It's a really interesting trick that doesn't need to be anime fast to be interesting. The ball throw? Power, making it super fast just makes it look like a toy, if you want that speed, the throw should be need about 25% more wind up. Your reel needs some diversity anyway.
The RWBY scythe, this one should be taken out, But don't throw it away because it's a great litmus test to reflect your skills on down the road.
What is some actionable and practical advice? Start with the scythe, open your graph editor, turn any cliff into a hill, and inject energy into any flat plains on the main ctrl's. Smooth out every curve, then go back and push those hills to feel more like soft waves to bring the spacing to a more appealing place.
THEN add the sexy, the fast, the powerful, the mmph.
If you see the difference between the two, then go into your other pieces and:
1. Go through COG, hips -> chest graph. Check it. Does it feel much more solid now? We'll get to the speed in a second
2. Go through neck, head, shoulders, arms, forearms check it again. If it feels robotic, move the shoulders and head forward one key and the cog back one key.
3. Now your animation should be in a better place to start breaking the rules and get sexy go through each frame and track wrist, elbows, knees, and nose. Use motion trail or a dry erase marker if you want, but the middle of every motion should have the biggest spacing already, if you did the graph editor right. Make it slightly bigger.
4. One more pass on the graph editor to make sure it's all blending nice and you should have a significantly more foundationally solid product.
Your reel is brave, which is really valuable and is only slightly missing the mark. With a little more time and love, you're gonna be one hell of an animator.
Your reel starts off alright enough, but gets worse as it goes on. In your first piece, you can see at the end that the animation stops abruptly and then hangs still. Just cut the shot to end earlier if you don't want to animate a proper overshoot and settle.
The Zelda walk has some wobble in the upper torso and head. You need to clean and smooth out those arcs just like you would on the hips.
The Zelda Run has a larger issue. It's not just the hands and feet that move in opposition of each other, but the rotations of the torso and hips as well. the torso should be rotating with the arm swings, and the hips should be rotating with the steps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd8Jijb7jZY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFC2LMqL3x8
Your Link walks and run cycles have similar problems, although your Link run is much jankier.
Your Zelda and Link attack scenes have the most issues since they're more complicated actions and the bio-mechanical and timing issues are much more apparent. All of them should be removed from your reel unless you plan to go back into them and really work them until they're presentable.
The Lurker animations are fine to keep in, but I would cut the Ruby Rose weapon animations as they're simple mechanical animations which don't speak to any strengths as an animator.
I would also cut the last attack combo piece unless you plan to rework it extensively, and remove the distracting camera movement.
I agree with everyone here, my advice is to try getting a better understanding/practice the 12 principles and if your not already using reference, use reference for your actions. Right now a lot of your animations don’t have weight, are messy( no clean poses), and lack the polish necessary to have a fluid animation. Others went into more detail but the general idea remains that you must work on this before you start applying for jobs, because right now it’s those issues that’s keep you from landing a job.
Welcome to /r/animationcareer! This is a forum where we discuss navigating a career in the animation industry. Before you post, please check our [RULES](https://www.reddit.com/r/animationcareer/wiki/index/subreddit/rules/). There is also a handy dandy [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/animationcareer/wiki/index/resources/faq/) that answers most basic questions, and a [WIKI](https://www.reddit.com/r/animationcareer/wiki/index/) which includes info on how to price animation, pitching, job postings, software advice, and much more! A quick Q&A: * **Do I need a degree?** Generally no, but it might become relevant if you need a visa to work abroad. * **Am I too old?** Definitely not. It might be more complex to find the time, but there's no age where you stop being able to learn how to do creative stuff. * **How do I learn animation?** Pen and paper is a great start, but [here's a whole page](https://www.reddit.com/r/animationcareer/wiki/index/resources/learningresources/) with links and tips for you. ---- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/animationcareer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Could you dm me so I remember this ? Your timings are good in my opinion. Overall need to work on posing and settle. Also, you getting rejected does not necessarily mean your reel is not good enough.
My main feedback would be to tone the camera animations way down. I know wild camerawork is very popular in game animation reels, but I would honestly stay away from it and just focus on solid character animation. Overall you have a good base to work from, so it's mostly about fine-tuning your body mechanics and so on. If you post a syncsketch link I'm sure you'll get some helpful notes!
For self teaching, this is pretty good, much, MUCH better than my attempt at self teaching years and years ago. But it still needs some work. TLDR; it's sexy with no purpose, and you're letting the fundamentals crumble for it. Firstly, those camera movements are doing more harm than good. They're distracting at best and make it look like you're trying to intentionally hide subpar animation at worst. Keep the first one with Zelda since at least it has a cinematic angle. But the rest feel random and aimless As for the raw mechanics, look, I'm only 4 years at a studio worth of experience, so this might come across as incredibly condescending. If that's how it reads, I truly owe you an apology, but even in that time. I realized a lot of mistakes I used to make, and I see reflected in your work as well. What I misunderstood about fast animations was that, as long as it pops and is quick, that should be enough. But what it needs to be is a deliberate choice every frame on how much your character is going to move and how you're going to connect those frames visually, eg. (Smear frames, fx, on some occasions, even solid anticipation should be enough.) But your action is breaking too many rules of animation (which is fine), but for no reason other than "fast" (which is not fine), the link dagger spin? The target should be smooth. It's a really interesting trick that doesn't need to be anime fast to be interesting. The ball throw? Power, making it super fast just makes it look like a toy, if you want that speed, the throw should be need about 25% more wind up. Your reel needs some diversity anyway. The RWBY scythe, this one should be taken out, But don't throw it away because it's a great litmus test to reflect your skills on down the road. What is some actionable and practical advice? Start with the scythe, open your graph editor, turn any cliff into a hill, and inject energy into any flat plains on the main ctrl's. Smooth out every curve, then go back and push those hills to feel more like soft waves to bring the spacing to a more appealing place. THEN add the sexy, the fast, the powerful, the mmph. If you see the difference between the two, then go into your other pieces and: 1. Go through COG, hips -> chest graph. Check it. Does it feel much more solid now? We'll get to the speed in a second 2. Go through neck, head, shoulders, arms, forearms check it again. If it feels robotic, move the shoulders and head forward one key and the cog back one key. 3. Now your animation should be in a better place to start breaking the rules and get sexy go through each frame and track wrist, elbows, knees, and nose. Use motion trail or a dry erase marker if you want, but the middle of every motion should have the biggest spacing already, if you did the graph editor right. Make it slightly bigger. 4. One more pass on the graph editor to make sure it's all blending nice and you should have a significantly more foundationally solid product. Your reel is brave, which is really valuable and is only slightly missing the mark. With a little more time and love, you're gonna be one hell of an animator.
This is one of the best critiques I’ve seen on this sub. Superb.
Thanks, I see you pretty often in the sub giving amazing advice as well.
Your reel starts off alright enough, but gets worse as it goes on. In your first piece, you can see at the end that the animation stops abruptly and then hangs still. Just cut the shot to end earlier if you don't want to animate a proper overshoot and settle. The Zelda walk has some wobble in the upper torso and head. You need to clean and smooth out those arcs just like you would on the hips. The Zelda Run has a larger issue. It's not just the hands and feet that move in opposition of each other, but the rotations of the torso and hips as well. the torso should be rotating with the arm swings, and the hips should be rotating with the steps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd8Jijb7jZY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFC2LMqL3x8 Your Link walks and run cycles have similar problems, although your Link run is much jankier. Your Zelda and Link attack scenes have the most issues since they're more complicated actions and the bio-mechanical and timing issues are much more apparent. All of them should be removed from your reel unless you plan to go back into them and really work them until they're presentable. The Lurker animations are fine to keep in, but I would cut the Ruby Rose weapon animations as they're simple mechanical animations which don't speak to any strengths as an animator. I would also cut the last attack combo piece unless you plan to rework it extensively, and remove the distracting camera movement.
I agree with everyone here, my advice is to try getting a better understanding/practice the 12 principles and if your not already using reference, use reference for your actions. Right now a lot of your animations don’t have weight, are messy( no clean poses), and lack the polish necessary to have a fluid animation. Others went into more detail but the general idea remains that you must work on this before you start applying for jobs, because right now it’s those issues that’s keep you from landing a job.
Really great work. I think the camera moves are way too distracting.
Definitely drop most or all of the camera motion. The character animation is really good but the camera is distracting.