Will, simply put I think your film suffers a little from combination of two problems – ‘inexperience animating/ rigging in after effects’ and your first time working with ‘quadruped characters’. The combination of these two problems has meant that whilst your animation methodology is sound you’ve not quite been unable to fully refine/ control your work. For example the Cat and the Dog are both ‘stiff’ (even though they’re made of soft materials), this particularly true of the Cat which has a ‘locked spine’ (partly due to its design) resulting in a ‘linear’ walk and an awkward jump. The dog has stiff legs also. This is a shame given that there are moments where your characters start to take on animation personalities. However as I said this was your first time using after effects in this way so in many respects you should be congratulated on making this much progress in such a short space of time.
Overall, I like the information you chose and the tonality of your design work. You film has the right balance of humour, clarity, and lightness. This is reflected in your choice of music and in the cloth like character designs. My only reservation is the design of your human stickmen characters (and couch) which don’t have the same design language as your Cat and Dog – They are born out of different shapes meaning they occupy a more simplified design universe. For example one person could be male and the other female - the female may have pigtails which reflect the design of the cat and so on.
Will, simply put I think your film suffers a little from combination of two problems – ‘inexperience animating/ rigging in after effects’ and your first time working with ‘quadruped characters’. The combination of these two problems has meant that whilst your animation methodology is sound you’ve not quite been unable to fully refine/ control your work. For example the Cat and the Dog are both ‘stiff’ (even though they’re made of soft materials), this particularly true of the Cat which has a ‘locked spine’ (partly due to its design) resulting in a ‘linear’ walk and an awkward jump. The dog has stiff legs also. This is a shame given that there are moments where your characters start to take on animation personalities. However as I said this was your first time using after effects in this way so in many respects you should be congratulated on making this much progress in such a short space of time.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I like the information you chose and the tonality of your design work. You film has the right balance of humour, clarity, and lightness. This is reflected in your choice of music and in the cloth like character designs. My only reservation is the design of your human stickmen characters (and couch) which don’t have the same design language as your Cat and Dog – They are born out of different shapes meaning they occupy a more simplified design universe. For example one person could be male and the other female - the female may have pigtails which reflect the design of the cat and so on.