Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Hey Kinga!

  An interesting effect and combination of techniques and styles, I love the addition of the dragon but I do feel like a couple of things stand out to me that could be improved in the future.

  - The effect pops into existence pretty rapidly with hardly any indication or otherwise build-up to it and the sigils by the characters' feet are stationary and quite lifeless. The brightness of the sigils is a nice touch, but the slow fade-out felt a little underwhelming and without purpose. In this case, considering to add More to the effect might bring it to life; perhaps some slow rotations or multiple layers of sigils that rotate in opposing directions; perhaps something actively happening with the sigils such as little sparks or flames rising from them at a more 'forceful' rate rather than the current slow and calm sparks.

  - In my opinion, the dragon would appear much more impressive and menacing if the mesh it was rotating around had twisted cylindrical UVs that move upwards rather than the current simple sphere. It would make the dragon rise up from the ground, curling in and out around the character before rising up past the characters' head and either fading out into nothing, or perhaps having another effect happen where the dragons' head is about to disappear.

  - I found that the sequence of events was disconnected; the dragon/sigil start had almost no correlation to the second part with Dimka's tutorial swirly flames rising and rotating around the character and the hands glowing prior to a firebreath being thrown out.  In large part, this is due to the timing of the effect. Upon the sigil section finishing, there is almost a 3 second delay before the fire swirls start around the character. Cutting that gap away to make the transition more seamless could be worth trying.

  - The colours of the dragon stage and fire stages don't match; the former being a pinkish red and the latter suddenly popping into existence with shades of yellow and black. For options on fixing this here, you could look into (once the timing has been fixed to make it feel more connected) setting up the fade-in/fade-outs to be of similar colour when the effects start and then progress into that more yellowy/black palette that you have going on afterwards. You could also simply alter the colour scheme to be more unified, i.e. make both the dragon and fire swirling stages a similar shade of bright red/yellow/orange.

  - There isn't really much happening to explain why the characters' hands are beginning to gather power for a firebreath from the wild swirling fire around it. Could be worth looking into either toning down the fire swirling effect and focusing the power more to be -flowing- into the characters' hands, or perhaps even making some of those firey swirls begin to rotate around the characters hands slowly, increasing more and more in density/speed/brightness over time until the character is ready to unleash the attack.

  - In the firebreath stage, the character is holding on to the firebreath whilst completely motionless for a long while, this breaks the illusion of power that the character had spent so long to build up as said fire gently sits in his hands until finally unleashing it. A pass at timing would do wonders here, cutting down the time the animation is standing still for and as a result making the effect feel more dynamic and powerful.

  - When the firebreath is unleashed, at the end of the 'throw' animation there is a delay before the firebreath is actually thrown out. With the motion of the character essentially weaving and firebending the flame around itself, the delay at the end of the cast animation before the firebreath comes out breaks the suspension as personally, I expected the firebreath to be thrown out as soon as its' hands touched together in front of it. This is something that another pass at timing would solve.

  - The firebreath itself could feel more powerful if it was being spawned for a bit longer, like a channeled ability, or if it was given more depth through materials, colours and density. Something worth exploring.

  - Finally, the aura at the end of the effect felt heavily disconnected from the rest of the effect, almost appearing without purpose after the effect had already concluded entirely. It was also a little off-centre from the character.

  I hope some of the stuff I've written will give you something to think about in the future with your effects, I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

  - Fakado

• Overall it is great work with many possible uses in actual gaming environment, it shows very high potential and good understanding of design and technical knowledge  
  Pay more attention to polishing in terms of easing the animations. In the examples provided (Wow, LOL, HOTS), the animations provide a specific timing according to the spells effect. Make sure the timing on your tick's is distinguishable. In the purple dragon spin the spins seem to happen at different rates. Also pay attention to details as the dragons disappear abruptly so they seem to be missing something . 

  
  The color palette you used is very wide and because of this, each animation seems to not belong together with the whole. In the examples presented (Leona) all of the animations have very restricted color palettes, making the animations easily recognizable for the character. The inspiration you had for it is full of potential and you may want to take more advantage of it by following the guidelines these provide more closely. 

  The fireball you created seems like the Hero animation for this character, as it has the longest cast time and shows direct impact on target, hence, I would highly recommend spending more time on this, making it more in line with the concept. At the moment it seems too generic. 

  The one part of the animations that stands out is the circle of fire, as it is not in the same style with the others, giving a more "cartoony" feel. Make sure to balance the overall look of your animation package, making it look more homogeneous. 

  If you put more effort into its presentation (polishing the characters, blocking out sections of the presentation accordingly), I see you reaching far in this industry. 
  

  Remember to design everything. This includes the documentation and background data, put your signature, logo and portfolio link on all pages, after all you are not just an artist! Keep up the good work and good luck with your future endeavors! :)