Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• I really like that you chose a rig with some facial controls and put some thought into the characters personality/state of mind, as this can sometimes be something that people neglect with in game animation when first starting out. With the blink you added for the idle, I would consider adding this as an idle variant, or prolonging the idle so that the blink doesn’t repeat too often. The drag you have on the head is working nicely for the idle, I would think about adding some subtle side to side action with the body over each foot to give it more variation. Elongating the idle would help with this. With more subtle movements like this the wrists don’t tend to lead the arms as much, so you could relax these a bit. The cautious, anxious feeling you were going for is also coming across well in your idle variant which is great to see, and I think the sign of relief is a lovely touch. I think this animation could benefit with extra time to make sure the character has time to take in what he’s looking at/for over his shoulder. I tend to lead with the head more for movements like this, and sometimes add a blink during larger head movements such as this, particularly for more cartoony characters. Personally, I like having the arms in FK for these kinds of movements so that the body doesn’t move around the wrists. And adding a few little steps during this movement as he adjust his body looking to the side will help the legs be in a more comfortable position. I understand that you didn’t have as much time as you would have liked for the research and reference, but the charge up, release and recovery I think could have benefited from more planning. If you can’t find something online that you like it’s ok to try and act it out and film yourself, even if you never show anyone else your reference. If you were to work into these 3 animations further, I think considering the weight of the character and the sword would be beneficial. For example, as he swings down keeping the back leg planted and moving the hips forward would give you more impact, and allow his right leg to step forward with the action instead of down. These two are some useful you tube channels for human reference: https://www.youtube.com/@endlessreference/featured https://www.youtube.com/@MotionActorInc And this channel has a lot of useful recordings of ingame animations https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGameAnimationReferences
• I think it's a great start, but it feels like it lacks quite a bit of polish. Try to add a bit of offset on the arms during the idle and release of the charge attack, also try to pay attention to the timing more. I like the idle 'twitch' part a lot, it shows character and emotions, well done, though once again it lacks a bit of polish. I've noticed some feet sliding as well which is very easy to fix and makes the animations much better by itself so pay attention to that.
• It would have been nice to see your project working in Unreal. In the future, I would suggest that you make sure that you have chosen a game-ready rig by testing it in the engine before you start working with it. I also wish the video you uploaded was a better quality. You can easily playblast in 1920x1080. In the Playblast settings you can set Quality in the 95-100 range; set Display Size to ‘From Render Settings’ and Scale to 1.00. In the Display Render Settings you then need to set the Image Size presets to HD 1080. If you then playblast in .avi you can use format conversion software to turn it into a .mov or .mp4 file to downsize the amount of space the file takes while keeping the same high video quality. I like that you decided to try to convey emotion through your animations via body language and facial expressions and it is good that you looked for references for the expression you wanted to convey. However, you should not feel limited to only looking at game references. As an animator you should be looking at real-life references all the time. Most animators record their own reference footage for actions/animations that they can safely perform themselves. Alternatively, there is plenty of live-action films and TV that you can turn to not only for emotion but also to find attack movements you might want to reference. There is also a great Youtube channel of mocap artists providing all sorts of reference if you want to take a look: https://www.youtube.com/@MotionActorInc Animation-wise, I like the expressiveness of your idle variation. I think your idle and the idle variation can be pushed further if you make sure that different body parts overlap as currently everything moves at the same time. Usually body parts should overlap in a chain starting from the hips. This piece of feedback applies to all of the animations. When it comes to arms/hands we want to avoid them moving at the same time as well especially if they move the same way, as that results in twinning. I would also offset one of them during your idle. I know I just said that movement usually starts with the hips, but for your ‘look around’ idle variation you could try starting with the head, followed by chest, then hips. You could record your own reference for this and analyse how your body moves. During your charge attack, the right elbow pops/overextends so I would make sure to avoid that. I think this animation would also benefit from a stronger, more exaggerated pose with a nice curve in the back and a wider stance in the feet. Again – I would record a reference. I like the timing of the sword coming down. Be mindful of where the elbow vectors are though as currently the elbows get inverted backwards during that movement. The release is currently not very readable and I am not certain what the intention for that motion was. Following a good reference would help with that a lot, I believe. The right arm overextends during the recovery, so I would try to avoid that. During the charge up, release and recovery states I notice a lot of foot sliding. Make sure that whenever one foot moves, you take it off the ground even briefly and then firmly place it down again while the other foot remains firmly on the same spot. The feet should not move around at the same time. Finally, I noticed that in your documentation you refer to hands animation as secondary. I would say that is incorrect, wrists/palms should be part of the initial block-outs and posing as they are vital. Secondary animation usually refers to hair and clothes (and depending on the situation it could be face as well). I would make sure to include hands in the primary animation process. Overall, the concept you had in mind for this project is good, I think it just needs more work and better references.
• Good use of the Get to Cover theme and working with it to create an interesting interpretation of it, I really like your approach here! I saw that you said you were busy with studying while doing this project, something I really recommend which you can carry over to any tasks similar to this, is to create a priority list and gantt chart. This will help you focus on the main tasks and have a time frame to work with, allowing you to organise between multiple projects! The study into looking at Dead by Daylight is a great way to showcase a cautious and scared character since there are a lot of references and ideas to take away from that game. You lead on to say that you had no reference footage for the attack, I can understand it can be difficult to find the right reference video but if you can’t, then I highly recommend you record yourself doing the action once you have an idea of what it is! This will allow you to capture the performance from any angle and get a sense of the motions that are happening in the action. Good to see you are working with Animation Layers, they’re super powerful tools to use which will help push your animations further! Sorry to hear that you ran into issues when putting the rig into the Unreal Engine, it’s always good to stress test rigs and make sure they are compatible with the programs you’re working with before making the animation; but this is something you’ll know now which is a great step forward! The idle is amazing! Great job on getting the feeling of panic across, the breathing makes the character feel they are trying to calm their nerves and when they do the quick look around really brings the sense of fear from the character; top job here Maryam! To push this animation further, on the turns for the idle, you can delay the body in sections. So have the head turn first, then a few frames after, have the chest rotate and then the hips - we tend to lead with our head when looking around. This facial expression is good too, the jaw movement feels like the character is breathing in fear and the sigh of relief when nothing is there is fantastic! The windup and anticipation held at the apex for the big swing down is wonderful, I love the bounce of the character which gives the sense of them prepping to swing down and you have great timing on the swing down too! Watch out for the hyper extended arms when in the apex pose, you can see them popping from bent to straight. Also don’t be afraid to hold the strike down pose longer, this will help give a sense of weight and effort being put into the swing. It’s a bit hard to tell what is happening between the strike down and recovery, so I’m gonna jump over that, my apologies. The recovery is splendid, the pose is much different to the idle and we feel an exhaustion from the character after such a big motion. Just watch out for the arms again, and the Left Hand still seems to be in IK with no movement, a slight bit of breathing will help make the arms feel a bit more alive! Such a cool animation and use of the theme, you’ve made an incredible animation here Maryam which you should be proud of. Projecting the feeling of panic to the audience from the character is difficult to show and you’ve shown it here, some great potential! I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
• First of all I want to congratulate you on making your project, in my opinion self-discipline and willpower are important for this:). I am an animator by speciality, so I will mostly comment on the body mechanics of your character, taking into account the peculiarities of gameplay animation. About the idles - in my opinion you made too much amplitude on the chest, hands and shoulders. It feels like he's floating. The timing would be more natural if you phased the acceleration and deceleration to the keyframes. Right now the timing is too even. I would recommend reducing the amplitude and breaking up the squats with small body movements. In my opinion, when turning and hitting, parts of your character's body do not work in concert, plus, he loses his balance when he strikes, but after that he does not fall, plus he swings on his toes. Balance and strength should be felt when swinging. After the blow, when the character regains his breath, his hands work according to inverse kinematics. In general, make sure that this feeling does not exist. The impact and breathing should all go from the body to the hands, not the other way around. Overall you have a good sense of composition and line of movement. You just need to pay more attention to the packaging of animation, and the search for body balance. Thank you for a great job!
• Idle anim seems a bit unnatural, along with the look about. Maybe look for reference as to how the character could get back on their feet differently to avoid any unrealistic or unbelievable flips off the ground.
• Hi Maryam Al-Nasser! Hope you are doing well, Thank you for participating in the Search for a Star Competition! My Feedback: You have interesting poses and well done incorporating feelings in them too! I can see that you have thought behind each one of them. I noticed you did find a reference for your animation and you studied it well. I also recommend filming yourself doing the movement. This will make you go into character and think about what sort of environment, situation and feelings is your character going through. In terms of timing, I will suggest adding some variation between them. Try and offset each body part. Because if everything is moving at the same time, it gives a "robotic" feeling. Overall I want to say well done with your animation project. Keep working on your skills no matter how many times you start from scratch. You are becoming, better, faster and more efficient! Don't give up and always give your best! I can't wait to see your future projects! Recommended links to boost your animation skills: Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL0_ccwcqFA&ab_channel=Jean-DenisHaas Breaking Down Attack Animations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LewXWM7HDd8&ab_channel=MasahiroSakuraionCreatingGames Too Much is Just Right https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNBKzLzDKtM&ab_channel=MasahiroSakuraionCreatingGames Assigning Animations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV8xIP480qk&ab_channel=MasahiroSakuraionCreatingGames How to Push Your Animation Poses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWVD7pwDpJA&t=1s&ab_channel=AnimSchool Weight in Animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3oIxjzdMqY&ab_channel=AlessandroCamporota