Animation Challenge Level 1 crit

Here comes crit.

Disclaimer: No, I do NOT think I'm perfect at animation either, and many of these mistakes I mention I did myself. I'm really impressed with a ton of the animations you guys did, and thank you Humanbean for making this challenge, it was really fun!

Humanbean: A lot of your mistakes seem to be more down to carelessness than anything else; the brick slides forward mid-fall, the balls have a bit too much squash on the bottom for the height of the actual bounce. I'm aware that you did a lot of these in a hurry, therefore it makes sense that there's a lot of inconsistency especially with the headturns, and the result is very choppy and lumpy. The sacks are your best work, but would benefit from simple clean up just to make the motion more clear. You have one of the best kicks in the challenge, good job!

Santi: The sacks almost offend me, you might as well not have done them at all if you were just going to move a square up and down. Your brickfall is quite good (and strangely familiar..). There are a couple of problems in terms of really fitting the brief, like the lack of really good anticipation in the second headturn. I'm going to assume you did these in an extreme hurry, so it's really hard to give them that much crit. Do act things out in front of a mirror or otherwise for reference before mapping out a movement.

Abc123: The ball loop and the first across-screen one are very good (the second accelerates randomly). Having the headturns swing instead of turning in place kinda defeats the purpose when the exercise has a lot to do with perspective and consistency, especially since the first one doesnt actually end up turning that much.  There's an overall lack of squash and stretch; I'd suggest really exaggerating movement and then toning it down instead of the other way around. Your jumping floursack is your best one! The flip is clear and flows well, but like I said i'd like more squash on impact.

Digitixe: I love the explosion on the kick, but unfortunately the kick itself isn't as much a kick as it is a push with a leg. For that amount of speed, the ball should not travel with the foot at ANY POINT of the animation. Well done on providing a variety of bouncing: try to cut down on your stretched out frames as having too many of them ruins the illusion of fast movement and makes the ball look more like a laserbeam. Again, more squash and stretch would go a long way in depicting weight.

Dataizm: Very clean and generally consistent work. A few problems I noticed: the lack of a basic headturn and the fact that the first ball grows rather than properly squashes. Also considering your obvious talent for it, the thinking animation was a little lazy. Great work otherwise, I'd like to see you inject a little more personality and character in your animations if you join the next challenge!

Sasori: I actually really like the too-heavy brick, the camera movement really adds to it. Your kick also have a mild case of leg-push like Digitixe. You did well with you headturns; they're really consistent and quite clean. Work on spacing, as your problems are mostly in depicting fast action- the ball doesnt really bounce across the screen, rather just moves.

Fluffable: Good consistency and movement. The ball bouncing across the screen is your best. The headturns are great too but add inbetweens to slow them down and make them smoother.
I like that you turned the brick on its side! Double check that point of impact and the bounce afterward- the impact comes across weak and the bounce too extreme for a heavy object. Floursacks are a little stiff and could use a bit of weight added to them.

Soroneir: You made the most effort in terms of aesthetics for your exercises, so kudos for that. Personally tho, I feel like the animations suffered in part. I'm mostly talking about the headturns and the thinking exercise. I can tell you have a good understanding of animation, but I wish you would have spent more time cleaning up and finishing the animations, rather than painting backgrounds. I can't really comment whether the thinking animation is actually thinking or reacting, because you didnt give her features after the first frame. The floursacks are fantastic. The concepts are fun and you've delivered with all of them. Great work.

Artscrub: To get the painful thing out of the way, the ball loop is pretty bad. Like some of the others, the squash is too extreme for the height and the speed of the ball, and it stops too suddenly at the top. With the sack fall and the brick you have a bit of a problem of "animating too much", or the idea not coming across clearly enough; the viewer is a dumbfuck, be sure to make any flips and change in directions really clear or cut down on them altogether for fast movements. Jumping floursack is really good! It would be perfect if you took away that brickwall (messes with the perspective). Especially the frames as it begins to fall are perfect.
Also, in the waving exercise, can the sack really put all of its weight with the foot placed like that?

Lava: Best thinking exercise of the challenge. Clear concept and perfectly fits the brief, movement is very good. Good job! Great movement altogether, especially the jump/fall stands out for the changing perspective and the fantastic weight. The kick has its problems but I know you're tweaking it already so I won't say too much, just work on the twist and the momentum of the leg. Definitely up there with one of the best animators of the challenge!

Steak: Great work! Keep an eye on adding too much squash to balls, you can't depict that amount of force only for it not show on any other part of the bounce. The headturn movement is also good, but I would've like to see more of a turn of the head rather than a swing- profile to profile. Equally the sacks are really great, I love the concept of the kick.