Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• I really enjoyed watching this! It's very clear that you have a knack for horror direction. I particularly loved the use of the light cutting out in the final scene as the monster approached, great stuff! In terms of animation, it's a little light on the frantic energy I'd expect in some scenes. When the second monster attacks the soldier, and grabs his head, it would have benefited from unnatural, snappy speeds. I think it would have been great for the monsters to move in wholly unnatural ways, cracking with each movement. The gun the soldier fired I feel would have been better as a fully automatic rifle, with minimal recoil, that would make more sense to me, weapons of that size don't usually have a tonne of recoil. Animate with purpose, firing a weapon like that wouldn't cause a trained soldier to move that much, so I felt like you may have been giving yourself a little more work by adding poses that didn't really need to be there. There were some shots that lingered a little too long on a dimly lit scene that was hard to see, just be wary of that. Good work!
• Great ambition in this piece, nice atmosphere and direction. This looks like a labour of love and it's great to see that passion. The editing is good but it lacks pacing overall, be great to dial up the tension a little more. Giving this a more dynamic movement and camera style, could have helped things feel more claustrophobic, helping with the pacing. I can see a lot of good film knowledge in this, so continue to study cinematography, staging, posing and body mechanics. Analysing film is a great way of understanding visual storytelling, so you should continue to do that. Ideas can be simple too, so don't give yourself to much to do. Congratulations on the film, it's a real achievement. Any animation work is a lifetime of steady improvement, so keep learning and moving forward!
• I can see where you're heading with this, it needs a LOT of polish and editing to get there but I think you can do it. Have another look at the weight and speed of your animations. There are plenty of points that could have been faster or more frantic but instead fell flat due to a lack of motion and life in the characters. Something being shot should be flinching with each impact, someone shooting should be feeling the jerk and recoil of their gun. An injured man will SHOW he is injured in his movements. I can see a good amount of effort already in this and a lot of potential if you polish it to a mirror shine. Keep at it.