Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Including your early shots really demonstrates how much you've learned and improved over time.
• Animation shows a lot of potential. Any creature work is driven by solid referencing from nature. This is key to understanding creature physiology and movement. Study animal motion frame by frame, really breaking it down. Study anatomy and watch creature VFX breakdowns. This helps understand the attention to detail needed for this kind of work. Any animation work is a lifetime of steady improvement, so keep learning and moving forward!
• Really good locomotes, especially for a first attempt at a quadrupedal character. Really good overlapping action with the tail, and the subtle opening of the jaw during the walk. I would say, there is a little too much "up and down" on the characters head during the walk. The flying animation is good, I would have liked to see more of an circle/arc in the tail during the flying loop, rather than just having it go up and down. Arcs are an important principle in animation, so always try to make subtle little circles where you can. When the dragon goes to bite the mans head, have the bite come down quickly and ferociously, this applies to most "attack" animations, you want them to feel fast and snappy. The landing is good, but really try to sell the sheer weight of the dragon as he comes down.
• Ok, not terrible, but you need to work on your basics. Get some reference, not all creatures move the same or so fluidly. The Monster Hunter series is a great example of how a hulking non standard creature might move. Also a fantastic animation topic in general for both creatures and humans. Walks Look up lizard walk references and watch the walks very carefully for timing. Often your creature would be wobbling back and forth due to its balance being all over the place. Way too much on the body dipping as well. Flight Hard on the downbeats to keep it in the air, swift on the upbeats to prevent drag and drop. Remember this thing is BEATING the air down to keep itself aloft. The mid body and back are going to have to take the strain of that and will react accordingly, followed by the neck/lower back and then the head and tail. Not a bad piece of student work, polish it up and this would be a decent bit for a showreel.