Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Really enjoyable little short film. Be wary of the clipping though, there were a number of instances where clipping was very noticeable, in particular when the infiltrator is typing on the keyboard, also when he steps over the safe door. There is a little bit of general motion capture jitteryness throughout. With a little more time in the polish phase, both of these issues can be ironed out. Some shots last a little too long, which comes across as a little strange. There's quite a long shot of 3 bad guys firing at the infiltrator with fully automatic rifles, followed by a reaction shot of the infiltrator, still out in the open, only JUST getting into cover. In action scenes, you don't really want to be holding on shots for too long, you want fast, snappy cuts. Still, a great piece of work, and an enjoyable watch overall! Good work!
• So, lets start from worst and work our way up to best. Your overall scene composition and setup lacking. Its for an animation showreel which means you should be watching for clipping issues with the environment and correct them as best you can. Things like this are what companies pick up on and say 'Lazy' to. Your Pen throw could have also been animated to not just appear at a guards feet. I recommend looking at parts of your mocap data and considering where it could be sped up or made to give more impact. Case and point the "death from above" kick in the elevator, which appears to have less impact than you might expect. Similarly the corner grapple could be both sped up and altered to appear more forceful. Dont be afraid to make heavy changes to data or make constraints to give it a better edge. Right, so right now you're probably thinking I'm a horrible person who's just here to tear you down. Dont worry, I'm not. Your Mocap was very clean and well captured which means a lot. Good mocap is a great base to improve from. I would suggest taking what you have here and rebuilding the scene in Maya/Max then editing the data to match the scene. Remember to root everything at 0, save a copy and bake it down before re-exporting to unreal. the effect will give you a perfect copy of your scene to play with in both editor and engine. The concept was sound, I'm a big fan of old bond films and this was a blast from the past. Your art conveyed the intent well enough and your animation definitely got the point across. though a few sub scenes did go on for a few seconds too long (Sirens in the vault, 90's hacking keyboard, guards emptying their guns,) I can't really see much in the way of hand keyed animation, which would have been nice to critique. Overall, solid work from a student. Now polish, polish, polish until its a mirror shine. This could certainly be used for applying for games industry jobs.
• Great ambition in this piece. Good shot composition for the most part. The key to successful cinematics is communicating clearly, to the audience through considered pacing and staging. Pacing could have been tightened in the mid-section, helping to increase the tension. Strange cut in middle was a little jarring. Study cinematography, film blocking and most importantly character posing and body mechanics. Character movement needs attention to detail, particularly in the clean-up. Lack of hand animation is a little disappointing . Analysing movement and animation frame by frame, helps show 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!