Animation - Pinky lifts a ton of weight

Greets to all scg members who happens to bypass this thread.

After brief hiatus, I am looking to share some recent works done. Looking for some critics. Before want to share and express my happiness - I finally made my first breakthrough and got employed as 3d-artist for the very first time
This piece I am about to present is my very first work created inside commercial world and is very short animation. It represents my first shaky steps as employed 3d-artist.

There is few things though which I want to stress out here before. My employer allowed me to post in 3d forums some materials and snaps from projects I will be working on. Only requirement was to put a studio's logo on them. His work and what he does means very much to him. I accepted this and look to keep my word. Hope I don't violate some forum rule. No intentions of making advertising but studio's group logo have to be on them, that's the deal.

My main goal is to get some critics, maybe suggestions on how make things better. I am seeking to improve my works and share the issues met during production with community.


Okay, here we go than. First work is short studio's self-promoting 3d spot. I designed idea together with my boss who time ago also was playing around with 3dsmax.
I picked up things where they were left by previous 3d-artist. I got into my hands modeled and already rigged character Pinky, a simbol of team. I got my first job in local studio who specializes more on IT&Web solutions, more like into programming but boss want to risk and invest into 3d as well. That's where I come into story, if to be short.

All 3d is done inside 3dsmax 2011. Composite was used to fake DOF. First time I played with Z-Depth. That was a new trick for me that I learned. Started slowly to grasp all this multi-comp stuff since I see how it can help me in conditions of commercial world. And not only there.




And here goes link on Youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/IDYNAMICgroup


Would be glad to hear of what you think about this.
By the way, now I now how serious Mental Ray's FG flicker actually is.

Haha, nice animation!

-Josh

First off, there's a lot to like about this animation and the stronger shots are quite nice. I like the parts where Pinky is stretching and lifting the weights. However, IMO there are weaker shots in there too and they detract from the piece overall and make it a bit lengthy. These shots look like they were put together more hastily and have more awkward animation and camera movements. Also, I'm not a big fan of the text portions, the lens flares and strong BG gradient come across as heavy handed. Unfortunately, we're all going to be judged for the weakest parts of our work as much as the strongest parts. Probably more actually.

To improve it I'd suggest making the whole thing more concise by improving or trimming out any weaker shots and avoiding any over-the-top editing. The text portions could be simplified or improved so they don't let down the stronger 3D shots. For ideas you should check out the work of animators who focus more on graphics and type. often links to good examples.

Anyway, keep up the good work and good luck with the commercial work

@Kieran

thanks for input. I checked link, never saw it before. Seems lots of interesting stuff and good examples.