Critique - Ninja

Hey,

Shot 1:

guard first:
I wouldn't move the guard as much. It's a bit too distracting with the mouth, there's a lot going on and then you also have the ninja popping up at the same time. It's too busy. Keep the guard still with some keep alive so that the audience can quickly see what's going on, THEN pop the ninja.

The ninja works well, just do another pass on the sword. Check x42 to 43 how big the spacing is, then x43 to 44 it stays down. You need to finish the arc and ease into that stop.

Shot 2:

the ninja works well again, the steps are cool. The only thing is this, the shot is too short, the cutting point is weird, mainly because of the sword. If you fix the sword and extend the shot by 5 to 10 frames maybe, it will work better. So, the sword: the spacing is huge 81 to 82 and we only get one more frame after that before the cut. In the next shot the spacing of the sword is much smaller and it slows down right after the cut. So that move gets lost over the cut. Give the sword move a few more frames.
When the ninja lifts the guard, the tip of the sword will be heavy since the guy is hanging from there. So make it look like the ninja pushes the sword up with the tip lower than the handle. You can always have the tip go up at the end to show how strong the ninja is.

The guard needs more believable physics. When he's hanging around x80 and the ninja pulls back the sword, it would pull the head/neck back first while the legs/feet drag and follow.

Shot 3:
The ninja feels very block in the last shot, so give it another pass of breakdowns and polish. Same with the guard. The basic move of the ninja is good, but the guard looks too alive. After x85 he should tumble backwards. But you rotate him towards the ninja after that and he actually starts to feel off balance up until x95. I would have him be more wounded and out of control, now he looks lHey,

Shot 1:

guard first:
I wouldn't move the guard as much. It's a bit too distracting with the mouth, there's a lot going on and then you also have the ninja popping up at the same time. It's too busy. Keep the guard still with some keep alive so that the audience can quickly see what's going on, THEN pop the ninja.

The ninja works well, just do another pass on the sword. Check x42 to 43 how big the spacing is, then x43 to 44 it stays down. You need to finish the arc and ease into that stop.

Shot 2:

the ninja works well again, the steps are cool. The only thing is this, the shot is too short, the cutting point is weird, mainly because of the sword. If you fix the sword and extend the shot by 5 to 10 frames maybe, it will work better. So, the sword: the spacing is huge 81 to 82 and we only get one more frame after that before the cut. In the next shot the spacing of the sword is much smaller and it slows down right after the cut. So that move gets lost over the cut. Give the sword move a few more frames.
When the ninja lifts the guard, the tip of the sword will be heavy since the guy is hanging from there. So make it look like the ninja pushes the sword up with the tip lower than the handle. You can always have the tip go up at the end to show how strong the ninja is.

The guard needs more believable physics. When he's hanging around x80 and the ninja pulls back the sword, it would pull the head/neck back first while the legs/feet drag and follow.

Shot 3:
The ninja feels very block in the last shot, so give it another pass of breakdowns and polish. Same with the guard. The basic move of the ninja is good, but the guard looks too alive. After x85 he should tumble backwards. But you rotate him towards the ninja after that and he actually starts to feel off balance up until x95. I would have him be more wounded and out of control, now he looks like he's too aware of the ninja, too in control - with a sword through your neck, you'd be screwed! :)
The idea of the fall works, but make sure to continue the momentum of the fall until the very end. On x122, when he bounces up, it feels like just a Y translation, he's just going up instead of continuing the slide and sideways translation.

At the end, either change the pose of the ninja or (what I would do), move the wall so that the line of the door doesn't match the line of the sword.

Keep going!

Cheers
JD