MBR Miles VS WuYue

Oof, Miles. Can't really say anything much since it's unfinished. You had a thing going and there are some parts I really like such as the characters bouncing off of the backgrounds, the combos, and especially the part with WuYue's character flying.

WuYue: Really like what you got! The sword play was well animated and I love how your character bounces off of the ice. The clashing at 1:02 - 1:04 was pretty nice! There are things that could use some work like the walk at the beginning. I wouldn't have her head bob too much every time she takes a step. The finisher looked great but I would use different slash sound effects at 1:21 - 1:23 since the ones you used sounded low quality and when the boss died at 1:27 I would've add a glass breaking sound to make it sound more icy.

Spoiler: Decision

My vote goes for WuYue. Sorry Miles, your unfinished MBR gave you the big minus on your part. It really does suck that your job had you work four days in a row. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed both of your MBRs! Good luck to the both of you for your next animations!"

 

Ey.

The thing I feel about Miles' animation is that, it is one of those animations where the ambition and ideas are clearly there, but the execution is a mess. I thoroughly enjoyed what you were trying to do, and I loved the idea of fighting on a boat rushing down the water. I really liked the choreography, from the hand to hand combat and what you were doing with WuYue's OC flying around, along with the background interactions. Problem is, aside from the obvious hiccups, the pacing and jump cuts felt really rough, and in a way, random. The scenes felt as if something was missing. It's a bit hard to criticize on what you already do and don't know because, I feel that if you had like an extra week or so, these problems would be fixed easily and it would look amazing. Regardless, I liked the overall idea and premise of what you had going. Would really love to see it fully completed whenever you get a chance.

Moving on to Wuyue, you really popped off. Aside from the font, which I would nitpick like hell about but I already wrote all this in another post, I really enjoyed the combat. The way you used the ice effects was creative, jumping on top of it and using it as a wall to block more ice projectiles. It's charming. The pacing I felt was pretty fast, but never really choppy. The clash like 1:02 was really satisfying. One thing I would like to mention is, on first watch, I was lost on who was saying what on those text cut ins. It might just be me (probably is just me for being dumb), but, it took me a minute for me to get who was actually saying all that. I get what you were going for, making it pretty dramatic with it, but I feel like you over did it, and at the end of it, I was just a tad bit confused on who was saying what.

All in all, voting for WuYue. The overall fight and action felt more satisfying and I loved the choreography more. Still, good job Miles for turning something in on time, especially after actually getting screwed over on your job christ that sucks. Really hope you go back to this and finish this up because it definitely has promise!

 

Since I've come to MapleMation, "MBR days" have quickly become one of my favorite holidays. It's always a pleasure getting to see these come out, in this case, from two talented animators.

*Cracks knuckles*

Let's get into it.

Miles:
I know you wanted to clean this animation up some more, and there's definitely a lot of cleanup to do and some stuff that's missing, so I won't try to dig into those details. While you weren't able to get it cleaned up like you wanted, it's very evident that you had some big ideas in this animation. The creativity you were able to flex out into this really impressed me. The choreography of the initial fight is really dynamic, and does a fair job at making a "sword vs martial arts" feel more real, where your character has a tough time getting in for attacks until the sword is disarmed. It's very well paced, and easy to watch, despite all of the little interactions that are happening. My favorite part about the beginning: HEADBUTTS.

And though you're fighting on a moving boat, you manage to shift the setting by being flung up into the air with a sexy perspective shot of trying to snatch the gem out of the air. I loved how you animated the winged character flying around the stage. And the ending, while a bit oddly timed (and didn't exactly make sense, as the character noticed it and could've flown), was still an interesting and fun way of ending the animation after an intense back and forth with the gem.

I don't know if you planned on cleaning this up, but one of my initial gripes was that I had no idea what was happening with the setting. A ship suddenly drops in from out of nowhere, and there's some kind of terrain flying past you in the background. I thought the moving terrain was actually waves, until I paused it. I think it would've done a lot to have slowed this down a bit. There's also a section where the boat crashes to a halt, sending the characters flying... but then they land back on the moving boat...? Watch out for continuity errors like this. While there were these issues with the boat, I really liked the setting of having a boat flying down an underground river. Sort of gave me Goonies vibes. With the context of the theme, I think you really did the theme justice.


WuYue:
My immediate thoughts after watching this is how nice and solid this animation is. Everything looks so clean and well paced, both the fight itself and the narrative that you had along with it. Even the enemy mobs were well done, and I enjoyed some of the creativity put into their attacks and movements, as mob sprites are so limiting.

The story is simple, but I think it gets the job done for "artifact escape", though it could've been interesting maybe show that it was impossible to just run away from the guardians of the sword (or rather, the creatures that required you to prove your worth).

I'm actually finding myself struggling to find stuff to talk about in your animation. Some things I would've liked to see in this animation is more creative and dynamic moments. After a while, slicing stuff with a sword over and over becomes a little worn out. Here are some simple, but big in impact examples of things that I think could've brought this animation to the next level:

• The entire fight felt very one-sided, and kind of made the tension drop as a result, where acquiring and "ancient artifact" would normally be a high stakes situation. To fix this, make the enemies tougher. Maybe show your character getting hit several times and having to take a moment to get back on her feet. Or have the enemies display their strength by having your character struggle to dodge and block incoming attacks. A good example I think you did of this is when the ice wall was summoned to block the incoming ice barrage. When a 1 on 1 fight goes for this long, the tension will drop if the fight is very one sided, so make sure to keep it interesting for both sides of the fight.
• I think it could've been cool if the character didn't immediately know how to use the unique properties of the sword, with fact that the sword was just discovered by her. Maybe there could've been some brief moments where she reacts to the freezing/ice mechanics it has, perhaps discovering it on accident, and then applying it to the situation, getting more creative as she grows more comfortable with it. I would've liked to see some more variety than simply freezing and slashing as well, like slicing an icicle off the ceiling and having them impale the boss as the final blow after finding out the blade isn't strong enough to cut through it.
• A little more of a beginning and end would be nice. The beginning I think is actually pretty good, though it would've been interesting just to have some dialogue talking about what the sword does, or show her finally spotting the sword after looking around. For the ending, simply having her take a moment to admire the sword, then walking away could've been a nice little bit of closure instead of having the animation end right when the ice boss creature is defeated. I feel the fact that there is a small opening makes me want a small ending to match with it even more.

While these suggestions may feel small, thinking about those types of things I think can make an animation more engrossing.

My Vote:

I think Mile's animation definitely won when it comes to making some creative and interesting, and was the one I actually ended up enjoying watching more, but it was unfinished in very obvious ways, which really contrasted against WuYue's smooth, and beautiful animation. Factoring in creativity, story, and the animation itself, my vote ultimately goes to WuYue.

 

Thus the vicious fight against the Animation Team continues with Miles and WuYue kicking it off with a good old fashioned rig off.

Miles
Time management is cruel mistress when it comes to work and stuff...sorry you got hit hard with it. I really liked how your part was turning out and the fleshed out product would be freakin' amazing. Though, that doesn't mean I can't picture what you were going for; it seems you had some very neat ideas.

I really liked your setting for one. The background gives me an 'Atlantis' sorta vibe, and your music is pretty fitting for a type of escape scenario. I thought your combos and choreography were well done and your rigs were great. Even though a few sequences were still blocked/incomplete, the flow and feel of them were still there. (where's that tutorial on how Miles rigs his weapons before his characters ?). What stuck out to me the MOST was the flying of WuYue's character. The wing physics were executed VERY nicely; it all felt super (very) natural. I kept coming back to that part and admiring it, you fuckin killed it. The cuts to the different parts of the map to show what was coming up (between the ship crashing in the rock to WuYue getting yeeted out the air) gave the scene a bit more scale and made it feel bigger. The aerial shot of Miles grabbing the artifact was a nice touch; very dynamic. Pretty well paced imo. That ending though...the fact that there were no sound effects for that whole minute and that fucking scream...you got a laugh outta me, Miles. Very epic. Nice work!

WuYue
A very well animated part! I liked the bit of background prior to the action, kinda shedding some light on your character and how they obtained their weapon. In this case, the sword literally called out to them lol. The guardians/spirits coming to defend the artifact was an interesting take on the theme; I guess it was sort of an escape since they weren't just gonna let her TAKE the sword, right? The combo's were freakin' sweet and your rigs were reeeal smooth and buttery. I particularly enjoyed some of the little cuts/transition/screen wipes that lead to different scenes during the fight. They didn't drag on for too long and still kept my attention. Overall I don't have anything really to critique, I really enjoyed it. Great job!

Sliding this vote to WuYue today. The flow and action were solid, and there was a lot happening in such a concentrated space.
Good use of the environment and natural character ability as well. Congrats!


For real though, great job to the both of you! You both fought hard and put out some good work.
Miles, I REALLY wanna see all of your ideas for this, hopefully you can come back to it or something in the same range!
I. WANT. MORE.

Great job, guys!

 

Going about this a little differently since everyone above probably said what I would have better than me so instead I'll break it up into 3 chunks, also something less verbose since I am aware WuYue's native language isn't English.

GENERAL COMMENTS:

• Time management/crunch fucking sucks Miles. Don't I know it from my last MBR lol.
• Artifact escape theme could have been better presented from both parties since neither really showed the escape portion and I was expecting something a little more Indiana Jones than just a fight. I do think Miles had the better idea here.
• Despite that, I do like the setting for Miles' with an underground secret dungeon kind of feel and also dig WuYue making this into a sort of origin story.
• Both animations are still good in my eyes but one is finished and one isn't.
• Miles had the superior choreography and understanding of fundamentals.

SMOOTH=/=BETTER:

• The primary issue both parties suffer is that they're too smooth. I'm not fucking with you and saying "1'S ARE BAD. DOUBLE FRAME IS THE KING". I use 1s a lot too. See the whole DAIN fiasco on Twitter for more info.
• The problem is that both lack weight and anticipation. It's not snappy enough y'know? Like no pop in the shoulder or hip. No jutting of attacks, etc.
• WuYue had this problem for the majority but he fixed on it at the end after we discussed it during my feedback in DM on Discord so great job on being so receptive on that. (See below)
• It's not just because there's less frames, it's because of the better timing/posing giving it better anticipation.
• When you add too many frames inbetween the attacks it can make the animation look weak- Actually... you know what. Fuck it.

BONUS | MINI TUTORIAL TIME:

It'd suck if anyone else didn't have anything to take away from this so time to flex my worthless Animation Team status and spit some shit.
I mentioned before that having less frames doesn't mean you're sacrificing quality. Consequently, having more frames doesn't increase it either. It all comes down to timing and anticipation to give the actions weight. If it's too smooth, it lacks weight. And if it lacks weight, the animation looks weak and at some points, can suck.

WuYue actually came to me about this in DM during the process of this and I helped him out. The attacks around the end are far more snappy than the ones in the beginning so I'm glad the feedback helped out in that regard.

To help, I asked him to send the stab he did in a .fla I did not edit nor add any major new keyframes, I only subtracted what he had. The result
Not perfect but gets the point across.



Fla link should anyone want it
Similar example I did in my MBR. Once again, Fla's are provided.

To explain, I cut out for frames of his mid stab motion (so after he starts stabbing but before the recoil/overshoot). That was 5 frames and I boiled it down to a single frame. This makes the attack look far more snappy and have more weight. That ends my TED Talk.


VERDICT:

• This is an edit as I had initially voted for WuYue but decided to switch my vote to MILES instead. I ended up rewatching his part more since his choreography was more dynamic with more back and forth and some variety. There was swordplay, heabutts, kicks, jabs, pushing/pulling and a satisfying second half with the wing portion and he actually fixed up more of the smoothness issue than I initially realised.
• I think with better time management and ironing out that smoothness issue, you could have achieved a lot better than what you had. Nothing that can't be worked on for next time, and despite it being unfinished it's still a lot better than other shit out there.
• WuYue, you did fantastic and should hold your head up high. You were very responsive to my feedback, be it animation or just help with the text, in DM and it shows in your work. I hope to see you grow from here.

 

Miles:
Well, well.
Miles had by far the more interesting animation. The quality of the animation itself, as in, the fluidity of motion and such is leagues above.
What it lacked was polish, for instance, at the 26 seconds mark, head and limbs just disappear, and multiple other little things all over.
But some things were impressive, the movement of the wings, constantly, both characters, just wonderful. I might even say slightly over animated at some points, some limb movements went on for more frames than they needed to, in my opinion.
It lacked polish and there were some pacing issues, when you were looking at the water and such, but it had ambition, and I love it for that.
WuYue:
Weeb.
No, seriously, massive weeb shit going on. Which isn't bad, I guess?
This animation is overall average, the animation is competently done, the sounds are overall appropriate, the style is interesting enough.
The dialog's font, pacing (and grammar mistakes) could be leagues better, or better yet just don't have much dialog, because it really didn't add anything to the animation.
The effects were beautifully done, plenty of stuff that doesn't match the maple aesthetic but I've basically given up on criticizing that when people started using adobe after effects on their animations.
Did I mention it was cringe-ly weeb?

My Vote:

Ultimately, if I were say, a movie director, I'd vote for WuYue because that animation was a more complete package. It had good motions, music and sound effects.
Alternatively, Miles's was clearly unfinished, lacking polish (and heads) at certain points, and yet, it's the one that will stay in my head longer, those wing motions for example, damn, beautiful stuff.

So in the end, my vote goes to Miles.

 

Don't want to sound cliche here, but brooOooOoOoo there's nothing I can say that wasn't already said!!!!11

In all seriousness though, I think you've both demonstrated that you're more than competent in terms of animating ability. I don't typically focus too hard on the technical skill applied to MBRs unless there's a significant difference between the two, as I believe that things like choreography, storytelling and character interactions have a much bigger impact on the overall quality of the animation.

Obviously Miles' part was unfinished, but in my opinion it did a much better job of keeping me engaged with interesting choreography and context than WuYue's. Things like the dynamic switch between swordfighting and hand-to-hand combat, the movement of the boat, and WuYue's OC flying around were a lot of fun to watch. I also liked how the mood was clear from the beginning; the intense music instantly established a tone for the scene and the characters faced off and got down to business pretty quickly (with the exception of the long pause on Miles, I'm guessing there was supposed to be some dialogue here).

In terms of raw visuals (movement, effects, etc.) WuYue's animation was very well done. However (and I hope this doesn't sound too harsh), I got bored VERY quickly while watching. A third of the animation was devoted to build-up which, in my opinion, was slowly paced and not very interesting. Once the actual fight started, it just felt like a lot of "stationary sword combo, slash past the enemy, sheathe sword, dodge something, repeat". It all felt really repetitive, and while there were a couple cool moments thrown in (the clashes between the ice golem's arm and the sword, for example) it always seemed to return back to the basic formula.

In conclusion, my vote goes to Miles.

 

Congratuations to @WuYue for a 4-3 win! And @Miles good job for persevering through the end despite your schedule and next time we all await your next project. Locking thread.