Calling all animators out there, I am learning how to animate and will really appreciate any constructive criticism out there. I have been practising for a while and saw a video that challenged me to try this stand-up animation. I am asking for a helpful hand to help me grow. Please look at this animation; if you have any advice, I would appreciate it. Thanks to all the people who make learning fun and challenging. 
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You did a great job. In the future give context(Purpose, characteristics, and emotional state) behind the animation. Context can change how the animations is done. It would be more natural for the upper body to not lean as far forward. Humans generally move in an efficient manner. However, if you change the context such as the person is tired or sad then the extra effort of the bend would be good and you just needs to slow it down. If the final mesh is going to be thicker or more muscular then the bend would be good. Your Character seem to be lazy or tired or doesnât want to get up. Context helps us evaluate your animation properly. With that said here are a few of the problems I see. The head is bending to far forward and to fast. People rarely look straight down when they go to stand. Some people do this kind head snake movement, but keep their eyes facing forwards. The Hips/Buttocks slides back. This wouldnât happen unless the chair was really really slippery.
To see what I mean about context check out this:
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Totally agree with Dwayne on this. The movement is intriguing overall, with some jerky parts that could warrant either smoothing out, or even further exaggeration and some slowdown, depending largely on the mood youâre trying to set.
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I think the lack of arms in your animation makes it look a bit uncanny (no offence to people with no arms), making the overall motion harder to judge. Try to incorporate the whole body in your animation as we often do use arms to help us stand up.
That aside I think the motion is a bit too jerky overall with a weird spring-up at the end, in some ways, it looks like an old person who is struggling to unbend their knees but at the same time, the whole motion has much more energy for it to be an old person, creating a conflict in perception.
I think the best way for you to practice human motion is to literally âtraceâ over it.
Take a video of yourself standing up from an angle of your choosing, then literally copy what you see.
Youâll find that there are a lot of subtle motions and adjustments our body makes even when performing simple tasks such as standing up. If those movements are absent or too exaggerated it will quickly lead to your animation feeling uncanny or like something is off.
For example in your animation both feet are planted firmly on the ground in the sitting position and stay completely locked in place throughout the whole animation. Not only is this not the way people usually sit, since itâs not comfortable, we also tend to adjust our leg position before and as weâre standing up.
Try positioning the legs and feet differently while the character is sitting, maybe they are slightly crossed or have a bit extra spread, maybe one feet is slightly off the ground or is resting on its hill or itâs toes.
Most of the time we also have a âpreferenceâ to put our weight on one leg first before the other which creates some subtle sway of our upper body from side to side as we adjust our balance and even out the pressure between legs. This is also where you might find some subtle arm movement since we use them as âcounterweightsâ to help us balance.
I could keep going but I think this is enough to get the point across.
TL;DR use a real-life reference and pay attention to both big and little motions.
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I personally think itâs pretty tight. The motion is believable, and you took care to synchronize the bone rotations. The âshoulderâ bone (I assume spine (1)) does look a little pushed forward and things get a little snappy when the humanoid extends to height (check the foreleg, it bucks a little). Those are just little polishes. As a whole, your demonstration gets a gold star.
New challenge. Do the same animation with only ONE bone. GO!
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I loved all the advice I read in your message and I agree that those subtle movements we have in our body play a key role in the âillusion of lifeâ, I would have loved to add in the arms but this is a challenge I took up from an animator going by the name Rusty. This is supposed to be an exercise in body mechanics, I think it is focusing attention on the core body muscles and how they work. The armlessness is why I exaggerated some of the poses like the verticle movement of the body going down to create energy. I did use references but unfortunately, nothing made myself so this is one of the reasons it may not have worked. I appreciate all the great advice I am getting and I am going to absorb it all you are great and I will read it again and take notes.
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Thanks, Christopher, I would love to take up that challenge as soon as I am done with is one, I will keep an eye out on that extension. Working with a plan to get better and I am glad to see how wonderfully helpful all the commentary has been. I know I have a long way to go but with the help of communities like this I will enjoy the long road all the way.
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Donovin Cumming-Smith on Instagram: "Here is attempt number two. Stand-up armless animation, there is no particular emotion attached here just a normal stand-up. Thanks to the communities I have made a newer version, as before please let me know if there are any improvements I can make. Thank you all so much.đ" Hi all here is my second attempt so if you feel up to accessing it I would really appreciate it so much. I tried to apply the info I could. This is still a armless stand up, no emotions really attached the character is simply standing up as if to leave a coffee shop or park bench.
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Did you do pose to pose or straight ahead?
No I used a layer technique starting with 4 main keys.
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