Animation and Motion Collective

Server structure

Overview

Animation critique needs something no still-art server provides, which is the ability to see the work moving in its rough state, and this layout is built around that. #critique-requests asks for a playblast or a rough pass alongside the final, because a polished render hides the timing problems a critique should find, and it requires the frame rate and the intended context. Disciplines splits the field properly: #frame-by-frame, #rigging-and-puppets for the cut-out and vector workflows, #motion-graphics, #three-d-animation and #storyboards-and-animatics, which is where most animation is actually decided and which almost no server gives a channel to. Craft holds #timing-and-spacing, the thing that separates animators from illustrators who can draw a lot, #weight-and-physics, #walk-cycles and #reference-and-rotoscope. Showing keeps #finished-work with a slowmode, #work-in-progress and #loops, which is the format the internet rewards and animators enjoy most. Career is real in this discipline: #reel-review with the rule that a reel opens with your strongest three seconds, #studio-jobs and #for-hire. #software covers the tool arguments, kept out of the craft channels. Voice has an Animation Session and a Reel Review room where reels are watched together, which is far more useful than written notes.

When to use it

Animation posted in a general art server gets feedback on drawing rather than on movement, because nobody sees the rough pass where the timing lives. This layout requires a playblast with critique requests, splits by discipline so a rigging question does not sit under motion graphics, and gives storyboards and animatics a channel of their own since that is where most animation is actually decided.

What makes it different

• Critique requests include a playblast, because a polished render hides the timing problems.
• Storyboards and animatics get a channel, which is where most animation is actually decided.
• Timing and spacing is its own channel, the thing that separates animators from illustrators.
• Reels are reviewed together in voice, which beats written notes for moving work.

Recommended Vetox setup

• Self-Roles

  Post a Self-Roles panel in #your-discipline so a rigging question pings people who rig rather than everyone.

• Starboard

  Point Starboard at #loops so the work the room replayed most becomes a browsable gallery.

• Reminders

  Set Reminders for the reel-review sessions so a scheduled review has an audience when it starts.

• Auto-Mod

  Run Auto-Mod on the showing channels so uncredited reposts of other animators' work are caught early.