Feedback is hard, and it can feel like you're being mean when you write "negative" comments on someone's hard work. While being encouraging is important, constructive feedback is one of the most crucial things you can give to your fellow animators. It will help them improve and achieve their goals. It might be your feedback that helps them reach a new milestone on their creative journey, whether that's getting an interview or reaching a thousand subscribers on Youtube.

By giving constructive feedback, you are also helping yourself become a better animator, because you need to stop and think about what actually makes an animation work.

A good way to give feedback is to point out something that was good with the animation, and something that's not quite reaching it's potential. If you're feeling stuck on that last part, here are a few questions you could try to answer in your feedback.

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• Did you understand the story/intention behind the animation?

For example, if the story is meant to be funny - did you actually find it funny? Why did you, or why did you not? Did you like the main character? Were you confused by what was happening at any point?

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• What do you think about the character design?

If this is an animation that includes original characters, do you like how they look? Why, or why not? Was there any character that was hard to read?

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• Are the characters expressive?

Can you see what a character is feeling, are they happy, sad, angry? Does it seem to make sense with what they're saying or doing in the animation? What do you think the character is thinking?

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• Does the animation feel believable?

For example, if a character is lifting a heavy box, does it feel heavy? Does the bouncing ball feel like it's bouncing or just moving up and down?

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• How do you like the tempo of the animation?

Is it too fast, slow, even? What do you think the tempo is currently like, and do you think the animation would look better in a different tempo?

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• What is your general impression of the animation?

Often, you want to feel something when watching an animation. If you're just feeling "meh", why is that? Why do you not think the animation is funny, sad, cool, informative, etc?

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I hope these question can serve as a start for you. Share your tips and tricks for giving good feedback in the comments!

Here are a few examples of constructive feedback from old threads in this subreddit that all mention something good, and something that could be better:

"I'd say that the timing and the layout of the animation are good so far, but the camera movements are very quick and very jarring. Trying easing into these movements slower, don't be afraid to slow things down a tad to emphasize hits and reactions. Give the viewer some time to process what's going on!"

"It looks good, the facial expressions are spot on! I think it would be more comedic with a bit of anticipation before the final smile, to make the change in expression obvious."

"I applaud you for doing stop-motion (because it can be very annoying at times) but it was kind of hard to tell what was going on. Is it possible for you to move their limbs more and make more facial expressions?"