User blog comment:Goddess of Despair/Thoughts on the First Episode of RWBY and Stuff/@comment-9090085-20130723033432/@comment-9090085-20130723044131

It was for me, but not in the way you think. Many people people pointed out that the hands often looked like they weren't griping anything(I understand this is because the motion capture tech they're using can't track fingers), and then there were a few missing animations(like when the shopkeeper said "uh-huh" he didn't nod or move his lips like you would expect.).

The action scenes were well choreographed, as usual (and is the most important part of any action scene.); but what really surprised me, animation-wise, were the standing-around talking parts.

I know most people said they were stiff; they were not. I've seen stiff animation (most recently in Re: Cyborg 009, which was a terrible movie story-wise), people (especially Ruby) fidgeted believably; I honestly thought I was watching a real-life conversation. (this is probably because they had people actuality act out the conversations for motion capture)

I can understand why others might think they were stiff; they didn't have big head movements or hand gestures one usually sees in RvB. But they need those exaggerated movements because the RvB cast had their faces covered; without eyes our mouths they need to use the rest of their bodies to express their mood and indicate who's talking. RWBY has made good use of expressions on the character's face to express the mood, making exaggerated body movement unnecessary.

Aaannnnd I went and rambled on again. I suppose I should point out that, on the whole, I have a low opinion of graphics; probably born from watching E3 interviews about a game that has "revolutionary graphics"... which look no better then the games two E3s ago (my favorite games also tend to be dinosaurs with pathetic graphics). I also tend to be pessimistic, and put things on an impossibly high pedestal. (Like when I say the fight scenes are well choreographed, I make it sound like it's average... when I think 90% of shows have lousy choreography.)