The stylized, snappy animation works with the art direction and I can’t see any issues with it really. However, there is a lot of dead space when zoomed out (especially overhead), which leads to what bugs me. The lighting and background. The sudden change in color aside, the lighting is flat enough to make the appearance of the dark background intrusive, it’s swallowing some of the details on the characters and working against the “product shot” look you had going in the previous setup.

It could also be the elevated camera angle; it’s making the subjects appear less significant. Consider using area lights for softer illumination and maybe boosting your rim light. Regardless of what’s in the background, it shouldn’t cloud out the product. Some softening up in post and some exposure/color tweaks should make this look really nice so keep going!


I had to dig through my imgur because I couldn’t find the thread but I posted a screen shot of a basic studio lighting setup some time ago.



It’s basically a sphere with just enough of the bottom flattened to provide a floor to rest the product, the curve of the sphere creates a nice gradient background. The spotlight in the back provides a halo effect and set it apart from the back drop, even though the shot is a lot of the same color.