adywan, I'm actually speechless after watching the high bitrate clip (the only way to watch your previews, as far as I'm concerned, so I wait for them rather than let facebook or youtube mitigate my first impression). I did watch the comparison, and more than any other video it shows just how much thinking, planning, and effort you've put into this project. It's apparent just how many hundreds (thousands?) of individual tricks and tweaks we're seeing flit by in the space of a couple minutes.

I immediately noticed the facial movements, and I think they are chillingly effective because they are restrained. Anything more obvious would get in the way. I think some of the reactions are proof of just how much expectation plays into perception. It's like it's hard to see the wizard the same way after peeking behind the curtain. I think constructive criticism is good and I like to see people push you toward besting yourself, but I think this is a case where the criticism is a result of knowing how it was done, making the eye hyper-sensitive as compared to a new viewer who was none the wiser. It's not really that there is anything to fix.