Getting better man 🙂
With the chess board, you can hide everything that isn’t important until later, Then you can position only the pieces that you need (you can try to make them makes sense on the board but that isn’t that important). Just stage it so you can see him knock over the king. (Plus speed up the timing in the King piece)
The only other comment I have is about the exit. Keep him moving. He is slowing down because it’s the end of the shot, but animate it like it cuts to the next shot in the scene. What I was saying the other day is that the exit should be more screen right rather than straight at the camera. But just check his balance here too – I think that is part of the ‘slowing down’ issue, if that makes sense.
I think you are ready for spline, but wait to see what your instructor says.
