To be honest, I think you should be very thankful and feel fortunate that several Elite Authors on here (some of whom have not displayed their badges… you know who you are!) have taken their time to personally respond to you, and have voluntarily continued to do so, offering constructive criticism and detailed points on how you can improve your project. I humbly applaud them for their continued positive contributions both in the marketplace and on these forums.
With that said, your 3D modeling seems to be good, but the animation of the Santa and camera movement needs work. IMO, Santa seems robotic and needs a more fun (and human) personality. The camera motion is not smooth. The end typography, to be blunt, is pretty bad. If typography is not your thing, you might want to ask a pro print designer for suggestions. And as others here have already stated, the “star spiraling around the tree” theme has been done many times already. If you want to do it again and convince the Envato reviewers to approve it, let alone people to pay you money for it, they have to gasp and say, “Wow, that was absolutely awesome!”
Your argument about other “lesser quality” projects getting approved ahead of yours unfortunately does not mean much. First off, you should be comparing yourself to creators who are better than you instead. That’s how you can improve and learn to be more successful.
Second, you should be focusing your time and energy on something unique and/or making sure your projects are polished off. Assuming your goal is to make money off your work, even if your project gets past the approval stage, that does not mean it will automatically guarantee you sales. Nobody cares how much blood/sweat/tears you poured into your work or what kind of expensive software/technologies you used. The reality is most people buy what looks/sounds good to them. As just one example, check out PMWA’s (aka Maxim Paramonov) Christmas projects. His 3D swirling stars and Santa animations, integrated with his original music scores, are what you are competing against for my and my clients’ Christmas marketing budgets.
Lastly, you should not get so hung up on getting rejected, whether it was soft, hard, or whatever other terminology there is. Being rejected is not fun, but is a part of life (I think most especially so in the design industry) and should be taken as a learning experience. Venting about it on a public platform is not going to make you any friends or earn you any customers. Get up, brush yourself off, take the free notes that successful people have given you, and try to do better next time.
