Skaijo's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Michael's Stand-Up]

Ha!

My review of Micheal's Stand-Up:

It's really promising to see a new genre take place in NG. I find this idea unique and it paid off quite well amoung some slight technical set backs.

Graphically, the movie was good, but only good. The main character was well drawn but not very well animated. For one thing, the movement was a bit on the jerky side. I'd suggest adding more frames in the main character movments as "inbetweens" so it won't seem like his arms are teleporting into different positions. I also suggest that you bump up the frame rate. That withstanding, the character still moves in a fashion that keeps me interested throughout the entire animation. I like the fact that his eyes are essentially his glasses--it's a very well likeble character.

The sound is unbelievable. I'm surprised that this isn't a 1 MB + animation. I guess with the amount of symbols your using, you can afford to optimize the audio to this quality. The use of sound effects was also very, very well done.

The buttons could use some work. They have color now but it's still apparent that your using the NG Preloader. I'd be nice to have buttons and a preloader that appear to be all your own. I feel bad mentioning such things on your first submission.

The humor was nice--not sure if it would have gotten you through an night at the Improv--but charming all the same. I appreciate the fact that you didn't force yourself to work blue or resort to toilet humor in order to gain some cheap laughs.

Overall, this certainly and truely is an exceptional first submission. You've got some small items you may want to work on a bit more, but you're on a promising track.

Bad-Atom responds:

Thanks,

Obviously you were a big help, teaching me the ropes and all those fancy techniques. :)

About the audio - what a lot of people didn't realize is that I mixed all that myself. Every little bit of laughter had to be timed exactly to my voice track. Lots of fun...

I'll definitely be keeping your opinions and advice in mind when I get to the next one. Thanks again.

[I Love You Ono]

I love you Ono

Nicely done, though I wouldn't consider youself new to flash. What is this, your sixth submitted animation? :P

I liked the movie. The character design was cute and it teemed with style. It reminded me of a Psychedelic British Posh fever dream. I loved your transitions that you used in the animation and thought that this was the cartoon's strongest point.

The characters themselves could have been animated a bit better. It would have been nice if you used the Free Transform tool to make them bounce a bit as the landed and jumped form scene to scene. Also, there wasn't much easing in there overall movement. Moreover, it would be nice if you could credit Stereo Total for making that song.

Nice animation overall, I'm really glad to see other female animators on NG. I hope this movie gets an award because it's certainly the most original thing I've seen today.

cheshirecat1582 responds:

Thank You sooo much!!! I never said i was new to flash but im still learning... lol yeah i do everything the hard way... i dont know how to do sooo much in it i consider my self still learning... i couldnt animate anything and make it look very real... but cartoons i do ok in... at the end i had some credits and said stereo total did the music... but i should really put it in the front of the flash... Any ways Thank you sooo much your advice is very help ful!!!! and a 9 wow!! thanks again!!
ashy

[Zelda: UO Epis:2]

Short, but I'm liking them more and more.

I'm really beginning to enjoy this series. But you really should have emailed Tom so you could have submitted one large submission. In fact, with proper optimizing, you probably could have done it without the help of an admin.

It's really hard for me to enjoy something that so short because it abruptly ends usually on a high point. The only constructive advice I have to give is try and endeavor towards a longer project as it will not only make the audience happy, but it'll push your own skills as an animator.

I loved the character designs, but what tipped me the most was the camera control. Beautiful. Especially the subtle tweens you applied to objects to make it appear as if I was watching a 3D back drop. That was VERY well done. I would have liked to see a bit more detail in the surrounding environment, however. Also, the pencil outlines of the characters clashed with the paint outlines in the bg. That strikes me as inconsistent and a bit tacky. Still, the overall look was decent.

I liked this a lot and will keep an eye out for more. Thanks for the vid.

[FIFA world cup countries]

Quick review: Fifa world cup

I liked it. Nice style of animation. It was a bit on the short side, however. It would have been nice if you touched on other teams as well. Overall music use was nice, but the filesize was so small--you could have afforded to optimize the sound a bit. Nicely done, charming despite it's mild attempts at being controversal. Good one.

mackain responds:

thank you for your review. I'll keep that in mind =)

[My Azumanga Daioh Opening]

A!

Azumanga Daioh is my favorite anime of all time. You've made a great tribute. It's a shame the episodes were pulled off of youtube... I wish there was some place else I could see those episodes again. If you know, drop a PM on me.

Good job all around.

--Skaijo--

[A Violent Battle]

Ah, it's really not that bad.

My review of "A Violent Battle":

You really need to learn how to make a preloader. In fact, there's really no excuse for not having one in your movie since NG offers them for free, and you have to pass that Free Preloader link atleast three times before you even get to the submission webpage.

The stick fight was above average--but I really appreciated the camera angels in this film. They really set this movie apart from many other random fights. However, there wasn't much of a background at all, so even the new perspectives had much lacking to them. I suggest you pencil some form of a background for every scene, either in this one or in your next movies. Even a penciled in horizon beats having no bg at all.

The song choice was decent enough, and the animation paid enough attention to the thrills of the song that the music really turned into a property of the fight itself. It wasn't just wallpaper.

The fight scenes were really well choreographed, however, the stick's bodies were off-porportioned several times, which came off a bit tacky. It always helps to go over fbf animations such as this frame by frame and clean up what you drew.

As a whole, it's a decent animation. But it's still suffering from major flaws and still feels unfinished. I'm not sure how a movie, which you credit as your last stick fight, will ever be continued. :/

[Frank Episode 2]

Hmmm... there's something here.

My evaluation of "Frank Episode 2".

This movie teemed with style and great director's instinct. I especially love the camera angles shot in this movie, which were very professional and crucial to impoving this film's professionalism.

There were somethings that really bothered me. First of all, you mis-spelled a couple of words (ex: civilsation, surpised), which shows that you didn't preview this movie in front of a test audience. I reccomend you do. It's really the main thing you need to get to the next level of animation. The folks at NG forums will be happy to help you with that.

I'd also recommend that you get some voice actors, many of whom you can contact at the Voice Actor's Guild here on NG forums as well. Just use the search feature and post a link to a script and they'll send you their samples.

Other than that, you have some promising characters and a very nice animation style. Hopefully, there well be more detail in the future both in art and plot. Either way, I left this movie happier.

[Bunnycat 2]

Heheh. I'm liking it.

My review of "Bunnycat 2":

First of all, I have to say that I hate seeing good animations whenever I'm in the process of animating something myself. For some reason, (I blame my envious nature) it always depresses me. But your movie had me smiling throughout. I especially loved the Family Guy-esque flashback with the Macromedia attendent. It was just unique enough to be your own and it was just one of the many sublte jokes that really made me enjoy this movie.

I do feel that the movie looked great graphically, but could use some improvement. For example, though the use of tweens were smooth, sometimes I noticed bunnycat's eye's moving with disregard to the other (one eye moving faster than the other, one eye drifting a bit, and both of them not moving nearly fast enough). Also, I'd be nice to see the characters from other angles, that way the viewers can get more dynamic camera angles.

I also felt that the sound quality had a bit too much static and sometimes too forced, especially when the Ninja had to say "Beeyotch." It came off weak in my kick ass opinion.

Still, I had a great time watching this. I'd certainly be happy to see more in the future. You've made a great character, and NG would be privilidged to learn more about him and his world.

Wonchop responds:

my mic's a lil unpredictable when I get to the more lively characters.

[technoandstuff1]

Gah... blinded...

My review of "technoandstuff":

This movie needs some work. The first portion of the movie's bg is too vibrant to watch without burning retinas. The blue and red that you used should be switched to more complementary colors (perhaps, blue and green) so they don't contrast in such a gaudy fashion. Flashing black and white filters only make this movie seem more amateurish too. You may as well take them out and just add "!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!" to the end of your sentences since it pretty much says the same thing.

The pace of the movie needs work too. The credits in the second portion of the animation took to long, as well as the dancing blue man in the first portion of the animation took too long to show up. I literally thought I was just going to see a constantly changing bg for the entire animation, and was already preparing to blam.

There wasn't much in the movie that I did like, so in the end, I felt like I only got only 50% of the movie; as there was techno, but I couldn't bare to see anymore stuff.

Evil-Kat responds:

Ok.

Thanks for the fair review.

[Shadow Of The Colossus]

Loved it.

But you should learn to make a decent replay button rather than re-using the play button at the beginning. Also, that pink thing at the corner of the protagonist's eye ( the lacrimal duct) should have been on the other side of his eyeball and out of the shot.

I loved the comedic pratfall at the end though. That was really funny. It nearly summed up the game in a nutshell.

ViNCeNT-aSMoDeuS responds:

Danke.
Yeah, I fucked up big time on the eye scene... But it fits into 2MB so i'm happy.
=D