artistunknown's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[National Billy Day]

definitely an odd feeling seeing 29 years flash by in 29 seconds

[Billy's Birthday Party]

I can't believe brak is dead

icyentertainment responds:

he will live forever in our hearts...

[The MK]

very reminiscent of 2006 newgrounds with the likes of "The Real Mortal Kombat"

what a fun throwback

[Retarded Animal Babies 16]

Good to see this [Redacted] Animal Babies classic again. I don't have a DVD player anymore so it's been a while since I've watched it, but I am glad to be one of those 800 people that own it ;)

It's been so long since I've seen this, I couldn't even remember which one this was, but then as soon as I saw the intro I remembered lol

Quite the fitting episode to remain DVD exclusive for so long.

[Space Junkies : Clock Day]

Space Junkies is the best series on Newgrounds.

icyentertainment responds:

Thank you fine gentleman

[Deep Water]

I really love this new grainy style you've been using, it's especially fitting for something like this. The comedy and atmosphere is great as always.

I was confused by the shrimp at first, but then I read the description and it all made sense lmao

Funnily enough, I too have had a dream involving Jim Sterling, though that was a bit different...

Gerkinman responds:

Hey thanks, I like trying to make my work feel a bit more tactile, im not a fan of super digital feeling work.

Your dream sounds saucy... :P

[True Confessions From a Gay Frog]

Gay frogs are my specialty, and I can assure you, these frogs are 100% gay and that's the way it should be.

[Goliath]

Glad to finally see that this is out! I remember converting it to video for you and wondering why you never uploaded it :p

Yeah, it's not as good as something you could do now, but it's still better than a lot of stuff you see posted online.

As for actual critiques, the animations pretty great for the most part, it's all smooth and dynamic, though some bits look pretty wonky, and there's even missing lipsync, though iirc that was due to time constraints.

The story is interesting, but feels really condensed and doesn't flow too well. There's quite a few pacing issues. That last shot is still as cool as the first time I saw it though.

Overall though, the concept is really cool and would definitely work well as something much longer with more time put into it. Once again, it's great to finally see this released, and I hope to see some more new stuff from you soon!

HowardWimshurst responds:

Wow it is you! That's amazing that you saw this. yes it has been quite a long time since I actually made this. I agree with you that it is a bit wonky and the pacing is... not satisfactory for me. These shortcomings almost stopped me from releasing it. but then i made a video about abandoning projects and I thought that I should follow my own advice. I'm sure that it was worth the few hours of extra effort to get it cleaned up and put out onto the internet, especially after all of that work i put into it. Thanks for helping me with it back in the day. Hope you are doing well!

[AdvofWillieD Willie Samurai]

I am SURPRISED at the amount of negativity this is getting, because this is an honest major improvement for you.

Story-wise, it's pretty okay. You just kinda jump into the action so there's no set-up, but there doesn't always have to be. The rivalry between Willie and Mudd Mann is pretty established at this point I think, so it's not like it needs to be re-established every time, but having some sort of buildup to the fight would definitely help with the pacing of this. After the fight, there's a cliff hanger. What exactly is it going to lead into? There's no telling, but it's sure to lead to something, and considering how much you've improved, I can't help but feel a little excited for more. I feel like the ending is a bit understated though, since it's so brief.

Animation-wise, this is an obvious major improvement over your previous stuff. It's actually animated and the frame by frame is pretty smooth, though it doesn't look that great since it's not properly timed. It's clear that you have some sort of understanding of how animation works though, so now it seems like you just need to work on your timing. The animation would definitely look a lot better with more correct timing.

The pacing is overall pretty bad. At some points it's really fast, which makes sense, because fights are fast-paced, but then a lot of the time it's just hanging on a single frame, and it just kinda ruins it. Then there's that brief bit of Willie standing in the beginning, and then Mudd Mann comes up. Willie's there for such a short moment that it just seems more like an error, but I'm going to assume it's just due to the bad pacing. If you time things out properly, everything will flow better and it'll be easier to understand what's going on.

Art-wise, Willie is drawn pretty well, so there's definitely improvement there. Mudd Mann doesn't seem to be drawn as well though, but it's pretty okay. There's a lot of proportion issues too, but that's not really too big of an issue, since sometimes that can have a good effect on the animation. The important thing is finding a balance between on and off-model animation though. The art style itself is almost appealing. The background art is simple, but it has a charm to it.

As for the music, it doesn't seem entirely fitting, but it works well enough. The music is almost TOO loud though, and it doesn't help that it's not high quality. It kinda hurts to listen to.

Overall, this was a major improvement over your previous stuff. You've clearly improved by actually animating things now, but you REALLY need to work on your pacing. Properly time things out, and everything should seem a LOT better.

[Fan]

This was pretty interesting. I will admit I had to watch it a few times to fully understand it, that's mostly because it went by so fast though.

The plot was simple, but it was entertaining and I can appreciate how you didn't need to rely on dialog to tell a story. It was portrayed well visually. However, I'm not entirely sure what happened in the end. Did the fan just not work, or was it just turning on very slowly and the guy was impatient? That wasn't quite clear.

The art style looks a bit too simple and could use some refinement, mainly character art, backgrounds were pretty decent though. The best thing artistically was probably the bus. There wasn't a lot of actual animation but what was there looked pretty decent. Adding more poses and inbetweens would help. The shot of the view looking up at the fan was pretty cool looking, and probably the most interesting shot in the entire short. The filters in this also really added to the visual appeal. They looked nice and never seemed unfitting to the scene, so good job with that.

As for audio, the sound effects all seemed fitting. The ambiance was nice and really added to it.

Overall, a decent piece. I enjoyed it, but some things could use some work. Good luck with your future works!

[Review Request Club]

Aqlex responds:

You were right about the fan turning very slowly and not really doing anything to help the guy cool off.

Thank you for the thoughts, they're good to hear and think about. And thank you, review request club!