artistunknown's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[William, I'm Coming Home]

Simply put: this was beatutiful. I really enjoyed everything about this. The animation was great, the visuals were great, and the timing was great. I enjoyed the subtle little jokes, everyone who storyboarded did a great job, especially Exedor's storyboards, beautiful direction. I can see that later on the animation was getting better toward the end. I'm glad you decided to use more frame by frame than tweens, it really paid off, and it looks amazing. In fact, this was so amazing, I had to watch it twice. As I've said before, the direction in this was great. After King William loses his car, he tries several other ways to get home, like riding a horse, a ship, and even climbing up a mountain. I think the mountain climbing sequence was my favorite part of thee animation. It was handled very well. Also, best ending ever, was so not expecting that.
As amazing as it was though, it does have its share of cons. Sometimes, the visuals were inconsistent and looked a little messy. When King William is laying on a grassy mountain, and the horse is standing, the drawing of the horse looks a bit unappealing. It's also hard to tell exactly what they are on, which I'm guessing was a mountain, but because of the same shade of green being used, and no shading, it's really hard to tell. There was also one continuity error I noticed this time: When King William is climbing up the mountain, he doesn't have his crown on, when he's standing on the mountain, in a brief shot, he has it on, but then in the next shot, he doesn't have it again. This is only a minor thing since it is brief.
Overall, this was more amazing than I thought it would be. I enjoyed every bit of it. Everyone who contributed did a great job!

MistyE responds:

Thank you very much for the review! Yeah, I agree, the coloring on the grassy mountain could have been more varied. I'll probably end up changing it.

[Adrellia Village #43: SE]

Alright, I'm not sure how long this review is going to be, since I can't think of a lot to say about this one, I guess it's a shorter review for a shorter episode, heh. I enjoyed helping with this episode. I think my writing and voicing of two lines helped the episode a bit.

Now then, the writing. There was a nice mix between comedy and drama. The opening scene was pretty well written, and would have been great if the characters were actually yelling, but we've been through this: the voice actor isn't exactly young, so it's probably not best for him to strain his voice. The scene was still handled well though, it was pretty enjoyable and nicely paced. There was nice direction throughout the rest of the episode as well. Though the silent scene with King William was short, I think it was a nice highlight of the episode. The dialog in th episode was also enjoyable. I feel like an asshole for saying this, because I wrote it, but I think the writing in the last scene is the best. Drake has a little monolog, and the scene has a lot of emotion. The music also helps with this scene, and Drake's voice actor actually did a good job in this scene, and I think it really helped it. This episode is very short though, and unfortunately it suffered from everything that was cut. Overall, I did enjoy the writing in the episode, everything was well written, and there was a nice balance of comedy and drama.

Oh the animation, where to start... For the most part, the animation was pretty much the same as the last episode, which is a shame. It was a mixture of tweens and frame by frame, though a lot less frame by frame was used in this episode. Nice coloring though, very appealing to the eyes. One thing I think you need to work on is scene transitions. For the most part, they were okay, but the transition at the end of the first scene really bugged me. You used a fade after Angus said "My bacon". A fade doesn't really seem appropriate there, since the camera is just fixed on his face, and that line isn't really the best to end a scene on. A hard cut would have been better there, since with a fade, the camera is fixed on his motionless face longer and it just looks wrong. With a hard cut to the next scene (or a brief clip of black like I do) it doesn't linger and flows more nicely. I think fades should be left to more ominous or foreshadowing bits of dialog or imagery. Like at the end of the last scene, perfect use of a fade. The line "I hope King William and the others are okay" is a foreshadowing line, and the fade really helped that. Scene transitions do add to the tone of the scene. Aside from that, I did enjoy the direction of the episode for the most part, though some parts could have been handled better. There were too many moments of characters going to do something and cutting to them having done it. An example would be Rachel going to use the portal and then being in the world of destiny, but you didn't show her using the portal. While in some cases this could drag out a scene, it does help lessen confusion, and when the episode is as short as this, I think it would have helped.

The voice acting was about the same as before, except there's a few additional voices this time around. Gee, wonder who that was :3. The voice acting in the beginning was a bit unenthusiastic, but we've already discussed the yelling. After the part where they should have been yelling, it does get better. For the rest of the episode, the voice acting is about the same as usual. Drake's voice actor is improving and doing a fine job, he handled the hotel scene very well. Rachel's voice actress is a bit meh. Why is it that Drake's voice actor has improved, bur Rachel's hasn't? Maybe it's because you don't have her record lines as much? Either way, it still works, and she did try, so that's good. Some of the pronunciation was a bit awkward, but what are you gonna do? I can't really say anything about the voice of the bear or the reporter since I voiced them, but yeah. I'll just let other people talk about that, heh. That's really all I have to say about the voice acting.

Overall, I did enjoy this episode. I think it's either a step backward or a standstill in the quality of the animation. The writing was an improvement over the last episode, and the voice acting and music really added to the feel of everything. My major problem is how short this episode is. I really think it should have been longer, because this just feels like nothing happened, and just serves as filler. It was still a good episode though, just some things that need to be touched up on. I hope this was helpful, and good luck on future episodes.

MistyE responds:

Thank you very much for your helpful review! Yeah, I'd definitely have to agree that the writing in the last scene was the best, it was very heartfelt and well-written, and the background music definitely contributed to it too. I appreciate your comments on the direction, and I will try to improve the scene transitions in the future episodes. Thanks again!

[Adrellia Village #42: SE]

It's nice to see that you were able to make it to 10 minutes, though it's not the 11:45 you were aiming for, honestly who the hell cares? A lot of work went into this, and a lot of people contributed, and though it still wasn't the best it could have been, it was still great.

The writing was an improvement over the last episodes. It didn't drag as much, and there was a nice amount of humor, even if a lot of that humor was lame puns. A pun every now and then is okay. Some scenes that I felt dragged on for too long, were not really due to the writing, but more to timing choices and camera placement, but more on that when I touch on the animation. I love how you chose to take a more serious route with the plot in this episode. King William realizes he's not that great of a ruler, and for once we can actually feel for him. King William has feelings about the situation and so do we. Though I do think that some of the comedy took away from the overall seriousness with King William resigning, and that probably should have been handled differently. Some comedic relief to take away the tension of serious, real life stuff, is good, but there might have been a little too much here. This was still a pretty solid script though, and what did work worked really well. There was a great amount of scene changes. The scenes didn't linger longer than they needed to, so nothing ever really dragged on, except for what I mentioned earlier. I did enjoy the episode though, I laughed a few times and was never bored watching it.

Now then, the animation. As opposed to other episodes of Adrellia Village, it's a vast improvement. It's not overly tweened, and there's a great amount of frame by frame present. Though a lot of parts do use tweens, but I can understand that some things would be better tweened or too much of a pain to fbf. The frame by frame that was done though was very well done. There was a nice amount of shading and lighting effects present as well, which is something you usually don't include in your cartoons, so it's good that you're stepping out of your comfort zone, and it payed off, because it left a great visual appearance and definitely helped the mood of the scene. You (and the other colorists) made some excellent choices when it came to the color. There was nice variety, and nothing seemed too dull unless it called for it. Not everything with the animation was as good as it could be though. Touching on the timing issues I mentioned earlier, some scenes felt like they dragged on because there wasn't enough changes in camera angle. The camera was fixed on some positions for far too long, and were in desperate need of an angle change. An example would be when King William is giving his speech and the person asks "How much we talkin'?". It would have been better to change the camera angle to show the crowd. I'm guessing you attempted to do that, since after that line is delivered, King William suddenly switches position. Too many changes of camera angle is bad too, but you didn't have a problem with that, so good job on that. Other than those few minor complaints, the animation and timing was done very well. There was a lot going on, and never a moment when nothing was happening.

The voice acting was okay for the most part. It's unfortunate that King William's voice actor had to be replaced, his replacement did a good job, though I don't think he sounded quite old enough for King William. He still did a good job though, he had great emotion and actually did add to the scene. The other voice actors were okay as well. For one person doing the majority of the male characters, he has really evolved over time and has given these characters a great variety of voices. I'm not sure what to think of Alan's voice actor though. Over all, it didn't detract from the overall quality of the episode, and in some cases it even added to it. I think I enjoy Rory's voice the most, gotta love that Scottish accent.

Bottom line, I enjoyed this. I'm glad I was able to help so much throughout production. This wasn't as good as it could have been, and seems like it was somewhat rushed in the end. Some things could have been handled better, but for the most part, it was done well. This episode was vastly superior to the previous 41 episodes, and I can't wait to see how the next few episodes turn out, as I sense they will be better. Good luck on your future projects. I hope my review was helpful, and I hope this does well.

MistyE responds:

Thank you very much for taking your time to review this. I'm glad that you could feel sympathy for King William, that's what I was trying to do and one of the concerns of the script for this episode was that the viewer wouldn't care about King William since he's generally a mean tyrant. I get what you're saying about the camera placement. I was originally going to add more shots but in the end I ended up leaving it as it is since I was in a hurry. Still, that's no excuse and I'll try to add more variety in the angles for future episodes. Thanks again.

[Talking Animation Test]

This is pretty good for a test. Good voice acting, and the lip-sync wasn't half bad. Decent environmental art, and the character art was pretty good too. Nice proportions, anatomy is pretty accurate, and good drawing overall. I see potential and look forward to seeing more from you.
Welcome to newgrounds, and good luck on your future animations!

SahuaroProductions responds:

Thanks!!

[Playback - Part 1]

Well now, this has been a long time in the works, and it's certainly been worth the wait, and being part one, it's a lengthy 8 and a half minute animation by itself, which is always nice to see.

Now then, there were several things that I truly enjoyed about this. The writing and pacing were great, and the animation was well done too, nice amount of frame by frame, and beautiful frame by frame at times too. I also enjoyed the majority of the voice acting. There were also great visual gags, like the pain inflicted on Joe, the timing for those moments were well executed.

My main problem with this was some of the voice acting was less than satisfactory, but I'm not going to complain about it since I know you were under a deadline and could not get in contact with some voice actors in time.
Also, a small problem, the line quality at times was rather jagged and unsightly, hopefully you can manage to fix this in the next part.

Some of the changes from the script/storyboard you made were interesting choices, like replacing the laugh track when the janitor speaks, or the background transitioning from Joe's room, to the class room. That would have been nice to see, but I can see why you would decide against it, but what you did do instead sufficed.

As I've said before, there's a nice amount of top-notch frame by frame in here, and you have definitely improved on your art and animation skills, and I'm looking forward to everything you decide to spend time on.

I hope this does well, I hope this review was helpful to you, and I can't wait for the second part. Good luck until then, and keep improving!

MistyE responds:

thanks for the review! a lot of the visual gags were never in the original script. they were thought of during the animatic stage. i get what you're saying about the voice acting, it'll be better in the second part.

line quality is always an issue and it's always a bit challenging to get it just right. thanks again!

[Adrellia Village #39: SE]

Finally getting around to reviewing this.

I really feel like this should have been longer, and after looking over the original script, and comparing it to the episode, I can see that a lot of scenes were cut, for reasons I can't think of. Cutting out some of them I can understand, since they didn't really add to the story. It's a shame that the majority of the ones cut, however, were in fact part of the story, including the set up for the journey to Trellutor (and the journey its self, which of course meant the cutting of the black and white montage, again a shame). Also some jokes which I thought would have helped got cut as well, but enough about what didn't make the cut, and on to the actual episode.

The animation and art were improved over the last episode, and the voice acting was great (especially for king William). At some points the story did seem a little dull, and that initial set up that wasn't present might have made a difference. Other than that the jokes and character expressions kept me entertained almost constantly. Something I find wrong with the story though is King Williams new found relationship. It's love at first sight obviously, but there seems to be no explanation about who she is and why the king loves her. That part needs to be expanded upon. I was hoping for at least another scene with King William, to explain that storyline, after all, the title of the episode is "The Love Epidemic" so I would think it would be expanded further. I'm guessing you're saving this for the next episode though, which is fine, but like I said, since according to the title, it should have been the main point of the episode, plus more king William would have added more humor, might even be room for your "white van in the park" joke. Just a thought on that. If you are planning to use the relationship in the next episode though, I understand.

I can see there are a couple of people that contributed to the animation, and at points it was noticeable with a change in art style, but that's just a minor thing.

All in all, there was major improvement on everything, and I really enjoyed it. Still a shame that a lot got cut from the episode, but I'm sure you had your reasoning, and hopefully some of it can appear elsewhere (since the work was put towards it).
Sorry I wasn't there for the final stages of production, congrats on the daily second, and I look forward to the next episode, and being more involved with it.

MistyE responds:

yeah, I can understand. A lot of scenes were cut because some of them didn't contribute to the plotline or add anything humor-wise, and others I didn't feel were necessary with episode 38 establishing the setup to the Trellutor journey.

the title can be a bit misleading - it was only conceived because the episode had two plots - one involving love and one involving an epidemic. Of course, when I try to mix them up into a title, it may give off a wrong impression, and I'll keep this in mind for the future.

I personally thought some of the different art styles possessed their own charm and contributed to the overall feel but that's my personal opinion, and a lot of people might disagree. Thank you for your in-depth review.

[Breakdance octogan]

You submitted something without telling me?

I would think that since I told you how to upload videos, you would at least inform me when you upload something... oh well, it's alright. I am rather impressed with what you got done with anime studio, far more than I could have accomplished with it (which is why I switched to flash). Your field of depth on the robot from different angles is convincing, and his motion is good. As others have stated, there are some graphical errors, but that's obviously the limitations of the program. I can tell when you start using flash, things will improve greatly!

JoeSketchConcepts-NG responds:

Sorry that it took me a long time to respond to you.

I have done allot of work on the motions of the robot to look like a real life machine and following the animator's survival kit by Richard Williams. the bad part is that I tried to make it look like 3D in a 2D program. and I totally did not think about shadow, more detailed background and camera angles until a friend from class told me so.

BUT! I will do better at animation from what I learned from this project and more studying. I FINALLY GOT ADOBE FLASH in the fall 2011. It was priced at around $150 to 200$ dollars. But it will be totally worth it. once get started on a new project.

[Candle Light Dinner]

Ha, Great

For a short for an assignment, it was really well done, and executed flawlessly. Also, a little note, on his silhouette he was wearing his glasses.

Ayai responds:

darn it hahhaha. i wasnt aware of that. thanks for the note! i'll fix it :D

[OmegaX S1 Ep1 [The Omega]]

A good start

It's a good start for a series, although it needs to be longer. Also, I hope the display is bigger in future episodes, 'cause it was a little hard to see. Also, if you could find some voice actors, that would help too. Text can get annoying, especially when there is action going on, either you read the text, and miss the action, or watch the action, and miss the story. The art was detailed, and animation was smooth, so all that needs improvement is length, display size, and possible voices, or text control. I look forward to another episode.

LycanX responds:

@artistuknown thanks for this tips, when i posted this on FA the only thing i got was "where the **** is the animation" our "your sound quality sucks"
also about the display size, i believe i checked " do not resize but it turned out like this. ill make sure it wont happen again next episode. Also, voice actors is hard to find D:

[Meta knight kickn ass!]

Epic

Very well done for a sprite movie. It was well worth the wait and action packed. And there was even some humor in the end. I was entertained until the very end and that;s always good. However, the sprites didn't look to well up close, probably due to the fact of being jpegs, and that's why I give an 8. Use higher quality sprites, and it will be perfect.

supersj44 responds:

i use an old flash cam which makes the sprites look bad and all the sprites were gifs in fact lol but thanks for the 8!