gel's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Battle for the Portal Pt1]

What a load of crap.

Your graphics were just terrible! Okay, now that I've gotten that out of the way, the rest of the review will be constructive.

You're lucky the VGDC sprites have more than one frame of animation or your entire movie might not have had any animation at all. Here are some examples of where it showed you truly lacked any qualities or skills of animation:
- the first shot of the blue clay guys. They are badly animated and you KNOW it. The arms just raise up and down in stiff fashion. The models aren't clay, they're just 3d blobs. You couldn't even fix up the smashed polygons when they bent their arms.
- Joe Zombie's frames of animation are just the keyframes with the "tweens" filled in by fading the keyframes out.
- The fighting between the clocks and the VGDC sprites were just overlapped images, rotating and flying around.
- The flags are quickly rendered with some sine wave running through them and they don't attach to the flagpoles, they just float there next to them.
- When Joe Zombie jumps from building to building ala Spiderman, he has no thrust. You just see him fly from one building to another at a strange speed, likened to a poorly tweened Flash movie.
- Anytime there were particle effects onscreen, they would mostly fill up the front of the shot, making it seem like a lot was going on, but nothing was, just particles flying before the "camera."
- Whenever there was any 3d model that wasn't nailed down, it was flying through the air and rotating in slowmotion. Cars, clocks. Rotating. Always.
- If there was anytime you saw the flags in the air after that first shot, for more than 1 second, it's because you were too lazy to animate anything, so it was time to show the flags again, with explosions in the background. Perhaps that was better than more rotating sprites.

I give you pretty high marks for the sound editing, which wasn't bad. Lots of explosions, nice choice of music by the great Danny Elfman, and other miscellaneous sounds that fit the action onscreen.

Everything else is very very poorly done. I'm afraid my movies all sucked, since so many people who reviewed have said your animation was top notch and very well done. You know very well your grasp of animation, and I think you know that this movie didn't showcase very much of it.

Your directing skills are pretty good too, but I can't really say that without realizing that any good shots in the movie were just taken straight from other ones. The first shot with the speech has been done a lot, the tunnel view of cars blowing up inbetween buildings (e.g. Armageddon), flying around the buildings (since that was supposed to be like Spiderman, I can't give credit to you).

I'd like to mention again that if anyone thinks there is good animation in this movie, to just watch it again and look at how everything rotates. Nothing is animated, they just rotate. The only thing that might be considered animation is the clay guys bending their arms and slightly bending their legs to walk.

In summary, if this were submitted to any 3d forum, you'd have your head on a pike. Luckily for you, this is NewGrounds, and any bit of 3d rendering will win you accolades. You're certainly smart enough to know your audience.

If you think I'm just being a jerk, email me. I'll be happy to tell you again jsut what is wrong and you can defend your position or agree with me. I know NG will surely hate me, since I've seen all the good reviews, but perhaps they should watch it again keeping in mind what I actually said and they would see that I made several valid points.

SecretAgentBob responds:

As yes, thank you for telling me what’s “wrong” with my animation. Although I would assume I’ve done more “right” considering the very high score I have right now. So why is it then, that I have such a high score? Hmm? Could it be that your opinion is just that? Your own opinion?

Let me give you an example. Here are some reviews taken from your 99K movie:

“BORING NOTHING FUNNY OR GOOD AT ALL!IT'S A WASTE OF TIME!”

“to be honost and as nice as possible at the same time, i didnt like it. wasnt funny or nothing”

“it wasnt funny at all, it was bullshit”


Now, these people seem to think that 99K wasn’t worth watching and was a bad movie because it wasn’t “funny”, just as you seem to think my movie isn’t worth watching because you don’t like the way I’ve animated. Just like the people who left the above reviews, I think you’ve missed the point. 99K was genius because of the fact that you were able to put together a stylish 2D animation together in only 99K. It certainly wasn’t about detailed character design (you have circles and lines) nor “realistic imagery”, but what you did was more than sufficient for the animation you created, was very stylish and served its purpose – thus its high score.

So, what is it that my movie provides that warrants it’s high score? Read through the other reviews, it should give you an idea. Honestly, now, why does my movie deserve a “1”?

Sorry you didn’t enjoy it.

[50 FPS]

The movie didn't get a high score

But it's still a good presentation. Nice experimentation. I gave it a three only because it was really entertaining or anything, just shows you put some effort into it (sorry, effort means very little, it's the final product that counts).

Don't listen to Kirby212112, at least not most of what he said. There's a limit to the human eye's "refresh rate" but it's way higher than 12fps. You can tell he doesn't know what he's talking about by his first sentence, " the human eye can only take 12 frames a second, which is why flash MX does 15 i belive." By default, Flash is set to 12fps.

Why do you (Kirby) think people like video games at 60fps or higher? 12 isn't nearly fast enough. You can easily see the difference.

Anyway, although there's a limit, as long as your monitor's refresh rate is in sync with the framerate of the movie, it'll look VERY smooth. Your movie looked smooth. Now that you're done with this experiment, try making an actual movie (although it seems you're into clocks). Your AS ability is pretty good too, so you could incorporate cool effects, probably.

[-True North-]

Fools

That was very good. I'm also very happy to see that it was a complete movie, not actually to B continued.

The fact that you say you didn't intend to make a politcal statement is irrelevant. It's like saying, "Bush is stupid" and not making a political statement. You didn't "intend" to, but you know you would and you did.

After reading the reviews, I've found that some of those reviewers who hate clocks are idiots. I don't hate clocks, nor do I love them, but the point is, they would say something like "finally, the clocks are dead! I'm so tired of their stupid voices!" Did they notice Strawberry Compass sounds just like a clock? Or how about that he looked just like one with a compass instead of a clock? If you hate clocks, you should hate compasses too. Of course, they did kill clocks, but you're just replacing one evil with another right?

Anyway, good stuff. The irony of compasses instead of clocks is apparently lost on a lot of clock haters.

[Madness Avenger]

Very well done.

New locales, more action, better story. It's what sequels are supposed to be!

Now, I know you'd probably say it's part of the Madness style, but I think you should brush up on your perspective a little. So much action takes place in those little rooms and the one-point perspective just isnt' right. I won't explain it here, you can learn more elsewhere. The otehr thing is the movement of the hands. I've always felt they are a little too slow. Don't smooth them out so much, they are hitting people. Quick, rigid movements portray action much better. What is this supposed to be, Disney action? (Disney action is too smooth and less convincing than, say, anime fighting) Everything else is wonderful!

And to those who want to view it offline, I can't believe some people still haven't figured it out yet. Open the movie, view the page source (right click near the bottom), and find the only .swf file on the page. That's the movie, so just stick that URL into some download program, like GetRight, and there ya go. This movie is worth saving and doing so helps NG's bandwidth too!

[Meet Dustin]

Hehehe

Not too many introductions on NG. It's good to see the animator behind the movies. Funny stuff.

Even though you said it was pointless, it really does have a point, and that is your introduction to everyone. That's enough of a point (unlike stick figures spurting blood everywhere at 4fps).

Nice sound quality too!

[Robocop:001]

Well, you've proved it

You've proved that most people on NG are very easily amazed by nice graphics but couldn't pick out the flaws if their life depended on it.

I give you props for the 3D rendering and models which is very nice. Cel shading, details, all there.

Since you say this movie is a test, you should be very open to suggestions on improving it, rather than just "THAT WAS THE BEST FLASH EVER!" Some of these have been mentioned before, but since I said your movie had many flaws, I better spell it out for you:

- Why did the police have such thick outlines compared to Robocop? Uniformity is key.
- What's with the nasty pixelation (very noticable in the beginning)? Try using a large image and shrinking, not the other way around.
- Your bloody was stylistic, but it didn't look it was coming from the police.
- I know he's robot, but man, Robocop sure moves slowly. I guess it's because none of the bullets even dented him, so he might as well walk over his enemies like a tank.
- This is the worst offense: The 3D models were terribly out fo sync with the background. Robocop slides all over the place when he slams that policeman into the ground, the police kneel down to the ground, the camera pans and pulls out, and the police slide around like they are kneeling on ice. You have to pay attention to that and make sure the models establish a good figure-ground relationship because it takes you right out of the movie.

I hope you take my advice seriously, if not to appease the picky NG viewers like me, but to better yourself as an animator. Sure, most of NG doesn't seem to notice or care that it's just a bunch of 3D poorly slapped onto 2d sketches, but if you take it to a non-amateur venue, you'll surely get the ass kicking your movie is asking for. I still liked the movie, I just thought you really put it together hastily.

MindChamber responds:

Well Since you took the time to write such an indepth review an a flash you obviously didnt like.. I'll glady explain myself here..:
1) you are right.. this was slapped together..
2)The backgrounds are from an older flash..
3)the models for the guards was a simple base model I downloaded..
4)Even the Blood was from the first Robocop I created..
As for Robocop moving slowly.. thats a first,he moves rather fast on my computer..upgrade
I originally was just going to show robocop in his various moves and positions, but later decided to give him something to shoot at, and some sort of location..
But Like I Said.. THIS IS A TEST... this is not a movie, short, or release...
And I don't mind comments and complaints.. that what the test is for.. But you obviously feel the need to present yourself as a dick ,by insulting me and insulting the viewers, to make those points.. and that part isnt nessasary..

[Drawing with Jack 2]

The blind leading the blind

Sorry, but people who can't draw shouldn't be teaching other people how to draw. I know you may think you're a good artist now, but after a couple years, you'll realize the mistakes you've made, correct them, and this tutorial will have been a plague on poor aspiring artists who are susceptible to any advice you give them.

You may be good compared to your peers, but even you could highly benefit from some drawing books (and NOT learing from anime).

As for the movie, it was composed pretty well. It had a decent amount of info in it. It's too bad the info is mostly wrong.

[pioneer10]

Chic

The graphics fit well with the topic, the 3d was nice, but not overdone, and the story made perfect sense and is likely to happen if aliens do visit Earth!

I thought although you kept the file size down, the super quick movements could have been toned down some. Other than that, it's satisfying. You've quickly established a universe, now you can populate it in your next movie!

[Stick Movie Tutorial 1]

Nice tips

So why is it that you beg and plead for folks to put sound in their movies and yet you don't put sound in yours? If you don't take your own advice, who will?

Davidus responds:

Tutorials with sound are just stupid. I'm talking about ACTUAL movies.

[perish]

Well done

If you can't understand the backwards thing, your mind is way too slow. There's nothing wrong with it. You'd probably have an aneurism with Memento then.

Great effects, good pacing. The animation was pretty good, though you could use some work on movement (not that there was much movement overall).

The song fit well.