Kydus's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Brony Madness]

Rock on, dude. I applaud your courage for doing something like this, and on Madness Day no less.

As for the toon itself, I would say this is pretty solid for a first attempt. Let me tell you, I have definitely seen worse. The faces you stuck over the madness dudes were pretty funny, and worked well for something as short and simple as this. But if you do end up continuing it, I'd at least have them change expression every now and then if you keep rolling with that idea.

Here's something else you could try. Go and watch a couple of the latest Madness episodes again, and pay attention to the characters when they're idle. Very rarely will they be completely static. There's always some form of movement going on, even if it's just breathing.

Another thing. I don't know what FPS you animated this at, but I seem to recall that Krinkels animates at 60-something? Or maybe it was 50-something... Either way, I would try stepping up your frame rate to allow for much smoother, less robotic-looking motion for the characters. I haven't done anything higher 36 myself, so I can only imagine how difficult it probably is dealing with that many frames. But, it'll be worth it in the end, I'm sure :)

Just thought of something else. GUIDE LAYERS and EASING. These are two tools that would help you immensely toward the goal of smoother, more realistic animation when using a lot of tweens. My last bit of advice to you would be to pop open a tutorial here on NG and get reeeeeaaaaaaal familiar with those concepts.

Actually, I lied. One more thing: Camera usage. Zooming in/out when the main character enters/exits a room is a good start, but you can do so much more with the cam that just that. Move it around during the action, shake it a bit, zoom in on spots where the character is looking, etc. You did a nice job on that in the last scene; more of that kind of camera movement makes for a more dynamic and engaging animation.

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Phat-Rat responds:

Thank you for your feedback, it was more than helpful! I will take these tips into my animations and try to make a better second part. I also am trying to familiarize myself with 30+ FPS with my new animations. I will also be releasing a few test animations, for fun, here and there. Thank you so much, you were the best reviewer yet, I am pleased to see someone has a sense of manners and constructive criticism! Thank you.

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[SFFAH Ep1: The Fall]

Good first attempt.

A suggestion to you would definitely be to work on the smoothness of your sprites. I noticed during the battle that there was something very wrong going on with Shadow. I think this lower graphic quality in your sprites came about when you ripped them from their sheets. If you're not doing do already, you want to use trace bitmap to grab the sprites, not break apart. And when you do trace, make sure all the values are set to 1, and you want curve fit to pixels and many corners. This should ensure you retain the original quality of your sprites, as well as make it easier to erase those rnadom bits of black I see hidden in your sprites.

Now that that's out of the way, I would either make the battles quite a bit more extensive, or stick to a movie. I understand that was only the first, but still, 2 turns does not make for an exciting battle.

As for the plot, it would appear this is a crossover story since you included Link already, and those tend to get very interesting very quickly. Can't wait to see what you come up with. And I noticed at one point you had Sonic make a decision whether to immiediately go in or not. Personally I would stick with that "choose your own adventure" route, and perhaps later down the line have different things happen based on what choices you make.

That's all I have time for for now, but keep up the good work and pm me if you have any questions about anything. I'll be glad to help.

flashman16 responds:

very informative, it has been a while since anybody went into any great length of detail about my movies. I'm afraid to say however that your help is a bit dated. Perhaps a look at my later flashes will show what I mean?

In any case, you can rest assured that when i do continue this series it will be interesting ;-)
and, , , well a tad better in the animation side as well :3

thank you for your review

[The Closed Door]

Good start

As your first animation, I believe you did well. I especially liked the music choice for the short, as I feel the songs you chose were very fitting. However, for an "all-powerful being," your character was rather short-tempered and agressive. If you plan to remake or develop this any further, I would absolutely make him take more time to try and enter the door. After all, he didn't even touch the doorknob at all! Since he's "all-powerful" the possibilites of things he could do to try and open it are endless. My advice for animation to you would be slow down, take your time with the scenes, and let things move along at a comfortable pace for this type of animation. I feel he charrs the world far, far too quickly. Keep up the work, and good luck in your classes!

leagers responds:

Thanks for the input, I had actually planned on doing more with it but it was only supposed to be 20 seconds long and I hit the due date. I will possibly end up doing a more complete version a couple months down the line.

[equation wars]

Interesting premise

Not too bad, but it could deffinitely use some music and/or sound effects. I especially liked how the numbers came directly off of the calculator and attacked the others. That was rather clever of you, I think. Something to think about might be having two calculators fight each other, spawning various numbers from their screens and sending them into battle and whatnot.

Personally, I think you ought to develop this idea further, if oyu have the time. Just using the four basic functions (+,-,x,/) of math already leads to plenty of interesting scenarios in an equation war. If you have the time and desire, you could incorporate higher level functions into their combat.

huw2k8 responds:

yes i plan to update it soon with some sound effects and stuff