Surn's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mythical Pantaloons]

Half-naked middle aged man aside, this one arguably had the best color scheme.

Potatoman responds:

I agree!

[String]

As usual, great job! I found the bit with the peeing turd to be quite clever. However, it would probably have done a lot better if you had some sort of music looping in the background (even if it was generic infomercial music).

koit responds:

Thanks fella......

And you're probably right re the music.

[Airplane Animation]

Mah boi!

Academic success does not equal real world success. You've got a decent grasp of flash but you need to practice more and polish your skills.

VJElectramorhipism responds:

Ok thanks for the info.

[AF: The Backstabber]

It had a plot...

As you are likely aware, the visuals were quite poor. However, unlike most videos of this visual quality it actually had a decent plot.

jonohomo responds:

thanks for commenting

[Hero Teaser]

Good For Your First, but not great.

Art:
Your art skills are fairly good for a beginner but still needs plenty of refining. The highlights (white marks) in the hair didn't really work since they seemed to be all over the place. On the other hand you seemed to do a real good job with the face itself. The face was nice and cartoony but even then the expression was mostly blank and didn't "match" the song.

Animation:
Minimal. The scrolling night sky at the beginning was pretty good (though the moon was a bit crude) but the singer didn't move enough and the camera was fixed on him for too long. One thing you have to keep in mind is that your audience can get tired of looking at the same thing for a prolonged period of time. While the main character did have multiple mouth frames (closed, open, "O" shape) he could have done with a wider range of expressions (that one "laughey" face just doesn't cut it) and some hand gestures.

Audio:
A trademarked song and a gunshot (kudos on tracking it down). Every thing seemed to sync up to the audio pretty well (perhaps the best thing you had going for this)

Misc:
The play button seems to be a bit tricky to hit. I usually put a square at full invisibility over the entire shape (in your case, the word play). This way the user doesn't have to land the cursor on a small activation point.

Overall It's a good start. Don't get discouraged and try to improve.

P.S.
If you'd like to try a different "loveish" song without copyright breathing down your neck I recommend this gem:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/liste n/225601

If you're going to use cartoon characters again I'd recommend speeding it up about 45%

DnCFlash responds:

wow that is alot but ty now i know where i need to improve and thanks for the links i will try to do better and ty for a 4 on the review i wasnt even expecting that but ty i will try harder on my next attempt and sorry about the play button i didnt under stand the whole thing on how to make them but like 2 min ago found a great tutorial on how to do it so now i know

[Nyu and the Ponyta]

Don't see that too often...

Art:
Excellent, the simple Game Boyish pixel art works. I liked what you did with the intro cut scene. While it only black white and grey (like a gameboy) and the characters were stiff the drawing was very good. My only complaint is with the use of the blur filters which take away from the pixel effect by distorting the pixels.

Audio:
Great, it was mostly a simple 8-bit operation (for music and sound effects) which fit well with the visuals. My only complaint is with that laughing music which didn't seem to fit in with the 8-bit sounds.

Animation:
Very good except for the use of filters. As said before, the blur filters seem to take away from the pixel effect.

Overall:
Excellent, but work on consistency.

supersysscvi responds:

Hm... the blur and the laughing. Well, I knew that I didn't know how to change the laugh the way I wanted to, but the blur... I didn't think the blur was an issue. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Late Valentine Sadness]

Is good, yah?

Plot:
It was short and sweet. While the disappearing lover symbolism has been thoroughly used it still seems to work.

Art:
For the most part, the art is great. You seem to be good at creating shapes and fitting them together into what you want them to be. However, the guy's left hand in the getting up animation and the top right corner of the fridge could have used some work.

Animation:
The absolute low point of this animation. While you didn't seem to rely heavily on tweens the animation was very choppy. The worst example would have to be as the guy approaches the girl. It looks like he skipped a few frames at the end of the animation. Still, it's better than if you had tweened it. The other part is how the shapes "show" as the girl disappears. This problem seems to be a common one and my only suggestion is to take a screenshot of the figure against a color-you'd-never-use background, cut it out in Photoshop (or something to that efffect) and substitute the flash figure for the picture at the end.

Audio:
The music was appropriate but may have done better if it was set to "stream" rather than "event". Sound effects may have also helped as well.

Misc:
About the "Who made this and why is it so bad?" screen: It's a really good thing that one can be self critical. Well done!

Overall:
Great visuals, poor animation. My main suggestion is to spend more time on your animation and to continue to practice your art skills.

darkmagewizard3 responds:

Okay! Wow; a pretty in-depth review considering I don't get that many. About the animation...yeah, I'm not good at all. And I obviously skipped frames due to lack of patience and time; I still wanted to put this up close to the day it's supposed to be about. Audio: There's a reason I don't talk in my stuff. I don't know how to stream. I really didn't think it was that important to have the music fit to the animation, since it wasn't a music video.

Oh, and I'm happy you like the art and that screen.

THANKS.

[Missing: Boomshakalaka]

Overall: Very good for a beginner

Art:
Decent in some places, poor in others. You did well with picking out the colors and incorporating cutouts (I like what you did with the police badge). Unfortunately your overall drawing skill needs work (look into shading). Perhaps next time you draw stick figures you should use the line-tool for the limbs and body. I say this because the gray lines making up your figures give them a segmented look and the lines on the arms are messy.

Animation:
There was little actual animation and a heavy reliance on tweens (which the expert critics usually whine about). I guess tweens are acceptable for a scrolling background or a car going in a straight line but frame-by-fame is best for say blinking eyes or a tear drop rolling down the face. The fire on the rocket should have been moving. I'd suggest at least a two-frame animation involving two slightly different drawings of the flame. My main complaint is with the rain. Not only was it poorly integrated but it froze and started a new copy when it started over.

Audio:
The sad music did very well to set the mood for this but there was no sound effects.

Misc:
The concept of this was beautiful. Making an animation to regain a lost friend (even if it's an e-friend) is a noble cause. However this was greatly diminished by the tea-bagging bit at the end (which should have brought the rating up to "T").

You should also look into preloaders and stop buttons.

Overall:
Work on your drawing and animating skills but also spend more time on your work.

UsedCarMan responds:

than you man, very informative review, much appreciated, and good news, my friend was found! :-D

[Armada - Matches]

Where's the alien?

Why didn't you show the alien tearing the green guy up? That would have made a significant difference in your rating.

Devils-Dog responds:

Because that's really difficult to do, seriously, it is. And also, it's meant to be subtle.

Maybe if I didn't show the alien in the background it would have been funnier.

[Duairt Eittle Episode 11]

Mah Boi...

Pros:
- Great ideas
- Use of sound effects
Cons:
- Art is poor (biggie)
- Cheap animation

Taking criticism just a part of being an artist. With practice you should improve, especially if you heed criticism. I know it hurts, I got real upset with the lack of success of the first flash I submitted, but that's life.

Also, by telling them (the kiddies of Newgrounds) not to say bad things about their work you're only encouraging them to do so.

VioletVulpine responds:

lol