Tyler's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The humans are dead. +]

Nice attempt here, keep working and you'll improve.

The song, which of course wasn't yours, was the only thing that drove the piece. The animation was pretty static and boring at times, but all things considered it was pretty decent.

Steinberg responds:

Yeah, you're right, I'll keep working! ^^
Thanks!

[The Telescope]

Good stuff

I really enjoyed this, the colors, the music and the design were all wonderful- it felt very surreal. The story seemed a little too long and was drawn out toward the end, though.

Also, did I see a ZekeyspaceLizard cameo when he first looked through the telescope?

Gerkinman responds:

Yeah, me and Zekey cameo in each others work quite frequently.

[EVolution-abduction ep1]

Not bad

I can see you put a decent amount of effort in this, from the drawings to the attempts at humor and the conversations between the characters. Overall, I think it was pretty decent animation; not bad, but not great however.

To begin, let us start with the story and dialogue. The alien abduction scenario at the beginning was cliché- so many movies and cartoons start with that sequence or something similar. It didn't keep my attention and I found it uninteresting. You could have possibly done more to make it interesting- perhaps introduced the abduction in a different way rather than a flying saucer - pretty generic. (I don't know if I can say that this was justified at the end of the film since the animation made it evident that it was a time machine rather than a flying saucer- but I suppose that makes it more of an acceptable, albeit boring, introduction). The dialogue at the beginning was laughably stale: "Yeah, okay. Uh huh yeah yeah okay so so yeah so yeah..." "Alright cool", followed up by "Dammit that was my car." This boring dialogue just made your character so uninteresting. This in not excusable as you have a character driven plot and the boy had no depth or anything interesting qualities about him. The medieval girl was more interesting as you showed the viewers exactly what life was like for her, how she had to be cautious and worried about eating a turnip- that gets viewers involved and connected with the character. The final character was moderately developed, you made his personality show through with his dry, unchanging tone. The conversation the boy and the alien had though was not successful; you were relying too heavily on repetition of an unfunny back and forth joke/conversation between the two characters. All in all, for an animation focused more on story and dialogue to reach an incredibly unsuccessful punchline, this was only passable. Not bad, but definitely not good.

In terms of art and animation, this animation was lacking in strong drawings and decent movement. From the beginning, it was evident you made the decision to puppet and tween the majority of the animation in your movie. Since you omitted the actual frame by frame animation to help portray any character emotion, it would be assumed you put actual more effort into the fluidity of the tweening. However, the motion-tweening was minimal, non-fluid and incredibly boring to watch. It might have been improved if you spent more time on the art, which was very lackluster and looked like minimal effort was put into drawing. Having stronger drawings and form would have made the tweening more successful but you chose not to do that. Also gradients are hideous, the title screen was not not fun to look at at all. Avoid using gradients or be more subtle with them.

Lastly, I would like to touch on the point of controversial subject matter. Animation is as much of an expression of art as any other medium (which often seems to be overlooked). I value that you decided to portray your beliefs of evolution over creationism. Actually I'm proud of you for standing up for your thoughts, however keep in mind to be discreet with your opinions judging others. I know it's popular on the internet where the majority of people bash religion and creationism but keep in mind these are all theories - both evolution and creationism and the nature of the universe is still uncertain. It kind of pains me and I find it embarrassing in some of your comments how you attack these people. I personally believe in evolution as well, but this is just a theory and a philosophy, as is religion. We are no more right than creationists are, neither theory can be completely proven - that is why it's a theory.

Anyway, I apologize for the wall of text but I haven't given a thorough review in a while. Hopefully my review can help you. Good luck with the rest of your series :)

vezanmatics responds:

wow, thanks so much for the constructive criticism! i was actually hoping someone would tell me in depth what i can improve on rather than the usual "it was awesome lolmao XP (quotes)". seriously, i want to optimize this series.

oh and just a heads up, this series is going to feature plenty of very controversial content, so yeah. it's been the master plan all along. it's a satire. i plan on hitting on other subject matters (besides religion), primarily human nature and man's use of technology.

[Madness Confliction]

very nice

I loved this bit a lot. First off, the animation was pretty good. You're stuff is getting much much smoother. I also really enjoyed the lightning and smoke effects. The action was great, as always.

I also liked the use of texture and color, none of it was overbearing and it created a nice mood. I really don't have anything negative to say about it; I loved it! The end art was pretty and I liked your choices for music.

Great job!

Hulalaoo responds:

i wanna a 10 >:c

[All Aboard the Pain Train]

good stuff you got going on

You've got a really good thing going on in terms of graphics and content. The designs of the characters are cool/cute and the color palette is really nice; your line work is pretty nifty looking too. The facial transitions were seamlessly done and looked cool, so good job there!

The movement of everything isn't bad, I just feel the timing of everything could use work. Of course, unless it was a stylistic choice, some of the movement felt weird: when the one boy was swinging the bat it came down so slow and unrealistically. Other places timing could be improved are when the skeleton grabs the boy. The two times the boy is tossed (once in the train and once through the door) are tweened and done so very slowly and its creates kind of an 'I rushed this' impression. But nothing so significant it distracts from the piece as a whole, so bravo!

I really liked the ending too, it was pretty funny. Anyway good job and hopefully you got something out of my criticisms/compliments. :)

DarkShadow8181 responds:

haha. I did rush most of it. Thanks for the kind review.

[Leo & Satan II]

Incredible

This is a really impressive movie; the animation, art and comedy were all incredibly well done!

The intro where satan emerges from hell was beautifully drawn and animated; I feel like your art has improved so much. The comedy was top notch like usual, but I think you've even pushed it further since last time; I found this second episode a lot more comical than the first. Great stuff all around.

Your work has come a long way, keep it up!

Oney responds:

gee mister i'll try even better next time :D

[Edwin Ep03]

that was pretty good!

I enjoyed this short a great deal, and it has a lot going for it.

The voice acting is top notch, and the sound effects are well used too. I like the little things you did too, the camera composition and panning worked well. You did a good job with making your story interesting and kept my attention! Additionally, the designs of the characters and simplicity of everything was very well done.

My only gripe is that I really think the background textures are overdone. In my opinion, in some of the scenes it isn't necessary to have the textures on there so heavily; in a few scenes the strong textures hurt to look at. I think they sometimes distract the attention away from the animation/content.

But all in all, good job! I'm looking forward to more!

Kieran-s responds:

Thanks, I overdid the textures at the first scene because it was a dream sequence. That and the art was pretty bad so I played with knocking it up a notch to make it look better. But yeah, your right.

[HappyStep]

it was alright

its okay for what it is. I do like the designs
of the sun, clouds, rabbits, candy canes, etc.
those were nicely done.

My main problem with the character animation is that
the run cycle is awkwardly done
and skips a frame when it loops.

the music ends way before the movie does, which
kinda makes it boring at the end.

but for your first, its decent. practice up
and I bet you'll be making good stuff
in time. :)

YouriX responds:

Thanks! I will surley learn from my mistakes on this flash! thanks!

[Now or Never]

Fantastic!

The thing that stood out here among the rest is your graphical style. I am really
impressed by the pixelated style pulled of so well. Additionally, the color palette choice, highlights and shades were all top notch. I also noticed a lot of vibrating color schemes, which made it stand out more. Lastly regarding graphics, your designs were very well executed.

I like the imagery and placement of things in your movie - such as the windmill, the lights, and earth and stuff. The backgrounds were also drawn nicely.

This is all very visually pleasing, but the only thing that pulls away from it is the concept or story behind the whole thing. I don't feel like I understand what relation the song has to the movie, as well as I don't think the elements were universal enough to understand what it was about without being able to speak the language the song was in (which was japanese or something right?). But, your summary below the movie clears everything up, so all is well.

Regardless, I really like this, so I am giving you a 9. Good work!

Can't wait to see more stuff from you :) :)

Rokkan-Saturn responds:

Thanks a lot c: