A-Wahl's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Blown Minded]

Holy crap this is the most mesmerizing thing I've ever seen. Great job!

[Red Ronin : 24 HRC]

Totally cool

Hey- the animation and track were completely quality.

Congrats to Redharvest and RicePirate for pretty much bringing back the NG collab! You guys seem to attract NG's finest up and coming animators, and it's great to see something novel out there that's clearly sown with love. Please continue to do what you're doing.

[Morplar the Alien]

Cool

This is a pretty sweet piece of work, and it is seen that you've got some talent, and if you'd like, I'll go ahead and offer some criticism now. ;)

First off, the comedic (and you may or may have not intended for it to be funny) timing is brilliant. This is a major part of general movie making a lot of people miss out on, and I can tell you played around with your scenes before presenting. The idea is that you keep a scene lively and don't overwhelm the viewer with too many damn images to process in a short amount of time, and the way you do this is with cuts. Very amiable. Don't lose that.

But that brings me to one of my gripes with the animation: the cuts! Why do you you need to cut? Well, to be honest, the animation is stiff and tweeny. I did notice you sampled some good old fashioned FBF a couple of times, but I would dearly like to see more of it. That is the other big part of comedic timing, it's not just cuts to stimulate the brain repeatedly with different images; remember that some of the greatest animations have little to no cuts. It sounds like a daunting task to put so much attention to minute things, but if you can motivate yourself you'll have a well-rounded, complete package.

Now what is the best way to improve your animations overall, dis-regarding everything I've just said? Well, practice, practice, practice! Work on your art, FBF, and everything. If your serious about this stuff, get yourself a Wacom drawing tablet. It's especially useful if you can draw IRL.

Now I liked a lot of the perspective you had going on with geometric objects, and that was cool, but some of the background art and hand-drawn stuff seemed lifeless. Think that space scene with the ship at the beginning. You should work on developing things like that a little more.

Perhaps we've gone a little far by over-examining Moplar the Alien, but I sure hope this helps. :D

---GRAPHICS
Cool, sometimes polished, but in general a little bland.

---SOUND
You used some really great sounds here, but I noticed they had a very high-pitched static sound that played along with them. That happens a lot, and it's really just Flash being a bitch. Try playing around with the audio quality setting under Publish Settings and re-export the animation.

---PLOT
I talked about comedic timing. The animation's too short to really go into detail here.

---OVERALL
Real nice! I look forward to seeing more from you. You have a TON of potential, and don't forget it. :)

ZacDyson responds:

Thanks for the solid feedback.

I've tried playing around with wacom tablets, but I'm not quite sure how to get a really nice line using the brush tool, though i'll have to look into it.

With the sound, I had that baby pumped all the way up in quality in the publish settings - a bit annoying.

Thanks again for the feedback, i'll work on that in the future.

[Runaway Cake]

Way Cool

This a really great animation. You really did pull off the timing well, and it didn't feel like the characters were rushing to catch up with the pace of the music. I can tell you had a lot of fun with it. :D

From an artistic standpoint, it is not very impressive, but it's not really about the art, but about what one does with it, and here a lot is done. The characters are bouncing all over the place, and it makes them feel lively (to the extent that cartoons can, anyways).

To sum that I all up simply: I really enjoyed watching your animation.

---GRAPHICS
Not terribly detailed, but lively; obviously well thought out. Definitely a plus. The only fault I found with then were the colors (a bit bright for me :p). Doesn't the yellow guy look like Mr. Coo?

---PLOT
Fairly well thought. I liked it, and in typical cartoon fashion, it is greatly exaggerated. Your movie makes me feel nostalgic for the days when I would watch old cartoons on TV.

---SOUND
I won't say anything aside from the fact that the song definitely helped you achieve your goal of bringing out character movement and timing. Well I guess, the track was pretty cool, too.

---OVERALL
This is some really great animation! Good work. I really looking forward to seeing more.

You seem to understand how this animatory stuff works, friend, and that's cool.

And, again, I highly suggest milder colors next time (not dull, just more mild). :D

[Xbox Vs Ps3 Thre3]

Could use some work...

Let me start off and say that I don't mean to be demeaning in any way, to you or your movies.

In general, your Ps3-XBox-Wii movies tend to lack creativity, and this may be intentional, but in general, it seems, it is because you are not making a big effort. Your movies are composed of the three consoles, which look well enough, but the viewer is treated to nothing more than a couple minutes of them bouncing around. There is not much else to look at because there aren't any backdrops either. I understand that this and your other movies are not about the impressive visuals, but more centered around the interactions of the consoles, but the dialogue can be a bit trite.

I really think that if you spent more time on plot and animation (don't limit your self to just a few symbols to tween around, see if you can draw more positions states for the consoles) you could turn them in to something more substantial.

When thinking in terms of plot, try to get your self out of the typical, random mind-frame. I don't know what your thought processes are when you write these movies, but they come off to me as "random". Your characters can be what you want them to be, but the age of sporadic, hysterically observant and quick minded character has mostly run dry.

But keep at it! You have potential.

---GRAPHICS
Good, but you don't do much with them.

---PLOT
I can't really rate it because it seems plot devices aren't really an object.

---SOUND
The voices are okay, but they all sound like they are coming from the same person.

---OVERALL
Not very impressive, but it'll get there with work.

TheQookieMonster responds:

Thanks... lol

I write the script but these are just for fun and random and I'm just lazy to put the effort but don't worry , you havn't seen the best out of me, YET!

Also , it's very easy to judge on graphics , sound , etc but that wasn't the point. This is not suppose to be visually appealing , you should try and animate and understand what animators go through. You'll know what I mean. In my opinon your wall of text was useless and it's like your judging on my work that I ment to not put as much as effort in. Also the matter of fact that it was suppose to be constructive criticism is that I already understand these. THis is where laziness and fun animating comes in and if you don't like it well.. TOO BAD

[Flies On A Wall]

Well done

This is really a great animation, it has great sound, good graphics, and it's funny. I was really impressed; good job!

I want to see more. Keep it up!

[S13 - I Want It! Syndrome]

Really Great

You've really improved since you first started out, and that's saying a lot, because your first animation was incredible! I love the Russian; don't ever lose that! You have a knack for this animatory type business, keep at it.

The only thing I'd like to see a bit more of is FBF. Don't get me wrong, and there's nothing bad about using tweens, especially if one can wield them as masterfully as you, but you're such a great artist, and I think some more artsy love would be cool.

Can't wait to see more!

Nightwayfarer responds:

thx
i'm not ready for fbf yet, but i want to try them out more too :)

[Notice of Termination]

Totally underated.

I gave this a 5 while it was in judgment with high expectations! Wow. I though this was totally awesome. I really like the art and the animation. Simple yet effective. It boasted a cool little story and I totally did not expect what was gonna happen.

I think some people just closed the window after the beginning (which does not look all too impressive). Keep it up, I wanna see more!

DeweyGland responds:

You will. And thanks.

People should learn a little patience, you think? Maybe that's why the world is being devoured by a financial crisis come due? Could be a link between impatience and impulsivity?

Simple is good. Thanks again.

[Stickman on Nettby]

It's alright, I have suggestions.

Well, it was short and not much was going on. It was a stick guy. I hope I don't sound harsh. At least the guy was not badly animated.

If you really want to improve your animation, then you shouldn't be afraid to jump out of stick figures. Look up tutorials (there are plenty on NG) and see what you can make. If its not good at first, well that's all right. Most of all, practice. Watch other people's stuff and get inspiration. Animating is not an easy one step process, most people have to acquire a knack for it. Keep working at it.