dirtshake's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Zimmi EP 1]

Story good, animation lacking

The story and music were pretty good in this animation. It felt like one of those cutesy fairy tale type of things but with a more mature twist on it. I don't know how to describe it but I did indeed like it.

The artwork was alright as well. It fit the tone of the story and it was very colorful and fun to look at. As stand-alone art it was pretty good. However when you tried to mix it with the simplistic animation it brought everything down. I realize more of the focus was on the story in this movie, but that doesn't mean the animation had to be as simple as it was. If you plan on making more of these I would put more animation into it. It doesn't have to be the greatest animation, but more of it would really enhance the stories you want to tell.

Overall a nice story with animation that left much to be desired.
3/5

Rutger responds:

Alrighty then. I'm gonna add more animation in the next episode, it's already written...
Thanks!

[Skull in Connemara]

Spectacular Work!

This was a very different animation than most of the content on Newgrounds, particularly because it was focused more on creating a mood than actual art or animation. However, as you've proven, this is not always a bad thing. It can actually turn out quite nicely.

Lets get this out of the way first: art and animation. The art was very simple but it was very good as well. The contrasting and always "confused" black and white lines helped create a dark and dramatic mood that fit within the theme of this movie. It wasn't the most beautiful thing to look at, but it worked for what this movie was trying to accomplish. The animation was extremely simple and very choppy, usually a bad thing. However, just with the art it worked well for the tone of the movie. So overall, art and animation were not this movie's strong points.

The strong points of this movie were everything else. The music and the way the scenes were portrayed helped create the dark and dramatic tone you were going for, which worked out fantastically. The music in particular was my favorite aspect of this movie. You managed to match the music and the scenes very nicely together. For some reason, the music reminded me of the original Batman movie, but that's not a bad thing is it? :)

Overall this was an amazingly well done movie. I think it would work as a good advertisement to your friends play.

5/5 9/10

TheBoogley responds:

thanks for the detailed review, I was showing this to a friend of mine the other day and he said he was expecting Batman to appear and save the day. :)

[Metal Slug Wars]

Meh...alright I guess

This was a sprite movie, so I wasn't expecting much from it in terms of originality or quality, but you did do some things right so I'll focus more on those than the lack of originality.

Your "camera" work and timing was the best part of this movie. You usually timed the music and the action so they went together, which gave a little drama to an otherwise bland cookie-cutter action sprite flick. The camera work made some parts feel like a live action movie. Good work on that.

If you continue to make these, which I'm sure you will, work on originality. If you're not going to use your own artwork than please use better writing. The "supersoldiers break into main base" storyline is overdone so give us something better. If you do happen to continue this storyline than give it some added writing and storyline flair. It might keep people's attention better than this generic movie.

[Lick.]

Very simple, but not bad

This movie was very simple in every way, but for a project that's not a bad thing. The simplicity of the artwork and animation worked well for the movie as well.

The artwork was straightforward and clean, which gave the movie a good feeling to it. Things were brightly colored for the most part and it helped the theme of the movie. The animation was also very clean so visually, the movie was nothing bad to look at.

The problem for me came in the simplicity. Simple artwork and animation works for school projects but for future works I would not rely on this strategy. The simple artwork can stay but make the animation come alive. This movie relied a lot on slow tweens which get old after a while. In the future make them faster and more varied, and maybe throw some frame by frame in there. Throw anything in that can keep an audience on their toes. It makes the experience more enjoyable.

Also, you should make sure you fill up the entirety of the stage when animating. During the scenes where the eye was tripping out there were white bars above and below the face. Small things such as that can ruin the flow of any animation and they are extremely simple to fix. Just a tip for you.

Overall I enjoyed the movie. I wish the ending was more than a looping collection of movie clips, but like I said, simple is great for school projects. Good luck in future works.

[no tweens]

You get the idea.

You get how to animate using frame by frame. All you need to do is practice practice practice. Frame by frame is difficult and tedious work but is exponentially more rewarding than tweening.

I would also recommend improving your drawing skills. Animating your own artwork is an amazing feeling once you're finished working.

Make the sprite movies for now, I won't knock you for doing something you enjoy. Just keep up the practice making your own artwork move.

Karttibone responds:

Thx for your useful review. Such things really help. I'm glad there are some reasonable honest people out there.

[Space tumor]

Very nice...Awesome animation

This is a very nice animation. The quality of your work obviously shows you spent a lot of time on it. Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you to make this? It's very good.

The artwork is what impressed me the most. Everything was simple and smooth which gave it a very innocent look despite the movie's serious theme and lesson. This contrast actually made it very nice to watch. I don't know if you meant to do this, or if it's simply you're style, but nice. I loved the way you colored and shaded everything. Very similar to what I do, and it creates a nice depth to the movie.

The animation was great as well. The excessive tweening turned me off in the beginning, but the frame-by-frame during the soccer game was great. You've already proven you can animate beautifully by tweening, so now show us what you can do with frame by frame. This small taste you have just given us shows me that you have the skill and patience to make something great with it.

The music was awesome as well. Very emotional and fitting for this type of movie. The sound effects were great as well. One thing to work on though, is the timing of sound effects with the animation, specifically the walking clips. The step sound didn't quite match up with the animation.

Overall this was a fantastic movie!!! Great job and I can't wait to see more from you. Keep up the damn good work.

[Roller Coaster Junkie]

VERY NICE!!!

Nice job on this movie. The artwork and animation was great and went perfectly with the song.

The art work was very simple and cartoonish but was very stylish to look at. I liked the difference between the drawings of the kid and the coaster. The kid looked more freehand while the background, such as the coaster, was more defined and solid. It added a nice effect to the movie. The coloring scheme was also well done. Very bright and vivid, many times reflecting the mood of the junkie.

The animation was amazing as well. Everything was smooth and connected and everything flowed naturally. Great job here.

Once again, awesome movie. Keep up the great work!

[J-Kellz - Epidemic]

Sweet

Awesome stuff YoinK.

The artwork and coloring scheme gave your animation a nice cartoonish look to it and made it nice to look at in moments of stillness.

The animation was a nice blend of tweens and fbf, which I liked being biased towards fbf. When used the tweens were nicely done but your movie shined during moments when you used fbf. The animation was very smooth and very nice to watch. I'd say keep up the frame by frame work. You're good at it and it pays off big time in the end.

Nice choice of audio as well.

Sweet movie YoinK. Hope to see more of your solo stuff in the future.

[Samuel and Rosella]

Not bad..but sooo simple

This wasn't a bad music video. Not at all. The artwork was fine and everything fit with the music, but it was just too simple.

Im a bit biased towards fbf, which your movie had none of, but I'll try to be fair.

The tweening you put in was smooth and wasn't awkward, but it was so limiting for your movie. If you put in more fbf I think you would have been able to more freely express what this movie could have been. Though props on the smooth tweening.

Overall not a bad movie. A definite pass, but practice up those frame by frame skills. It can really help you be more expressive.

chesster415 responds:

Thanks, it was a lot easier to do it tweened, but the lipsyncing was fbf. I'm really more into programming games.