Score: 9

"Quite interesting."

submission: To the Red Country

date: August 7, 2008

There is almost nothing that happens, but the very little that does was spectacular. I'm very interested in Red Country now. The images here, with the simple music, drew up an impressive picture of what could come from this.

I do wish there had been more, but I can not fault you for any of the things that are present in this very short piece of work.

Score: 9

"A very solid beginning."

submission: Tales of the Oak Sage ep1

date: August 7, 2008

I'll admit it right now, I'm being more generous than I normally would with the stars considering the mediocre production values because frankly, I see a hell of a lot of dedication and heart in this. I'm excited to see where you will take this.

Many people will bring up The Story of Khale and Brackenwood. Sure these are woodland fantasy tales, but honestly ignore these people drawing comparisons. They're idiots. This is clearly your own entirely unique universe with it's own mythos and such.

So now on to the technical critique; things I'd love to see you work on for the second installment.
First off, those backgrounds. It's nice to see them fully rendered as they are. Lots of detail, lighting and so forth. The problem is, they're overshadowing the characters. Never let the outlines in your background be thicker than the outlines of your characters. Rule number one right there. Also, if your outlines are going to be coloured make the contrast more subtle in the background and more apparent on the character. It will help the focus pop more and keep the viewers attention.
Second, the character animation itself. It was very static. The walking sage firstly didn't match, perspective wise, the way he crossed the environment. Try to make sure a profile view has a profile walk. Right now he was 3/4 walking completely sideways. Very odd. Secondly, try to get some more dynamic and exaggerated poses in that walk. It's nice to see those frame-by-frame legs, but why not step it up? Really get the whole body turning and moving, bouncing up and down a little even. It will add a whole new dimension of activity.
Finally, clean up that linework. The outlines on the backgrounds and that airship felt quite hasty and scribbled. Try and take the time to really sit down and clean that stuff up. A big example is the highlights on the trees. Try to make those really curve to fit the form of the tree. Right now they seem almost tacked on, and sort of distract the eye. Just make sure things don't look like they were coloured with crayon on paper I guess. You have the chance to easily clean up your work and have these professional backgrounds with software like Flash. Take advantage of that.

All in all though, a stupendous effort. I've very impressed with this and the imagery really does provoke a certain interest and investment in the future of the plot. Not alot happened, but what did really hooked me. I see alot of untapped storytelling potential waiting to erupt out of you man. I eagerly await episode 2.

Score: 8

"Hmm."

submission: Awesome Racer

date: August 7, 2008

Well first off it looked 100 times better than the Egoraptor toons. The lipsync was quite nice, especially on Spridel. Also it was much funnier than anything Egoraptor made, even just on the surface level.

Then there's the bits here and there where I could clearly see you were mocking the entire "Awesome" approach. Faux-fast obnoxious yelling. Even more obvious observations. I could feel a certain level of satire here that I'm certain many people have missed.

For this I commend you, as you have created the first ever "good" Awesome cartoon while also effectively mocking everything Awesome stands about.

Score: 9

"Pretty nice."

submission: Dining with the Devil

date: August 4, 2008

I don't get who this guy is going to propose to this chick and not know she's a cop. It's easier to hide that you're an assassin, I would think.

This was very nice too look at, though I would have preferred the linework to be much cleaner. The movements were great though. Very subtle and nice timings. I love how there was no dialogue as well.

Score: 10

"la ma aa ow"

submission: Dirty Joe

date: August 3, 2008

This was probably the funniest thing I've seen in many, many months.

Score: 10

"Delightful!"

submission: The Balloon Journey

date: August 3, 2008

This was very lovely. Simple, elegant, warm, and devoid of any attempt to make it anything other than a nice lovely movie about two friends seeking adventure. I am very happy that this was made and it clearly shows that original content can be popular as awesome if we try. Though I must admit that I do attribute some of it's success to the fact that it is anime inspired.

All the same there is but two complaints I must level, and neither of them detracted from my experience enough that I couldn't enjoy fully what was there. First, those gaudy filters. Especially for lighting highlights. I simply can't stand them, I'm sorry to say. I find it much more pleasant to simply look at some solid highlight with a little alpha than to see those filter-blurred bits. Secondly, I find the ending abrupt and not in a good and poignant way. The boy with the map shows the girl this intricate pathway, which builds for the audience the expectation that we will follow the journey, and yet in mere moments the cartoon has concluded.

All the same, this really made me day and I am so happy it is here. That crow thing was probably one of my favourite characters in a Flash ever. The music choice especially was very inspired, though it is a shame there wasn't original music written for this. Oh well, we can't be perfect!

I am eagerly awaiting your next work of art.

Score: 7

"Quite amusing."

submission: Skull-Boy: Park-in-lot

date: July 29, 2008

There wasn't a whole lob of substance to this, and the art and animation were both sloppy and bland. Still though, I cannot denied that I had a very hearty chuckle and loved this little short all the same.

That piece of Mindless Self Indulgence music has always made me shit myself laughing, and so, well they get most of the credit here because really they're the ones that made this worth watching.

The concept though of the points piling up really helped stick another little level to this, so many kudos to you as well.

Watch this people, and you will certainly laugh.

Score: 10

"I think my sides split."

submission: Slick Nick - Private Dick

date: July 29, 2008

Ok, I'll say the negative first. It was very, very sloppy and the sound editing, quality, and mixing was subpar.

Still the script, the fact that the animation was simply fantastic (very weighted and loads of frame-by-frame goodness), and the overall premise made this endlessly enjoyable. All the voice acting was perfect, despite the recording quality being fairly shit. Those backgrounds were something else. Childish and unclean though they may be, the contrast between them and the cast made the characters stand out and the focus never left them.

This is probably one of the most enjoyable things I've seen here in a long time.

Score: 8

"Well I love Porcupine Tree."

submission: Fate and a Full Moon

date: July 29, 2008

I'm glad I found another fan. The song really suited this piece, and Lazarus has always ranked amongst some of the most beautiful music I've heard.

I really appreciated the unique and somber approach here. It was a very well directed short, for the most part, and a lot of the design concepts appealed to me.

Still, there were some major flaws that really stood out and detracted from me being totally immersed. For one, some of that animation was very obviously rotoscoped, and it was extremely wobbly and thus conflicted a great deal with the very solid weighty backgrounds. Another thing was the meeting of the two at the train station. While I loved the concept of the effects, the whole scene fell very flat. The music began to swell and nearly cried out of action and movement, but all that happened was a very static hug. I would have loved to see something more there, because I just didn't get that emotional resonance I felt you were going for. Finally, those human drawings all seemed to really push for realism. The proportions were wide set and rounded, without a huge stylistic influence in the anatomy, but the faces were exceedingly bland, which was another factor I found highly distracting.

Those flaws still though simply couldn't outweigh how well paced this was. I think above all else, minus the aforementioned hug scene, this movie moved with a near perfect rhythm. Also some of those shots, particularly the bird's eye of the train moving across the country-side, were breathtaking.

I would very easily recommend this to anyone looking for something more than a cheap thrill and instant gratification.

Score: 3

"The voices."

submission: Welcome To Jokergrounds

date: July 23, 2008

Those voices were spot on. I loved them. Sadly they were the only thing I liked.

The lipsync didn't match the dialogue at all, the drawings were really strangely formed and very stiff, the animation was a sequences of tweens mving the characters in ways that hardly had no context.

Here are some exercises to improve that sort of animation blunder. Have someone tape you having a conversation, then study your body language. Your movements should emphasize the things you say. You characters im this just looked like they were moving for the sake of moving, which is an annoyance to watch.

The entire script didn't interest me either. I'm one of the biggest Batman fans you're going to find, and I especially love Harley and the Joker, but their presence is no excuse for poor writing. While I found the dialogue itself authentic to the characters and comics, as more the animated show from the 90s, it did nothing to help the story in a unique way. It felt very pedestrian.

All in all, I ended up pretty bored. If I was judging this based solely on how you presented the Joker you'd have a 15 out of 10, but as an entire cartoon, it was sorely lacking.