Hoogiman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Toasty Nothing Short]

Not bad

Your drawing style is pretty good and it's very good for a first effort. Just a couple of things. If you stream audio (although it decreases the quality slightly), the filesize will go down a lot. This could've been 700 KB tops I reckon.

Some of the audio wasn't too clear. I had to watch it a couple of times to figure out the 'I lo-ved you Newgrounds' bit... but I mean it's a test (essentially right?!), subtitles maybe or extra clarity if you go to do an extra project?

I liked the extending arm bit with the arms with the 'nooooo'. Basically, I liked the visuals, but I didn't give it more than 5 was the content itself. The audio wasn't a bit clear, there wasn't much of a narrative (obviously) and the over 9000 thing was cliched. The blam joke was good though. It certainly won't get blammed and it's better than about 80-95 percent of the firsties you see on the site.

My suggestion: you've got a decent groundwork. Think of some idea, some animation you can conceptualize, get it down on paper, animate away and then entertain! Let's see some more from you. wheee

itsKris responds:

It was set on stream, but I changed the compression to raw cause it sounded like crap if it wasn't D: I'll have to work on that.
Thanks for the suggestions and hopefully I can work up an awesome flash to entertain better :)

[SFTCS Part 1]

not bad

Overall it wasn't bad... firstly I'd like to congratulate you on producing a six minute flash... getting something out of that length is pretty hard, and the time and effort put in is a great virtue, so well done.

The animation was overall good: the drawings are quite good, but I feel like maybe there were too many tweens and a couple of bits of animation that could be improved. When master chief turns his head in the snow at that one bit, his head turns, but nothing else. The throwing animation (of the shoe, i think?!) didn't seem a bit natural and those little things can be tweaked.

I'm no expert, mainly because I'm a lazy animator, but maybe bits of frame by frame or at least a couple of in-between keyframes to guide direction will help the fluidity of the animation. I'm disappointed that Mario didn't have a lip sync and although the moustache thing is okay, I think lip sync or mouth movement would enhance the animation a bit. More careful bits of smooth animation, I reckon.

The main area of the flash that could be improved is probably the story and the gags themselves. There were amusing ideas in there: the violent Master Chief placing Peach in hospital, the RPG-style battle, but there didn't seem to be much flow to the direction of the narrative, or at least in terms of delivering the goods (the gags). Maybe some of the references are too obscure and seem a tiny bit out of place, the grues and memoirs of a geisha are subtle but don't seem quite right in their delivery.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like the flash didn't have a script from the start for the whole six minutes. If there wasn't, then make sure it's scripted out. If you did have a script, (I'm starting to do this) if you're going for a humorous flash of such a long length, rewrite, rewrite, recheck and rewrite again. Make sure you can visualise all of the gags in your head and make sure they come at a fast rate. Some parts of the script dragged on in areas, maybe because of the script itself, maybe because of the delivery/execution. Perhaps some of the dialogue could have been delivered quicker or in a snappier way.

The visual gag with the button was too quick, whilst the RPG gag seemed to be out of place. The bit about Santa didn't really seem to get resolved, or the narrative at the end didn't seem clear enough for me to understand. I think the big problem is that there's a lot of dialogue that could be made snappier, and it just feels like it drags a bit.

The dialogue itself could have more energy into it. Mario's voice is one of those ones that just has to be right. It's not a horrible voice for Mario, but it just doesn't seem to quite fit, and Mario's voice is very distinguishable.

I think the narrative is just a bit too disjointed and jumps around to unrelated things a bit too much to let the viewer become comfortable with watching this. There's just something lacking in the content, technically it's quite good.

Just keep on striving to get better, improve and improve and you'll be on yer way.

MonkeyNuke responds:

Yeah, i understand everything you are saying.
This is a remake of a flash i made with my friend several years ago, so its destined not to be great in story terms.
And i know some of the animation is awful :/
But I like it, I made it for me so i can have a peice of flash on the internet that everytime i watch i don't hate.
Also in terms of the audio Yeah i know, the thing is my dad sold the audio recording equipment we owned and there really wasnt time to re-record in any other way.
I would have got other voice actors but they often charge - or completely ignored my requests!

[I love the HALO World]

Well...

It was decent, but I can't say I overly enjoyed watching this animation. It caters to a certain audience, but I feel this animation could have been enjoyed more in some aspects.

The art style consists of firstly, sprites that you did not draw, and jpg's from the game as background images that you used the trace functions on. Firstly, correct me if I'm wrong but I'm reasonably certain Halo is not a game with 8-bit graphics, and I think I would appreciate more of the heart the animator put into this work if you attempted to draw the Halo guys, just like some other great Halo parodies on NG. Halo is a game of 3d graphics and the art style I feel doesn't really suit it. TRUE 'hard work' would be put in if you attempted to capture the aesthetic beauty of the halo models in the game. Using sprites for a game that (I'm pretty sure) does not have sprites feels like a shortcut, and original graphics would give you an individual voice or style in your animation.

Correct me if you disagree, but conceptually, the beauty in animation that I see is the soul of the author literally being poured into the drawings behind the work. I feel here there is basically only tweening, well-tweened in most areas, but I was baffled when in the line 'I love egyptian kings' the mouth looked a bit dodgy and the tweening in the rave party looked robotic.

Also, these 'bit' style characters seem completely out of place with the 3D rendering of the backgrounds... I'd suggest making 'bit'-style Halo backgrounds to fit the characters or hand-draw the dudes to fit the background a bit more.

I wish you could have drawn a lot more of this animation to capture an individual style, because with the same style of tracing and the same sprite sheet anyone could make a similar animation and you would not be able to distinguish any real original 'flair' or individuality here. Flash animation is about bringing things to life, but after watching what really is non-original graphics, tweens and traced backgrounds, I can't be too impressed with the visual aspects of the piece. You said you worked hard, but try pouring your heart and soul into an animation, try drawing everything.

Those aspects actually make me feel like the animation in this piece are minimal: only heads dodge, no lips need to move for the lip sync (this is the game of course), walking seems to be interchanging a couple of sprites and tweening quickly... it doesn't feel like Halo, and it would feel like Halo if you drew the guys yourself in a 2D style, made your own backgrounds... a cartoony Halo but something that fits the bill of what flash animation. Here, what we have feels never quite fitting and a bit out of place.

Did I feel entertained? I'm not too familiar with the song, but I would be a lot more entertained if I didn't have to look at some of the aspects I pointed out which don't quite give a very natural flow to the animation.

On the plus side, the use of special effects and sound effects were good. It's not a bad sprite movie, but I think the score compared to the 'greats' is almost insulting... is the animation magical and pleasing to the eye? Does it convey the complex emotions of the human condition? Or for humorous ones, is it well animated? Does it have a cartoon-like feel to emphasise the humour? Is the animator's ability used to the fullest capacity to convey the plot or elements of the narrative? Not really in this one minute video.

Is the beauty of the 'Halo World' captured in this video? I don't really think it can be with traced images and sprites, which feel out of place.

Greenfrost6 responds:

Probably the best review I've ever had. (no sarcasm)

Cheers mate. :)

[MetroidPrimeCatastrophe 2]

s'aite

Let me just comment that the animation was quite good and your drawings seemed appropriate to the... theme of Metroid.

However, I felt it was the combination of the dialogue with the voices that let this flash down. Yes, the voices of most of the actors were okay... you just didn't utilise them properly.

There was just too many awkward pauses and phrases that were delivered in the wrong tone that made the jokes... just not work. Samus's voice was really... unfitting, her voice was just a bit too whiny for my liking...

The key is to direct your actors: you can make your voice deliver their lines in a bit more of a conversation-like manner, and don't be afraid to ask to redo lines. Because in a heavy dialogue-based flash like this, voices are the difference between the jokes working and not working, and unfortunately for me... they didn't really work...

However, you should fix up the writing a tad too. Make the jokes snappier, none of this 'mommy' stuff and just put in more jokes... that way if some don't work the constant barrage of gags will probably make a viewer like me laugh, even if I hate some of the gags.

This with the combination of some refined/better voice acting will be the combination for a really good flash! Good luck! (Ask for clarification if you need)

Shadowii2 responds:

I see your point here and I appreciate it, but as I am an amateur animator and I'm not paid for doing stuff I don't really concentrate that much to how the voicing sounds in the movie in general, although I know I should care a little more here.

If I would ever be payed for creating a flash shortie, I would surely take a lot of attention to the voicing that the customer(s) wouldn't be disapointed.

And for the jokes I can say, my taste of humor is quite immature when compared to the jokes people aged around as old as me do, so it depends on the viewer does he/she like it or not.

Anyway, thanks for the opinions and review.

[Spooky Scary Skeletons]

Hurrah!

Zekey you've done it again! Well done on this lovely swell thing of goodness!

And the skeletons were... very scary... and skeleton-like...

ZekeySpaceyLizard responds:

WIG AR LEE TUFF???

[Jay Short # 1!]

Pretty Swell

A cute little movie there, a nice innocent style of what more flash movies should be like. However, I thought the text at the end was a bit unnecessary, but I found it to be quite fun and enjoyable! Make more flash and what not! Graphics were decent, music was good and style was also good. :)

TheCriminalDuder responds:

Thanks I enjoyed the compliments but compared to my other work this isn't all that good. However I'll admit that this has more FBF then my other work tends to have.

[Joey's Bright Idea]

Hurrah :)

What a tabletopian tabletop of tabolic goodness!

Swell and humorous!

ZekeySpaceyLizard responds:

hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooogiman

[Jack Vs. Jack]

Relatively entertaining

Quite enjoyable and funny, but I think you should have spent a bit more time fbfing, the animation was a tad too jerky and used too many tweens. Lots of points for concept, I haven't seen anything original like this. Good job, but it could have been really good with that extra effort.

danomano65 responds:

it's the style i was going for. like an old cartoon where the characters look like cardboard cut outs and they change to represent movement.
people just don't get it.

[N00bKebob #26]

...

A good job!

King: A cute little cartoon! Nice voice acting as usual, as well as great graphics!

Vein: That was... random?

TheSoulMan: Entertaining, some funny things as well as some very awkward and strange things in there.

DarkSoldier: Funny idea, but perhaps you could have spent a bit more time on the graphics.

Queen: Very strange and abstract... I loved the graphical style though. I really wish I could draw like that.

Rena: Oookay...

Craig: Funny and good graphically and what not and stuff. Nice use of the screams.

Shinoobeh: A nice old-skool like kebob. Funny ending, but the first scene showing the plane was too long.

Some of the parts were a bit... ey... but well done to the pplz with good parts.

N00bNation responds:

We do our best :)