reikiba's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nicolas Cage Wants Cake]

random and funny

You animate very well. Very nice lip sync. Too many animators on Newgrounds fudge the lip sync. Nicholas Cage does look insane when he smiles.

I wouldn't mind you making something like this again. This is the good sort of retarded. You put effort into it, and it's well-animated, and that makes a big difference in getting humor across--at least in making it interesting to watch.

[Yupokeo]

pretty good

good parody. Humor was delivered a bit too dryly. And I thought it could have been even more overdone/exaggerated. The boot and raspberry just seemed too out-of-the-blue--if they were representing something, I didn't get it. Would have been better to go with something more relevant to the shows.

[Birthday 19]

creative

Amazing for one day's work. Funny too.

[[KK]Around The Universe]

Too simple

Okay animation, but by far not as good as the animation I originally saw on Newgrounds using this song--"Get on my Horse".

You need more animation. The guys who make 10's spend months on their animations.

And it's not really a parody. A parody resembles another author's work in order to make fun of it. This doesn't seem to make fun of anything.

KovioXZ responds:

imgay ok?

[Protagonist Ep2]

it's okay

Since you're using stick figures, you need to make movement as interesting as possible. Just having the character stand there isn't a good idea. A few emotes aren't going to help much. Emotes indicate a mood, but they don't express life.

One thing you could do, though rather tedious, is draw each frame of the stick person while he's standing still. Even though the character's just standing there, all the lines in the frames that make up the stand will be subtly different, adding a more organic feel.

Another thing you can do is give him a wait animation. He'd at least lower his sword and shield while waiting, because those objects have weight--presumably. Also, you could make him look up at whoever is speaking--who I assume are animators.

Even though you're using stick figures, you can still add personality to them. Unless you add personality to your characters, you're not going to make a very interesting animation.

It'd help if you made his walk not so stiff. Even though his legs are just lines, you can bend the lines, and you can animate his walk cycle like any other walk cycle.

Do some research on traditional 2D animation. Even with stick figures, the concepts still apply.

Galdon responds:

Thanks, I'll keep those tips in mind for the next video. Been playing with the bones editor which lets the lines bend, working on improving the movement quality as I get used to controlling the interface.

He does look up at the animators when they first start talking, but after a few seconds the lava holds more interest to him than the animators do and he starts looking forward again.

[punch and kick test]

Good

I'm not really much of a stick fight fan. But as far as mechanics go, the black stickman punching the other black stickman at the very end looked more realistic. Well, the punch did, the result (the guy flying into pieces) didn't.

For the red vs blue fight, if the red guy leaned in more with each punch, it'd look like he's throwing more force in the punch. As it was, the sound effect was making his punch seem heavier than it was.

If you want to get technical, a punch is more than just throwing your arms out at someone. A strong, solid punch requires flexing muscles from your fist, down your back, down the leg and into the foot, which needs to be firmly planted--I guess you can say a good punch begins at the foot. I believe most of the power of a punch comes from the back, so your stickman's back would tilt and curve forward at least. The greater the angle from foot to fist (to a point), the greater the power.

Without the back curving, the punches look more like slow jabs to me. If they are jabs, speed them up.

During the kick, it looks like the red guy is a bit too balanced (too vertical). Adding more tilt would add to the illusion of power--and possibly add personality to the animation. With any movement, the more balanced you make the guy, the less effort he seems to be exerting.

It looks like the red guy is hitting a force field because the blue guy doesn't react at all to being hit--but, maybe he's a Hulk or actually has force fields. Don't know if it was intentional, but since he remains balanced, it looks like he exerts no effort in blocking. Not necessarily a bad thing.

But since he remains balanced during his punch, it looks like he's pulling his punch. But if he's superhumanly strong, a little effort would make a great impact.

But still, good animation.

[Affinity Wavers]

Good art

You're really good at drawing. I like your style, but your message eluded me.

[Toil Fruitlessly]

Good artwork

You draw well. Overall nice animating.

Not sure what your message is, especially considering the title. I recently saw another of your animations and couldn't tell what your message was in that one either. Work on making your message clearer.

[Jesus Who?]

Creepy

Short, but nice art. You can draw well enough. Not really sure what the message is supposed to be. It's too ambiguous.