Galneda's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dooumb]

Rotoscoping beauty! The animation was really whacky and enjoyable, it was a fun little romp. Keep the roroscoping practice up, because your style blended PERFECTLY with the model actors. I'd love to see what you're capable of with a project that has solid writing. Not to denounce the enjoyability of this short animation, it was indeed very simple...that was it's purpose and it fulfilled it greatly, I'm just saying it's a little lacking in content. Focus more on that content in the future so you're progressively improving, and we'll all have a five waiting; this thing got our attention! Five'd and Adding you.

Saminat responds:

Thanks! Don't worry though, my writing skills are getting better and better, and you shall have your 5 quality content soon!

[The Emperor's Pilot v2]

There's much I like about the song.

The idea behind the song and what you were going for is awesome, and I liked it's structure a lot.

Mattresses or closets work significantly better for soundproofing on a budget, though I only noticed background noises right after the solo...of which, could use some tightening up, and the solo itself ended with, err, little finesse.

There also must've been something slightly off with the timing as you layered the different takes, because there's this weird staggard effect going on through MOST of the song. Where a split second after one strum, there's instantly another, so there's this weird copy-cat echo effect going on...it would overall SEEM much stronger if it was one punchy note...though I can empathize that would be difficult to do because of the song's tempo, it's what NEEDS to be done for the song to be better.

It needs bass. TASTEFUL bass, that's supporting the guitars, not mimicking them.

It needs drums. GREAT drums. None of that auto-tempo, machine drum crap either...somebody who knows what they're doing, or at least faking it enough to sound great...like In Flame's drummer, just doing the bare minimum of heavy (lol)

I guess it would need vocals, but not death metal growling/pig-squeeling/incoherent bullshit...it needs something powerful, with lyrics that tell the story of the fearless, dedicated pilot, honor bound to guide his machine to victory beyond death, devoted to his leader. If I were more confident in my singing ability, I would totally audition.

It's also in my firm opinion that the song needs to start off smoother...with class...KEEP the segment in the beginning as it's building, but start it off slower, with class...your music is telling a story. He's not launching in any particular hurry off of those wood-decked aircraft carriers...he has thoughts of his family back home...the serene beauty of Japan...the looming threat of American invasion onto that beauty...and DESPITE the fear, DESPITE the possibility of a fiery death, screaming through the skies in air overwhelmed with flak and bullets, he'll do what he needs to do...maybe, this one last time. Starting it off with beauty and grace would make this segment you have here MUCH, much more powerful.

Lastly, as I listen to this again, clean up and work on that solo. Make sure you don't have too much going on, and don't be afraid to sloooowww dowwwwnn the supportive riffs behind the solo, so it's not "JUNJUNNAJUNJUNNAJUNJUNJ-J-JUN" CONSTANTLY in the background. Break it up! Think of the emotions behind it. :D

Visually, we got nothing, and that admittedly hurt it's score. What saved it, actually, is moreso the song's potential. I think you're onto something here...it's just an early draft of something greater to come.

Fived to Save, you must perfect this!

RPRMT0054611 responds:

i'm copying and pasting your comment on my notebook. haha! your intro idea has much weight; i like it.

[Purged]

Gushing with Character

For starters, I was blown away by the dramatic interpretation of the Newgrounds logo. That looks fantastic!

Hania once again proves to be a brilliant composer. She's improved since Tarboy, and she effectively contributed providing a wonderful atmosphere to this animation. (reads author comments) ...Err...well, me personally, I like this soundtrack better :P

The overall texture, atmosphere of the entire animation was most appealing. It was very broody, but it looked great doing it. However, it was SO broody, and so focused on the visuals that it left something to be desired in the content...

From the very beginning we're trying to understand what's going on. I have no problem with there being no dialogue, as long as what's happening is clear. Here, we don't know the significance of him turning down food, or what the apple is supposed to represent. We don't know who these three Mummy Witches are, and we don't know why he got shot out of an earthbound cannon. Nothing is clear. We don't know what this character did to deserve this, we don't know what his conflict is other than trying to get this unexplained, unestablished ring off his neck, and we don't know what he's walking towards. We don't know who or what or why he was snatched back up into the heavens, and I'm simply left to just throw my hands up and say "Whatever. It looked better than anything I could ever draw. Five!"

Where is the story? It certainly looked beautiful, but why are these things happening to....who are these people again? Where or...huh? BEAUTIFUL, yes...phenomenal animation set to phenomenal music, without a doubt.....but....What?

I don't mind that there's no dialogue, it doesn't need it. This is art in itself, and it's done to the specifications of what you were emoting THROUGH your art. At that level, it's wonderful. But at another level, there's a lot to be desired through this because I want to see where it could go. If you're not going to use any voices, grunts and cry-overs could still be welcome...even for dramatic breaths, or struggling against the pull from the sky.

The menu has smooth transitions all throughout. The music uninterrupted in the background is an underappreciated blessing (friggin' DVD's with a buttload of funding don't even have that) and the menu loop looks and sounds wonderful and mystical. Actually, that would be a pretty good word to describe the project...it's very mystical and unearthly.

It's mystical how SMOOTH some of the face animations were. You would be doing me a huge service by at least pointing out what software you used for those morphing head turns, as I'm about to take After Effects over the summer semester. (Hell, I still have to even mess around with Premier. I have so much to learn.)

You're a master at your craft, clearly. I always look forward to hearing when you got something new coming up, in fact I came from your news blog posted on the front page. Keep up the great work! This was a very juicy, very artistic and creative demonstration of your abilities, as well as Hania's ability to accentuate on an atmosphere. Once again, while I don't mind the lack of dialogue, the lack of clarity in the story is what keeps it from getting a 10. Everything else is top-notch, as far as I'm concerned.

Great job! And if you could answer my feeble software questions, you'd be a much appreciated hero. :D

JamesLee responds:

Thanks for your in depth review! The morphing effects were created in After Effects, though early on I was experimenting with a software called Fantamorph, which worked quite well with similar results. :)

[Pelican!? - Home life]

lmfao!

These Pelican!? shorts get better and better after each one. It'll be interesting to see how the hell that bird is going to top this.

I like how they both turned, acknowledged him, and the little bastard went in for one last hump before high-tailing it! You drew her out to be pretty hot looking, his expression at the end was priceless. Though I suppose it was an intentional part of his character design, my eye was drawn/distracted towards that bit of hair that moves as he blinks.

It makes me wonder who's blood that belonged to at the end...but, eh, fuckit...the bird's a bastard. Loved this! Voted 5.

Neo-uk responds:

Glad you liked it, matey. I have so many half-finished ones and this was one of them I decided to finish now that I have nothing else to do.

Thanks for the review!!

[C. Crashing Corn Boss]

Aww, I loved the ending drawing. :3

You're definitely improving! It's hard not to notice your animations; you're almost becoming a regularly featured animator on the front page.

Immediately the first thing I noticed was the improved shading. When that first knight walked out from the corn field to signal the others to follow, it looked incredible. The fight scene was engaging, though you could tell you weren't too caring of the superb shading and lighting effects on our heroes as you were in the beginning. It's understandable; after every intense frame-by-frame scene I do, you can notice the dip in time spent on the animation immediately after it...lol, so it's a common problem, if you were fretting about it, don't.

Congratulations on your first Weekly award! I think 2011 might be a prosperous year for you as a learning animator! :D Don't be afraid to experiment a little more in your future animations...you can't reach new boundaries until you push yourself into them, or just dive into it.

The sound effects were well chosen, I especially liked the sturdy "clank" after the Red Knight dropped his weapon from the first hit. Using traditional CC music has always been a good call.

I remember the corn boss being a pain in the ass to fight, I can't wait to see what boss you cover next! Again, experiment! You've got amazing potential, and it's already evident you've come a long way, so keep up the good work and keep pushing yourself!

Voted 5!

alfa995 responds:

Thank you so much for the review! I hope I can get my first daily 1st award next year, I'll put much more effort in my next C. Crashing flash (I made a news post about it, if you want to see it), I still have lots to learn, but I'm sure I will achieve a lot if I work hard :)
(Congratulations for your first weekly award on Repercussions of Evil, I watched it a few days ago and I really liked it)

[Yule of Krills]

I have a very serious question!

First off, I've always been a fan of your colorful, smoothly animated, creatively DARK style. Love this shit, love you, I get excited whenever I see anything "Catoble" up.

This is no exception! If anything, I'm noticing more complex things thrown into the mix, which is why I gotta ask.

How do you get the animation to continue going within the restrictions of the thought bubble as it condenses? Like, the Dad is drifting back, and the thought bubble forms OVER him, while the animation continues within the thought bubble. Same thing as the bubble focuses over the Dad's head being axed in the other thought bubble. Is that a masking property? Your Christmas Present to me would be taking a few minutes out of your time to enlighten me :D

I love watching how you make their mouths move. Like I said or implied, I always enjoy your style. Keep up the great work! Voted 5!

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011 to you! :D

Catoblepas responds:

Second most oldest trick in da book. It's just a moving, bubble shaped hole in the bg wall.

[Shower Products for Men]

lol! Hilarious!

It's great you even have a scene select in this! It was all around very funny and entertaining. Yeah, yeah, a little Power-thirsty, but completely it's own parody. Sometimes I feel like some of those hygene products advertisements aren't too far off from the truth ever since Old Spice started doing their absurdly ridiculously hardcore advertisements...hell, if Idiocracy is any indication, we may very well see stuff as hardcore as the "Shower Hammer" or "Badass Aromas" in store! (no offense to you, of course)

All it needs is a soundtrack. Hit up the Audio Portal and throw in some music into this, because that's all it really needs! I laughed out loud at a couple of the visual and dialogue gags, including, but not limited to the facial expressions and the idea of getting shaved by a space-ship/razor with jetpacks. The pace started waning out around the Genie Soap skit...what I mean by that is by the time it got to the Genie Soap, you're just kinda like "Eh...come on." ...like, I don't know how else to explain it, other than something needs to happen around that transition to break up the pace, otherwise the audience is just CONSTANTLY being bombarded by manlyisms. Yes, that's the point of the animation, but something to switch it up would've been good just to give the audience some breathing room, and to prevent the entire flash to seem like one giant run-on sentence...much like this paragraph. lol

I have to ask, what program's did you use to animate this? Was it ALL in flash? Additionally, what part of the flash did you have the most fun doing, and what was the most difficult part for you?

Thanks, and good job! Voted Five

Chag responds:

Awesome Review man, much appreciated =]

I'll defiantly work on pacing and things like that next time around, it's been mentioned a few times. (or everyone just has really short attention spans)

Music I considered as well, but decided against in the end for a couple of reasons... Something I may reconsider later on.

All the cartoons were done in Flash and all the Typography in AfterEffects, that's why it rendered out blurry... Which was a shame, I just wanted to take a crack at assembling an entire film in AE really.

Most fun part? Probably the Lightspeed 3000 ad. Particularly because the entire segment came together in one massive 18 hour sitting. Draining, but interesting to be so completely focused on just one project for so long

Most difficult would have to be right at the beginning of 'Shower Hammer' for some reason I hit a block there and just didn't get round to working on the movie for about a full 2 months.

Thanks again! =]

[Madness :: Smoking Kills]

That was impressively creative!

The beginning had a slight chop to it, but the familiar scene was spiced by the creative license taken in the goon's death. When it bullet-time reversed through pivotal scenes in OTHER Madness episodes, I grinned from ear to ear! :D

Not only was it impressively executed, it looked great too! The sounds were all around well-chosen in further making the badass sequence more spectacular.

While I would've been quick to point out the inconsistency that, though it was just established the shot went through a tree AND through a train car before reaching the goon at the building, from the perspective of his scope, none of those obstacles can be seen...but when he centered on the two near minuscule flicks of the lighter, and took the shot, I started cheesing again because let's face it...that was so awesome it makes up for the inconsistency...at the very least because I perceived a nod to a Brock Sampson quote.

Great job! I'm jealous with how seamless and smooth your 3D looks in this! Keep up the great work, and happy Madness Day! Voted 5!

io3creations responds:

I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! :D

Yeah, I know about the inconsistencies you mentioned. The sniper shot in "Wanted" inspired my little movie. At the last minute I decided that it might be a good idea to do a 'forward' shot at the end. Only did I realize later, as you also mentioned, the train might block the view near the time of the shot but by then I didn't really want to change things. This is MADNESS after all! :D

[Burning Gundam v.s Barney]

OMG

I appreciate this so much more after have taken Maya. Last semester I took Rendering 1, this semester I did Rendering II and Animaton I, had to drop because I completely overloaded, and was lagging behind in my 3D classes.

I mean, I had difficulties texturing geometric furniture in a "Render a room with desks and shit" assignment...let alone something as complex as a Gundam, with noticeable glossy eye lenses, completely changing Gold, or something as organic as the Barney model. The city in the background wasn't too complex, but it didn't need to be. The premise was hilarious enough on it's own, and that probably goes BOUNDS beyond your classmates, who would likely pull off incredibly simplistic, boring, minimal animations.

I APPRECIATE shit like this...even if G Gundam was my least favorite of the Gundam series (08th MS Team ftw, but they probably couldn't decimate Barney as effectively XD)

You're very skilled! Keep up the great work, and pump some polygonal iron! Voted 5!

Chakra-X responds:

Thank you very much! This was my first time taking 3D and it's incredible how much work goes in to it even though there are much less drawings than traditional animation. And thanks for pointing Barney out too, I actually spent a decent amount of time trying to get his face right, but since he's not as detailed as the Gundam, people think he's not as "good" for some reason? Keep up the 3D work!

[Doom Ep 1: The Lighter]

...What?

First off, with the text box "NOISE" at the very beginning; Did you click and drag to enlarge it? If you'll look at it as the flash plays, it shakes all over the place, almost wildly, as it enlarges. Try saving the text as a graphic, creating a tween, and at the ending keyframe hold down shift as you drag the corner out to enlarge it. By holding down shift, it keeps the graphic proportionate so it doesn't warp, and by motion tweening the graphic, it'll enlarge smoothly instead of erratically.

While I'm all for Doom, as it shaped me into the person I am today when I was little, this flash doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Mostly because I can't understand what the hell either characters are saying...they're difficult to make out, and there aren't even any subtitles. Moreover, the voice of the zombie seems mismatched, and I'm uncertain if that was an attempt at a joke or not because it was so brief.

The whole thing is too bloody brief, and the punchline is missed on me, because I couldn't follow what the hell was going on through the dialogue you chose to do in this strange, strange format.

Moreover, although the font used was alright, we're treated to two backgrounds; gray and ONE Doom screen. Where's the shot diversity? Nowhere...and the beginning and ending gray is too bland and depressing; with a brand new Art Portal in the works, you shouldn't have a shortage of finding capable artists who could do a background or layout for you.

Keep working on it...the sprites synced up decently, but you should work on the overall presentation of the flash, clarity in your dialogue, and most importantly, content.

STRiKeRs-g0g3t4 responds:

First of all, Thanks all for Reviewing. ;)
I see the main problem is the charachter's speech and I knew this... I tried to fix it but this is the best I could I do... Reall, I didn't want to put real voices into the video 'cause I like to use synth voices, created with "voice simulator" like "Eloquens" or similar applications. Next time I'll try to make bettere voices... ;)
Now the "Noise Title": it shakes because I wanted that it did!! LOL But I'm agree that all the titles ar poor. This was a Test, and what I tested is how to use sprites and how to use Flash Editing basically.

I just answered a this post, but thanks all for the tips!!
(sorry for my bad english... LOL )