Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Newgrounds Tutorial]

passing com

Not seen a tutorial done as a movie before. Thing is, other than letting lazy people sit back and not bother clicking, and giving you - the author - less work to do, I don't see what advantage this has over a traditional format, with next/previous buttons and a well organised menu.

It was irritating to have to wait for the text to proceed and more irritating when it passed quickly on the one frame I'd have liked a couple more seconds on (agree/disagree>blam/protect).

The deity whistle is given to multiple people since a few months ago.

==
Essentially, when this info is already available, the only advantage I see of Flash versions is in making it better organised, better explained or prettier. Or adding more information.

Other than the passing comment of low level not showing you're a noob, this did none of those.

~Review Request Club~

Sidorio responds:

Advantage: I got more well known.

[SM:SunMafiaIntro (Undone)]

care

+ concept of sun mafia amuses vaguely.

++ NG tank and characters fairly well drawn.

+ nice sega-style text.

-- horrible, scrawled graphics for the most part.

-- 'join us' seemed badly placed. Like maybe have it at the start, then at the end. Clicking during the movie, to find the movie carries on, is irritating.

---- Movie ends suddently with no conclusion. Nothing of note really happense.

----- After it ends (just after meeting the Wiisun with the lightsaber, we get a black screen for ages.

==
It just seems like a broken, unfinished flash.

For your next one, take more time and care.

~Review Request Club~

[Fuzz's Purple and lime]

the other,

++++ Great style. The colours and uncoloured lines work well together. It really is a unique way of animating/drawing and visually striking.

+++ Some amusing events. Fave parts were the lime swarm appearing and the zig-zag line breath.

+++ Great text.

- I felt the 'purple' was a bit too close to the lime. and maybe a bit unsaturated. Like maybe it should be a deeper, more royal colour. Maybe like an aubergine.

-- The liquid has a distracting jump in the loop (on the left hand side, where it falls from max to min height, in like 1 frame.)

--- All ends just as we're really getting into it... limited in nature.

-- Music on/off button doesn't really work. I mean, if we try and turn it off, it keeps coming back on.

??? Being properly synched could make it a lot stronger.

==
Like the other, I enjoyed it, but the length and sudden end did irritate me.

fuzz responds:

Thank you for your detailed review.

I was aiming for a piece that had style and im glad you piced up on that. I used bold colours, this could have effected my score because some people just want dark dingy black and grey. The text is standard in all my animations now, i love the font!
Yeah, maybe the purple was too similar and it didnt have quite as good an effect as my last two colour choices in my previous animation.
The liquid, it was fbf but that was too jumpy so i shape tweened the frames so they smoothly went to the next frame. Unfortunatly that didnt work 100% as planned, i will practice my fbf water skills!

Anyway, thanks for your helpfull review and im glad you enjoyed it :)

[fuzz's green + pink]

uch in the 'story'

What strikes me most about this animation is the stacatto tempo. Movement is fast and followed by a pause. I suppose it made it easier to animate, but it also lends it a certain defining rhythm.

I love the colours, the mixture of unfilled and filled lines and all the extra particles you draw for each collision.

It may be short, but it's a great, high-energy piece.

My only complaint is that it seems to end without any satisfying conclusion - the joy is simply in watching the movement and particles, not so much in the 'story'.

The ending was sudden and slightly unsatisfying, but it was a sweet ride.

fuzz responds:

Yeah, my new one is 10x better. Although the music is better on this one. It was fun to animate, the particles were easy and i liked the effect.

[Angry kid: c.c.k]

ric... bu

++ 'no' response amused marginally.

+++ The way it subscribes to all the stereotypical generic anti-clock movie qualities amused. I like the way you explain your reason for killing.

-- Overly 'jumpy' lip movement.

- somewhat overly basic animation.

==
Silly, generic... but it made me smile.

[Something Fishy]

seeing mo

++++ Great graphics. Clean lines, well judged line variations, bold colours...

--- Next to no animation. Seemed a bit 'messy', more like an animatic than a finished piece.

+++++ Though the style did give it a unique look.

----- Lack of music synching. Seriously, set the sound to stream. With 'animation' like that, the frame-switching really should be done perfectly on the beats.

++ Kinda cheery tune.

-- But the high pitch gets annoying.

- Some emotions, specially on the bird at the start, could be better rendered, I felt.

- I got annoyed by the lack of explanation for the death - actually thought that would be the punchline - maybe curried fish or something. Was the bird choking? Too spicy? Poisoned? It's a distractingly unclear detail.

==
The thing that will make this stick in my mind is the same thing I initially disliked - the lack of animation. Though I like change, the style did grate (I like the style, but it seemed like it needs some technical work, if you follow my meaning), and the story flow jarred slightly.

I get the feeling that maybe simple tweening in places and at least proper synching could help it seem more finished.

Still, looking forward to seeing more from this kitty.

~~~Review Request Club~~~

[Adolf Hitler: ATWI80D 62]

cheer and grin

guess:
headscarf. A camel, a miswak.
bg: inner-city skyscape.

==
Well, 2/4 ain't bad!

Edit is a bit dodgy - face seems too large - but that's not really an issue. It amuses and the stuff's actually fairly cleanly cut, as usual for your later ones.

Did you have to enlarge the outfit a lot?

Made me cheer and grin.

.............................. .............................. ...........
"Public care of one's teeth is perfectly acceptable in Saudi Arabia, and is done with the miswak (pictured), a natural toothbrush-cum-toothpaste. This multi-purpose stick cleans the mouth, whitens the teeth and sweetens the breath, and is widely used throughout the Arab world. The best source of the miswak is the root of the arak tree (salvadora persica), more commonly known as the 'toothbrush tree'.

Crazy.

AfroUnderscoreStud responds:

I'm not sure why the face seems too large. I definitely didn't resize it. Perhaps the outfit creates that appearance.There was some resizing done for definite, but I'm not sure if I had to enlarge it. I would have assumed I'd actually shrunk it if anything as it seems more likely that I'd do this in order to stop the quality from being too bad.

I'm disappointed that you didn't guess Al-Masjid al-Haram! I don't think I read anything about the miswak. I had no idea what it was when you mentioned it. :P

[Adolf Hitler: ATWI80D 61]

US $24,040 (World Bank, 2006)

I'm gonna review your Flashes in a new way.

Mainly because of what they are. I have a process for viewing these. First I go to various websites and try to learn a little bit about the country, both for my own education and also to guess what you changed. Only then do I watch and review.

Guess:
headscarves, one of those long cloaky-coaty things, maybe leading a camel and holding a flask of water.
Background: oil fields.

==
Man. I'm disappointed. Prime candidate for a clothes edit and you copped out.

Still made me smigger.

.............................. .............................. .....................
There are essentially five levels of Kuwaiti society: the ruling family, the old Kuwaiti merchant families, former Bedouins who settled in Kuwait, Arabs from other countries and foreigners. Arabic is the official language and 90% of the population is Muslim.

In per-capita terms, Kuwait has one of the highest incomes in the world.
US $24,040 (World Bank, 2006)

AfroUnderscoreStud responds:

I think I might have mentioned this in response to another review of yours so I'll keep it short. I didn't want to change the outfit if it was going to be similar to that of another country's. I did change the outfit for one of the middle eastern countries. I believe it was Saudi Arabia.

[Hitler sings barbie girl]

I was getting into it

+++ I like some of the fake lyrics, like '20 gallons for a car'.

+++ Hitler and sock puppets are inherently amusing.

+++ The guy coming along and shaking up the Fuhrer - also amused.

--- Poor graphics.

--- The mixture of 'translation' and phoenetic misinterpretation got annoying. I think you should've just kept going with the phoenetic misinterpretation as they're funnier.
Or maybe had the misinterpretations come from a speech bubble and the 'tranlations' underneath? If you wanted to 'translate' some, you should pretend one is speaking in wierd English, the other needs translated.

---- The sudden ending rankled.

==
It mildly amused me. But as I was getting into it, you ended it!

Disappointment...

[Meditation]

even a video

+++ Beautiful colours when the sun has risen and shadows appear.

+++ I love the ending. Fade to white works really well.

- Figures could have been drawn better.

- Hill seemed to lack texture.

- The static lens flare looked out of place after a while.

==
It's a wonderful piece, but like the other, I can't help but muse that staring at the real thing, or even a video, would be superior.

Still it is kinda relaxing for a while.