SquizofrenicCat's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[MARGIT THE FELL OMEN]

I really, really enjoyed this. The backgrounds, the way you made the scenes cut, the choreography, the expressions through body language and toon exaggeration (such as the armor deforming to resemble eyes), clean lines and distinguishable color palettes, the accompanying effects to exacerbate the actions such as the smoke clouds, the sound design on literally everything, the playtime.

This is without mentioning the comedic timing, and the fact it's all to illustrate a real feeling that exists when playing these sort of games. You feel like a badass but in reality the bosses are in complete control, in theory they could just feint all day (on purpose or due to a condition) and you are powerless to stop it. It's stupid, but it's true and it also happens.

You captured it all really well and you used pretty much every tool in the book to do it. Have rewatched it a few times and how you dealt with the perspective on the hand axe is extremely nice to look at. Can't help but want to visualize your process because the results are fantastic.

BrokenMOJO responds:

Thanks mate. At some point, I'd like to take a slice of the animation and do a little video talking about my process.

[reflection]

I don't think you ever expected to hit the front page with this (specially with the paul blart tag) so congratulations!

It definitely hits as more of a personal piece with your insights, just as you claimed it to be. Maybe it never truly intended to present the thoughts in an audience-accessible way because a lot of it feels a bit jumbled or not too meaningful without context. The start where there's a conflict over acknowledging the new year would look a bit strange to someone looking back at this without being aware it refers to 2020 restrictions until the masks come on.

The presentation and pacing were nice with the character and the text never fighting with each other for attention, and it ended on a hopeful note. The character designs are also cute. Good job with it overall.

idontknowcorp responds:

Thanks for the in depth review. I don’t know what I was expecting for this audience wise. It was definitely a piece I made for myself first so the Front Page did catch me off guard... Also I’d completely forgotten about the Paul Blart tag until you pointed it out >.<

[Rhythm Ep:1]

I'm personally a chimpanzee when it comes to understanding music, so a series on musical fundamentals sounds very interesting to me as it can teach and entertain at the same time.

Ironically, I feel the bites used to make the characters speak really overstay their welcome by looping, and quickly begin to sound annoying if the character talks for long. Maybe by varying the pitch throughout speech or simply not stretching the loops would help mend this.

Joe-Mega responds:

I totally agree about the voices, they'll be fixed for the next episode :)

[Tritoria - Episode 2 Part 2/2 - Corruption]

I've finally gotten around watching both of the episodes of this series, with some well deserved attention, and MY MAN I've got to say this series you've done is absolutely top notch. I could go on and on drooling all over your work but I'll keep it straightforward for everyone's sake, at least for now.

For starters I'm actually kind of surprised this wasn't a webcomic first (maybe it is and I just can't find it?) as many professional artists would only dream to achieve this amount of exposition for their worlds and stories so early into the process of conceiving a series. I find that due to this it gets harder for you to nail everything, of course; like anatomy here and there, sometimes a buttload of (interesting) text comes on and it's impossible to read, reeling an audience in to something kinda long and new, etc.

However, when giving this series the attention it deserves one will immediately tell that you pay so much mind to details that matter (scene management, story elements coming up gradually, sound design, character design, dialogue, body language) it vastly overshadows those eventual hiccups. Even things like the small details you put in are fantastic as well, in this episode alone for instance I even noticed smoke from Kain's burning plant lamp gets displaced as he exhales and talks to himself as he analyzes the book; that's the sort of stuff that composes an experience and makes one feel immersed in an animation regardless of how mundane a scene would be, not many can pull that off.

All of this effort is commendable and so I need to stand up and applaud your talent, dedication, and your ambition, specially since this is a hobby for you and you are producing content in a language you don't even master yet (honestly I have not even noticed).

I sincerely hope you get more exposure and resources as you go, but most importantly I hope you keep on enjoying your own work come to life more than anything. Big Kudos to you, Skashi. Warai is cool.

Skashi95 responds:

Your words warmed my heart! Yeah, I don't write storybooks because I like to change ideas or the the flow of the story when I get sudden ideas out of nowhere I want to include. Also, I really hoped a comment about Warai would pop up, and it sure as hell did right at the end, haha.
Cheers!

[Defeat in Detail - How Smaller Armies Win Against Superior Forces - Military Tactics Animated]

Hey this was very interesting. Pretty simple style, straightforward narration.
It does the job, I've never heard of this strategy before.

ImperialScribe responds:

Thanks.

[Chiru, Animated 1.5]

I like the frame by frame man, but this doesn't classify as a movie.
Turn these into gifs and upload them as art instead.

ShadowCeless2002 responds:

Im gonna to Think It

[Kaa & Rio Rollins Tachibana]

Nice simple loop, I like the tongue and the eye animation.

Thought this would fare better in the Art Portal. Movie section isn't for super short and silent stuff like this.

RenaissanceOfChaos responds:

ah, thank you. I'll keep that in mind~

[Dance Baby!]

It's alright. Style reminds me of Animal Crossing a little.

The way he shakes a bit feels like he's about to lose balance so that felt kinda weird, solid pose at the end though. Good effects too.

I'll recommend you turn these into .gifs and put them in the Art Portal; the Movie Portal isn't for super short silent stuff like this.

VicDromer responds:

Now that you say so... it's true! :O (But I'm never play AC haha)

Yeah, you're right, I'll try to improve my animations in the future! ^^

Oh! I didn't know that I could put animtaions in the Art Portal, but in the future I will do it!

THANK YOU SO MUCH! ^^

[Omega Demo/Trailer]

Very sweet mock-up. The art is kickin!

It felt a little bit slow at the start, with the text speed in particular, but after the music drop when it showed the game "mechanics" I was sold super good on the concept. Officially better than actual game trailers out there.

Great job!

InkAntlers responds:

Thank you!
I wanted to respect the pace of the music but i might have overdone it now that i think about it more.
In my first draft there were no beginning credits at all and more sequences but my college is very strict about adding SOME credits (was part of the exercise) so i decided to place them at the beginning since it wouldn't really interfere much.
It was on itself a rushed decision so i see where you're coming from!
Thanks for the input i appreciate it.

[Lil-Ninja Adventures]

Pretty well done! I like the different animations. The hook throw was pretty cool.

It's hard to tell if he's actually little or if things are just big, that door seemed about his size.

I feel the walk cycle didn't match the footsteps at some points, but every other action he did from there it was great.

Illustrastar responds:

Thanks for the reply bud. I'm using flipaclip android app on my phone and on the final step when I create the video the audio offsets a bit for some reason.