SquidBonk's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Abandoned Kitten]

score of pi? (3.14) wow.

How this made it through the strict newgrounds filters (sociopaths like me) I can't figure out.
The point of visual storytelling is that you create animation and movement to give a feeling of life. I felt nothing for this ornamental cat and the calligraphy font that magically appeared from time to time.

You have a story so far. Now find a way of telling it.

DAIRYDOG responds:

I don't think so. No, no, no.

[TvP's Walking Tutorial]

Nice of you to think of beginners

You should mention that during foot slip (where the grounded foot moves across the ground) the foot moves an equal space per frame until it leaves the ground, otherwise a constant moving background will make the walk cycle seem to jerk in places. If you were to do this with something other than a thick stick figure, you'd be able to see errors easier.

Also, one thing that would make it easier for beginners to see is if you were to colour the rear leg a different colour than the front. You'd be able to tell exactly what is where.

TvP responds:

Good tip! Thanks for the review.

[ggggggggggggg]

Nice concept

Even though art can use some work, that's not what's important to make something funny or readable.

The one thing though, is that if you were to concentrate on actually having "animation" in your flash animation, you'd really get a better response from viewers.

Aside from those aspects, this is a cute concept. It was entertaining at the very least. (that's a good thing)

mrkuroii responds:

Thanks...

[Terrorist Choreogrphy]

I'm so jaded. Fuck the government.

If you were serious about this, then this is for you. I can't say that some of those things wouldn't be funny to see. It's when you idiots take it to an art level, and try to preach it that it loses any appeal. It's amazing how far you brainless zombies like to go with your anarchy speeches. You tried to be artsy: It didn't work. You tried to be original. Guess what? it didn't work. Perhaps if the inane proposition of destroying what is everyday, was presented by some means that would be interesting, we'd at least have something that is appealing visually even though the content is shit. Somehow, lack of order and stability is deemed 'cool'. As corrupt as government or society is today; Without law, your mother's, mother's, mother would have been slaughtered or left to be eaten long before she could even begin to comprehend reproduction. (and I know that's called great grandmother, I was only trying to be "artsy", just like you.)

The only way you could have been anymore boring or cliche is to have scrawled anarchy signs all over the place.

All in all, judging purely as a flash movie, if you want to get more boring, you should use a Times New Roman font or something. At least, I think boring is what you were going for.

ZERO.

SCART responds:

This is your idea of "Artsy". ;-)

You really gotta get out more, and I've heard all this "blah blah stability only comes through corrupt capatilist government blahblah law and order" from my Grandpa, snore Zzzzzzzz Zzzzzzz

I could make it more boring by adding your comments to it I suppose. You tried to come off like something other than a dull little conservative! Guess what? It didn't work . . .

. . . NEXT!

"Don't beleive the HYPE"
- Chuck D

[AURORA - episode 5]

A for Effort but...

Too unbelievable. If that guy wanted to kill those other two, he would have had backup, or at the very least, more than a knife. Especially if he's going up against two of them and is willing to trick them both into going into some random empty room that you access from an alley. (has there ever been only an empty room in any building you enter? make it a hallway or something) When the guys shake hands, they shake with their right and left, respectively. When people shake, they both use the same hand. (one guy is grabbing the back of another's hand
in this)

I was almost always confused as to who was who because you essentially used the same face and just decided to give people different facial hair or outfits as a defining factor. They weren't dynamic enough.

Also, you should really focus on drawing hands. They are tough to learn, but considering your hands are such a strong focus in fighting, you need to learn to draw them better.

Also, if that guy's girlfriend was killed, what is keeping him from attacking the man who's trying to get him to join some sort of group? He should be enraged but he just seems like he's a robot who just says his lines with no emotion. I'd assume he'd attack the dude and try to force the information out of him, instead of asking where the sign up sheet is.

Now with most of the crits out of the way, there are definitely a lot of ups to this film. At the very least you have some abilities artistically and general fighting knowledge which is good. Study people and how they react in what situation, don't think like a martial artist. Think as your individual, as your characters. Sometimes it's not enough just to know how someone counters, and reacts to a punch or kick. You put quite a bit of effort into these and I'd like to see this improve.

naz-1 responds:

It's a flash animation. Don't lose sleep over it.

[As The World Ends...]

Had something then blew it away

This premise had potential. When you got to the "in a rowboat" area, I was getting really interested. I wanted to see which way you would take this. You could have had a focus on a personal struggle. You could have shown the struggle of the world and the alienation of that person in the rowboat. There were so many ways you could have taken this but you decided to go with aliens blowing up the planet and insinuating they were at war by looking up the definition on a grammatically incorrect computer.

"None or mass death is involved." How about saying "Death may or may not be involved." You could have also tried using an actual dictionary for the definition. That would have made this seem more believeable. I mean, a race of creatures with space travel looking up a definition of a word after they've blown up a planet? C'mon! At this point, you destroyed my interest because you went the easy route.

Wanion responds:

The aliens didn't blow up the world, if you noticed in the beginning the hand was white, not green... the aliens were ashamed of what happened and never knew of it before, thus looking up the world "war", and who gives a shit what the answer was for it.

[Camp]

Great character and awesome animation

Your age at this time says you're 17. What is your background in animation? You have really fine tuned animation skills and you were making excellent shorts even back in 2002 with great skill. Do you have parents that animate or something like that?

EdSkudder responds:

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the movie. I'm actually self-taught. My mom has artistic inclinations, though, which helps.

[zelda, behind the legend]

Art needs lots of work-good effort and persistance

Since you seem like the person who actually wants critiques here's my two cents.

When people say your art needs work, it means that you need to focus on making your characters more believable. By believable, I mean that the characters seem like they can actually exist in that world. Try to keep their volumes from warping constantly. A great reference for you to learn from is the "Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams. Almost all animators worth their salt own this book as well as any beginners. The effort put into this animation shows to me that you're serious about trying to learn how to animate. Start taking life drawing, etc. Another book I'd recommend to learn how to "see" when drawing is "Drawing on the Right side of the Brain" These are two no-bullshit books that will improve your abilities by teaching you the basics of art and animation. Good luck.

RogerregoRRoger responds:

Eh,characters look more believeble? they are cartoons you know, the have oversized hands feet and head for a reason..Bu if indeed you also menat believeble for a character, i have a couple drawing learn books here,including a manga one , so i guess i will take a look again, thanks..

[virtual thriller]

nice illustrator reel.. but..

For a reel to land an illustration job I'm thinking you'll need to pay much closer attention to colour correction. Also make absoultely sure that you take out that eyeball with the screen reflection in it. Compared to the rest of the art, it shows where your drawing ability really is when you see the person reflected in the eye on the screen. I'm automatically assuming that you copied or traced all the rest of those people from magazines or net pictures. Life reference or tracing isn't a bad thing but that eye scene just screams "DON'T HIRE ME"

hansdampf responds:

I can proove you wrong, today I was drawing for hours in a test - not tracing- to proove my skills. At the beginning I just was not used to draw anymore, but I soon got better while drawing. Thanks for the mentioning of the eyeball - this was my first attempt dealing with reflections the car window was the last. In one point you're right, reference is a thing every artist has or has to have plus the books of good ole Burne Hogarth!

[Ninja episode 1]

Admirable Effort.

If you want to improve your art, read the book "Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain" (Sorry, forgot the author's name and I can't find my book right now)

If you want to improve your animation, get the Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams. Follow the basics in here as if they were your bible. This book is used for reference the world over. (Even If you're an athiest, you can still pretend it's a bible)

Hyper-Shadow-Death responds:

thanks ill be sure to check it out