CrabbWalker's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gunmetal Black]

This was pretty nice, the character designs were good, decent story, and though the action sequences were a bit shaky, I still enjoyed it. The background work in the very beginning was awesome looking, it really set the tone. Voice acting was great, had no problem with it. Though I have two critical bits of advice, and these are things I'm currently learning as well (before I throw another huge animation to Newgrounds). I think you would profit a lot off of this and make you so much better at establishing/ shooting scenes and animation overall.

You need to practice your moving holds. This moreover applies to 3D animation than 2D. While holding a frame can be perfectly fine in 2D, for a 3D cartoon it's hard, as it makes your characters seem dead. I see you did a little of that with a couple characters in the beginning, but not all. You need to keep them moving, whether it's slight eye movement or head slightly bobbing back and forth. If you look at an actual human, they are never quite still, and we all have different mannerisms. Establish these practices to make your characters unique, and develop them. This will make your animation shine I believe!

The 180 degree rule: A cinematographic rule in which the camera establishes the positions of characters with an "action line". The general rule is to shoot within that 180 degree arc, though there can be exceptions. I saw your 360 degree action scenes and thought you had too many, and needed to establish where your characters are placed.

Theres other small problems, like lack of exaggeration and combat speed, but that's not the biggest priority. Again, you have awesome skill, I just thought that these things were perhaps the most vital information, cause I want to you to go from great to amazing. Look these up on Youtube if need me. Can't wait to see more, peace

Kel-chan responds:

Thanks alot! I was just researching line of action and also the 180 deg rule today. I also am working on using mocap for idle animations for moving holds since its the most realistic way to do things.

I think line of action and the 180 were the biggest problems along with staging that someone else mentioned. I probably should've started with a simpler fight scene instead of a mob fight to learn some things. The other problem was keeping the action in the center too but hopefully the next thing will be a little bit better.

I'm also working on micromovements for facial animations to make the characters more believable

[Neoplasia - Ep 1]

It's very, very interesting...it has a sort of Old School/ retro nostalgia feel to it...I think the music brought the best out in this animation, for some reason it had a Jet Set Radio/ Samurai Champloo tone to it. Next time, maybe try to bring more of that post-apocalyptic urban environment into your animation, let us feel that, and keep similar tracks on there. Work on pacing and storyboarding. I see potential. The characters are also unique and i think it's worth developing a series out of.

Noisy responds:

Yeah, thank you a lot.
I'm interesting of making a good thing with this but I'm not very good though.

Thanks again : )

[Shards of Fate]

You have talent man. Although the anatomy was a bit sloppy and some awkward cutscenes here and there, I felt that a lot of effort went into the latter part of it. Overall it was a solid thesis film, you did good. I have mine submitted somewhere on here, and it pretty much was struggling with some music sync/ sound sync irregularities and issues just like this film had. My suggestion would be to take the time to hone in those skills, starting with a tight storyboard and script already finished before starting the animatic (let alone the animation). It's doing wonders for me. Take your time. Also, you described in your comments section about polishing your story a little more and tweaking effects. Don't. I would suggest moving onto a new animation, or better yet a brand new story– trust me, I've tried polishing my old work and it ended up being a waste of time. This is a lengthy review, but the reason I'm saying this is because you have a lot of potential dude. Continue to make new art (er animation) and keep posting updates here, you've gained my curiosity and thus my subscription. Keep animating!!!

Kofdizz responds:

Thanks for the feedback and for watching! What's the name of your thesis? I'd love to see it!

[Awesome Guy Intro]

LOL the ending felt very Trigun - esque. It's very colorful though, and the lines were dynamic. I'm definitely interested...

TheUnseriousguy responds:

wow thanks man

[mic test]

I liked it! Had a NTSC fresh color palette look to it. It would be interesting to see you do a string of short 1 min jokes or of the sort. Also would be nice to see a more smoothed out animation as well.

P.S- What type of mic do you use, and what area did you use it in? There was quite a bit of static in it.

alexapdos responds:

Thanks! I have a few things I'm working on now that will definitely look much nicer than this.

As for the mic, I was using a Samson G Track in my apartment. I was just too lazy to de-noise the recording before working with it.

[Speed Draw Retro & Pandy]

This was a very nice speed draw. Would have been rated more higher if it was on another website. The movie section on newgrounds is pretty much 98% animation with a few exceptions. Anyways, the shading was a nice touch to the Illustration.

MysticSkillz responds:

Thanks, I understand about speed painting being here on NG but real reason I upload them here as well is to break the gap in my gallery between sprite movies.

[Vamos a Luchar]

Almost best intro ever, 2nd only to Shadow Hunter.

AaLBERT responds:

Thank you so much! :D

[Aalbert R.a. Of Spectacul]

How are your movies getting an average of 3 stars? This should be a 4.

AaLBERT responds:

Oh, Thank you so much. =)