mrbeckham09's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fatsack: BWDS ep 1]

Well done on this animation! 5 Stars for:

Smooth, smooth transitions between frames.
Water-like effects on the creatures bodies and water droplets.
Humour.
Use of bright colors while displaying a happy creature.
The 'documentary' voice used in the production to make it feel realistic.
Many others, though I'd rather not write an essay.

These were all really well done. Good job. Now here comes the criticism.

I'm not sure what or where Brackenwood is. Perhaps a quick eagle's view of the place/world before the opening scene begins would give me a better feel for what to expect.

How do fatsacks play in with the rest of the world? Are they easy prey (obviously), or do they have this extraordinary defense mechanism to fend off predators? Clearly they are playful critters, but how is it that so many of them have survived for this long?

Those are just a couple of things. Again, really nice job!

Bye bye!
Mrbeckham09

chluaid responds:

thanks very much for the review! I'm glad you liked the documentary feel, I've wanted to do something like this for a long time. Regarding your questions about Brackenwood and fatsacks, I could tell a lot more in each of these episodes but I want to keep them under 2 mins so I can get back to producing regular shorts. If these were 4, 5, 10 mins long like the early Brackenwood movies, each one would be in eternal production and would take too long to make.

btw the rule for these shorts is that the script must fit on a collector card. In fact, the Fatsack Brackenwood collector card has this exact script, and all future episodes will be the same. Prowlies are next :)

[Red Vs Arceus- first 1/4]

Good news is that you have massive potential sir. Make sure to include this as a link in your resume when you apply for a graphics/gaming job.

TiganAnimation responds:

Thanks, thats very reassuring! :D

[Xray Kombat ~ By Kehny]

Very nice way to show your talent.

kehny responds:

Thanks man! I'm sure I can do better than that!

[Gildedguy vs Jade]

Phenomenal job!

What I thoroughly enjoyed:
The smooth transitions between frames.
The music meant to pump up the audience.
The gruesome fighting techniques, though no permanent damage meant that the fight could go on for a longer duration.
The emotions put into each character.
AND MOST OF ALL a reason for fighting. No matter how minimal the reason may be, even though that adds more humour, it is most important to follow a story with a defined purpose!

Great job fellow!

gildedguy responds:

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[Markiplier Animated - Momo the Catgirl | Huniepop]

The graphics look sharp and are by no means poorly designed. This reminds me of the unreal engine. I would like to point out the attention to detail involving:

Smooth character movements
Implementing realistic character scenarios such as eyes, ears, and tail moving during interaction
Use of lighting and shadows
Physics in the jumping animation
Holding to Markiplier's character
Animation played during credits

What could be changed or added next time?
Realistic hair movement
Improved storyline, even though this is a short animation I have never seen Huniepop

Overall I believe you did a nice job and it turned out pretty hilarious!

5/5
- Mrbeckham09

mohawkade responds:

Oh, if I had the time to learn Unreal Engine 4 (which is free, BTW), I would make wonders. No instead this ran on Source Engine 2 using a free program called Source Filmmaker.

Though I appreciate your keen eye on the details, I put a reasonable amount of time into them to make it as seemless as possible. As for realistic hair movement, not technically possible with the model rig I used, but if the option were available, I would of used it.

[Real Robos]

Very nice job! First I'll state particular impressive details:

Robots move with terrain (even on lumpy bed sheet)!
Dynamic camera
Realistic explosion effects (very cool)
Characters gain shadow when stepping into a shaded area
Lighting from machine gun brightens up the real world terrain
Object related audio

Amazing, amazing animation style, however a bit of back story is important. I personally enjoy knowing why I am watching robots fight and where random characters come from + why they are also helping out. It was obvious which team the robots acted on without words, that is impressive.

I am going to give this piece a 5/5 compared to MANY other pieces out there in newgrounds, however because of the story line my personal opinion is 4.5/5.

Good job mate!

RickMarin responds:

I really apologize for lack of story . The next one will explain a little more . Till then I am very happy you enjoyed it .

Thanks

[Mortal Kombat Kock-ups]

Very nice production. The characters' movements match those of the original characters during the character selection screen. Did you custom make the character animations during the fight scene or did you pull from other video games? If the first case, very well done. So realistic. The fact that you mimic'd the mortal combat game by adding in custom photos and characters is wicked. Good job mate.

RicPendragon responds:

I used existing sprites. I had to make and modify some of my own (like Shovel Knight digging and Johnny walking slumped over etc. but always worked with existing stuff).
I actually kept altering and editing to make sure things like movements were the right speed. For Johnny Cage's walk, I spent 10 minutes just making sure the feet were on the right potions. I can be a little perfectionist.

[Inaction]

The scene looks extraordinarily realistic. Is that due to the effect of filming with a camera and adding CGI to the scene? In other words, is the key factor of realism due to using a camera for filming?

BungalowBelf responds:

Thanks for the question, it's a great one.

This is entirely CGI, I was trying to fool you into thinking it was real though, at least to start with! And yes, cameras absolutely add to realism. A real camera is never perfectly still, even when it's mounted it has very slight movement. Almost imperceptible, that is, until it absolutely stops, and then you'd notice. So if you're going for realism, everything in CGI should be always in motion, but not so much that it's possible to tell that it's always in motion! It's a difficult line to tread. So, I did my cameras in two ways.

Firstly, the first shot is tracked from live action footage I shot. I had modelled the bookcase in my living room and put the digital characters onto it in CGI, and replicated the living room lighting. Then in real life, I put two objects roughly the size I figured the inaction figures were (I don't actually have them, and I've never seem them in real life), added tracking markers, then filmed the approach with my iPhone. Then I tracked that motion using the tracking markers and applied it to a camera in Maya. Although I could have used the iPhone footage as a background plate, I thought it would be easier just to create it in CGI, especially given the resolution constraints I was working with in the trial version of V-Ray. If I was to do this in HD I'd probably use the live-action plates, and mask out the tracking markers.

The other cameras were partially animated in an iPhone app called Cameraman for Maya. It's a good app that's still in development, and while it's still missing a lot of the functionality I'd like to see, it does allow easy creation of simple camera motion. However, I needed to do a lot of hand-editing of the keys.

I hope that's useful, and answers your question.

[Kojima Leaves Konami]

Very nice retro graphics. Clear voice acting and informative storyline. Well done

JumpNJetz responds:

Thankyou so much! :D
-Jetz

[Animal Dash Trailer]

The graphics are very vibrant and playful. I'm excited to know that this video is promoting a game that viewers have the opportunity to play. I must ask, which software did you use to create such happy characters?

Bi-Polar-Bear responds:

Hey glad you like it. First we made an animatic in flash, then moved into Maya for the bulk of the work, modelling, rigging, animation, lighting. Then its all rendered and composited together in Nuke.