DocMonster's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Stikfas H]

Need More Practice

Your stop motion technique is very choppy and your characters "glide" a bit across the table top when they're supposed to be standing still. To fix this, add a bit more animation to the movements and tack down the characters with Funtack. Your lighting is also inconsistent. Try filming in an area where you can control the lighting. The sunlight coming into this project darkens as the project progresses making the shots look shoddy. With a bit more practice, you should greatly improve. Good luck!

Static responds:

Ok that sounds good but add me at [e-mail] and I'll have my people chat with your people!

[2003| Mario gets old IV]

Fun & Entertaining!

I have Niko1uk of the NG Sprite Club to thank for bringing this cartoon to my attention! As a credit to you, this cartoon was long, but it didn't feel long. You have a good sense of pace that kept the story fresh and interesting throughout. The humour was well timed and the battle scenes looked great! This shows great effort and talent! I look forward to more!

Holy-Howard responds:

Thank you very much. :)
I hope me nest one will be good, too.

[Hyper Sonic]

Tips

With this project, you've shown you can rip sprites, clean them up really well (except for a few letters in the text) and animate them with some basic skill. Next time, write a script that really challenges your skill set and is quite different from most of the parodies already on NG. I wish you the best o' luck on your next piece!

Hippyofdeath responds:

oops, didn't notice the few letters in the text. well its fixed now

[Megaman and the Mettool]

Valiant Effort

PROS - You know what it is to put time, patience and dedication into a project! That's something not many animators do around here. You've got the goods! The ripped sprites were excellent! You did a bang up job in keeping them crisp & clean. The animation was flawless! It's hard to come by sprite toons that don't look choppy or ruin the animation in some way. You've tackled this very well! Your backgrounds looked awesome and the blur effect was perfect.

CONS - Don't ever assume the voices can be "easily ignored due to the prescence of subtitles." If they're in the piece, they're a part of it and are subject to criticism. They didn't carry any emotion and sounded as if they were recorded a bit too close to the mic. If you're going to have a character yelling, really yell. The story dragged because there was a poor sense of pacing. Some action scenes lasted a bit too long and became distracting.

Overall, this was a good, solid effort! You show skill and great promise as a Flash animator. If you put a little more study & practice into your script writing and pacing, your stories will be much more exciting! I've come to that conclusion after watching this project and reading some of your fan fiction. It's definitely a start! Best of luck in future projects! I look forward to them!

Gameboyguru responds:

Someone actually followed the link to my Fanfiction.net account? Wow...

[Count Dracula 1:It Begins]

Some Tips

WRITING CREDITS - This first episode doesn't stray enough from the source material to credit yourself and HorrorFreak for writing the story. Instead, your opening credits should read "Original Story Written by Bram Stoker Adapted by John & HorrorFreak".
RAIN EFFECT - The rain falling in all different directions is distracting. You should angle the rain in one direction and draw about 3 to 5 frames of it falling so it falls more smoothly. As odd as it sounds, white or grey rain is also less distracting than blue.
ART & ANIMATION STYLE - Both are very crude and can use a lot of polish. The hand drawn backgrounds need to look more solid. Do this by adding details like bricks and shadows. A book or course in basic figure drawing would make the characters much more pleasing to the eye. Right now, there's no sense of proportion in their design so they exude no screen presence. Some adept frame-by-frame animation would also make this shine. The 3-D "castle" & "trees" should either be redesigned or dropped altogether. Next to the sound files, they're eating up a lot of file space and don't add any value to your visuals. Their poor design actually takes away from the project.
MUSIC & SOUND - Your music fit rather well with the piece, but the SOD tune didn't work at all. Since this is supposed to be a gothic piece set in the 1600's either a) stick with that theme and avoid modern music or b) use the modern music a bit more creatively where it will enhance the scene. Avoid the robotic voices in this series. They simply do not fit in. Make sure when your characters are talking, you drop the volume on all background sounds so the "actors" can be heard. Most of the opening lines were muffled by background noise.
VALUE - This piece is almost 4megs, but the content doesn't justify it. Sweeping shots of a poorly designed "castle" do not replace the value of a well paced and well told story. Really concentrate on your script for the next episode and not so much on 3-D set pieces.

I know this probably sounded harsh, I didn't mean it to. I can see what you're trying to do here and I see the potential. If I thought you sucked, I wouldn't have bothered giving you the tips. I wish you the best of luck in your next project. if you need anymore tips or advice, feel free to e-mail me. You'll find it in my profile. Best o' luck on the series! Cheers!

johnm831 responds:

Thanks. When I saw the long review I thought it was going to be a lengthy flaming session but it was all thoughtfull intellgent and helpful comments. Thanks again

[Saber Battle]

Now That's Something!

Not too bad. The sound effects were spot on. Very inventive. As someone suggested before, costumes would be great. Also, so you have something to trace over for the lightsaber effects, you should use broom handles with dressed up PVC pipe at the bottom to act as the saber grips. This is a solid effort! I look forward to seeing you improve!

ownzor responds:

Actually we did use those things that you use to hold up posters(If you take away all the added sounds you can hear them hitting each other)But next time I think Il use some toy lightsabers.

[The Bus Stop]

It's Okay

The characters were designed well, but the pacing was much too slow. Their movements need to be faster and more fluid. Best of luck on the next project.

toxicbomb responds:

Thanks. I try to make every clay movie better than the last. Hopefully my next one will be better!

[MegaMan/X:Final Battle 5]

Excellent Sprite Toon!

I'm becoming more impressed with the ever increasing amount of well made sprite toons on NG! This is no exception! The sprites are clean, the sound is awesome, the music fits and the story is well told. My only crit would be to either make Bass' text a different color or enclose it in a balloon because it was hard to read against the background.

A great job overall! Your talent for and dedication to making awesome Flash toons shows! Keep up the excellent work!

CheveLoco responds:

yeah i have fixed the text for the 5th part

[Final Fantasy: Skirmish]

Not Bad For A First Go With Sprites!

You created some slick animation here with sprites. Good job! Not many people grasp that as effectively as you have their first time out. Come up with a storyline and I'll definitely keep checking your stuff out! Good luck!

CElion responds:

Thanks! =) And yes, I plan on making another flash after I finish this off with an actual story.

[Kids - preview]

One Of The Few Good Previews On NG

This preview made me want to see more which is exactly what a preview's supposed to do! So few animators on NG understand that concept, but you hit it right on the head! With the exceptional art, slick animation and obvious comic violence, I look forward to the series! Best of luck!

ReQsa responds:

Hey, thanks.... The series itself, will be much better!