Score: 6

"An interesting first step"

submission: Mirror's Edge - Runner

date: September 7, 2009

After watching this, I looked at some of your other work, and came to the conclusion that you're new to animation. If this is a the case, then you have a bright future.

Just to start out, and this was simply personal preference, I disliked the music. However, it did fit very well with what was going on, so I have to commend you for that. And your sound effects worked very nicely.

As far as the animation went, it was nice for what it was. That rigging style is becoming more popular (probably because Legendary Frog began to use it), and while it can be good to make a short animation in your spare time, I don't recommend sticking with it. You're a good enough artist to use FBF (Frame by Frame animation, you have to draw each and every frame), which is much harder, but breeds much better results. Of course, making FBF with the line tool is pretty much impossible. Which brings me to my next point...

Everything looked rather nice. The characters were well designed and there wasn't any moment in the piece I was looking at your character's interactions with the background and thought, "How could that happen? There's nothing to grab on." It was very well designed I must say, though, I don't recommend using the line tool. After looking at some of your art, might I recommend acquiring a tablet and using that with the pencil or paintbrush? That should yield some very nice results.

You've got a bright future ahead of you. And if you really felt invested in this project, I recommend learning to animate proficiently in FBF and coming back to this project, redraw it all and animate it with characters that have arms, legs, and such. But, you don't have to do that of course.

Keep practicing, and you'll get great.

- Mystical Chocobo

Score: 10

"A Shining Example of Animation"

submission: Tarboy

date: September 1, 2009

It has been a very, very long time since I saw a short subject animation that is so well written, animated, and presented. Not since Waterlollies has an animation enthralled me so much.

The story itself was highly fascinating. It was quite original, and it being told either with the song or without any music or speaking was a very bold idea, as that could, if not done with great effort, turn out sloppy. However, this is not the case. It is clear that you men tried, and boy, did you succeed. The story was one of the best I've heard in a very long time.

The general look of the characters was extremely well done. The character's designs spoke for the characters, proving an excellent story telling device as characters wouldn't need any sort of description beyond what the eye can see. The backgrounds also apply to this comment, each one of them fitting superbly in with the situation.

The animation could very well speak for itself, but I'll speak for it because this is a review. This is a great example of how Flash can be used to save time with animation and still make something fantastic. Rigging all of the robots worked very well, since robots have that stereotypical movement. They moved fluidly without any rough frames. Tarboy, being the only non-robotic thing, was animated frame-by-frame, what I believe to be the true way to animate. Well, James Lee, you did a splendid job with that. He moved with fluidity, grace, and the acting present in the animation was nothing short of fabulous.

Lastly, might I say, Hania's music was really quite amazing. It fully immersed me in the world of Tarboy, making me unable to turn off my browser. The two of you, James Lee and Hania, are now among my favorite artists for this incredible piece of work.

I am extremely excited for Tarboy II. Keep up the phenomenal work,

- Mystical Chocobo

Score: 10

"Whoa. Did not expect that....."

submission: Saturday Morning Watchmen

date: March 4, 2009

I didn't expect the quality of this to be so high. When I saw the small preview image on the front page, I expected it to be well drawn, but move really crappily (yeah, I know it's not a word.....). I was wrong.

First off, as I expected, it was very well drawn. Everybody was extremely recognizable.

Second, as animation goes, it was really great. Everything flowed great and the flash didn't shit itself and die and many find themselves doing. It did quite the opposite in fact, I was really impressed.

Third, when it comes to making it a Saturday morning cartoon, perfect execution. I'm a huge Watchmen fan, and you really nailed parodying everything. Especially with The Comedian "trying to get that kiss" I was really wondering how that would get played off.

It was a well written, well drawn, and well animated short. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your animations.

Great job!

- Mystical Chocobo (long story about why my display name is DoubleRaz)

Score: 10

"Fantastic"

submission: Little Aviator

date: December 14, 2008

You've outdone yourself, really.

I've been watching your flashes since you first joined Sheezyart, and I was one of your first watchers. You started as a decent animator, but you've really created a high quality piece of fantastic animation.

The animation is amazingly smooth, I was extremely impressed by that. I really have no more to say on that, it's just great.

The art was very appropriate for the subject matter, it was simple, but very nice.

The story was very touching, and very well voice acted, my compliments to the actors.

I really couldn't say much for each section of my review, just because nothing really needed to be said, it was all too good to be able to critique, even if it's all compliments.

I await more of your works,

- Mystical Chocobo

Score: 9

"A Very Nice Effort!"

submission: Mario-Combat

date: November 30, 2008

While I normally do not approve of non-custom sprites, I need to make an exception for this.

This game was very well programmed, during play, I found no bugs.

The art, while not custom as I could see, was very good. The levels were well laid out and it did feel like a Mario game.

The combat did only center around one button, and it did feel repetitive at times, but when you are in the heat of battle against multiple opponents, you didn't notice that you were pulling the same button combination over and over again.

I do have a few criticisms though, which prevented a 10/10 rating from me. For one, jumping between platforms was more difficult that it should have been, the jump was a bit too sensitive. On top of that, the score count didn't fit in with the rest of the game, by that, I mean simply how the number was presented. I felt it really should have been in a pixilized font. The camera also moved a bit too much, though I noticed you added it for a more "extreme" feel, which it did accomplish.

All in all, you've made a great game, I loved Pen License, and now this, I really can't wait to see what gems you will bring in 2009.

Thank you, and keep making things in Flash!

- Mystical Chocobo

Score: 9

"A great effort!"

submission: Panda Fight

date: November 27, 2008

You did a very nice job with this flash! I have to say, you seem to really have tried make something with some good, old fashioned, senseless violence. And you really pulled it off.

I gave a 9/10 rather than a 10/10 for one reason, it got a little TOO frantic at times. I was having a bit of trouble making sense of some of the things happening because it was too frantic.

Other than that, you have made a great flash! I hope to see more of your submissions in the future.

Score: 10

"Fantastic Flames!"

submission: Tutorial - 'Flames 2'

date: November 25, 2008

There are many fire tutorials on Newgrounds, but none of really had well drawn, well animated flames. Until yours came along.

You flames are well drawn and very well animated! Not to mention that you clearly explain how to draw each individual frame, even someone like me who is a bit learning impaired found this easy to follow.

Great job, and I hope to see more of your tutorials in the future.

- Mystical Chocobo

Score: 1

"Sprite Sheets are a no go"

submission: MK vs DCU

date: November 20, 2008

I'm sorry, but I don't approve of anything that has stolen sprites in it. I have no problem if you have custom sprites though. You seem to have some animation skill, why not better use it by making something either more original or with custom sprites? If you did, It would most definately get a higher rating from me.

Score: 10

"Quite a Step Up"

submission: Spaceman Bobs Time Apple

date: September 8, 2008

First off, great job Gerkinman.

It's humor was different from what you normally do, which has a tendency to be very dirty, sometimes I find that funny, but I think you pulled this off better than you normally do.

The new art style is really nice, I'm a huge fan of it, and, it's perfect for this kind of movie.

The plot was pretty imaginative, an apple that let's you travel through time? Brilliant. Ridiculous enough to be interesting, but not so ridiculous that it's just silly.

The animation was a little lacking though at times, normally, it was very well animated, especially the backrounds, which have a noticeable amount of detail in them. But the character animations sometimes seemed like this was an animatic, rather than an animation.

Still, all in all, I thought you really made flash, I can't wait for the next one.

- Mystical Chocobo

Score: 6

"Hmmm......"

submission: Shinigami ATTACK!!!

date: June 23, 2008

The animation was great, however, I know that those are not custom sprites. And it was a rather unoriginal concept, hell, anything with anime is mostly unoriginal.

But still nice job.