Luis's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Oxbow Lakes]

I hate how catchy these fucking songs are. I can picture myself whistling it later on today.
It was a cute little movie, the lip synching was sharp, the sound was high quality, the song looped seemlessly, and the art style was refreshing.
I am curious as to if you had a system of when you used a thick outline and when not. Like in the movie projector bit, why does that particular shot have a thin outline? Was that intentional? I'm splitting hairs here, but someone may as well go through the animation with a fine tooth comb.
I wish the part where hes whispering in the boy's ear, you could see some of the kid's eye, i feel with as much emphasis you had on the kids absorbing the professors information, you coulda have gotten more bang for your buck in that particular composition.

TLDR. I favorited it.

[The Minecraft - Matrix]

Not really a fan of minecraft, OR the matrix, but i enjoyed this animation thuroughly. The voice acting was spot on, the pacing was comfortable, and it really made me wonder just how similar minecraft and the matrix are. I guess in regards to criticism. I found some of the camera choices to be strange in some parts. like where he's chopping things up. Some of them are great, others not much, they dont really do much for the scene imo.

great work!

[Meanwhile, at Adobe]

i was impressed with the butt animation, you must know someone or have a juicy butt of your own.

[A Nightly Problem]

Fun little short, I guess since you wanted lip synching practice I'd give you more feedback on that. I think that you actually make greater use of eye movement and expressiveness with the brain than the human. Even though the brain doesnt even have pupils. I think the lip synch itself was fine but its only half the battle, you can do alot of expression with eye contact and eyebrow and facial expression. I kinda wished the guy had more going on as he recieved information. Like maybe when the brain is talking, the guy is more fixated on what he was doing on the computer before he was interrupted, so hes just kinda half paying attention to him and half seeing what brain wants. I found that first scene a little dry on chemistry.

Lookin forward to your next short

dylan responds:

Thanks, man; it's always great to get a legitimate review of the content.

I felt my main problem with the human was that I didn't do anything special with the voice/dialogue. As one of my first ventures into any form of voice acting, I didn't emote through him as well as I could have. I felt this really limited my options with him in the end, whereas the brain had some, relatively speaking, well done lines that allowed for greater visual expression.

I definitely liked what you said about adding in more content for he guy between lines, as his part felt a bit dry to me as well. Thanks again for the advice, I'll keep all this in mind for the next time I work on a short that has dialogue!

[Alive (NATA Finals)]

I usually dont like alot of dialogue in animations I like. I did end up enjoying this at the end. It took a few tries to get through it. I think its slow to get going at the beginning. Dont know if its too chatty or stalls too much, I think the real milk in the titts of this movie late in the movie.

Execution wise, I was used to more polish from your past stuff. Not sure how much of that was experimental and how much was pressed for time, or how much of it was mistake(?). Either way, some stuff felt rough. Some walk cycles didnt have the charm you usually breathe into your characters.

Would have liked to see more experimenting on handling characters that have alot of drapery to them. Felt like Death would have been a cool character to animate and experiment some neat fabric handling. I did like and DO like your constant desire to push your frame by frame stuff. Hopefully you take that with you on your adventures beyond NATA.

I wont address the sound issues, though i DO think that still falls on the animator to work out. At the end of the day its your piece and you just gotta figure out ways of making the sound compliment your work and not hinder it.

Lookin forward to more stufff

[Transit]

Really enjoyed it. I think it actually makes for a good final. One entry has alot of dialogue one has none. It'll be interesting how the judges even go about it. I liked the movie, I think it did well interpreting the fork in the road both literally and from a decision making standpoint.

I think I was most suprised by the change in style. Works really well, and I like the tenacity to experiment. I didnt like how the driver driving was rendered. Felt sloppy compared to the seemless walk cycles and floppy feet and other intricacies.

Nice work, I have a special place in my heart for animations driven by purely music. Typography was purtty too.

Emrox responds:

Thanks man! It's good to hear whenever someone picks up on those little details you're proud of.

[Too Scared to Piss]

Good work. I really hate my peripheral visionnn. why must you remind me.

[Also Too Scared To Poop]

I really hate it when that happens.

[Too Scared To Poop!]

Good work! The story was clear fun and it all worked well. plus it had poop in it so you cant go wrong. Nice teamworkx

[Until It's Gone]

I liked it. Overall, I like that you really push yourself in these NATA things to experiment. I think that's the real value of this sort of competition. Its less about being the champion of all animators in the universe or whatever, its just to really test yourself and try new things with the added pressure of a brutal deadline.

As for this particular piece. I found the animation conservative. Dont know if its because the change in style or not, but I kind of like the crudeness of your earlier work. I think it feels more honest and 'human'. Which is hypocritical considering i just said how much i like the experimentation, but yea! The characters felt stiff sometimes. They were animated well, they just didnt have as much personality as I'm used to.

You have some pretty shots in there though. Pulling away to goto work. That whole bus scene with the birds disappearing and stuff. Really smart, well thoughtout shots. Good work!

Oh I kinda felt that you didnt need dialogue at all in it. It feels strange when it makes its appearance late in the movie. I think as a viewer youre already well aware of whats going on that the whole relationship with his boss, the paperwork and that conversation feels unnecessary. You already expressed the passing of time and the paperwork disappearing visually just fine. The whole no dialogue as he leaves home and as he runs into his kid again has alot of power behind it, i think the whole conversation bit slugs it up.