Score: 7

"Nice concept"

submission: Sugar Plum Penguins

date: July 22, 2008

Very cute, very adorable. The high frame rate and nice use of motion guides really gave the animation a smooth and classic feel, and your drawing skills have improved quite a bit during your practice.

But the aspect I feel most inclined to praise you for is your concept. Too many users don't think about a script before beginning an animation project, but your had a very nicely thought out script that ultimately worked out to be sweet. True, there was a point or two where I didn't exactly understand what each character was thinking, but at least there was constant motion that was nicely timed to the music.

All in all, a good job.

Score: 1

"Akatsuki? "Sunrise?""

submission: Akatsuki Chronicles Ep.2

date: July 9, 2008

-Little to no actual animation
-Music that was too loud
-Unoriginal, overused characters
-Little attention payed to script writing
-Zero voice acting
-Tenuous grasp of standard drawing techniques

All these are characteristics of animators who have not practiced enough, and by the looks of this animation, you need more practice.

Now I know I may sound harsh; you're probably new to flash or are 13 or both (since Naruto is predominately enjoyed by 13 year olds). My point still stands: you should practice for a long time on your own before you try submitting things. When I first got flash, I had the advantage of already being able to draw, but it still took me a long time to get anywhere near good enough to make something I was proud enough of to submit to Newgrounds. I made dozens of test animations that only myself and a few friends ever saw, and now I have an animation with a score over 4.0.

It's not a hunch, it's truth: a lot of practice is required before anyone gets good with anything artistic. Flash is no different. Sit down, draw for 6 months straight, and then try again. If you're not ready after 6 months of continuous hard work, I'll eat my hat.

Score: 6

"Cool idea"

submission: Dancing Tumors

date: June 27, 2008

Yup, that's pretty much exactly how that recording session went. Tumors showed up and magic happened.

It's a nice idea. Maybe not the best executed, but it shows some promise. The lip synching actually wasn't too bad, especially for the spoken word interludes.

But, my curiosity gets the better of me: how ever did you come up with the idea of tumors singing my song?

Score: 5

"A little rhythmically spaztic."

submission: Burning Heart [Hardcore]

date: October 7, 2007

Well, an interesting work. I will definitely give it that. It would make a nice backdrop to a very action packed sequence in a game both because of it's high tempo and classic, almost 16-bit, instrumentation. The instrumentation before the tempo change was a little contrived sounding, and didn't really serve to draw me into the piece. But that improved after the tempo change to the 190 BPM section with the addition of a driving percussion section and a synthesized descant that served as the melody for the remainder of the song.

Now, the descant, while melodically fitting, felt a little rhythmically spaztic to me and my percussion-trained ears. I can't descern a very clear or standard accent pattern in the descant, which just overall gives the piece the feeling of being slapped together. I am sure that this is just my interpretation due to years of rhythmical training, and that the normal person wouldn't listen with such detail to the lack of precise accents. But I just couldn't tell what pattern was being attempted. In particular, at the end of the patern, there's an accent pattern that starts out in straight tripplets, but then ends the last accent slightly behind the beat, ending the phrase in sixteenth note tripplets. Even the opening accent patern, seemingly trying to accomplish a straight "1 + a" feeling, is slightly behind the beat and slurred beyond ordinary recognition.

Again, I know that this nitpicking of interpretation of rhythm is something that will not be covered by many reviewers out there. But my main point of nit picking the accent pattern is that the lack of a clear pattern gives the descant a general feeling of being behind the beat. And this clashes with the other instruments, which play on the front of the beats to keep the pulse driving. So, with the drum track pushing time, and the descant dragging it, the piece just has a certain sense of conflicting with itself and tearing apart.

But it is a nice piece, especially when the descant isn't playing: a nice chord progression, good accent patterns in the other instruments, and nice choice of instrumentation overall. It's just this descant that makes the drummer in me cringe because the piece doesn't feel solid and together.

Score: 8

"I hear the inspiration"

submission: Canton's Theme

date: August 5, 2007

I can definitely hear the Danny Elfman inspiration. What really gives it that feel is the bass line going "middle up down up," which gives the whole thing a bit of a circus feel. And the melody also is pretty on with his style. A little different resolution in the chord progression, but, like, having the strings playing that descant up top near the end is really good.

And the synth you used is quite good. The instrumentation was awesome. All in all, I think you accomplished what you set out to do.

Score: 6

"Little too much distortion."

submission: At home

date: July 19, 2007

It was a nice track, and I liked the melody. There was just too much distortion for my taste. It's like you turned your input for the bass way too high, which causes it to spike when it doesn't need to. The parts without the distortion are great, though. Especially the part that sounds kinds like a guitar.

The drums are also very good; it sounds like a real set being played. Too bad the distortion also drowns them out for most of the song.

So I suggest taking down the distortion. Let me know if you do that, 'cause I really like this track.