Score: 7

"I can tell why people love it"

submission: :the Composer:

date: September 20, 2007

To start with the positive, i really liked the way you drew and animated the flash. It is a step up compared to paladin and your style starts to feel look pretty professional. The way the strokes were drawn and the good tweening even reminded me of Xombie and that is a big compliment. A few parts were still a bit awkward though, with the arguing silhouettes of the parents looking more like stick figures rather than real proportionate people, or the tiny cars next to the sidewalk.

Since so many people love this flash for it's serious message and content, i thought i'd write a review for it from a slightly other perspective. To be honest, i didn't think it was that special or profound, especially since there are a huge number of cliche scenes and shallow characters that ask a bit too explicit for the viewer's pity. Arguing parents, loner boy with talent, Rise/Fall and a simple moral is not something we haven't seen a lot before. The thing that annoyed me the most though is how there is never really any development and how each scene just passes to reveal the disney ending.

Like the 9/11 flash 'i miss you daddy' that everyone loves, it is a bit too melodramatic and in your face. In my experience, younger people are easily affected by this type of imagery, while adults like to form their own judgement about what's happening and who deserves pity and who doesn't. A good dramatic short contains characters that have weaknesses as well as strengths and that don't drown in self pity, but gradually conquer the viewers hearts while the movie passes. A good recent example is the brilliant movie Babel, with awesome deep characters that we can both love and hate at the same time.

Like i said, this is my take on the flash and the drama genre in general. It is by no means more true or false than the ones of the people who love it, but perhaps you can experiment/do something with it in one of your future films.

AITD

Score: 3

"Didn't like it"

submission: Star Wars: The Rebels

date: August 14, 2007

When i saw the visual style of this movie and the anime like characters, i was expecting this to be a comedy. But the joke never came and instead, a very strange cliche message appeared in the ending scene.
I have absolutely no idea why that was there, but you can not expect people to feel empathy for a few seconds of animation where cartoony characters get shot in space. Why should we? They don't have any depth to them and the reason they fight for freedom doesn't immediately mean we should feel sorry. It is your responsibility not only as an animator, but also as a director, to capture the hearts of the viewer. A task that goes beyond writing 3 pretentious textlines near the end, but instead it should involve deepening out the story, characters, concept and atmosphere.
I hope you will find some pointers in this review. It is in no way intended to simply bash this movie, but relying solely on your animating talent isn't gonna cut it when you want to make a profound movie with a message

Score: 8

".... varicolored"

submission: The Stranger Forest

date: June 26, 2007

Hmm well it's hard for to judge this animation. There were alot of things i like about it and some things i didn't.

I read in some reviews that some users are put off by the anime style you used for the characters. I read it wasnt your intention to make them in anime style, but i did find them rather strange looking compared to the fantastical backgrounds you used throughout the movie. In fact i had that on more occasions, for example when the style suddenly switched from minimal linestrokes to detailed environments in the beginning. I always try to be really careful with changes in style during an animation and only use them when its really needed, but i couldnt find a good reason for the change here.
I think that in this aspect, 'where do clams come from' was better. Maybe thats just me and others did like the changes in style.

What i did think was very good was the way you visualized your vivid imagination. Captivating, surreal and pretty funny at points. The animation was gorgeous, i was especially impressed by the way you animated the cat. The forest was drawn very nicely also, but it was a bit of a contrast with the rather bland cityscapes. Maybe that could be a good thing looking at it from an emotional perspective, but i think a consistent eye for detail would have fit more.

Still, all my kudos r belong to you. In the end you made a pretty original fantastical and captivating animation that is a great addition to the rest of your work. I can't imagine how much time was put into this, but it really was all worth it.

Keep up the good work!

AITD

Score: 10

"Well that's it..."

submission: -Seven-

date: June 19, 2007

I simply have to put you on my favorite author list. You just keep doing your own thing and leave me very impressed after every single animation.

I think you have really achieved your own style and even though alot of your animations differ greatly from each other, they are all 100% 'dustball'. Original, light hearted and technically impressive also. There isn't a lot i can still add after my last review and i don't think there is a lot of critique besides minor technical improvements that can really help you as an artist. Just keep experimenting/making stuff and you'll perhaps get very far.

Somewhere in the future i am going to organize a collab and i am looking for some diverse creative people i admire to do a small part for it. So far it's only me and luis yet, but I would be honored if you would do a part for it. I can send you some details if you want, since i think it's quite a cool concept, but it isnt going to happen anytime in the very near future, so no rush.

Keep rocking!

AITD

Score: 7

"Pretty good"

submission: 5 Busy Shapes

date: January 18, 2007

I've always admired your work. It's alot different than mine, but the fun and passion you put in your pieces really projects back to the viewers.

The reason i think you are a great artist is because you don't have any remarkable animating talent in the traditional sense, but you compensate that completely with the creativite mind you posses. Your work is rotoscoped, claymated, drawn or photographed and all these different techniques make your portfolio very rich. It's awesome how you create your own music and the way you synchronise it with the animation. I always have the feeling that i watched something complete and cool in alot of aspects after seeing one of your animations, instead of the disappointed feeling i have when i see another one of the well drawn but empty content animations. Fuck drawing perfect walk cycles and godly explosions when most animators can't even come up with a solid basic idea or concept to use these in.

I think you can still improve alot on the technical aspects, such as the way you model your clay characters or draw the environments, but all these things will come naturally in time and practise. Keep on making these original pieces! They are really inspirational.

AITD

Score: 6

"Nice attempt"

submission: Warriors of Aidoios - P2

date: January 8, 2007

Nice attempt at making an action short. The photographs you made and edited were beautiful and the setting was very atmospheric.

However, while watching this episode and the previous one, i felt like you don't really know the opportunities and limitations of Flash and stopmotion yet. Making a Kill Bill like action flick isn't the best idea to translate into a stopmotion. Personally I think the beauty in fight scenes is the fluent motion in the movements of the characters which is often more like a choreographed dance rather than a real fight. These photographs result in choppy combat that takes alot of the speed, timing and adrenaline away from the action.

Another disadvantage is that the movie is too ambitious and takes itself too seriously. I'm not saying you should make comedy movies, but it is impossible to create an epic movie with a compelling storyline if there isn't even dialogue in it or some form of character development. I'm sure the storyline looks grand in your head and you are dying to show others how great this is, but the chosen medium and technique and perhaps your current skill and the lack of a budget won't allow you to fully convince the viewer yet.

I'm a sucker for stopmotion though and as an experiment this is quite nice, but it is nowhere near the big action movie it is pretending to be.

AITD

Score: 9

"Gorgeous"

submission: And the Birds Flew

date: December 29, 2006

That was very beautiful. More original in style, technique and themes than any other immature shit on here. Probably my favorite one of this year.

AITD

PS: I noticed a family member composed the music for you, which made it even more touching.

Score: 8

"Experiment succesful"

submission: Future

date: December 18, 2006

Great style and lighting effects. The entire thing felt like a las vegas neon sign, only in motion. I was very impressed with how you zoomed and panned through the environments with only the use of tweening. I don't think any subtle 3d would have harmed the animation, but then you couldnt have put the cool 'all done in flash' text in the description.

It started really awesome, but it was a bit disappointing to see the animation turn into a megamanlike clone in the end. Somehow only very few people on this website understand that an animation can be exciting and full of adrenaline without the obligated kamehamea's and gigantic robot end bosses.
In fact, i think the way you drew and animated the environment was alot more interesting than the simple anime characters and motorcycles that flied through them. Experimenting with an original style like this one is half of the work, but adjusting it to a good and interesting concept is the other half. And that half isn't really here yet.

However you are already halfway further than most of the people here, since they don't posses the ability to succesfully do any of the mentioned two. I think the more movies you'll make, the more personal they'll become and as a result, the more interesting they turn out. I hope to see more from you soon!

AITD

Score: 9

"Great Job"

submission: BR's Climate Chaos

date: October 26, 2006

This is an innovating flash game in so many ways. I dont think i've seen an adventure game with such an advanced graphics engine yet.

The graphics are really clean (I assume Dim drew it all) and I really think you've improved alot from the very first Another Day. I did kinda miss the 'dancing' style, but with this amount of detail it must be a pain in the ass to draw for every background & character.

What i really loved about this game is that it did capture the Another Day atmosphere perfectly. I personally always saw the Another Day series as a series that combines cute, almost childish characters and backgrounds with essential mature themes. Friendship, confusion, standing up for yourself, insecurity etc. I think the story of this game, climate change, is brilliant. It's very actual and a serious problem, but presented in a very light hearted and cool manner in this game.

The actual gameplay was very well thought out also. The inventory system worked swell and the combination keyboard/mouse never gave any problems. The camera feature is very awesome, but i haven't really discovered the use of it yet. Maybe it's because I'm only still halfway and i will need to use it later :)
My only complaint is that the objectives are a bit simple. So far it's been all about going to place A, get an object and deliver it at place B again. I think it would have been awesome if there were some small mini games in the game.

Also I think the conversation system could have been done a slight bit better. The icons in the text balloons were slickly designed, but they prevented to convey any humor or depth in the dialogue. I think if there were subtitles or something, that you could have add some more humor to the dialogue and suck the viewer a bit more into the story.

These small things prevented me from giving this a full 10, but i really loved everything else about the game nonetheless. Ever since nightmare I was looking forward to a game from you two again and this one certainly lived up to all the expectations. I just wish that we could solve the global warming problem in reality also with some magic stones :p

AITD

Score: 7

"Close to brilliant"

submission: MoreLikeBlue

date: October 12, 2006

Well, that was one of the more refreshing, entertaining animations i've seen the last couple of months.

It was awesome right from the beginning. I always like it when an artist pais careful attention to the music, voiceacting, style and concept to make something a whole. The voice acting was really well done and i had the feeling it was from someone familiar. Then i saw the credits and I saw Andy Dennis did it, which explains it. (I'm using his voice for a project too, he's awesome).

But not only the voice acting was well done, also the script and bizarre situations. And they too, felt familiar. Again i saw in the credits you used Alanthebox's music and gave him a special thanks. Thing is that the entire animation feels like something he could have done. I'm not saying this is a ripoff of his work, but i do think that the strong points of this animation, the voice acting, script and subtle randomness are pretty much the same quality as what he's been doing in the past. It makes it all a tad less original, brilliant and humorous if it's been done just as good/better before.

I still love this. In my opinion it stands with head and shoulders above most of the things submitted here. The visual style is great, with the same attention to characters, objects and backgrounds, without overexaggerating it. The sound effects were masterfully used together with the music at the right moments. It's all very clean and almost professional. This IS another aproach than what Alan does. In his stuff there is usually not too much attention to the visual aspect puts all the focus on the script and situations. It sorta gives the thing a charming aspect, so I'm not sure if the clean visual style is nescesairily something that brings something extra.

Well still great job with the animation. I read this was a webcomic first so im definitely going to check out what the comic's like. Keep up the good work in the future but also try to really give your own twist to what inspires you.

AITD