Score: 10

"SUMMON THE ELDER!!!"

submission: A Short Flash about Clams

date: August 19, 2008

This is the kind of flash I love. It doesn't matter if you have no idea what is going on; as long as it kicks ass it kicks ass. That and the animation style was great.

Score: 10

"Liquid sweetness."

submission: Christmas Isn't Safe

date: August 15, 2008

Thnx u Sir may I has anuther plz?

Score: 6

"Pretentious. Boring technique. Unexpressed symbol"

submission: Then I Run

date: July 21, 2008

-ism. But great animation. (cont from title)

The title pretty much says it. I am practically a prostitute for surreal cinema, and the great thing about surreal cinema is it doesn't need reality to make express emotions. This animation was a little empty. Obviously there is more to this kid then meets the eye, and I am not asking that you TELL US what it is but that you make us FEEL what it is instead of simply showing us that it is dark and twisted.

Imagine your symbolic imagery as pieces of a puzzle, and the image of the puzzle being the emotion you are trying to express. Your puzzle pieces should not so obviously give away the nature of the image in the puzzle (not if you want to be effective and surreal), instead they should only give away the image when taken in their totality, and arranged in juxtaposition. In this case then the message should be clear.

Let's discuss some of your techniques:
Tea party dolls barfing black stuff.
Kid and a ghost sitting above liquid darkness.
Loop of kid tearing his face open (looped).
Kid seeing twisted image of himself.

These are just some, but they seem to have the same note, but do not lead to any coherent conclusion other then the same note they all share. This really makes them amount to nothing more then techniques you simply thought would expressed this one, simple note.

Anyone can make an animation with surreal imagery that expresses one simple note, that is most definately not the appeal of surreal imagery, however. The appeal arises when these images intertwine to create something bigger and more powerful: a statement.

Your images alone hold all the power and because of that there is nothing beyond them. When the pieces are put together the puzzle turns out to be nothing that wasn't already shown on every piece of it... it's a boring puzzle...

The score I am giving to you is for a combination of both your animation (which was good, except for only the loops which I found to be a little boring) and the fact that you at least attempted something more then the countless hordes of Super Mario Parodies, which alone is immensely respectable, to say the least.

Score: 10

"Especially loved the facial expressions."

submission: It's Over Nine-Thousand!

date: June 24, 2008

If I could give this over niNE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAND/10 I doubt anyone would be able to resist.

I started lol'ing from 'Vegeta, what does the scouter...' onwards, and didn't stop until the abrupt (yet perfect) ending.

Flawless.

Score: 10

"Wow."

submission: Rambo2: First Slug

date: June 21, 2008

I started lmao'ing right from 'heavy machine gun!' all the way until the end. For what it was, it was great.

Score: 5

"TheWeebl = Front page."

submission: Lost Titles

date: April 18, 2008

Unfortunately TheWeebl does not always = great.

My rating is for the song, since the images you are not responsible for. It isn't bad, but it isn't too good either, so I feel 5 is an appropriate score.

Score: 10

"I swear:"

submission: Charlie the Unicorn 2

date: April 15, 2008

I crapped myself when I saw this on the front page.

This made it to front page before it even passed judgment...

..and rightly so.

I must say: You are a God among animators.

Score: 10

"DeadDuck..."

submission: Mastermind 5

date: April 15, 2008

Your animations never cease to amaze me. Don't you ever dare quit.

Score: 10

"KK > All."

submission: [KK] Happy Birthday Green

date: April 14, 2008

Green is indeed a lucky human being to have so much <3.

Score: 2

"Short."

submission: Stable Boy Chapter 1

date: April 14, 2008

You knew the second you hit the 'Publish' button in Adobe Flash what everyone's main complaint about your little animation was going to be.

It was far too short. If you aren't bothering to give your flash 100% then why should I bother voting anything higher than a 1?

Ill give some constructive criticism: The little 'camera pan' at the beginning looked very awkward, since they were moving but the mountain and the grass was not (it made it look like they were just gliding across the screen).

Also, when the stable boy pulls out his sword, the glow coming out of his eyes and mouth looks very bad. Try not just using a triangle with an alpha gradient. Instead, try using the glow and blur filter.

Lastly, when he is flying towards the enemy, the wavy lines twitching around him look very silly. Try making the animation of him flying towards the enemy a little faster and throw in some closer angles in there.

The animation was not horrible, it was actually alright when he pulls out his sword, but you just need to work on the effects.