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keepwalking
I create beautiful tragedies

Age 37, Male

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Argentina

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What for...

Posted by keepwalking - April 25th, 2010


So I just submitted my last animation, and I must admit I was pretty excited about it, I spend 3 months, improved the animation, quality and edition of almost everything. I wasnt expecting any big reward from it, but being recieved nicely. I feel kinda dissapointed that this last work had an even lower score than my previous one, wich had more crappy graphics and animation, and being roughly criticized. Makes me wonder, what is the key for making good animations?. Im probably forgeting about the story, because after all its an entertainment...but what about all those pure fighting animations?( like stickfights), most of them dont even have a backstory and they become rapidly popular.
Watching the score lowering down gets more frustrating every day. and makes me wanna quit animating...but I know that wont happend because i will come back eventually...
What do you guys think about it?...should I give more importance to the story?, should I make stick animations?....should I quit everything?... :/

Just to clear out everything before you make a comment about this. Im not complaining about the way newgrounds rate my animations! im just wondering why I cant improve on them.


Comments

stickfights is like mario or sonic or hentai gallery
if you wanna more score put boobs or vaginas, or sprites (of mario and sonic)
if yu wanna improve the time of the animation, and put sounds :F

nah, I wont get that low :)

People really don't see the beauty of stick figure animation. If you really think you deserve higher because your characters are more complex than a stick figure, then try and make a stick fight and see how well you do. There's a style and certain way about stick figure animations that just makes people like them.
The overly serious, highly heavy-spaced, anime-esque animation doesn't gain much of a user-base I'm afraid. With what you've got going for you I'd really suggest trying to make some sort of story and build character interest, or just try to improve your animation quality.

Im not agains stick animations. In fact I quite enjoy them. I repeat, Im just trying to understand why is one better than the other.
Thanks for your advices! :P

WELCOME TO NEWGROUNDS!

Indeed :)

ok.. i think u have a whole lot of skill but.. ur not doin it right... yeah i kno im just a random emo kid who knoz nothing about animating.. but for example GUN & SWORD by xarugas03 is somthing i think you could do, like somthing like tht. fast paced and beast. i think uve got what it takes, but ur just doin it wrong.. the slowmo stuff is ok.. but the brutal fastpaced awsumness its what most ppl r looking for. and i think uve got what it takes. yeah a story could help but GUN & SWORD didnt have one, and its one of my fav vids on newgrounds. so u kno u can just dis on wat i just sed or u can read it and take it 2 heart and try, dont give up. uve got skills, skills tht i wish i had. so thx 4 reading...

- 95jas

Many true things. I will think twice before making an animation now. mabye plan a more accurate script....

Thanks :)

Well the graphics are kinda sketchy. Some people might like it, some people won't.

It's obvious that you understand quite well how to animate in Flash, and you seem to have picked up some animation tricks from anime.

However, you need more practice in drawing people. Study anatomy a bit, and when you draw people, add a bit more detail to make them appear more human-like.

What killed your score, though, was that the action was too slow. Too much slow motion stuff. Slowmo is great for special maneuvers, like dodging, etc., or to punctuate action sequences. You shouldn't make basically all of the animation slow like that. The bulk of the action needs to be real-time fast-paced stuff.

I think the last thing you pointed out is the most clear one. Now I see I went wrong at avoiding the real action sequences. Though its kinda hard to make fbf fights...think about perspective, body wheigh...I will see what I can do :P

Well I've always liked your work.

And I really really appreciate that :)

One of the problems you might be having is that you are making animations that are a little in the other side of real interest. People that are accustom to watching animation and related sorts are looking for the limited logic of the world around them and the limitations of their physical abilities. How they fight is good as far as it goes, but if you add the more brutality of the real life into the fight then it gets intense and interesting. Like luck never really working out for then, "the random shot through Achilles' heel, inducing his defeat."
We one fights and he is being torn up by the battle and can hardly go on. If you are unable to create voices in the animation, then I suggest trying to take out all subtitles in it. Use the actions, expressions, motions, emotions, thoughts, memories, pictures, illustrations, sight, etc to do all of the talking. It shows a kind of style that grabs people attentions to their interest. Trying to think of reasons to what happened, the origins of their problems and why they started in the first place will show the cleverness of the anime all together. The errors of their life, foes that surpass their abilities in every way, but are able to be defeated by ceded knowledge of their thoughts and actions to outsmart them in some unpredictable way. Also making the plot unique and different than anyone has ever made is important so everyone would want to see something truly new and original.
These kind of traits are what you should learn to master to create a amazing animation that everyone will adore, and become the top anime in existence.

yes, there are flashbacks in mi vovies, but I guess they are not that clear for everyone, or mabye they are not comunicating precicely what I want. Also the expresions were thought to comunicate the feelings of the charachters. The slow motion action is what i think that went wrong ( like everyone is pointing out), Though you are mentioning some good aspects of the story that i should include on my fufutre works.

Thanks a lot :)

Stick fights are very simple and down to the point the kind of trait that amuses simple minded people that don't know any better. You kind of made a animation related in that kind of style with the wrong kind of logic with the story and I believe that is why not enough people enjoyed the video. Although this is all solely on my opinion, all that really matters is what you believe is the right thing to do.

I belive you are right when saying " I used some kind of style with the wrong logic". It was clear that i misunderstood the way fight animations are shown.

Thanks :)

Well, that's newgrounds for you. I know EXACTLY how you feel on this one, believe me, it's happened to me on alot of my previous animations. Just keep working hard man, and NEVER quit, if this is something you have a passion for it's not worth giving up.

I wont quit, dont worry :)

keep it up you too! :)

The goal of all art is interest.

...and self satisfied by your work?

in my opinion, you have a lot of style, and i personally, have always enjoyed the sort of sketchy rough-handed look, which i think you do quite well, but the actual fight sequences were not good. as others have said, it was much too slow, but also, it lacked the dynamic flare that makes the audience think, "WOW! that was cool." there wasn't much actual character movement. the character was often standing still or frozen in mid-jump while slashing. the slashing itself looked very wooden and ungraceful. a good fighting animation has alot of action and movement, characters flying and performing visually stunning techniques that will surprise and excite the viewer. more importantly, there needs to be tension. don't let the character win so easily, draw out the fight, have the tables turn a few times. just when all hope seems lost, the character manages to pull off some incredible stunt and press the offensive. this sort of thing makes a fight interesting to watch. watch a wrestling match. what makes it interesting is, you never know what might happen and the fights are intense. one moment, the person you're cheering for is surely going to win, but then, the referee gets knocked out and the cheating wrestler you hate pulls out a chair. this is the sort of physical drama necessary for a good fight sequence.

my suggestion, choreograph the fight scene with stick figures first then try to recast the stick fight using your current style. try to make the movements flow better, more naturally. give your characters a greater range of movement. flips and cartwheels and other gymnastics are a nice way to add some flavor to a fight animation. mostly, what people look for in a good fight is fast-paced action and stunning visual effects. think of a Jet Li or Jackie Chan movie.

as for story, i don't think you need much more story than what you have. this isn't really a story-driven animation. its a short fight. all we need to know is who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. after that, we just sit back and watch the battle unfold. if this was a long series of shorts that build on each other, yes, of course you focus on story, but it isn't.

anyway, hope it helps. you are a very gifted animator, all you need is to keep going, keep perfecting, and you'll see those high scores you want.

yes, I guess your review pointed out the most important flaw on my movie, and everything went around that flaw like a domino. While I was animating my last work I was literally exhausted from making all those fbf movements, I had so many conditions and rules in my head ( like perspective, body wheigh, smooth moovments, angles, shadows), that I shorten up a little bit and simplify many of the action movments with tween animation. You will say thats lazy, but you would be wrong, it was verry hard, and most of the time It was trial and error.
anyway, I should check this points out to improve on my future works.
Thank you a lot for your coment :)

left a review

Thank you a lot! :D

(and answered your review )

if it makes you feel any better, I've had similar things happen with me, and im certain a lot of other animators on this site feel your pain. You did something that was a little darker then most, and darker more serious work generally gets judged more harshly. Know that you improved and made something you personally felt satisfied with and keep going from there.

keep it up man! anything is lost :)

ignore the scores

Its so easy to say that :D
I will try though :P

I use to program myself, even made a few submissions a around 7 years ago. The pinnacle of my skill would limit me to sprite animations... You have an amazing potential. Your art work is beautiful. I see some people saying its sketchy.. Sketch is a form of art.... I give you animations a 10 for art, 10 for presentation, and 10 for suitable SFX and music.. and I don't really listen to the music that you used often... Like you said yourself your biggest draw back is you lack story... on a side note. people who are complaining about fighting being to short, or the scenes seeming so simple for the hero to over come. I personally enjoy that, You placed in (what I get from it at least) an eastern realism of violence. Which newgrounds submissions usually overkill the violence. You performed it elegantly, Unrefined I can admit, but your potential truly is limitless... back to the story point.. If your goal truly is to just waste your skills on making stick fighter grade story boards for your animations, then your going about it wrong. When you present us your animation Final Fight your showing us the last two episodes from a series we never viewed. Your characters have pasts. You can not under any circumstance throw in a Dynamic character into a Static realm. Which is what you did.
Not only do I enjoy your artwork but I readily await your upcoming works. If you feel as though you were judged unjustly by rating, (I've read some of the comments that were low scores, and they were unjust in my opinion.) You could go on a redemption path, and Fill us in on the characters pasts. Show us why all of this happened. I guarantee with your skill, you will own the front page if you run a pre final fight series. I wouldn't mind if you told me what program you use either XD my programs can't compete with yours.... I use OBB and VB tools. XD I look forward to seeing your feed back on my post.

well, Ill be honest, the low scores trully made me fell down and frustrated, but I know its, most of all, because I was willing to improve my previous work. I have to admit aswell that the fighting style didnt fit verry good, the slow motion takes just bored people, and I didnt see that verry well when I was making the movie. Just imagine all that planing, all that concentration on making the frame by frame animations look good, coloring, shadowing, timing, realistic jumps, making use of perspective! ( if you pay atention to the camera on the "epic run" its done with perspective, that means that the foot aproches to the camera when it comes back, and then it moves away ) you dont even know how much studying I had to do to learn that XD
Although I really thank you for your support, I will continue making animations, and this time I promise to improve on every single work from now on. I will give priority to the story this time, and there will be no violence at all ( im kinda done with fights :P)
I will think about the brothers past, its verry intresting, but at this moment Ill make a drama short with a complete new story and charachters ( less anime-ish)
Programs I use...?...just flash! :D

I can't wait to see your new works. Its also nice to find a flash writer who replies to my posts. XD rare sight indeed.
I noticed your perspective vantage points, that's why I was so impressed by your video. Your a real artisan. As long as you keep your art scheme dark, and your story good. You can't fail on this site. XD Good luck with your drama short, can't wait to see it.
Don't forget a lot of your critics are just viewers, who don't create themselves. They don't understand how long it takes to create something as short as a 30 second flash animation; without sfx. Let alone a fully dialoged, 5 minutes hand drawn sketch animation. The hours if not weeks poured into such a think should at least give a minimum score of 7 XD

Thanks a lot again, your coments are verry supportive :)

I love your art dude a prince loves your art omg!

hehe, thanks :D

ur artwork is awesome but not ur animations. ur artwork and ur animations are on completely different levels? i dnt get it but lookin at ur flashes i think u should focus addin more frames focus more on fludity of movement. a good way to get better is to put on ur favorite animated film and pause that sucker with every move the animator makes and try to copy it. that way u see just what it took to make it move.

good advices...

Thanks :)

Well, hey, you shouldn't feel too bad. Yesterday your latest art piece had a 7.26/5.

XD

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