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I thought it was creepy at first but its charm won me over. I think the animation would have more depth if you add a cast shadow.

If I remember correctly, Newgrounds isnt too keen on stick figures. The staff on newgrounds is quite selective on what they want to put on their front page. So even if you have a daily first, its newground's choice if it is front page material or not. Your youtube account does have views though. A lot of new animator have a hard time getting views on youtube.

Since the guide layer is in one opaque color, you can select all the objects within the frame and click the bucket fill color and set the alpha percentage for transparency. To make this process much faster, you can set to "edit multiple frames" on your timeline and adjust your your onion skinning to select the frames you want to edit all the once. Select all the objects and set your alpha on your paint bucket fill.

I assume your new to flash so I advise you to make multiple back ups of your project because flash isnt stable.

I think the frame rate should be higher. As a design choice, I thought it is a bit distracting. Since because there is so much detail on the background, I wish there was no animation at all and just pay attention to the scrolling background. Maybe you should fade/alpha the background so my eyes can stay focus on the animating foreground. It is a really good concept though.

At 10/6/13 11:24 AM, dirtymonkeyboy wrote: I had started picking up animation a few years ago but stopped before I had really gotten anywhere. I'm in the process of scripting/researching/learning for an animation so I'm starting to retouch on some basics and practice stuff.

It's sloppy but here's a frame by frame...
clicky

I get the feeling the boiling effect (squiggly lines) was intentional but I do find it a bit distracting. Maybe lower it a bit by in-betweening more properly. If you didnt want that boiling effect, you could draw the head in one layer and just focus on animating the eyes in another layer. I find thicker lines are harder to in-between so I usually draw in 0.10 pt lines as a guide first and add the final effect later.

Back to more animating dude :)

At 10/6/13 01:37 PM, kkots wrote:

At 10/6/13 12:58 PM, Hizu wrote: I hope you realize this was posted before it had any reviews?

You mean you posted this to quickly get feedback and make fixes to your animation before the judgement was made? What was the point of asking for feedback here instantly after submitting?
I was fortunate enough to have Deshiel and a co-animator, so I sent letters to them before submitting, to know if everything was working fine for them. Only Deshiel responded, positively, and after that I submitted. My point is that you should ask friends for feedback before submitting, if you'd like to quickly fix some obvious errors that you didn't notice.

That maybe true but at the same time the review gives input from mainly casual reviewers. The forum is here is more aim for actual animators for input. Its good to have two point of views. This post might just to gather to input from another perspective and that is all. He can choose what input he wants to take in the future. I dont see a problem getting feedback whether its before or after posted. There is no problem asking feedback. It could still find good feedback that the creator didnt realize before.

Alright back to animating.

I assume your movie got blamed. You should post your video to the dumping grounds if your clips are rough animations or just not up to standards to post to the portal. The dumping grounds is here. http://www.newgrounds.com/dump

Congrats hizu for being the madness winner

At 10/1/13 06:45 PM, BabySteps wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1hM3xZfdV0

it looks smooth animation wise but the first anticipation where the character bent the knees looks unbalanced. Its like it could tip over. Maybe have the knees bend more and have the back bend less. It looks amazing afterwards because you really add emotion of your character

okay I might get killed for multi posting but I want to help. If your having trouble on the timing of your animation, you can add sound to get a sense of how long the character's action should be. I usually add placeholder sounds(adding any type of sound just for reference which is changed or removed later) to get the timing for my animation.

When I plan out my work, I always start with a storyboard first, sound second, and animation last. Second is a good indication for setting the mood and pacing for the film.

Also I like your approach of getting input. It is important to broaden your perspective of the audience and be humble. A lot of people tend to ignore this and get angry. Good luck on furthering your animation skills.

your movie does feel meh to me. The animation itself is okay. I checked out your older animations so it feels like its been the same quality. I suggest trying going back to the fundamentals. I agree with PurplePrawn and do another round of looking at the "animator's survival kit." There is a video version of "animator's survival kit" if you cant stand books like me =P.

Try working on your perspective too. For example is your 3rd scene where the BBQ dude in the foreground is drawn from the middle horizon(camera pointing in the center) while the background is drawn the high horizon(camera pointing towards the ground). I would try to keep from the low to middle horizon. Low to middle horizon is the most common used because its the most familiar angle for people. PurplePrawn also pointed has your timing lacks ease. Try adding different varied speed because the animation has systematical timing where everything seems like move at the same amount of frames.

Kamestudio has a point of adding more depth to your designs because it does look a bit flat. Adding a more defined shapes so more of sense of your characters being more grounded. Also you can try balancing your colors too because it feels inconsistent with its varied brightness. I usually add an underpainting/tint of one color and I than add the character's color lightly. The tint/underpainting is what I use to balance out the color.

Storywise I was confused about the ending. Maybe if you establish, the cat character more, it would make sense. I didnt notice the cat was sitting on the bench until I watched it twice. But than again he was probably already establish in the previous episodes so I dont really know.

At 9/22/13 03:00 PM, Jomillex wrote: Make something of quality.

ditto.
I also think newgrounds tend to not put sprite material on their frontpage.

The Transformers: The Movie (The original cartoon version)

An advice I found I got from professor and I find is very helpful

*puts up a flame shield because it might sound offensive*

Your audiences are idiots so craft your work (this can be anything from writing, art, or filming making) as idiot proof as possible unless you making an arthouse work (personal works that ignores basic direction for the audience). Because of this, pay attention to explaining every detail because the audience is too stupid to understand you.

Also another advice when it comes to feedback is to know when to sit, shut the hell up and listen. With the author speaking back at the reviewer, it would pause feedback and also direct the viewer's attention to the author and not about the topic itself. This is what happened to the topic as it's now about the OP.

As terabiter said, be humble but I would also try to urge the temptation of insulting someone's intelligence because that will also derail a topic with the uses of those punchline words. There is a great sense of unbearably because there was an insult.

But hey It’s nice to see how there are both experienced and inspiring animators, game developer, and a voice actor joining on this post. I dont think I ever seen an animation post so lively...or full of murder.

*drinks coffee and continues drawing

At 9/11/13 04:15 PM, creapsmantic wrote: Thanks an wuts the best mic to use .... i do know of the bambo tablet .. does the size matter ?

I dont have any mic experience but when I was in a film set, they use a fuzzy mic to cancel out environment noise. You should post in the Audio forum to get a better answer here http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/forum/13. As for tablet size, its based on preference. I was lucky enough to loan one at school so I know how its like. Imagine drawing a 1 inch line on the tablet and it converts to 5 inches on screen. It is adjustable though. Right now I am actually drawing on a Tablet PC.

I attempted an anime inspired film with this

• 
  Surprise Counter by KhanhCPham

  What happens when a girl gets too embarrassed

  Score

  3.86 / 5.00

  Type

  Movie

  Popularity

  68,994 Views

  Rated

  Ages 13+

I used flash for roughs and final line art toon boom. If your committed in becoming a lifelong animator, Toon Boom Animate Pro is the considered an industry standard in the western market. The program isnt cheap though.

At 9/10/13 12:32 PM, EASTBEAST wrote: Here is a short animation I was working on last month. Any feedback is appreciated.

http://eastbeastfilms.deviantart.com/art/Yoshimi-Meets-Noodles-the-Robot-396631068

I really like the cute style. The light warm color really brings out the innocence of the film. Maybe add more frames on the girl's animation loop of the hair and dress because I feel it doesnt match up the animation frames of the robot's movement.

Good job dood.

At 9/9/13 07:04 PM, Rustyhound wrote:

At 9/9/13 10:26 AM, Max-Vador wrote:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/624943
Not my best work exactly but you get the point, right!? (hopefully you do) I never got around to animating the hair on this one (it's just one extended frame), I don't know why I put the hair on a separate layer seeing as how it was all straight ahead animation. But the hair is a nice reference point to compare against my frame by frame animation, the boxer guy. (which is actually obvious, but still...just saying)

Is that animation uncomplete? I suggest posting on the dumping grounds here http://www.newgrounds.com/dump for rough works. Your animation posted on the portal might get blam. I usually lay a solid guide so I know where what lines is position. This helps me prevent boiling. Here's an example here I use a solid guide of blocks. http://khanhcpham.deviantart.com/art/animation-test-387734950. I find its actually okay copy and paste but only to a certain extend.

At 9/9/13 03:57 AM, Grub517 wrote: You can always duplicate the copied frame, and then it's completely separate from the original. And if you're a frame by frame animator, and I'm assuming you mean a tradigital approach, Toon Boom is unquestionably better to use, regardless of timeline stuff. Rough drawings are very important and vital to me, which is how I manage my proportions so well, and flash does not have the ability I require for drawing. Flash outputs drawing pathetically. But... there could be better again. I absolutely wish I could draw with a non-vector/raster brush, exactly like in photoshop. With variable line emphasis/opacity. Perfect for sketches.

Alright now there is a discussion going. I heard is a raster animation program called TVpaint. You can give that a go. I never dove into it myself but the animation class I attend to seem to enjoy it. I still just prefer flash's timeline settings by dragging with the alt shortcut to copy frames much faster. I just find it much as efficient.

Toon Boom's clone and duplicate (yes there different) are both good and at the same time it does seem to slow things down for me. The cloning is amazing for module effects but when it comes to copying and pasting frames, I sometimes dont realize I am either duplicating or cloning. So when I delete a cloned frame, it deletes the other thus making me have to undo or load a backup. I could just remind myself to dont fall into the same habit but there is some habits I cant kill. Much like how I hate photoshop's undo button where it goes to the previous worked-on layer while I want to stay on the current layer. I forget what layer I am working on so I use a plugin to prevent that. Again I can fix that by stopping that habit but I cant seem to kill it.

There is still more stuff to discover on Toon Boom and I really like the program. If I can use the program like it is second nature to me than I'll abandon flash but not yet. You can actually animate with photoshop but I find the timeline feature really lacking.

Hi Max-Vador

*waves* havent seen you in awhile

I thought this post was going to be an actual discussion about the difference on other animation programs that would give more input about "creativity" whatever you do or dont agree. I feel that this discussion is being stuck on the introduction of the question rather than fully explaining why. This is becoming simply "name calling" rather than an actual critique. I am leading towards in favor of Toon Boom but there are still some things I like about flash.

I like flash timelines interface a lot more. I just dont like how Toon Boom treats a copy frame as a clone (edit the original drawing and it also changes the copy). Just simply moving my timeline elements is better in flash in my opinion. Also flash has the ability to warp and edit at a specific spot while editing all of the frames at once. Frame editing is vital for me because I am a frame by frame animator.

I do like Toon Boom's line/pencil tool because its easier to controls curves and I describe it as a semi-object-draw while flash always anchors crossed lines. Toon Boom can import SWF files so I can do final line art tracing on Toon Boom. I am sure Toon Boom can do the same thing as Flash but you just have to do it differently so its just a matter of preference. Even with all things I said here, I am open to more ideas because I am eager to build up as more efficient animator. So far both programs have served me well.

I used flash to help me guide with my latest film "Surprise Counter." I didnt use just flash though. The programs I used is:
-Adobe Flash for rough animation
-Toon Boom for final line art/camera/effects
-Adobe Audition for audio editing. So far I dont think the animation programs have a great audio feature. I use a audio software program because I like to add audio effects such as an EQ and reverb.
-Adobe Premiere to edit all the stuff from above into one film

Although I agree with the OP because flash isnt the ideal standard for 2D animation anymore but I used flash for so long that I found its great for making quick roughs. I use flash for roughs and toon boom for final line art. I am leaning in favor more towards toon boom but the rough stages are the most important part for my animation and I like flash's interface so for now I am keeping both.

At 9/6/13 06:08 AM, Grub517 wrote: You can't even draw decent roughs without having each stroke turn into it's own object (or is there another way?).

You can disable it by clicking the object draw icon (looks like a circle inside a box) that is within the pencil and brush tool.

At 8/28/13 05:19 PM, kurktchv wrote: What computer software would you recomend for animation? I have flash but is that still the IT program or there something better?

This is just my opinion so its varies from other people. If you going to strictly just 2D animation, I'd say its Toon Boom Animation Pro. A lot of major studio use Toon Boom. Flash is still used but I see it mainly used for web games. I still use flash when I am doing rough animations because I see the program great for doing quick sketch works When I do the final line work and effects, I use Toon Boom.

At 8/23/13 11:37 PM, Damien wrote: Thank god it's only 6 hours of work, and not a whole month or whatever, or an animation that is almost finished.

I had that once. I never go without backups again.

I agree and you can actually make it better from what you learn from those 6 hours. But it depends on how the animation is constructed though. I just remember if you have the latest swf of the file, there is a swf decompiler. It tries to turn the swf into a workable format so you may be able to copy and paste the frames you want since its frame by frame. You can free trial it and see. All these "quick fit it" methods are never perfect and you might actually save more time redoing it.

At 8/23/13 06:10 AM, manuelberja wrote: If the FLA file mysteriously disappeared leaving the swf only, that happens to me a lot. take a 5 min break, cry, or do whatever you want, and just redo everything from your backup. this is probably caused by saving interruption, unexpected shutdown of the program, or computer crash. make your chances less to encounter this by saving the file, close the flash, and open it again, continue working.

if the file is only corrupted and the fla file still exist, I can fix that 80%, 20% for other issues. instruction is too long.

I know that feeling and it sucks. I remember there "might" be a way to save things from your library by changing the fla to a zip and trying to navigate the file. You can try researching on that . I try working in ways that would lower the chances of corruption:
-Save in the uncompress XFL format.
-Always make back ups
-Work in a optimize style as much as possible (less curves) so its much easier for flash to process
-Save each scene in different save files so you can compile them later.

Wow this topic is getting out of hand. I thought it was a joke too but that is perhaps I been lurking in the internet for too long so its understandable that it can come out as rude. You have some catchy tracks though. Good job.

At 8/16/13 06:31 PM, AppleH4x wrote: Many much greetings all,

I've recently decided to give animation a try and am continually running into one problem or another. The first of which, is I'm starting off as a horrible artist. I mean stick man level skills here. I've started drawing daily with a sketchpad, reading books and watching videos. Needless to say it'll be a long road. My ultimate goal is to make decent 3 -5 minute flash animation videos involving a small cast of characters.

Still I can't quite decide where I should invest my time. Should I continue to doodle on paper or would it be faster/wiser to stick to messing with my computer/pad? I can't quite help but thinking that learning to draw in programs could completely bypass paper and traditional methods. I don't want to invest a year into learning more advanced drawing techniques only to find all that knowledge is waste the second a computer is involved.

Either way I'm also looking for any advice or direction as to were to start. Think you're at level 1 on your journey, what do you wish someone would of told/shown you.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope you're having a great day/eve.

-AppleH4x

Depends on how time your willing to invest. I had my first experience on traditional and also went to school for it but personally I'd jump straight into digital if your intention is to show your works on the web. Also your going need to learn digital anyway so its better to both learn the program and draw on it.

Why not just submit and see? If it gets blam, than you need know you need to improve a lot. You'll need feedback in order to get better.

Not bad. The designs look like its from Akira Toriyama; the creator of dragon ball z.

Awesome ranked 20th. I am glad this is the first time I got something listed. :)