Thanks for all the support guys! Haha, I was on a jet while the score was jumping all over the place, I hear it was at 4.04 and then all the way down to 3.50something?? thats really bizarre. well now its doing okay, so lets hope it stays how it is! :D
about tim frommeyer, whats all that about? he's such an established guy, theres no reason for him to be doing lame, stupid spamcat stuff. he got a daily second, weekly fifth, AND like, 500 bucks for LSD the first time around, so really it makes no sense to me.
I think it has something to do with him not liking the RWD or something. bwah. I'll PM tom about it 2moro morning once the awards are out.
but yeah thats lame. I liked that guy, Sqeezy. hell, I still love his style but the character has lost some of its coolness.
RAWRAWR!! Man, the reviews on Cardboard city are awesome. and hilarious. where are all these people getting the idea that there's some sort of story, I wonder? Its pretty amazing that the work you troopers all did was so cohesive as to make an almost legitimately vague story, and I think for that, you should all be applauded. the consistency was beautiful. :)
Here are a few of my favorites :P :
Alright, first let me say that using purely cardboard textures in a Flash collab was pure genius. It's seriously a great idea, mainly because I haven't really seen it before.
Furthermore, the preloader game was also executed well (props to Coolio-Niato for making that, as well as Nicholas-Deary for the art). As well, the music suited the piece and was of high quality.
Now, what is disappointing for me is that, other than a few strokes in ingenuity in this collab (the opening sequence, the subway part, the hot air balloon), the content as a whole seems a bit... dull. I realize that the theme of the collab was to capture urban living in cardboard form, but it would be nice if there were some more interesting pieces. You guys are certainly a talented bunch, so I was hoping to see all of the parts stand out in a good way. Granted, the whole "rain on cardboard" thing that someone did was a unique touch.
Overall, the premise was really good. I just wish that there were some more memorable parts to it. But, other than some difficulties in execution, it gets a solid 9 out of 10 for the sheer amount of effort you guys have put into it. Great stuff!
Oh, yeah, and I noticed ads for "Corrugated Cola" throughout the entire thing. Intentional? ;)
we love you kart man. you're cool. good review as well. it always makes me laugh when people find things dull or whatever about collabs :D because like, its a collab! I dont think it would have been much fun for the amazing, talented animators if I had given them a script and told them what to animate, hahaha. glad you liked it for the majority though, we always like to hear criticism on something that the reviewer also enjoyed! :D
next:
I'll give you credit for two things:
One: making the most out of simple vector animation through the use of masking.
Two: keeping the file size under 10 mbs.
Other than that, I'm not sure if there was a "message" here. The artwork was gimmicky, but decent enough to support a message if you chose to work one into your piece. I realize you may just have been going for a "slice-of-life" type of plot, but even then you could have included a bit more interesting occurences -- or rather framed the occurences in your movie in a more interesting way.
Perhaps you were just trying to make a statement of how boring or dull our daily existence is within the confines of a city by constructing it predominantely out of the muffled colors of cardboard, foil, and denim. Or perhaps I missed the point entirely.
Regardless, the point of it all, beyond "having fun with flash," could have delivered a bit better. Content is almost certainly the aspect of your artwork that could use the most improvement.
Still, a visually pleasing submission with good music choice. I particularly liked the subway sequence.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks theDeekon! This is another of the interesting things I notice from time to time, the idea of 'messages'. as awesome as they are, its reaaallly hard to incorporate them into collabs so that THEY ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE, unless the overall theme for the collab is a message, like 'stop wars' or something. when you try to put a theme like that on top of another theme, like cardboard city, for instance, things can get pretty hazy.
we'll work on content, I promise. I wish I was a much better storyteller. Until that day comes though, my goal is to make animations so weighted to the style and art side (as opposed to the story/content side) that in the mind of the audience, the style IS the content. its kind of a neat concept. :)
WHAT OFTEN HAPPENS ON NEWGROUNDS is that if something is different, or unusual, like this project was, it'll do okay, maybe not as well as you thought it would, but still, it does OKAY, and then the SEQUEL does reallly well.
what I'm trying to do here is hint that I want to do a sequel. just so you know. :)
nighty night, cardboard population. we'll see what happens in terms of sqeezy's resubmitted masterpiece tomorrow!
be up bright and early for push ups as well, ESPECIALLY you kyle. :D
Moro
