Review for: "Demo Reel 2009"
Dear Artist,
I'll sum up my review since I'm limited here.
Your animation is at a very high level. I'm very glad to see such fluid movement in so many parts. It's very refreshing to see so few shapes simply moving back and forth. This is what more flashes need; don't zoom in on half the body and move the silhouette, but rather, animate the actual walking motion. My dear artist, you are steps beyond several of other artists here. As such, it's time for YOU to raise the bar again.
My first reference goes to the gray figure trying to balance him/herself while walking. I'm referring to the technique of motion-blur. A very nice trick to displaying fast motion without actually "displaying the fast motion" is by substituting the limbs for several lines for a very short period. This is a fine technique. However, it should not be over done; in the fighting scene, I saw that you were capable of drawing actual limbs in fast motion; the puncher's arms could still be visible, and all you added were little red streaks to match the red boxing gloves. I would suggest avoid using to many "speed-lines" - like in the gray balancing figure - and more actual motion blurs - like the boxing/fighting scene - to depict fast movement. Mind you, speed-lines are perfectly fine. However, when over done, you might as well be drawing a stick figure because it's nothing but lines. You don't show signs of abusing this trick, but please just be mindful of such things.
My second reference goes to roughly half-way through the flash where a girl is presenting a tennis racket and holding a tennis ball to a male dressed in a dark green coat. This is what I love to see more of: stillness. You seem to understand that you can move an audience with stillness. You don't have to have flashy acrobatics or dyanmic sword fighting to get a chuckle or two. I would really love to see more of this, especially from YOU! Show to me that you fully understands what it means to be still.
You also did several plays and practices with lighting and shadows. I would say about one third of your skits had shadowing and two thirds didn't. I would love to see a flash artist use actual shadowing and lighting effects in motion. You did it very well for the walking scene (the woman and the two men). The shadowing on the clothing didn't move at all. So, I'm wanting to see you play with that.
Unfortunately, I cannot rate your flash on anything else. Since this flash was a presentation of your practice, I will not grade you on the flash content at all. Though, as a personal preference, I'd love to see more of that crow thing in the end: nice use of background and FOREground.
I will not rate your review on artwork or length. You, as the artist, determine what skill level of art you are at and what you need to improve on. Length, in relation to this flash, is irrelevant. I will say that you show a large variety of art styles, and I hope you don't confine yourself to only doing "cartoon-y" flashes or "realistic" flashes or "dramatic" flashes. In the future, demonstrate to me your full arsenal, and I'll write you my best review.
You're a special exception, since you already show so much promise, I cannot guarentee a score of 9 out of 10 should you submit material of the same quality next time. I'm looking forward to seeing your evolution as an artist.
Thank you for taking your time in reading my review. I look forward to witnessing your subtle improvements.
