Reviews for Layton Raises His Hand

[DenimMage]

Now please don't blow a gasket before I finish.

I know Professor Layton is British, but seriously, British cartoons suck. Since the dawn of Western cartooning, the British have never taken their cartooning seriously and their art suffers dramatically for it. It may do you well to understand the history of western cartooning, and therefore why to stay away from it. Even Professor Layton games have refrained from actual animation.

Outside of this, the animation and camera is so out of touch; and combined with the strange dialogue, the whole package is remarkably and unpleasantly similar to an old Zelda CDi game. If you don't know how much of a big deal that is, search for cutscenes of Link: The Faces of Evil on YouTube.

I know nobody likes negative opinions, especially ones that appear racist (trust me, it's not. British have great media-- just awful cartoons. But it's not something they can't learn from)-- but I am being constructive. I'm not just saying "LOOOOL U SUK HAR HAR HURDUR". You have potential and you have skill. All I can help you with is to be informed.

Kiigen responds:

I'm not offended. I am aware of your references as well. Just so you know, Professor Layton isn't a British series. Professor Layton is a japanese game. It's character designs are in tribute of old British cartoons, only in the sense of a simple easy to use design. The series also takes place in London, but that's about as far as it goes. It's cutscenes and the movies are made by a Japanese Anime studio. The studio I'm not sure of the name, but if I recall they have done all the Pokemon movies to date.

If my cartoons really do look as jittery as CDi Zelda to you, than I am sorry dude.

[Countchunko]

I enjoyed the animation. Solid fluidity in the motion, the voice of Layton was spot on.

However, I have two major complaints. point one is that of the oft-before mentioned parallax, which moved about 2-3 times as fast as it should have in comparison to the rest of the characters, and gave a poor sense of motion throughout. Seriously, if the background moved only half as far as it did it would have been amazingly well done. It was perfect in the beginning, and right on the words "Now Luke..." All the rest of the time, the camera looked like it was being swung around by a caffiene addled monkey having a seizure. the second complaint is that of the relationship between the hair of the lady, and her eyes. Her face looked crowded by the desire you displayed of showing both in full, and to top that, they didn't follow the same rules that Luke's eyes+hair did.

Complaints over, I think everything else was nailed wonderfully. You didn't draw the characters off model once, even when whirling around Layton's side, or the rubber hose effects of limbs, or when dragging massive motion blur. The sound was balanced in a way I could only describe as Glorious. Luke's voice could have used a bit more work, and perhaps a little more time hearing the actual character's voice, but, all in all, Lip syncing was perfect, the slap and musical stabs were timed wonderfully, and the still shots and moving shots balanced the animation well, despite an overactive parallax. \

[jacktherapper]

The camera made it even better I don't know what everyone else is talking about :D

Kiigen responds:

Thanks, there are a few moments where I can understand it was a problem, and when working on it, I struggled to try to get it right. I think I know how to avoid it in the future now.

[Backlash-D]

The camera was alll over the place.. I see what you tried to do, but it was a little to much. It was good nimation, just to muh effort on the effect.

Kiigen responds:

Sorry about that, I have been using the effect for awhile, it was just too much this time.

[FrozenFire]

You really gotta cool it with the fake parallax.
It's a neat effect when done correctly but man, your camera was jumping all around the place and it was very distracting.

Animation was solid tho.

Kiigen responds:

Thanks for the advice, I'll tone it down when it seems too much.