This is the second episode of my series about a mentally unstable guy looking for roommates.
This time he talks to his first possible soon-to-be roommate and again struggles with his mental instabilities.
For those interested:
There are several (mostly practical) reasons I chose to use text-to-speech-engines for the voice acting but I also just like the random pronounciation and bored expression that fit the characters so perfectly. ;)
...UMM...
- [( I still don't understand why you chose text-to-speech voices. Although, I guess it kind of makes the series unique )]
+ [( Once again, the graphics and style aren't bad.)]
+ [( Some parts of it are funny...)]
- [( No pre-loader, 'PLAY', or 'REPLAY' button.)]
2/5
.frenZy.
VOICE ACTING
I said with the last one and I'm saying it again, TEXT to SPEECH bad. Voice acting much better. Hell, pm me and I'll do the voices for you. (I'm a voice actor btw). Apart from that I love the concept but the humour is lost in the current voices.
Donnie Darko anyone?
First, the voices just didn't fit the characters. Too robotic for this type of flash.
Also, the way you had them walk in was quite.. I dunno.. stiff and like it was drawn on an eggshell. I think they are some excellent tutorials that teach how to make a character walk out there. ...I think.
Those are the two biggest flaws I think would need improvement artistically.
As far as the story goes? It was kind of dull, I'm sorry to say. ...and what livened it up was only the fact that you pulled in the rabbit type thing from Donnie Darko.
..but I took away points for the fact that you used that idea instead of your own when this isn't a fanflash, but supposed to be an original flash.
That's my two cents.
Thanks for your review!
Well, as far as the Donnie Darko thing goes: It is in fact kind of a rip-off because I got the idea when seeing Donnie Darko. That aside the rabbit is neither too similar-looking nor does he have anything in common with the rabbit from DD (which was a human in a costume). In later (already produced) episodes I will actually reference Donnie Darko in a subtle way and hopefully this way pay homage to it.
In the end it was a conscious decision to pick the rabbit, because I could've taken another animal or living or entitiy but BECAUSE I wanted to reference Donnie Darko I picked the rabbit. I'm actually VERY happy you guys picked up on that, THAT early on.
Eh.
Both this and the first one are really mediocre and kinda lame.... I didn't really find anything worth watching in the first one. It just wasn't funny. The highlight of that one was the Donnie Darko reference. The second one was really boring as well. The way that they walked was very strange. (I'll talk more about that below) On the comedy side, the ending was fairly nice, though Frank got a bit annoying. I did like that last line. It made me smile. I was also impressed with the eyebrow. I guess it just looked clean to me. :)
So, some suggestions to help you out:
Like I said, the walk cycle was really awkward and bizarre. If you need help with walking, try "Walking Cycle for Dummies" by un-mediocre and "How to Animate Walking" by Stew_Ped, both of which can be found in the Flash Tutorials collection. I found the first VERY helpful, but the second one is good, too.
Also, I would suggest adding a 'play' button at the beginning and a 'replay' button at the end. It's always nice when the viewer is doing something else at the same time to just let them take their time and view the movie when they're ready.
Finally, the voices. If you don't have a microphone, try asking some of your friends or fellow flash artists to record the dialogue. The text-to-speech thing was really annoying and monotonous, so it'd make it a lot more interesting if you had something a little more lively. :)
Good luck and happy animating!
Thanks for your review!
Well, story-, theme-, gag- and plot-wise I think it's a matter of taste, so I'll skip that. ;) I just do my best, and try to do what I find funny in hopes others do too.
Concerning walk-cycles: Again, it's the Freeware program I use which allows me to make these things very quickly, which is important to me because I wanted to get all my ideas into a form that could communicate them, even if it's not the best.
I'm actually not THAT bad an graphics artist, but let myself be limited by this program at will. I knew most would find this a dumb decisions, but for me at the moment it's more important to just MAKE this, even if I have to do it in a way that's everything but perfect.
And voice acting: I'm actually from Germany and I would be the only one I know capable of imitating an American accent and - to a certain degree - even do SEVERAL voices (I also DO have the equipment). But somewhere along the road of creating this I kind of just didn't see me doing this and once more became...lazy...and chose the path that would help me create this quicker and easier.
But as I said: I think if I think the series is worth it all of this will improve somewhere down the road. I thought I'd rather see if it works out and THAN let it evolve than putting all my efforts in it and eventually seeing how it sucks.
Meh
I didn't Like it At All.