Starts slow, gets better towards the end

The submission starts of really slow. The first guy with the sword we can see doesn't look that well drawn, but things start to get better when he suddendly starts to cut himself into pieces and other stick guys suddendly get "born" from his limbs.

I think you should've tried to find a different song for this animation, a song that syncs up better with the things we can see. Sometimes the music and animations where synchronized which looks pretty good, but at other times (mainly at the start of the flash) I had the impression you just put the song in there just to have a song in the flash.

{ Review Request Club }

A good start.

Though this isn't anything new or groundbreaking, it's a really good starting point. Most FBF animations are either really poorly animated stick fights (or something similar), or just simple lines going around the screen in fancy colors and such.

What I always look for in a flash is some sort of plot. Sure, random creativity is fun, but there always has to be something more than just a fancy animation. Of course, it's not an absolute necessity, but it can easily make an animation so much better.

I'm saying this now because FBF flashes are very common on Newgrounds. To make something really good in FBF now, you need more than just cool animations and morphing from a stick to a flower and on to a butterfly. Flashes like these are okay, but if you add a plot, you'll open yourself to a whole new world of animations.

I can see you've got some skill when it comes to drawing, and you should use this. Familiarize yourself with whatever program it is you're using to make flash movies, and learn more about it. Combine knowledge with your artistic skill, and you've got something neat.

==Review Request Club==

Decent FBF

~~REVIEW~~
Ok so this was notbad, it took awhile to {LOAD} thought that was odd since it was not even that big, but anyways, onto your flash, Ok starts off with some good {MUSIC} except the onlything about that is that it was abit {SCRATCHY} and could have been abit lower in sound so it doesnt scratch like that, just an idea though, the second song was abit better but not by much, now as for the {ANIMATION} it was pretty good, somewhat smooth but not as much as i would have liked, the black and white style is ok, but also thought you could have mixed the {B?W} with some other color, maybe if it was even just some spots here and there, maybe even add some sorta {BACKROUNDS} all these ideas would really present a better outcome, for the {SIZE} it was not short but not too long either just right in my opinion, now i could see this getting better, anyways i have been delighted in this entertaining flash, good luck on anything new you have planned.

~~THINGS TO IMPROVE ON~~
So there are a few things that could really make this much more better presented, Since you had Stick characters, I suggest making more Character like characters with full color facial details, This will show lots of effort in your character design, it tends to take more effort but the results will pay off alot, Black and white flashes are notbad, but while its black and white, you Should add some color even if just a drop of red or blue here and there, like say a blood drop so that the Black and White reflects more it would be a nice, and would standout abit better, and improving on your Black and White animation, Anyways hope this helped in improving your flash and future stuff

~~OVERALL~~
A decent black and white fbf it was amusing

~X~

well

It was good but you know not good.Some parts I like some parts i don't

-Animation-
Well the drawings are good and nice and cool.The animating is a little choppy.I would really work on that cause a flash that runs real smooth is always real good.I also like that it wasn't just stick figures some other things were faces and animals so I really like how you did that so its not technically a stick animation

-Audio-
The audio was just sad.It was just real heavy metal which made no sense when there are butterflys and mushrooms in your flash.I did not like the song but thats just my opinion.I would really recommend you using a different song next time maybe a song from the newgrounds audio portal.

-Story line-
I made no sense at all it was first sticks fighting then transforming him killing himself mushrooms melting.I was thinking WTF.But it was very amusing and entertaining so I will give you points for that.It was also a cool idea.So even though it made no sense it still kicked some major ass

[Review Request Club]

flash on acid?

at first I had absolutely no idea what was happening. then i stopped worrying.

First the good: you never seemed totally out of imagination. that is the most essential part of a piece like this. morphs have been done and redone to death, but the good ones always have interesting ways of transforming. several images seemed all to ready to destroy themselves, or explode or fuse or something, which added an amazing "just watch this" kind of effect to the whole thing.

simple imagery. let me explain: when engineers want to say something they draw a diagram, when artists want to say something they draw a picture. similar concepts but the artist's is usually much simpler allowing for easy understanding of idea. Your work exemplifies this, have simple pictures which not only are fun to watch, but make for easy transitions.

Now the Bad. Unfortunately, i have to point out that your artwork itself, while imaginative, was a sorry site. The point will be made that you are crippled by a bad mouse, but at the end of the day it still looks sloppy. But the artist can always improve. it is a never ending pursuit. do better next time.

whether do to equipment issues or otherwise, there is a definite sense of choppy, jerky motion in every frame. The second biggest part in a piece like this is smoothness. this did not have that. Consider the opening morph. the flow of events were correct, but they appeared to either have to few frames for a motion, or the motions flow was arrested due to perceptual inconsistencies.

there are moments where the morph is turned into a ball, and rolls around the screen. I assumed at first that this was just part of the animation, but as it happened more and more it seemed less like art and more like "well i'm running out of ideas". if that happens, as I'm sure it does, having black on the screen is not necessary. if your mushroom exploded, let the parts fly off screen, but bring them back.

also, displaying the cannabis sativa during a session which also looks like an acid trip is likely to confuse the user as to which hallucinogens he took.

Recommendations:

get a better mouse for one thing. if that is what is holding you back, then fix it.

definitely make it smoother. also for some reason (if your paying attention anyway) any and all lines are rounded. if that's how you wanted it, that's fine, but it also means that your limiting yourself to curves. Artists who think outside the box and use round flowing curves forget why we have a box and consequently stop using hard straight lines. don't limit yourself to water like motions, is all I'm saying.

on a side note, some other reviewers have mentioned color, but I'm not so sure that's important. Casablanca's in black and white and its considered the best film ever made.

all in all, a solid flash, but could use a make-over.

as asked for in the review request forum.