Run time: 8:02
Hey, past time for the third episode, so here we go! This one's a flashback to an encounter Vero mentioned in episode 1.
Supermassive Black Hole A* is a sci-fi animated webcomic thing with a continuing story, and a funky black & white bitmap art style. There's more A* stuff on the home page, smbhax.com.
Let me know what you think of this episode!
Zoom mode disabled because it makes the bitmaps icky. More attractive large-formate viewing options are:
a) YouTube HD: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k -heRzIIhVw&fmt=22
b) view the Flash at your browser's full width at smbhax.com/ep/0003
Update: this episode got daily 7th for 5/21/2009: http://www.newgrounds.com /bbs/topic/1062538. Thanks all who watched and voted! :)
Update 5/27/2009: Added Play and Replay buttons, and made the home page URL at the end of the credits clickable.
Another style
I really like the annimation style, but perhaps you could do a bit more action in the frames themself. Cause it wasn't really interesting, especcially from the start.
Also the sound is a bit slow it seems, and the voice acting wasn't convincing.
But i did like it though, and like to see more with some better quality.
Gl
Hm, I wonder if you're finding the reading of the lines too slow, or not emotional enough. Those are things I try to pay attention to as I record the voices, but if they aren't working for everyone, I'll have to think about ways to make them more universally appealing without hurting the pacing and somewhat non-cartoony approach I'm shooting for.
And yep, I'm continuing to learn how to animate in this style. I think I'll be able to work in more and more animation as I just get more practice with it--so I can draw faster and crank out more frames per episode. :)
Enjoyable enough
While not a classic, I liked it. The animation was interesting, and even though there wasn't much action, the drama was good enough to keep me interested the whole way through. I haven't seen the other entries in this series, so this is someone speaking who doesn't know about it, but that's fine.
Yeah, this being the first part of a two-part flashback, it's a lot of setup rather than actual action (next episode ;D), so presenting all that while still keeping it involving for the viewer was the major challenge here. I'm glad it kept you interested!
The previous two episodes have more in the way of direct action, so you might find those useful for comparison.
You raise a good point about being able to follow the episode even without seeing the ones before it. That was a plus of this episode being a flashback, because it's almost like starting its own story, only of course it ties in with the episodes that come before and after it. It's something I'll have to watch out for as I make episode 4, because that one starts immediately after the end of this one, so it will be more of a challenge to make the story as accessiblef or those who haven't seen the episode 3. Still, I try to keep the storytelling style pretty direct, so I think it'll work out.
Stylish
Well, I haven't even seen the first two, but I can say that this one was fantastic. The two-tone artwork was crafted with precision, especially on the facial expressions. I always had a sense of space, in particular, regarding the size of the vessel. Again, considering you were only working with two values, that's not an easy achievement. I also really enjoyed the storyline. Interestingly, had I not enjoyed it so much, I probably would have been deducting points for slow pacing, but I believe in this case, that the slow pacing complemented the evolution of the storyline; I was trying to figure out what the organic compounds were right alongside the main characters.
Very good work.
I wasn't sure if the continuity of space between the control module interior, and the ship overall, would come across, so that's good to know. I'm glad you found that the pacing worked; this is actually the fastest-paced episode so far, believe it or not!
Hm...
Well, to be honest, I didn't like this one as much as the other two. Episode 1 & 2 have got a really slow storytelling already, but I liked that, becouse it was still very interesting and exiting. But I just didn't like the Ship-thing, it was actually a little boring. Sure, the art, music and voices are great, but the story was a little less interesting this time.
I can see where you're coming from, I think. This episode sets up some important stuff for the next episode (and longer-range things too) but doesn't resolve them, which is a risky proposition dramatically. You'll have to let me know next episode if you think the setup here ends up being worth it.
Excellent
This episode rules!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!