Still could’ve been better. Animation wise the characters look very close to the the original show. But the white background and very quiet voices could use some work.
Author Comments
This short animation is a pilot that premiered yesterday on DeviantART and is now here today on Newgrounds!
Stay tuned for more episodes of "Gruesome Tales of Billy and Mandy" to come!
Short, not too funny, but has potential.
This homage to Billy and Mandy leaves much to be desired.
A plain white background without even a few sketchy lines to indicate a room makes it look like Grim is floating in a void. The background does not even have to be elaborate, but just something to make the visual space make sense. The bathroom door should also have some lines to ground it in the scenery. The door should not simply have the words "occupied" and "vacant" written on it, if it was a public bathroom, it would have a sliding bar with the words on them. Or perhaps a sign hanging on the doorknob that you flip around. These are just a few simple things that would make the animation a lot better aesthetically.
If you look at the original cartoon backgrounds, they were black lines over flat watercolors done with a sponge. You would sometimes see on the walls of rooms a large square of darker color where the artist pressed the sponge down intentionally. One could probably replicate this if you desired that look with some filters in photoshop.
The rushed use of flash animation versus traditional hand drawn animation is really noticeable, especially with the way Mandy's hair bounces up and down. It does not look good, it does not flow, and it breaks the audience's sense of disbelief.
The character design neither tries to emulate the original style, nor does it try to be its own style. The way Billy is drawn is rather awful. Part of what made Billy and Mandy so interesting was the organic nature of the style, that was fine with giving the characters exaggerated facial expressions and body movements, as well as highlighting and magnifying gross things.
TMNTSam responds:
Glad you do your job as a critic. Yes, the pilot was a bit rushed and the no backgrounds thing was sort of a cost-cutting measure to be done with it ASAP. I also used no script, but the later episodes will be longer, more detailed and funnier.
Thank you for the advice.
music too loud voices too quiet. its always a problem. and i am NOT saying to yell into the mic untile it sputters and is no longer understandable.
but yeah! billy x mandy! whoo!!!
It's grate. good job. keep up the good work :D