Reviews for Pick Up: Act 2

[mikesince83]

Well done!

Ok let's start with the Pros: Excellent character design. They definitely had some of your own unique art style instead of being anime clones. The voice acting for each was superb (for a flash).

Animation was well done considering the large amount of it. The short had a definite cinematic feel to it mostly due to the creative PoV in many scenes.

Also the background info in the Author's comment was a great little touch adding much more relevance and meaning to the flash.

The Cons: While understandable due to the length of the animation the characters movements did at times seem very blocky and disjointed. I didn't feel however that it took too much from the viewing experience.

At some points when two girls at once were speaking it became hard to understand what they were saying. Again, not something particularly important, just a minor detail.

Overall, well done...I expect to see this on the front page, and NG top 50 for some time.

[Vert]

...

... well, that was a very good movie, in pretty much all aspects, so what else can I add?

...

...

Nah, I'm kidding, there's plenty I can add, so let's get down to details:

The overall drawing quality was very high, with some great character design (probably the best aspect of the movie, Snow, in particular, has an excelent look and feel), some nifty backgrounds and pretty good attention to detail, but there's a small snag with the animation. It's because your animation style, although way above average and (for the most part) pretty good, isn't so good when it comes to action filled scenes. In Metal Gear Yotsuba, for example, the animation comes off with out a hitch, but here it's (slightly) problematic.

And it's dificult to explain why, but I think it's because you seem to use a lot of tweens (which are really dificult to use when a scene has a lot of moviment), and it's not really a fair criticism, since everyone can and should use their own animation style (if everyone did frame-by-frame, it wouldn't be special). In this sense, it reminds me of a Pikanjo movie, which also has great drawings, but slight animation problems.

Despite this (slight) problem, the action was well "choreographed" and played out nicely. And this is a pretty big complement coming from me, since I'm not a fan of "dragon ball z style hammerspace teleportation" in action scenes, but I think you used it well and made it, well, exciting!

The voice acting was spot on (but a little confusing, a few times, when voices overlaped each other), the sound effects were well used and the music was well picked and complemented the on screen action well. Finally, the story, although abrupt, was interesting and made me want to see what's going to happen next!

So, over all, a truely fine movie, solid in all aspects. Cheers and kudos (and I really look foward to your next movie)! Oh, and the current score of aprox. 3.8 is ridiculously low, this movie deserves a score of above 4.1, easily! NG users sometimes can't seem to reconize greatness even when it hit's them in the face!

[Neochilds]

HMMMMMMM! VERY VERY NICE

I am going to check out act 1, This was very well done. The dialogue and the bg sound were sometimes overlapping a little too much some times but beyond that it was really wonderful to watch. Keep up the good work Team Skaijo.

[Trixiaoyu]

I gave this submission a vote of "5"

Wow, I dont care what NGs say, this flash pwns my 32-bit tournament movie!
I have seen part 1 and this was just even better.... I mean, WOW!!!
5/5
Keep it up and make part 3, I shall be sure to vote 5, if its good lol!

[Bezman]

It's an honour to be involved.

Things I specially liked that I haven't yet told you yet:
The colours and grass at the start
The squiggly lines you use to symbolise 'rage'
The icy breaths
Trip reference
Thevisual noise during the battle
Filters on audio durring Hammerspace/when she's fazed
The way Hickory disappears into particles just as Hammerspace starts
The ending - really positive
Brilliant USB connection drawing
The way Hickory looks when slightly blurred after Snow's cough
The framing with the white above and to her sides
The ending (with Hickory gathering her determination, spitting the blood, then walking on just as the credits begin)
The way the credits come in
The first part of the credits with the 4 sliding text boxes that end in the bg - very stylish

Now onto my major criticisms.

As mentioned, I don't like the lip-synching much. I personally feel you should have sketched some roughs, then put in the voices before drawing the final mouth shapes. As is, words and mouths don't match up and this can add to the confusion - specially when Hickory/Trish are having the discussion. Proper lip synching would be a great visual cue to let us know who's speaking.

Personally I feel that after you added the voices, the whole movie lost a bit of its impact - the brilliant synching of graphics and music just doesn't have the immediate impact it did when no talking disguised it.

I'd honestly love to see a version of both this and the original without any voices - just the music and maybe some sfx with lower volume. Basically just letting us experience the brilliant synching first and foremost. I know it could be done on the same flash with programming (though I don't know the keywords necessary) but having another version of this on your DA (I'm guessing you wouldn't want to make it another submission) with voices stripped would make me a happy guy. Maybe as a Christmas present for me?

A few sections were slightly sub-par graphically. Having watched the final movie I'll point out the bodybag just at the first attack (no shadow or anything makes it look really flat and unnatural) the scene with her pushing the driver's foot away abd the fact that when we see trish from upside down during the cough, the line width totally changes - you could've had more sensitivity to tthat).

Maybe you could stand some practise drawing folk from odd angles? Life-drawing classes/DrSketchy's?

Lastly, though both voices were brlliant, Lunacatz did have a bit of noise.

It's a brilliant submission and I'm frankly shocked to see it scoring as lowly as it has. I can only hope that it'll soon rise up to the score it deserves.

It's an honour to be on the credits list for the submission. Regardless of the score, when both acts are watched together, it's obvious that this will be a story full of sheer brilliance. I obviously hope you continue to advance your skills and that the final episodes match up to the promise.

Don't spend so long on the next episode though! Take a long break first and get your speedy mojo in order!

Much love, hugs and kisses.

Stay funky - Bez