An entertaining and beautiful work of art.
Truly a masterpiece, and one of the best things to hang in your "Flash Submissions," gallery. I was checkin' up on ya' again today and, I don't know how many times that makes it now, clicked this video again. I'd already left a lengthy review on This Is Unmei, and I felt this one deserved just as much, if not more, credit. So here we are, almost a year later and I finally decided to go ahead.
Animation wise, flawless for what you exceeded in and an incredible step up for what you used to not. The tweens are perfected, and I couldn't find a single problem with the fluidity of the motions involving walking, running, dancing or any other of the quirky little things these girls do. The characters were never just at a stand-still either, as reviewing of the scenes show great movement 24/7 in everybody, even the ones taking up background space.
As fantastic as the motion is (believe me, I could go on), you did such a great job on background work, that I had to pause and play over and over again just to check it out. The jpeg image usage was everywhere, but not in such a way to where you just slapped it down straight from Google Images. The backgrounds visualize consistency, depth-of-field, inside jokes and even development of characters. The lighting was handled smart, and I constantly went back just to check it out. If there was anything that took the biggest step up, it was this. Bra-freakin-vo.
As for sound, I loved it! You animated perfectly to The Rental's style, and the motions, just like in This Is Unmei and Don't Trip, even matched the rhythm and beat. The additional noises, like footsteps and various character noises were handled greatly and with good, high quality. I hope to hear more of the same later!
As for the impact and effect of the flash, I have to say, I still get that wonderful feeling of discovery and love when watching this like I did with This Is Unmei, all pertaining to the characters, the art, the music, and the emotion you managed to present so well. I felt the same sense of nostalgia upon seeing all the old characters like Jackie, Uli, Ilu and Melon, and felt another sense of wonder when seeing the new characters you've shown here. You showed the emotions and charisma of these girls with incredibly subtle details like body motion, things they do in the background and what they aspire to become. In fact, you showed the entire story with a sense of subtlety, and I love that! It's one of those great things you've created where I couldn't possibly get all of it from one viewing, and notice something new every time I click Replay. I felt an incredible sense of being in the universe of these Unmei-ish characters.
The story of it all - how these girls secretly desire to pursue their dreams of conducting, dancing, art and music - hit me even before I read your explanation.
I felt that there were things in my life that were similar as well, so the personal aspect, if you were heading for it, got me pretty good in the emotional sense of the word. Not like crying or anything, but in the sense that I wanted to watch it again and again and think of how I relate.
You say you wanted to create something fun to watch and beautiful to see all at the same time, and believe me when I say that you've done more than accomplish that with this piece. It's not something you can just write off with a simple vote of 5 or a thumbs up. It's something you wanna' watch again, show to your buds, and then think about it even after you've left the computer.
Overall, I can't tell you how happy I am to have discovered you and your work. This is one of the best, if not the best movies you created thus far, and this was in 2009, even! I still got the same vibes watching this at least a year later as I did when I first did, and that's impressive. You've got an incredibly unique way of telling a story, and I hope you never lose it. I await anything you do in the future, and I personally hope and would love to see the characters of Unmei again someday.
5 outta' 5, 10 outta' 10 and favorited!
FANTASTIC JOB!
