Awesome
Yes, something original and effort wise. I enjoyed this a lot. You get 10 stars from me, and a very happy pico as a rating :D
Reviews for "SRM Needs a Roommate!"
Battosai810 responds:
Thanks! I'm glad you appreciated it :)
Interesting style
The FBF here isn't to shabby! There isn't a whole lot going on but the things that were animated seemed to be pretty fluid. I'm not to fond of the main character design but I did like the thugs, police and even the devil.
As far as the scenery / background stuff is concerned it was very minimalistic but I think it worked well. One thing that bugged me though... When the main char first walks out of his house he barely fits through the door. However ever other door he walks by he is appropriately sized, even the initial door he walked out of at the end. just a little thing but it is noticeable :)
I think you did a good job with the story, I think its perfect for a short. It wasn't just randomness and actually made sense! I also like twist at the end and I didn't expect that at all. I assumed there would be some repercussions for the main char when signing a contract with the devil but you took it a different route and it was great.
The voice acting wasn't great but it wasn't to bad. I assume your not a professional voice actor so you made due :P I kind of feel the same way about the sound effects but again you just made do with what you had which is kind of cool in that regard.
Overall I think it was pretty good! Keep it up!
Battosai810 responds:
I kept the art style in this cartoon very simple because that's what I like best, and I only had a few months to make it. If it's not quite what you're into, that's cool too!
I've been making cartoons with these guys for a long time, and these are the voices I more or less hear in my head when I'm writing them. I'm no professional voice actor, but I'm not terrible. As for the sound effects, I wanted to have fun basically being my own foley artist. It was a lot of fun to throw textbooks against the wall, punch things, cuff things, and whatnot. Not as fun as voice acting, but definitely fun!
Glad you enjoyed the toon - thanks for watching!
That was pretty damn funny!
Cam, this really shows how frame-by-frame makes something good into something GREAT! I've been a fan of frame-by-frame flash since I first came to this site in 2000, and it makes quite a difference. Need proof, take a look at Miss Dynamite 8-16 then watch 17-24 and you'll notice a difference in their quality. Enough of that, on with the review...
When it comes to the animation, this and your music game spoof are a whole lot better than the old segment-tweened cartoons that you used to do and I love your use of perspective. It may not be up to par with Adam Phillips, Sunny GOES, or Ferguson Winston, but gets the point across. However, I think you could learn a few things from old cartoons that were made in the '30s up until the '50s to help up the ante. The Audio is also great seeing that you went as far as record your own sound effects, and Xander did a great job on the music. While the voice acting is good, they could have been a bit more expressive. Last, but not least, the content of this is well-done. Your direction and staging are excellent, and the script was really funny. In addition, it's nice to see another SRM cartoon with an original plotline. (Note: I don't have a problem with the parody/skit ones as long as they are good.) What's next? SRM and Mel performing abortions on celebrities? (Okay, that may be too salacious for your taste.)
[+]
-Great direction and staging
-Nice animation and perspective
-Funny
-It's nice to see an SRM cartoon with an original plotline.
-Good sound
[-]
-The animation and voices, while good, could have been more expressive.
Overall: Here's a nine out of ten from me, and I look forward to more of SRM.
Battosai810 responds:
Glad you liked the toon, and some good comments here!
I'm not going to get Adam Phillips good unless I end up working at Disney, but I hope to keep getting better the more toons I make. I should look into more old school animation; Max Fleischer cartoons are an inspiration of mine but something I need to look into further. Noodle arms and such are a lot of fun, and really fit with this aesthetic.
What about the animation wasn't expressive enough? Not having pupils hurts how much they can express themselves a bit, but now that they're not symbols I'm moving their eyebrow/lids around a bit more. I'd love to hear any suggestions to make that aspect of my animation better, since it's pretty important!
Also, thanks for the comments on the story, staging, and writing. If I really wanted to, I could write lazy videogame parodies all day like some bizarre talented version of Tim Buckley. Unfortunately that's what a lot of folks want, but I'm glad you appreciate more original stories like this one. Your idea is a bit out there for my stuff though!
I'm glad you enjoyed this, and look forward to more SRM in the future!
HOLY CANNOLI
Wow this has easily got to be your best work yet. The animation was so fluid and extremely well done, the sounds are done better and the story made it feel like I was watching a real cartoon.
Well done, man! I hope all your future work i as fluid and well produced as the last few!
(BTW, i may have asked you this before, but what tablet do you use for drawing?)
Battosai810 responds:
Glad you liked the toon! All my work will be this fluid for the foreseeable future. I use a Wacom Bamboo tablet; nothing amazing, but it works and it works well.
Ah, the price we all pay
Well, another triumphant episode, with the guys getting into their usual bunch of scrapes. I guess that we can say they have more than a few brushes with the unnatural over their time, but that's part of the charm of this whole series.
A good selection of music in this one, but I just get the feeling that something been lost a little on your animation style - maybe it's that I'm not much of a fan of the less polished version of events and I'd love to see something that looks smooth and flawless. Not to worry, this is your own decision and the way you work, so it's no big deal.
The writing is overlooked quite a bit here, but it really does give the impression that you think a lot about what goes into an episode, before you even start storyboarding. I'd love to see some sort of "making of" documentary, possibly hosted by SRM himself, as it's obvious he does all of the animating and vocal talent etc :P
[Review Request Club]
Battosai810 responds:
I really like putting in supernatural elements in my toons, even if it's just in little bits without going over the top. It keeps things interesting and unpredictable.
Thanks for the props on the music - my buddy created it specially for the toon. While the animation doesn't look as smooth as the old animation, it also doesn't look dead and lifeless. I hate hate HATE the symbol based stuff I was doing. Some Flash-based animation can do it well, like the recent My Little Pony cartoon, but the vast majority of it looks like stiff garbage. I would rather take rougher but fluid over smooth and rigid any day of the week.
Glad you enjoyed the writing! It used to be a lot wordier but I edited it down with the help of one of my professors. We worked from script to storyboard and so on. I actually start with a really rough storyboard with a rough idea of dialogue then make a real script and full storyboard from there. Unfortunately, most people don't care how the cartoons are made and think they just happen, which means that sort of production wouldn't net much attention.
Thanks again for the great review, always a pleasure hearing from you!