2D Flash Demo Reel

[Kormendi]

Is it that bad?

[grury]

guess you should try encode it again and compress it a bit more, probably it wont be many people willing to wait sum 20 min (and I have a 1.5Mb line) or more for the vid to download.
have you tried to encode it as Sorenson 3 quicktime or DivX, perhaps?

[Kormendi]

My apologies, I never thought of download speeds. Here's a link to a DivX file, that's about 10MB.

Click Here (http://www.jwagroup.com/gfx/Joe_Kormendi_reel.avi)

[squib]

I have a feeling this is a stupid question, but why not post a .swf instead of a rendered movie? It would probably save a lot on download times, and it seems kind of appropriate for a Flash animation reel.

Anyway, I'll post a crit once I have time to download.

[squib]

All right, here's the promised crit:

1. Just a minor thing, but it seems like a bad idea to have 5 seconds of black beforehand. I almost turned it off because I thought the file had been corrupted somehow or I had the wrog codec. Five seconds of black is fine on a VHS cassette, it makes no sense in a movie file.


2. I'd change the order of the pieces. I think your strongest one was the last one, so it should go first. Here's how I'd rearrange them:
[list=a]
guy without pants
dog joke
robber
"this is my woman"
guy pulling hair out
[/list=a]

3. To be honest, I think your second and third pieces (the guy pulling his hair out and the guy saying "this is my woman") should be pulled out altogether. At first I thought the guy in #2 was drooling, not yelling. He also didn't display any effort or emotion in pulling his hair out. He looks a bit irritated (or snobbish, I can't tell which), but not nearly enraged enough to pull hair out. If you want to keep that piece in, redo it. Try making expressions (yelling, rage, etc.) in a mirror and using those. Also, you might want to try pulling your own hair (don't pull it out, just get a feeling of how hard and painful it would be to pull handfuls of hair out). One more thing: if he's really pissed off, he's not going to drop the hair casually like that. Try having him throw it down instead.

I'm having trouble giving a good crit on #3. I'm not quite sure why it's not working for me. I think it might be that he's holding his left hand stationary through the whole piece. You might try moving it after he finishes the "no no no no" line. Also, try delaying his right arm until just before he says "my woman" (it looks like he's moving it on "this is").

Your other three pieces currently look a lot better than #2 and #3. I'd either work some more on those two or ditch them.


4. I like the robber piece, but you might want to try pushing some of his poses a bit more. The squash and stretch on the bags is great. They give the piece a nice cartoony feel, but the robber isn't quite as exaggerated and cartoony. He lands very stiffly. Maybe give him a frame or two of exaggerated recoil before he stands up. Also, he's very stiff when he bends over. His walk cycle is great though. Made me laugh. :)


5. I haven't said anything about the first and last pieces, because I think they're quite good already. Good expressions and lip synch on the dog. That joke is pretty lame :rolleyes:, but the dog makes it funny. Good job on that. The last piece has excellent timing and expressions. The animation is pretty simple, but you nailed the timing so well that it works beautifully. The sound design for that one is also quite nice.


That's all I've got for now. I'm sorry if I was a bit harsh, but keep in mind that this is all only my opinion. Good luck on this!

[Kormendi]

Thanks Zack,

I read your reply, and everything you said I pretty much agree with. The Italian fellow and the East Indianish fellow are one of my first animations that I ever did in Flash. And your right, they need some reworking.

You weren't harsh, I'm glad you were honest. Thanks.

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