TheDreamersWorld's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[THE EGGWIGGS - Episode 1 - An Innocent Egg]

I actually thought this wasn't bad. What it lacked in visuals, it made up for in story, sound design, and voice acting. Everyone has to start somewhere. If you have the time, I'd recommend checking out a few of these free programs that will make it easier to animate:

Image creation software:
-Paint.net (easy to use, kinda like MS Paint updated, good for beginners)
-Krita (image creation more streamlined, more difficult to learn than paint.net but better results)
-Gimp (similar to photoshop, a bit difficult to learn at first but much better results)

Animation software:
-Synfig (similar to flash, simple but crashes a lot)
-Papagayo (lip syncing program for use with Synfig, can be used with other programs but process is much more difficult)
-OpenToonz (more complicated, instructions in Japanese but no crashes and once you learn how to use it you have so much control)
-Blender (mainly 3D animation, but new version will be supporting 2D animation soon and can be used as a video editor)

Sound design:
-Audacity (good for recording/editing voices - almost everyone uses it, even the pros)
-LMMS (can create your own music, some sound effects included)
-Many other music creation tools exist, those are the ones I use but if you google "free music creator" you can see all the options.
-incompetech.com for free music
-freesound.org for free sound effects

Video editing software:
-Default Apple/Windows video editor (very simple but extremely limited)
-VSDC Free video editor (relatively simple but gives you much more control, probably the best option to start out on after the default software; if you just want to add sound to images then this is for you)
-Blender (as mentioned above, though if you only intend to use it for video editing and nothing else it is a bit complicated and I'd recommend something else)
-Hitfilm express (somewhat similar to photoshop, a bit more complicated than other options but once you learn it you have much more control, plus it comes with a lot of built in effects)

Anyway there's a lot of free options out there, don't get caught up in trying to learn everything all at once; that's just an abbreviated list of my personal favorites. If you only have time to look at one thing from this list, then I'd recommend looking at OpenToonz. You need to watch YouTube videos to understand it but once you do, animating becomes much easier and looks much better. You can use it to create your own images, loop them, and add 2D special effects, like explosions, rain, dust clouds, and more.

For this series, I'd probably just continue doing whatever you're doing, then try to learn some of the other programs in you free time and start a different series with them. It's far too easy to get caught up in learning different programs and never finishing your series. But, if you're serious about learning to animate (without having to invest the money in it), then do take the time to look them over someday.

PeterPellerAnims responds:

Thanks for the advice :) I actually got OpenToonz yesterday but found it quite confusing. So i'm going to finish this series, and afterwards i'll try to learn OpenToonz and make something better visually with it :)

[Pokémon Animation Project Test.]

If you go on to make anything else, I'd recommend adding in a preloader. For me, the video would freeze after a few seconds because it wasn't loaded enough and wouldn't restart playing unless I refreshed the page; then it would restart from the beginning, go a few more seconds, and freeze again. I like the idea though!

rubymedievil responds:

I've looked into a few tutorials and a preloader looks like something I could pull off! Thanks for the feedback! :D

[The Adventures of Pogno Ep. 1]

Interesting plot line, albeit a little random. I'll give you a little advice on how to improve:

- In the beginning scene, where the main character is walking, I see you just animated the legs and arms and had the body move in a straight line. If you watch any cartoon or real person, their bodies move up and down as they're walking.

- With sites like freesound.org or even YouTube, there's no reason why you can't find some decent sound effects. Don't try to make them with your mouth; it really takes away from the video and makes people rate it lower.

- If you intend on taking this story further, I'd recommend actually coming up with a plot ahead of time rather than just improvising it on the spot. Storyboard it out, and then you can foreshadow future plot elements and make the whole thing flow better. Give your characters a bit of background that you can draw on for future episodes or to determine how they'll act in certain situations. I'd recommend watching https://youtu.be/FoH82EuXfjg for advice on how to do that.

- Also, try to avoid falling into that stereotypical anime "escalation" trap where the main character always has to save the world. That's discussed really well in this video https://youtu.be/kLIbI1FI6N4 if you have time to sit through it. Try to avoid just recycling plot elements from other cartoons and anime.

- Other than that, you just need to work on adding more detail to the backgrounds and improving your drawings. A lot of that comes with time and practice; nobody starts out perfect. If you keep working at it, you'll improve eventually. Good luck, and most importantly, have fun!

Pogno38 responds:

Hey I really appreciate all of the advice! I am still learning as I go along but thanks for pointing out that he doesn't walk like a normal person. I actually had initially started off with having sounds from the internet but after talking with a friend we both agreed that it would be funnier if I made my own sounds. Although I do completely see your perspective that it, in a way, lowers the quality of the animation. Also, as I am sure you could tell, I made this entire animation up as I went along. It started off with me just learning the basics of getting a character to walk using Adobe Animate and I wanted to just keeping going with it. My newest animation that I am working on does have much more of a plot that I have written out with a script whereas with this one I improvised some of the audio. Thank you so much for all of the pointers I really appreciate all the advice I can get!

[RC & Pib Intro 2]

I'm glad you used my suggestions and I think it looks a lot more polished than the first one. I can't wait to see where you go with this! :)

willcamick responds:

Thanks for the suggestions. Im a bit limated to what I can do with the program I have so thats why I stick to a vary 1D plane but I thought what the heck, ill make 160 views of the characters. Mind you they would be smooth transitioning turns but with the magic of editing im sure I can hide that. =)

[Shitty English roads and Driving stories From England]

Yep, that about sums up driving! I think you'd have something pretty awesome here if you put a bit more effort into the animation used to complement your epic British accent :D

My personal best driving story is when I stopped for a red light, but the idiot in the left lane blew past me and hit a guy who was making a left turn. He barely clipped the turning car's front end, but he was going so fast that his car rolled about six times before ending up in a ditch on the other side of the intersection. To make the situation even better, some people who had witnessed the accident abandoned their cars, doors open with keys still in them, to go run over and see if the guy was okay, causing other people to try to drive around their cars by using the oncoming traffic lanes. The guy who had gotten hit making the turn panicked and stopped on the far side of the intersection; didn't bother to pull off the road or get out of his car and see if the guy was okay but rather just sat there blocking traffic.

COAEM responds:

Fucking....hell thats a story and thank you for watching and enjoying it ive got more over on my youtube channel aswell. Yeah I'm definitely looking into away of smoothing out my pictures at the moment

[clash royale animation arrows]

Overall this wasn't bad, but it was a bit too short and lacking. So the enemy destroyed the player's first wave of monsters, but then what happens? The battle isn't won until someone's castle is destroyed, so there wasn't really a clear ending. You could always go with a sort of "Yugioh Abridged Comedy" route where the players use cards that clearly don't exist until someone wins or quits.

Other than that, the animation and character design was pretty decent. The sound effects were okay but some seemed to be slightly mistimed, and others were abnormally louder or quieter, though not enough that it took away from the movie too much. This isn't a bad start, but you can definitely do better and I look forward to seeing you improve in the future.

thesecondplayer responds:

Thank you so much for your review I'll keep all of that in mind. I'm still a beginner when it comes to animation and sound eff, and learning little by little by myself. So reading reviews like yours really helps me out thank you.

[In-Game Part 1]

Original storyline, smooth animation, and humorous dialogue - I can't wait for part 2!

Smyton4tw responds:

Thank you so much!