NothanyTPM's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Twoex: Overcoming Reality|EP 2: Overnight Change|]

Wow. That escalated quickly. Pretty graphic too, but despite all that it was still a really fun watch. I can really see the improvement from the first episode you made all these years ago. Still a little hard to keep track the character switches in the story, but it's leagues better than before.

I'm trying to think of potential way to improve it, but the only thing that comes to mind are specific musical cues. Something like characters having either their own specific melody or instruments that represents them whenever it's their turn to be on screen.

I know sound design is tough because I haven't even made it to that stage myself with my animations. I'm still learning how to inbetween more efficiently. I'm not sure how you and your husband work with adding sound, but maybe you two can make a few experimental shorts where both of you can play around with the music and sounds to get something more harmonious with the animation. Kinda like what they did back in cartoons from the 20s, 30s and 40s, but you don't have to be all wacky and silly with it. Those techniques still apply with more serious animations (even movies and games do this), and you'd be surprised how these small changes makes a world of difference to an already great animation. Not critiquing the music, I'm pretty sure it sounds great on it's own. It's just with more involved animations like this it's better to be a little extra with it. But in the end it's just my personal preference.

The story in this is shockingly grim, and almost "realistic" with the way it depicts things. By the end I just wanted to hug these characters to make them feel better, and the credits left me feeling haunted. Not even sure if Flare is in a good spot either now that I think about it.

I'm struggling to even think of things to say about the story. I just hope the next episode is a little more lighthearted by comparison. Feels a little too soon to descend into madness with characters we barely got to know.

Although, I will say even if it's not meant to be funny, Flare sliding on her face for like a good 10 feet, and the guard accidentally chucking one of the kids up a tree gave me a good chuckle with how ridiculous it looked. I mean that guard must have been SWOLE to be able to chuck-em that high up without trying.

Overall, still pretty interested to see what will be in episode 3. I've got no idea what's gonna happen next, but I don't think these characters are gonna have a good time from the looks of things.

Twoeliz responds:

You know, a musical cue does sound like a pretty good idea. I brought this up to him and we talked about a few shows we know did this and how we felt about how it ended up in practice. We can definitely see if we can experiment with that, but I do wonder how that might affect the flow as right now we do rely on music that fits the overall scene that is currently happening. I feel like this could work for longer, slower episodes or scenes that are mostly ambient, but we will see. The story switching will become more complex, but it should be a gradual change. Right now, the stories are connected in ways we have yet to unravel, even though that separating the characters is generally good practice I try to not force it. It's like when we meet strangers, some stand out and we build a relationship, and our memory makes them stand out. The way I imagine is that different people will separate characters that somewhat speak to them. I think with more episodes and screen time we will be able to separate the characters more. Right now, they are part of the crowd but soon they will have their time to shine!

Overcoming Reality is a tale about dealing with the struggles of life. Everyone goes through something, and things do get better. I figured the way to show these is by starting with one of the worsts circumstances people can find themselves in and slowly building up to smaller struggles. The stories may not be fully realistic, but I do want it to somewhat resemble reality to some degree. Flare herself might be in the best spot right now but that will be up to the viewer to decide, especially with more information coming out on new episodes. It's all a perspective thing and I am excited to hear other people's perspective when there is more to the story to take in and think about.

In the next episode I hope to allow both the characters and viewer process what has happened together. However, perhaps it could be too soon for the characters themselves to process, and we might need more episodes for the true lightheartedness to settle in.

But hey even if it's not meant to be funny, I am glad you could find a break in the madness to have a chuckle! though the one with the child, she was not thrown upward on purpose. There was an explosion that happened behind them that manage to shove her upwards and the invader got thrown somewhere else. I could have probably made that a little clearer by adding a few more frames or maybe zooming in on a bomb, but I wasn't thinking of it. I will see if I can keep this in mind for future scenes that need more clarity, thanks for your perspective!

I can tell you that episode 3 will have a new character that was foreshadow in this episode! It is definitely a bit too soon for the characters to have a good time. Even when good things happen it might not seem like enough, but it will be something to reflex on a bit later. Hope to not disappoint, thanks for the review!

[Mr.Beast-iality]

I just...you don't...stop it, get some help.

theherdmentality responds:

it's too late for me bruh

[Dreamcast Collab]

I'll be honest, the first 30 min were really boring, nearly quit watching then and there. Don't get me wrong, the animation was still good, and that Daytona remix was fire, but for as harsh as it sounds, y'all in the first half need to improve your funny bones.

Thankfully, it picks-up from then on and I finally got the meaning behind the collab. The Tony Hawk, MVC2, and SGGG one had me in stitches. Also, can't wait for the JSR animation

I wish the intermissions had credits attached to them or a watermark so I can easily follow the artist. Some of them were really good looking like the one where Sonic was thinking.

Speaking of credits, some kind of screenshot for each animation to go along with the names in the credits would have made figuring-out who made what a little easier for people who can't remember the names of the over 200 animations in this collab (just a minor personal gripe)

Overall, it was still a fine collab, but man that first half was a tough watch.

ratchili responds:

Instead of calling him J. Robert Oppenheimer on the dating app I called him B. J. Sloppenheimer. This is in reference to the fact that his blowjob skills, much like the nuke he helped create, is THE bomb.

[Pepe's day off]

God damn! I'm not sure what I was expecting from a Pepe animation, but this is absolutely phenomenal!

Great work! Absolutely deserves the Frontpage and the P-bot Award

ToadBurgerTV responds:

Gracias, padre.

[The (not so) awesome bird collab!]

You know what, for your first collab it turned out alright.

Maybe next time you could try a different strategy for your marketing, and "idiot-proofing" the rules. Haven't delved into the collab world myself, but there's a lot to learn from what I've seen and heard of other collab organizers.

Hope the next one (if there is one) will turn-out better.

EaselEcho responds:

Ye can't tell if I was one of the offenders; I don't contribute to collabs often so I simply did my part within the span of a night and then submitted 4 days before it was all due!

[CATFIGHT | Short Film]

Love the art style and animation!

My only critique is I wish it was longer, but what's there is still fantastic.

catfight90 responds:

awww thank you so much :D!!! hopefully if we do a sequel it'll be longer 👁️

[Sketch Collab 2023]

Why do I get the feeling I was the only one who animated on ones again...

Glad to be part of this collab again, even if mine was left incomplete. It was either finishing this, or all the gifts I made December, it was a tough choice.

It's also funny looking at the coincidental theming of each collab. Last year was filled with guns, and this year it seems to be filled with a bunch of explosions. Funny how things go sometimes.

Also interesting was the amount of newbie animators joining the collab, and not reading the ru- I mean, getting a bunch of eyes on their work in front of a wide audience. That alone might give them a bit of a head start.

Unfortunately, I might not be joining next year if there is one. Gotta focus on getting more efficient with my animation skills since I take forever to finish my animations due to me being extremely rusty.

Overall, fun little collab, fun people...usually, and fun watch.

Martyr-Machine responds:

You weren't the only one lol

[Gamer Girl Robot DESTROYS viewer's argument]

7/10
Too much booba

ZedrinBot responds:

-IGN

[JJ VERSUS]

Phenomenal work with the animation.

I absolutely adore when animations are in time with the music, and its so buttery smooth too!

NK64 responds:

Thank you so much!! Also thank you for watching it! I really appreciate it!

[The ritual]

Dude, I found the same effect too! I found mine while playing around with the noise texture, and some gradients shaders.

Love the kind of watery texture it creates

Gribo01 responds:

Yeah lol, it's really fun to play with shaders on blender and make weird effects. Eventually would love to make like really cool background effects for drawings