TheMAM 2012-01-02 07:33:37

The Balancing Act animation was breathtaking and I'd love to see what you'd do in 2012. I'd also like to see what improvements you'd make in TOME.

FuNaNdMoRe 2012-01-02 09:05:04

Dude, seriously, that was a really freaking good animation there.
Do you intend to upload it to NG sometime? You definitely should.

HollowK 2012-01-02 10:37:35

That was an Excellent animation! Seems waiting though the year has its ups and downs.

powerdude964 2012-01-02 11:01:26

Great stuff. Sadly, due to the rubbish speed of my computer, the action experience was lessened, and REALLY FREAKIN' SLOW. My favorite part during the movie was definitely the scene at the pizza place, when the two guys were arguing. Seriously, I consider that scene very quote-worthy. Another thing to say; if you can't upload this to Newgrounds, why not Youtube (if you haven't)?

Oh, and Happy New Year

EAMR262 2012-01-02 11:37:25

BALANCING ACT was certainly an improvement over your past works, yet... the backgrounds still not work, the character models are very generic, some of your characters movements felt awkward, and that thing you did with the weapons, the whole "texture is the background so It moves a lot" simply clashes with everything else, I mean, I have always seen it on comedy shows, never on an action one. Plus the eyes, even though you gave them some sort of texture, compared to your older plain colored ones, they still look dead.

LewToons 2012-01-02 13:00:50

nice work man - Balancing Act was quite awesome

GuitarKirby 2012-01-02 13:25:37

After watching Balancing Act, I can conclude that you've improved greatly over the last three years. The animation is smooth, the story is coherent, and the idea is fun.
That said, I think that it was a bit lazy. I suppose it could be excused due to time constraints and a deadline for your classes, but it was rather irritating to me. I wish that the idea of them arguing in the middle of a fight had been expanded upon, and there was an overuse of gradients that seemed like they were there to avoid shading anything.

MetalDragonFire 2012-01-02 13:45:04

The amount of time and effort you put into Balancing Act really shows. Great job there! And Episode 2 of TOME was great as well. Can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for you and Newgrounds.

OrganizedApeShape 2012-01-02 15:35:56

WLOL That was really good! Was not expecting that since most of the stuff you have been submitting recently has been kinda lame :I But that was very very good, Good job and happy new year

georgeapples57 2012-01-02 18:48:32

"Balancing Act" was good, but that ending is pretty played out by now, I think. They even used it in the new "Mission: Impossible" movie. I guess you wanted to show the repetitive nature of whatever it is your characters were doing and leave room for expansion but I don't know. Animation was really smooth, though; I liked that a lot. And you uploaded it last May but are only posting about it now? Huh

Your TOME stuff is really hard to watch. I think it has something to do with there being two of the same character on screen at the same time. Also, the subtitle thing seems kinda pointless because you can understand what the characters are saying anyway. I think it just wastes space and makes everything seem more confusing. I guess it's some stylistic choice but I just don't think it looks too good. I watched the first one a while ago and started watching the second one then realized that I had no idea what was going on and I didn't really care enough to finish it. Good luck with the rest of the series though.

lenkalamari 2012-01-02 18:53:22

balancing act was definitely a step above your usual work. i liked the water element guy, you probably gave him the best lines

if theres one main criticism i'd give, it's that you could give more hints to them being superheroes a little earlier, so that the audience doesn't get that 'wtf is going on' feeling once the monsters arrive. just little things like the ice element dude using his powers to cool a drink or something (but obviously more creative than that, lmao)

Zullzee 2012-01-02 19:52:20

Is the arguing in the beginning modeled off your real life interactions with friends? Because holy shit, if I was paying for a friend's meal and they put on a bitch fit like that one guy in the green did, I'd punch him in the balls.

VidGameDude 2012-01-02 21:28:27

Back on the ball kirb, glad to see you animating to a higher level again.
im much more pleased with how this was carried out, the attitudes of the characters cynical snide sarcasm kept me watching along with all the fluid anatomically exaggerated movement. From my perspective, it truly has more potential than tome.

sorry if i sounded like a snippy prick before, i just hate seeing people only receive 10'd reviews when there is critique to be made.
But then again, there is no right or wrong in art, it simply just is, it exists as perspective experience within existence made from the creator's viewpoint or another.

anyways, fantastic job!

LyleRath 2012-01-03 06:40:41

Balancing act is definitely the best thing I've seen you make, but dude you have to fucking learn presentation. Characters should be introduced naturally through the narrative. Having their names pop up on the screen cheapens the experience and in cinematic storytelling "show, don't tell" is pretty much rule number one. Also inconsistencies in visual style like when Chris turns into a 2d sidescroller character are extremely unprofessional.

And a side note, your fight coreography is a bit bland. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but if you want to make something action oriented you have to do interesting things with your fights otherwise it's just characters exchanging blows. Nobody is going to go "that was so cool where he slashed with his sword and the other character blocked it!" no matter how good you make it look.

Just some things you might want to consider.

ElectroJoe 2012-01-03 12:37:53

must say balancing act was quite amazing. one thing that surprised me was that while the characters's body movements had similar movements to an anime they had very fluid mouths (actually the mouth movement was very fluent in the parody rangers movie). ever consider doing that style of animating say for a special tome episode? and for the fights in tome, the character movements should have more speed and probably a few more added effects. Keep up the plot in tome though, it's got quite some unique development in the situation and the character.

Light-Trainer 2012-01-04 18:03:24

Hey I just finished seeing "Balancing Act" and I love it! Some of the arguments were funny and I love the part Kathy comes in, kicks evil butt while saving the boys, then calls them idiots for not figuring out how to properly beat them! (She's right it's not rocket science but rock-paper-scissors! Even I figured it out as soon as I saw the bad guys!)

Now I know this was an final project for your school but it was awesome and I hope to see more cool short animations like this in the future!

EAMR262 2012-01-12 08:46:30

Oh yeah, one last thing I forgot: film festivals? really? Those places are for animations far more polished that this one, with unique styles and interesting ways of telling a story. My example: Paths of Hate.

You need to improve a lot of stuff before one of your animations has a real opportunity to be part of one of those, even the small, regional ones.

HeartlessKarma 2012-01-15 00:19:38

hey man, i am not really that big of a fan of yours but, i believe that a lot of your resent hate that you have been getting is a bit much. now i can understand where some of these people are coming from. but a lot of it still seems subjective. even though i am not a fan of yours i still respect the peices you have created so far, and i know that i am just a guy, but i feel this really needs to be said. there is, most likely, going to be more from you and you have plenty of potential to improve from each new work you make. the way TOME is set up doesn't bother me. you are trying something different and i can respect you as an artist for doing so. plus it seems to me that you are proud of the work you are making, and that is one of those things that only should matter. like i said, i am just one guy, but hating on someones work strickly based on their subjective dislikes is very wrong. good luck on any of your future projects Kirb.

remixV4 2012-01-16 17:19:50

How many people have ended up buying a spot in the series so far?

Fredericknoel 2012-01-28 16:05:43

This is one nice picture!