BrerSteve's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Bee and the lost Axis]

Very nice animation and well done on your project. Although I doubt it'd make a difference at this point since it sounds like a past project that is long over, but I wanted to make a few suggestions that may help for future endeavours. Mostly, consider a little more carefully how you relate the animation to reality, so that things don't seem out of place. Even though your bee and other elements were kinda cartoony, I found things like the empty rocking chair to be a little off-putting. I am supposing we were supposed to get the sense that someone was recently in that chair, and so it was still rocking. But through the whole thing it was rocking and resting in the extended forward and backward positions as though someone were in the chair. It gave the impression at first that there was a ghost in there. But seeing the rest of the animation, I'd say that's not what you were going for. A rocking chair left unattended would have a few short, quick rocks left in it before settling, and become shorter and shorter until stopping. I know it's a small thing, but it felt so very out of place. Not to mention the sound of the rocking chair was the kind made when there is a large weight on it, to cause the creaking in the boards. I immediately was fixated on the chair and wondering what it's deal was. This brings me to another point. When working with sound effects, consider the context to make it seem more real. Like the creaking of the chair which made no sense with nobody in the chair, the bee's steps to me made no sense in terms of the surface he was on. Even if he was the size of a person, nobody's steps sound like that. The bee kept varying the pressure and intensity of his steps, but the sound effect was exactly the same, no matter what. That's what I mean by the context of a sound effect. Think about how something WOULD sound in a certain context, and maybe even replicate it by actually doing it. It actually would not have seemed odd at all to completely omit the bee's stepping sounds, since he's so little. But changing the pressure, loudness, and duration of sound effects can make a big difference in making a person feel submersed in the animation.
One last thing: I felt the beginning of the animation was drawn on for far too long. We were just looking forever at scenery, and then FINALLY when we get introduced to the bee, he ends up flying around that very same scenery for a while. What would have been far smarter, in my opinion, would be to use bee flying around as your way to begin the credits. Start with him flying around and showing off all your CG furniture, taking a look around, and then we're already becoming invested in your story even during the opening credits. That way, when the credits finish, we get to be introduced to the bee, which we've already been wondering about since we've journeyed with him up to this point. See what I mean? More interesting than staring at furniture forever and then doing it all again with the bee when the show "starts". Anyway, those are my thoughts. Good work though.

NG-Rough responds:

hi! :)

first of all thanks for your comments, this is what i'm searching for! :)

second, i totaly agree with all you have said. the rocking chair would be move by wind like the other things outside but like you say it seem a ghost (probably an elephant ghost) is sitting there. i really hate that point...i think there are two thing that mainly and drasticaly have reduced the quality of the final movie, the first thing is the 'connections' by shot and by people, poor comunication became a problem and the shot does't fit each other perfectly (very visible in the firstbee view where every fly around start in a different location...i really don't like that).

second the time we spent on the production was unbalanced so we spend long time on the individual stuff and when the various shot was rendered, in a couple of day we bring on all the scene, add sound, add effect, add adjusment and correction... as you see even the sound in not even good, taken by a small library...

in the end it's an old project, when i see now i see a lot of mistake...but i learned a lot from this! and more important it was very very fun :) i hope to upload some better and new stuff soon!

again, thx for the comment :)

[Steves Appreciation Day]

I am Steve, and I appreciate this.

The one thing this movie gets wrong though is that there are not many Steves, but one Steve. While it may appear that there are many, the reality is that the one Steve spans across many forms for mortals to all share in the delight of the Steve experience. Otherwise the whole world would not be graced by the presence of Steve.

Incidentally, if you have met a Steve who is a total jerkface, he is a pretender. The true Steve is a gentleman and your best friend. The pretenders, or anti-Steve faction, is a worldwide group who seeks to sully the name of Steve because they are jelly.

[Free Wilco]

OH MY GOODNESS I LOVED THIS SO HARD!

Kill guy, search body, get keykard! Love it love it love it! I played every single game in the series and this was a fantastic tribute, not to mention you used some of the actual backgrounds and had the pixelated running characters down pat.

I really, really, really, really enjoyed this, and I agree, I wish they would be allowed to make an SQ7, though I think that was abandoned over 10 years ago. Not sure if there's been any resurgence in trying to get it going again. I can't understand why Activision would have any quams with allowing another game to be made if it doesn't cost them (like if a kickstarter program took care of it). It's not like they're saving it to make an actual Roger Wilco game. Anyway, I digress. Great flash!

[Regular News Debate]

hm.. so I see you pretty much copied the same video that FilmCow posted 10 days prior on YouTube..

ah well... still amusing. Totally unoriginal, but amusing.

Jonnyethco responds:

My youtube video was first if you go look at the dates. :p

[Dyc: Dictatoship]

They're in a yacht club, and yet there's never any yachts to be seen...

Just sayin...

I do love this though. The idea, the style, the music, the explosions.. it's way over the top ridiculous and funny. But I do feel like it would be more fitting if their club house was a yacht, or at the very least, if there were yachts next to the club island. Not really a criticism.. just my OCD or something probably kicking in.

[Chris & Harry]

I think I watched one of those easter eggs a million times.
"Billy?"
"Come on in boys!"

Definitely the best part of this whole animation.

[2 Guys & a Jigsaw Puzzle]

Of course there was no hidden meaning...

What hidden meaning could there be? It's just two guys workin' on a puzzle, and one Californian surfer wannabe clearly doesn't understand that a lowercase "t" is not a puzzle piece. What does religion have to do with it?

p.s. - well animated.

TmsT responds:

It's refreshing to see a few intelligent people such as yourself actually enjoying the movie without having to inject their own ideas into it and then thank/lambast me for supposedly tailoring the story to that concern of theirs. Did Halloween turn Newgrounds into a "religious discussion" community or something? I don't even know...
Thanks, Brer.

[[S] Cascade.]

Your creative storytelling and visuals astound!

Yeah, for those of you who haven't been following the comic, none of this will make any sense at all. But visually, still super cool.

I just wanted to say that this animation is proof of your amazing storytelling skills, and your ability to put it all into incredible cinematics. The only criticism I'd say is that even though I've been following homestuck since day 1, your huge animations like this one sometimes weave together so many things that have happened so far, and so quickly, that I don't necessarily recall the details of those events and am left somewhat confused about the storyline. I get the gist of it, enough to continue following the comic, but it still leaves me somewhat confused. I think maybe sometimes your story is TOO complex for your own good. Nevertheless, I am always impressed with all those ideas you come up with.

I've been following your site since the days of Problem Sleuth, which inspired me to totally copy you and make my own version of the MSPA comics. Thanks for the good ideas to steal! Ha ha! Still, my brain can't keep up with your amazing storytelling.

Keep up the good work!!!!

[Moon Diary]

neat story

I like how the fat guy didn't float away.

[Deadbeat Boyfriend]

One word to describe that girl: Needy

Nice video! Good effects, timing, animation, everything.

All I could think through the whole vid though was man, that girl is way too needy. You'd think after date 1 she'd have left him. It's funny how frustrating it was to watch her continue trying. It's just a music video! Well done!