Flying Fancy (Animated)

A new twist on the old classic miscommunications joke -- well-done! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Big Grin)"/> The conversation that led from theoretical physics/thought experiments to future technology can only be that severely askewed by Joe. In trying to prove an impossibility that was not in the aforementioned conversation, Joe looks even more foolish than before in his zeal for proving anything right in his view.

I thought the voice acting was pretty okay for an amateur compilation work (can't please some people I guess <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="19" height="19" alt="" title="Shrug"/> but trust me: I have heard worse, and that wasn't it), I absolutely love the voice actors you got for the main two characters; they should start developing a resume for more voice-over careers.

As for the animation, well...it's hard to explain with just written words, but I'll try my best: they definitely have a lot of spirit into their movements, especially with basic squash-and-stretch and anticipation movement (like how Joe squatted a bit before jumping with joy, kinda like a pouncing kitten and a low-bouncing ball). However, the animation for Joe and Gemma from the first scene kinda looked animatronic-like to me -- not much depth perception in their arm movements, and the hands/claws could use a bit of variation in pose rather than positions. If you could imply a bit more of the squash-and-stretch method to the objects (the arms in paticular) than normal to simulate foreshortening toward and/or away from the 'camera' (the audience), it could be a bit more believable.

I haven't played with Flash in a long time, but have they made any free-transform commands that could possibly warp (like Photoshop CS2 and up) the objects like a been-bag ragdoll in the later versions? I realize that the body parts of the characters need to be singular on account of keeping to your line qualities of the style, but I feel that all three character's torso objects were a bit stiff, too, though the squash-and-stretch did made them more believable and does look good in the short run. This is more of an animation experiment to try, but if you can figure out how to make them a bit more bendable in the body (objects) in your future projects, don't let it stop you. One method I've noticed in certain Flash animated cartoons is to have different back-up objects for various poses, which could probably be done for the torso area alone.

It's still early in your animation projects, I know, but there's already so much professionalism and hard work that went into this short alone that I had to be nit-picky if not inquisitive. I want to see you be able to improve as much as you can. I never thought of the guinea pig as anything else but a delicacy in Peru, but these guys are clearly way more cooler than the newer Garfield right now.

Keep up the good work! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/c…" width="20" height="20" alt="" title="Clap"/>