MBR: Kayas vs Drew

Kayas
Rank: Platinum | 176
Profile: http://maplemation.com/threads/kayas-mbr-profile.35643/
Animation: [MEDIA=youtube]6ZOJU5JGH2o[/MEDIA]
Notes: Animating Drew’s character (due to being instructed he has no voice clips or dialogue) expressively was difficult - however, this was still a fun MBR that re-ignited that spark to animate again. Special thanks to those that helped out over the course of this project with feedback. Special thanks to Drew for sticking it with me and being the debut of the new system. This is for you @quentin galloway


Drew
Rank: Silver | 91
Profile: http://maplemation.com/threads/drews-mbr-profile.35644/
Animation: [MEDIA=youtube]FGxl8jFv66Y[/MEDIA]

Notes: We finally did it. It’s been a tough road getting to this day, but the work and the wait is now over. Big shoutout to Kayas for this ride, and providing an intense challenge I won’t soon forget. And thanks to everyone who patiently bared with us and waited up until this point. I’m happy to be a part of the debut for the new MBR system, and I’ll be looking forward to the many new hype matches that’ll soon follow.

Remember polls are handled through comments now - so get voting! This also means MBR’s are out so go crazy!

That was the most EPIC BATTLE I EVER Ser now I can die an peace after see this master piece and I like the story for sure

Anyways my vote.............. It goes for kayas

Sorry drew but you animation was still awesone as always

Great job you two

Came back here to the forums just to post how impressed I was with this animation.
Maple animation has definitely come a long way since my days, and I cannot deny how impressed I am with the modern techniques of sprite animating.

Never stop improving guys, this is a wonderful treat. By far one of my favorite MBRs yet.

My vote without a doubt has to be Kayas, shit; where the hell to begin?

The cinematography and unique utilization of maple-maps and turning it into a 3D space was absolutely phenomenal. The more I watched it, the more I wanted more; and from t he blood, sweat and tears I've seen you put into this - the more it paid off. Your animation was certainly worth the wait, and I'm proud of what you made, man. This is some really well done, quality shit. If you really inspire me to keep moving forward and improve my works, good fucking shit.

Just sitting here trying to gather my thoughts because that shit was absolutely OD. I want to congratulate both of you first of all for making such an intense and awe-inspiring MBR to kickstart your new system. I can tell that a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into forming the final product. This is one of those MBRs that'll be remembered for years to come, which isn't anything short of a gigantic feat. Comparing who I thought won to me is comparing a 9/10 to a 10/10. Probably even a closer gap. So I'm not repeating myself, I'll go through and say what I believe both of you guys did great on, what both of you guys could improve upon, and then run it down individually. I think that's a fair way to compare.

The story for this animation was perfect, and I guess that attributes to the collaboration between you two. Actually thought it clever to "kill off" Drew's old character to introduce Desmond. I was actually confused at first when I saw the old spritesheet being used. The story was seamless from one to another and it was easy to follow. Lots of care went into the script and it shows. The maps for both were absolutely on point. I'm not sure if you legitimately modeled your cities, used texture maps, but whatever the hell you two did, it worked. I was incredibly engaged with the setting. Combat between the both was fluid - actually everything was fluid. Your rigs improved more-so than they already are refined. You guys are at Aquila and Zack levels of rigging now. That's dope.

As far as things I believe both of you could improve on, only a couple things. I think text for both could have been presented a little better. For Kayas, the font could have been bolder since you are using a lower-third to present it. Something that pops up more since the font-family choice isn't exactly the best for subtitles. This is especially since you have a lot information in your animation (more on that later). As for Drew, your animation has a LOT of whites in it, so having something like white text with a black stroke doesn't work as well. Still readable, but you coulda done better with making a lower-third widescreen bar like Kayas or opting for yellow-text with a black stroke on some 80s anime shit. Refer to this...

Spoiler

Not only does yellow stand out from blue fine (Desmond's main color) but it also is complementary to violet (the Murderer's main color). Just keep that in mind.

Personally, I loved the way both of these animations were presented but it was processed in post a bit too heavily in my opinion. Think it slightly took away from it even if it looked gorgeous.

So individually, since I'm running low on time, I'll just go through and give a positives-negatives list for each. I'll delve more into the negatives, just so you guys know what I'm talking about.

Kayas

+ Your shot compositions, holy damn. There are so many memorable shots to the stark white background when his knife breaks to the black silhouette sequence with the gun explosions acting like orange light. Beautiful moments.
+ Your custom drawn stuff added to the animation. You didn't need it but it was welcomed nonetheless.
+ I find your combat to be a lot more creative in use than Drew's. I did think that when Desmond came in, a bit of the creativeness kinda fell off a little to properly segway for Drew to introduce Desmond properly. That's fine.
+ Use of soundtrack I also believe overtook Drew's use.
+ Your use of the map... perfect. That is all.
- My only thing. Your animation has a ton of information. There was a lot going on at once, which is easy to follow, but it ultimately came down to what I feel the weakest part was actually sound design. I believe the term is too much of something can be bad, and I felt that for the murderer's sound clips and the mixing of the sound effects. It definitely gets a pass for being engaging but when the murderer had 90 SFX clips per second coupled with the text moving pretty fast, it was a lot to take in. I found myself rewinding to make sure I didn't miss anything. Even in anime, during intense sakuga segments, if the character is talking, there's actually less going on with the SFX so that the person isn't overwhelmed. If your visuals were at a 90%, then your audio was at 120%. You mixed your audio to be loud even at low audio which is fine, but a hard limit on something like maybe -9 db with a catchup gain of -4db, then sparsing voice clips out would have been so much better man. All your sounds I felt had the same oomph and impact to them, not bad, just vary it. Otherwise, that's my only gripe.

Drew

+ Your characters and contrasting elements I felt were better than Kayas's. It was much easier to follow your animation here with the same amount going on in content (imo). Characters stand out and when it isn't just a shiny thing setpiece, it's the most important thing.
+ Close quarters combat had the same snappy flare that I'm used to from you but amped up to eleven. I think now your style is much more refined. You have a clear mastery and understanding of the characters you use.
+ Your animation kept it moving, I rarely found spots where it was just people talking. While Kayas definitely had shot composition, there wasn't a dull part to your animation. Even when they did stand, there was mouth movements or the camera was doing something.
+ Your effects were more evenly distributed across the entire animation. I felt like I knew what a Kayas attack and what a Drew attack was mainly because of the effects you chose to you and how you color-coded them. It's clever.
- Your transitions definitely need work. I felt scenes between different parts of the map happened way too fast for something I felt was mostly empty.
- Your map is great just didn't feel like it was lived in, you know? Some other characters around or some police sirens oor something would have enhanced this by ten times.
- Biggest thing. You gotta chill on the speedlines, I think for you it started to replace actual movement and dramatic shots. If something big needed to happen, speedline. The characters are falling. Speedline. Zoom in for a sword slice or a punch. Speedline. Just try and cut how you use them.

Overall, with everything I said, I gotta give this to Kayas. While some things from Kayas I felt were too much and too distracting at times, Drew, I think there were things you could have brought to the table. Perfect animations otherwise. It's that I'd rather have too much food (Kayas), than not have enough (Drew). But REALLY good job, you two. Best MBR in a while.

JPG smacked this shit. Drew's gotten a lot better, but JPG's understanding of what makes fight scenes entertaining and more dynamic nailed it. There was... actual choreography in it. A noticeable, consistent flow with the fight that kept it at a satisfying pace. The use of 3D objects was handled way better, and I love how he experimented with a variety of different shots, especially for the dialogue.The sound design was incredibly solid, too. Your enthusiasm for japanese animation oozed from every second of this, and I appreciate the amount of time you put into refining even basic movements and shots. Drew definitely has the potential, and I think once he learns to really focus on and refine details, he'll be a lot more ahead of the curve than he is now. Aside from the Japanese not matching up with actual dialogue...

見事だ君たち！

So, first of all, I really loved both animations. They were both executed so beautifully. While I do think the cinematics for Kayas was stronger, I wanna give my vote to Drew. His animation showed that rank doesn't mean anything, it's just the initial number given. His initial rank is silver, yet this animation shows great creativity with all the different camera angles and 3d aspects. The fighting choreography was just beautiful.

This is the definition of worth the wait you both did splentastic, my reaction is psychotic I laugh and run I can't control myself, thank you for this wonderful gift, with it my patient and happiness are infinite. Also I vote for kayas, I want to choose both but you can't that's the rules, kayas animation is outstanding the way he his 3 dimensional in the battle and the way his character move and act is psychological awesome.
Drew most of all I love your animation and how to angle it of the fight, both of the animation are my favorite, I don't know why not popular. Also thank you kayas for including me.:awesome:

Edit: On second thought I want to change my vote to drew

Well done to both of you!! :)

Overall Animations(both animations): Not really much to say cause I'm not good with the cnc stuff but It felt kinda repetitive tho, because what I'm getting from the animations is that the killer fights someone then runs away then fights some AGAIN! then runs away AGAIN! and so on.

Kayas: I generally really like your part especially the running sequence at the beginning and the building jumping sequence as well as the combat but that's about it.

Drew: sorry but your part wasn't really appealing to me that much but there where some parts that I liked such as when they were both falling from the building and Your character was kicked through the building.

But in the end my vote goes to Kayas because his was generally way more appealing to me in terms of dialogue and combat.

You guys out here topping literally every MBR that has ever happened ever. I'm delighted with how much effort and dedication you guys put into your parts, which both exceed 5 minutes, like god damn what madmen.
Kayas: Lets get this out of the way, your background work is masterful. You've managed to bring 2.5D into the 3rd dimension and your ambient lighting is the icing on the cake. Your action sequences are excellent as they usually are, maybe they're a little too good for maple sprites! Other than that there's maybe some skews and transforms that looked a little jank? Mainly looking at the shots at 2:20 (Drew's sword) and 3:40 (laser beam and sword). Critical eye aside, fantastic.

Drew: First and foremost, hey man! Secondly, you did so well and I think this is your best animation so far. Your part would benefit from exploring intense lighting more, mainly to match Kayas's lighting, but if you guys didn't really share between each other then I get how an inconsistency like that would happen. Speaking of inconsistency, Immediately when the Killer goes in for his first strike, you poofed his knife into oblivion, where'd it go? There's a couple other times where you disappear the characters' weapons, and I sorta get why, but when you're trying to make a next level animation, you gotta keep the consistency for the audiences' sake.
I'm not gonna admonish you any further than that because the rest of your animation is juicy. I love the music, I love the feeling, I love the eyecandy shots you pulled off, you did a great job and made the characters do some really cool stuff.

I love your guys' work. It's thrilling to see this quality of animation in MBRs, or just in general. Drew, Kayas, go get yourselves a treat 'cause finished work like this deserves a celebration.

Kayas, you have some pretty good choreography and map design. I also loved the soundtrack you used! Although, the scene at 2:40 had a lot going on in it and it took me a few rewinds and pauses to figure out what was going on. Drew, you did really well yourself, what lacked in map design and lighting in comparison to Kayas, you made up with very good dialogue scenes. As mentioned in other posts, the hits lacked a bit of oomph. I also noticed a bit of music sync there from 2:00 and a bit beyond but for some reason I found that it wasn't very noticeable. Possibly decrease the volume of the music?

In the end, vote goes towards Kayas. God damn you both did a fantastic job!

*breathes*
Here we go

First, I want to say a HUGE well done to both parties involved! You both have started this season with a bang and it was worth the wait. Once again congratulations to both of you.

Now let's get into it. (I'll do my best to be brief, and please take this with the LARGEST grain o' salt)

KAYAS:
Pros: BRUH! This may be my favorite of yours. I see you've been tinkering in your shop. NNNNNNNNice. The main thing that really stuck out to me was the Camerawork. It was very immersive and at times felt like I was involved in the action as well. It was quite a fun ride. Even when you have background set pieces, it did not feel as if something was missing out on the rotations. Everything was involved with the camera: the characters as well as set pieces. Adding to that spice was also the different angles taken that really added to the "story" element of the challenge, as each angle told a different aspect of the overall story. Like how we see the murderer all dark with the city behind him as he goes for the kill. We see this shot from Drew's character perspective so we feel small. It's small sure, but it adds.

Cons: Now I know I did say that the camerawork and fusion of world, character, and camera were good, it also has a downside. When using 3D movement with 2D sprites, it makes the sprites stand out more. What I'm trying to say is there were times when the camera was moving nicely, but you can tell the character was a 2D sprite, like when the murderer takes Drew's head and puts it to the wall, or the time when he stabs Drew in the arm. Those moments stood out a bit and took me out of the experience for a bit. We all want that fresh 3D anime look from attack on titan, but these are sprites so 2.5D is the best for us atm. And also while nice that we do have an active camera, maybe slow down the ride a bit, my head was spinning for some parts.


DREW:
Pros: Jesus! That improvement doe! You really have come a long way from your animations of days past. Seriously, great job my G. This will also be going into the animation study for sure. You have definitely been experimenting with camera angles. Again as stated before they are small things, but they do add to the story in a big way. I also really liked how you went for having more 3D backgrounds and having the killer jump on them. They didn't feel like they were there just to be there, they had a purpose. Then again your use of backgrounds have always fascinated me.

Cons: Despite, the use of angles though I feel like there were more angles you could have added. Like when the killer chokes Desmond inside that building. Instead of cutting from the choking of Desmond to then him looking at his weapon, maybe have Desmond choked, his perspective of the killer (maybe him towering above him a hand on the neck with Desmond showing fatigue -shown by tilting of the camera up and down) and then cut to the weapon. Also sounds. I feel that you are a bit weak when it comes to sound effects as in the beginning of the fight I could have sworn I heard the same sound effect 3 times. It feels as if you are using one sound each time, instead of layering and creating a new unique sound for each hit. But again I'm not entirely sure, I'm just a guy.

It's a shame that I can't be that dude and vote for both of ya so I guess I'll give my vote to Kayas. HOWEVER, from watching Drew's animation I am inspired to one day make my own profile as he has shown that rank doesn't define the artist (it can add for some sweet revenge later heh).

To both of you,
Thanks for starting MBRs with a bang. I'll be rooting for you all the way. The hard work you both put in is shown in both of your works and I hope MBRs of the future can use this as the foundation of greater things to come.

:D

Holy fucking shit! This was the best maplestory animation I've ever seen! Probably the best MBR out there too! Great job both of you!

Both animations, choreography, action and dialogues were really good but I gotta give it to Kayas though.
I liked his storytelling better than Drew's, and I also really liked the different angles he used (reminded me of Kimetsu No Yaiba's 3D animation which they do really well.)

Just here to make a comment as I will decline from voting.

Both of you have raised the bar for maple animation, it honestly captured the essence of watching a modern anime for me. Your shots, the backgrounds, and the character animations are all executed very well! Cheers to the both of you!

"P.S."

For those who don't know, the sequence I made for Desmond was at 3:47 for Kayas' part. I almost spat out my drink because I made that back in October last year. I never thought it'd see the light of day again. LMAO

Worth the wait.
My vote will go to kayas. Holy shit, every scene was a piece of art, those subtle and detailed 3d backgrounds made me lose my mind. The pace was great, the story telling was good, the cinematics amazing, camera movement exciting.
I could almost say the same about drew's animation, but kayas topped those points i mentioned. The biggest difference was in the scenery compositions. Drews scenes leaves so much empty space and you are forced to focus too much on the 3d environment, which wouldn't be bad if at least it had more details to look at.

Congratulations on creating this historical moment. It's a huge honor to have my art being used as your thumbnails.

Holy Bombastic Summers & Christmases, that was some good stuff. <3

&quot;Kayas&quot;

&quot;Kayas&quot;

Oh my god, your part was just oozing with details, right down to the very differently-elevated tiles on the floor. Your attention to detail on the maps are absolutely well-done, that I can truly believe the city is alive in your animation.
The cinematic angles as the fight goes on is also excellent to see, with so many sprites made for specific angles really gives the animation some depth for me. I especially like that shot where the Murderer was able to take pieces of his knife mid-air to quickly attack to show his resourcefulness to adaptation.
However, there are some off things, such as Drew’s blood disappearing from his head for one angle at 2:50 and the dumpster’s lid being a little too large at 3:13, along with the lack of shadows underneath the characters.
There are also some times (in an entertainment perspective), the dialogue is kinda meh from the murderer going on and on about his meal, but I can understand as it’s how the Murderer’s traits are, along with due to Drew’s character being mute(if that’s what Drew’s instructions show), but you were able to present Drew’s character’s expressions very well during the fight.

&quot;Drew&quot;

I absolutely love your animation, it really pulls risks in showing the distance of the fight more so than Kayas, from being in the streets, to the inside of a building, and finally, to the rooftop that really engages the viewer of the fight. I especially like the camera shots that show the character as the majority of the shot to reduce negative space.
However, there are some glaring things to me, the map settings feel a bit empty to me. There were almost no people or passing cars, along with a lack of contrast in lighting which make the city more like a ghost town than a thriving nightlife. It’s also because of the emptiness of the city that also emphasizes the lack of shadows underneath the characters very prevalent, which you and Kayas’ animations have a problem with.
There is also a few little nitpicks I was a little iffy about; when the Murderer jumps upwards to the rooftop, why did he just stand by the ledge? After all, he is trying to run from Desmond. Perhaps you could’ve shown the Murderer still running to the ledge and stop as he senses Desmond reach the rooftop. When the fight’s location shifted to the random building, you’d think the Murderer would notice Desmond trying to reach his weapon and push it away, but I’m guessing it shows the Murderer’s single-mindedness in harming his target, along with him not knowing Desmond’s weapon can repel his lol.

Overall, I give Kayas my vote. I’m too much of a sucker for his map details, along with the shifting cinematic angles he makes to engage the viewers of the fight. Drew’s was also an amazing animation of him using more and more different angles to create a more cinematic fight, however, the feeling of emptiness in his maps of constant lighting and lack of details really dampened my enjoyment of his animation. Congratulations to you two on making one of the best MBRs I’ve ever seen and I hope to see more of you two’s work in the future(and of course, everyone else’s who made an MBR profile~)

Man those were some great fights.

I feel kayas had better lighting due to the fact it fit the night theme better and I liked the feel of the hits better. However it was kind difficult to follow in certain situations due to how you played with the perspective.

However my vote has to go to drew.
Even though his lighting could be fixed up a bit (especially with the alleyway at the start), I personally preferred how he used much more of the background for the fight, giving it a much more broader scale. It was also easier to follow due to the fact that the camera had a good amount of space throughout to let the viewer see what is going on.

The only other reason I want to vote for drew is because even though you were both telling this as one big story, only drew actually focused on the fight between both of your characters while Kayas instead made his character fight a different character.

Still tho, even though this took a long time, this was well worth the wait, now I just need to wait for some fight animation collabs to come out so I can show some of my more recient fights and get into this system

My vote goes for Kayas.

I really dig the collaboration direction you both took, and I respect the effort you guys did for this. If I was a newcomer to the community I would've thought this project was made by a team rather than a single animator per entry.

Kayas' part was a big jump in quality compared to Drew's entry, and it just executed much more eye-candy flare in my opinion. I have not seen a Maplestory sprite animation with this much creativity in angles, unique atmosphere, and effects. (That dark-lighting sequence was sick! - Kayas part)

Drew, your part was great and I enjoyed watching it, but it did not bring out as much spark compared to Kayas' entry. Good job regardless, and I wish you both good luck on future projects.

Thank you both for an entertaining show!

Jesus, what a show we were blessed with today!

I'm going to go over every little thing that comes to mind, so I'm putting this up here right away.
My vote goes to Kayas.

It's worth noting for criticism that I am not an animator, at least not yet, so a ton of what I'm bringing up may just be my personal taste.
I try to avoid criticism and feedback if I cannot think of a solution to it, but again I'm not an animator and have no idea how after effects works so I apologize if I fail to give properly constructive criticism.

Final note, I will be watching the whole mbr in order (the full 13-minute video on the MM youtube) while writing this, so I will mention timestamps from this video as opposed to posting a hundred screenshots.

&quot;Kayas&quot;

PROS

• Right from the start, your color choice, perspective, shadows, everything is gorgeous. It captures the mood so incredibly well, and I cannot commend you enough for this.
  

• Is this the future of rigging?! Seriously, your animations are so incredibly smooth during the scene from 1:08 ~ 1:20, it's hard to believe it's even spritework at this point. This little rooftop running scene is one of my favorites in the entire animation simply because of the perspective and how clean it all is.
  

• @1:25 Oh my the atmosphere, the pressure, the camera angles!
  [LIST]
  
• Your camera work is such an incredible improvement in this MBR. Previously I've mentioned that your camera work is hard to follow, and it disrupts a lot of what you're going for, but I cannot disagree with that statement more for this work of yours! Creative, interesting, and incredible shots are being pulled off constantly, and most of it doesn't interrupt the flow of the animation whatsoever. Brilliant improvement!
  

[/LIST]

• 1:45 pitch black scene done well, oh how I love it. The sparks briefly revealing parts of the sprites is a lovely detail. Going out of your way to do this for this one shot was a brilliant creative touch.
  

• Your characters motives are written and animated well. I previously did not care much for the character, but I'm finding his personality intriguing to watch in combat. The way he fights and talks throughout the fight lines up quite well with his personality and mental state, and it does well for creating a strong memorable character.
  

• ooooh my, chills when the Murderer backs into the shadows, this small shot is so well done, the smooth eye trail is edgy in all the right ways.
  

• Lastly, the way you put your shadows in the walls and background is very good. It adds a lot of much-needed depth and helps the already livid backgrounds feel much more aligned with the fight. I am only pointing this out as this is something that Drew struggles to do a lot in his animation
  

CONS

• Small gripe, but you overdid the static a little too much during the beginning flashback. It gets in the way a tiny bit too much
  

• You really should work on improving your subtitles. Maybe it's just this character, or maybe it's just the scene, but during the beginning during the flashback, the Murderer talks/thinks to himself in 3rd person like an announcer, and it's very odd to see. Things like "I had to kill... I needed to kill, so I went for the first woman I saw", and "and now, the police are coming" don't seem to fit the way I would perceive someone who is batshit insane thinks to and responds to themselves. Some shows and anime like Hunter x Hunter do announcers and 3rd person subtitles/thoughts very well, so perhaps look through that, if you can agree with what I'm saying anyways
  [LIST]
  
• to extend on this, replacing some things like the police quote with "looks like it's time for me to go" or something could work and isn't as awkwardly 3rd person
  
• Alternatively, you could have just completely cut the subtitles out, and sped up the flashback considerably. This would have made the pace faster, and more aligned with the rest of the animation, but may not have been as cinematically pleasing(?)
  
• This happens again after the combat ends @ around 3:50.
  "I can't fight him, plus I'm way too injured to move"
  >proceeds to run away at full speed, jumping across buildings and eventually engaging in full speed combat.
  A slight improvement on wording could be "I can't fight him, I'm way too injured right now". Sounds smoother, at least to me, and helps make the above contradiction less noticeable
  

[/LIST]

• I believe it's been mentioned in other responses, but the volume of the Murderer's voice lines is very very loud in comparison to the rest of what's happening. I believe Drew made a few noises (?), but I cannot tell as they're immediately drowned out/silenced by other sound effects. Perhaps just making those a bit louder instead would work? I won't dwell on it.
  

• Dudes eyes became smaller than a single pixel @ 2:30. Too small, and it gets too small too quick. Smoother ease would be epic
  

• The camera for the combat with Drew up until around 2:48 is a little bit too much. It's not bad, but it's getting back to your old problems with it rotating and turning just a little bit too fast. I'm not good with the camera myself, but perhaps zooming out a little bit during some of these scenes would help center the action just a little more(?)
  

• Additional minor detail, but there are multiple frames where Drews face reverts after being bloodied. It's not noticeable unless you watch it slowed down or you watch it multiple times, but it still oughta be consistent.
  

• Okay, I get why you did this, but at 3:40 when Desmond stops the murder from killing Drew, you repeat the same sound effect for like 6 seconds? This could be easily fixed by just slightly wavering the pitch or something, but it's not, which is a bit odd. It's easily the smallest gripe I have with your whole animation, but the little things count!
  

• When Desmond's sword retracts, it looks like it comes in from the left, yet the guard with the gun points it more towards the right. A small thing that could be fixed easily, yet it stuck out to me.
  [LIST]
  
• Lol Desmond's eyes trail to his right when they spot Drew, but when the camera goes to his perspective Drew is straight in front of him, or if not, to his left
  

[/LIST]
Conclusion
What an animation. This is definitely going down in my books of reference material, as I absolutely love your pacing, atmosphere, mapping, effects, background audio choice, and everything in between. Most every flaw I've had with your animations previously was addressed or at minimum improved upon in this animation, as I had hoped with the time you spent on it. Good job, you've definitely earned my vote.

&quot;Drew&quot;

Just a standard forewarning. I am biased in favor of Kayas's animation due to the nature of direct side-by-side comparisons, but this does not mean that Drew underperformed as an animator, nor that I dislike his animation. I apologize if I come off as saying as such
PROS

• Due to there being less in the background compared to Kayas's animation, it is indeed easier to focus on what's happening between the characters. That being said, I didn't find it particularly hard to focus on the characters in Kayas's animations, so I don't see this as a huge positive in the first place.
  

• As I've seen in the past, you've got fairly good camera angles that keep things more dynamic than standard camera work. You can improve upon this still, but I'm not the right person to tell you how, as I suck at this myself.
  

• I'm surprised, Drew, your swordplay is clean asf! If you had kept the pace of the swordplay moments at 5:42, and 6:38 then your combat would definitely have been on par with Kayas's in terms of pacing and actual movement. I look forward to seeing more improvements like this in the future!
  

• I feel like you get this a lot, but you've developed a certain style that goes really well as a cinematic storytelling style, and that you did well, and while it interrupted the actual fight, thus making me not a big fan, I will give you credit where credit is due.
  

• Damn what a finisher. Although it sort of came out of nowhere, the finisher was good. Sound effects definitely could have been a little sharper to emulate cutting a bit better, but the final impact was great, and the last kick was clearly meant to close the fight out
  

• The ending scene was a very good display of both personalities. Perhaps you should have made the rain clear near the end for that added effect of "the evil villain is no more"
  

CONS

• Right away, it's noticeable when the animator swaps. The map becomes much brighter, the shadows and distant objects being darker and blurred stops, and the world becomes significantly emptier, which is a far bigger hindrance than expected.
  [LIST]
  
• In Drew's solo animation while Murderer is running away from Desmond in the beginning, the shadows and lighting is very dim. This is something that inexperienced artists tend to do, in that they make their shadows super light and dull. It's counterproductive, and almost invisible without pausing to take a closer look. Much stronger shadows would definitely help give more of an alley-way feel
  

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• While you have much better pacing than in your previous animations, you still tend to break your pace frequently with little scenes of dialogue and interaction that could very easily be cut out, or reduced in length. 6:40 I'll give a pass, as the Murderer acts on this pause to cut him off, thus it's less of a time stop like a lot of the other pauses, and more of a small distraction/side thought.
  

• 7:12, not sure what happened during the fall scene, but you seem to forget about impact with the building. You add very little friction to it outside when Murderer pushes Desmond with his whole body against the wall. More impact effects and dust on the walls here would have helped this feel much much more realistic.
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• Side note, I can't help but think this shot could have been super pretty if there were more background refraction (is that the right term?) and more bright lights in the background as Desmond was getting beaten up. For the city in the background being as big as it is, it's surprisingly dull.
  

[*]Most of the colors chosen for this animation are very dull and monotone and they stay this dull gray shade for nearly the entire animation. It's not very pleasing to look at and is a shame as stated in the above point.
A big city during the night is stereotypically seen with lots of bright neon signs and lights lighting the city up, leaving the alleys to the darkness and dimly lit moonlight, but you show no signs of this. It's sometimes contrasted by bright blue effects and the likes, but they're not around nearly enough for this issue to be evaded.
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• 7:48, I cannot tell what this scene is. If not for the scene after I would have no idea that he was running up the height of an elevator shaft. This is partially due to the door being the same monotone silver as the rest of the map around him, and there being no distinct way to tell that the elevator has some semblance of relation to this scene. I'm not sure if it would have been necessary to add a shine or something on the elevator to make it catch your eye, but perhaps if the building was super dark inside, with a single light flickering on above the elevator or something to make it stand out a little more it would have been noticed sooner. Perhaps this is just how I perceived it though.
  

CONCLUSION
Drew's animation was good. It had a good map to work with, even if a little empty, solid sound effects, visual effects, and camera work leads me to say that your animation is good. It's only lacking because it's being directly compared to Kayas's animation, which to me was one of the closest animations to perfection that I've seen come out of this community in a very long time.
Drew, I wholeheartedly congratulate your work of art. It was a brilliant animation that really pushed you to improve and work harder than you have in the past, and it really shows. Most all of the gripes I've had with your animations in the past were more than made up for and improved upon, and you've shown us that you've got huge potential to improve, and I cannot wait to see you evolve as an artist as time goes on.
Silver is no longer a fair rank placement for you in my opinion.

Also sorry I didn't bring up as much with yours as I did with Kayas's, I kept getting distracted writing this out, so I tried to cut it short so I can get around to doing life things while there's still daylight :pensive:

Damn. This is an MBR to vote for. It's really close, but Kayas wins it for me.

Kayas:
The attention to detail with the 3D maps & lighting is easily some of the best I've ever seen in any sprite animation. So on that technical (and artistic) effort & achievement, it earns so many points in my book to win this - - That in tandem with all the camera animation, it was fantastic, proper motion arcs and easing applied to it. Also I really enjoyed the music/sound design. & The pacing + story overall built a lot of tension & suspense. I love the cops and the amount of introspection & strategy we see of the murderer throughout the fight.

Drew:
Daaaang dude. Overall, I think you created the better traditional fight animation. The back and forth between the characters, all of the location areas for the fight, were all super impressive and well done. Both the duration and quality of the fight were on point and it was a joy to watch. :D

I'd write more for u two, but I'm at work lol. But I keep thinking about your guys' animations so I wanted to spill some more thoughts UwU. But wow, congrats to both of you for completing these beasts!