MBR : Zeruma Vs. Vuvucue

Core Theme: Story
Sub-Theme: Street Fight
Due Date: September 25th
Min/Max Time: 1 minute minimum (Any Max)

Zeruma :
Rank : 19 / Bronze
[MEDIA=youtube]xfXu_4jUoPI[/MEDIA]
Profile: http://maplemation.com/threads/zerumas-mbr-profile.35754/
Note :"Kind of happy to finally finish my First MBR ! :D"




Vuvucue :
Rank : 13 / Bronze
[MEDIA=youtube]bE5jz15YM0A[/MEDIA]
Profile: http://maplemation.com/threads/vuvus-mbr-profile.35960/
Note :"It was fun making this, I hope to do more!"

Yoo ! You both made a great animation, there is a lot of things to say about that, but personally my vote is for Zeruma because I especially liked these different plan and the perspective, even if it's not perfect.
Vuvucue, even if you don't have my vote, I want to say that your part was great as well and you are improving a lot. Keep going !

Just as a little quickie (since I have class and work) I believe both parts to have elements I believe could have been brushed up, like your foundations.

Zeruma, I'm not sure what exactly happened with the sound design of your part but it was incredibly inconsistent. On the other hand, your experimentation attempts for perspective lent it a unique feel compared to your opponent's. But jeez, your animation was that- inconsistent. It took me out of the story or theming you wanted to present. I think this is mad good for your first MBR though, just make sure that all elements of your animation is consistent.

Vuvucue, I think you have my vote. Even if there was less going on in terms of your animation and unique techniques, I followed your animation way more than Zeruma's. The explanation for the ability I felt was paced well and gave way to some suspense in the fight. The ending blow was a nice touch. It was short, sweet, and to the point. Plus elements in your animation was consistent. For the future, work on how readable your text is, your fundies, and try your hand with more advanced techniques.

Good job both of you.

This was a nice MBR, glad to see you both put a lot of effort into it. I'll go about this slightly different to how I usually go about it and keep it brief, since this was a close MBR really; but it came down to ambition vs execution for me.

Zeruma:
+ Ambitious animations with attempts at perspectives
+ Great mood
- The perspectives weren't executed very well, kind of squashed, etc.
- I really didn't know what was going on
- Suffers pacing issues
- Bland sound design if any, try experimenting with some more sounds

Vuvu:
+ Nice setting
+ I like the explanations of the abilities and dialogue in general (gave me some jojo vibes besides time stop lmao)
+ Streets actually had some life to them for the daytime
- Suffers major pacing issues (only 2 attacks, pauses and dialogue for the most part inbetween) - pointed out in your profile review as well, so work on this mainly
- Missed the 'street fight' theme, it felt more like a bounty hunt if anything
- Bland sound design if any, try experimenting with some more sounds

I think both of you proved that you made animations a lot better than the ones submitted for your placement ranks. For a first MBR - this was nice. I hope to see more from the both of you. For me though, execution takes precedence over ambition imo, Vuvu made less mistakes and it was easier to follow - though that was largely in part due to Zeruma being ambitious and going for more which is also nice to see. Honestly a 51-49 situation for me, was a nice MBR - but vote goes to Vuvu (barely) - I hope you both keep it up and keep up the grind!

WOW, nothing to say, both of your animation were awesome, so my vote goes to Zeruma

Alright, a mighty fine start for the both of you. I think the best way to critic these animations is to use a cake a metaphor.
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Alright Zeruma your cake heavily uses a lot of different frosting to make this cake look unique, but your execution is all over the place that is just end up being kinda gross. With each bite I take it left me either confused or when the flavors do connect it makes me question why couldn't the cake just be this good all around.Okay time for the point, You need to practice the principles of animation before you try doing some dynamic shots cause no matter how cool those shots maybe they are ruined if the base animation is lack luster.
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Okay Vuvu Your cake is just a classic vanilla brand. Simple,presentable,if just a little bland. You sure do seem to be limited on experimentation judging by your lack of condiments,my recommendation is to try to experiment just a tad bit since you seem to understand a bit more on how to make something look presentable.
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Case point. My vote goes to Vuvu! Her simple animation was more fulfilling than Zeruma's mixed attemps for perspective shots. Nonetheless still a great start for both of you and I am looking forward to what you guys have in store.

Small note~

Learning how to sprite can quickly change what you can do in an animation and I feel like if you both tried to learn how to do so then your animation limits will expand. Just a suggestion but some people have manage to make some awesome stuff without learning how to sprite so just food for thought ;P

Hey it's me again ! I'm glad to see all these good MBR ! But anyways:

I personally think that Zeruma did a better work in his animation. Even if his perspective wasn't well executed, I think it reinforces the immersion of his animation. But while I liked your perspective and your new vcam movement, i think that the choregraphy could be better and much easier to understand.

As for Vuvu, the pacing of your animation was stopped several time to let the characters talk, and i think it slow down your animation a lot.

So my vote goes to Zeruma !
Good luck for your next mbr !

While I enjoyed both animations, I think I vote for Zeruma. Both of you guys guys did a really good job but I actually felt more immersed with Zeruma's animation. (Btw congrats to you two on your improvements)

I thoroughly enjoyed watching these two animations. Is this really the first MBR for you two? Stunning.

Zeruma

I absolutely love how ambitious you were with this. You went to set a tone and you did just that. The perspectives, while not executed so well.. showed me how much effort you put into this.

For a good chunk of the animation, I was a bit confused. It may be sprite limitations, but the string of attacks starting at 50 seconds were oddly paced to me and I had to watch it over 3 times to understand what was happening. Also, I think Vuvu's character being in the same pose and expression for that duration up until the rest of the animation makes the scene much less enjoyable than it could've been. Lazy, I dare say.

"The Pose"

I like the idea here, but I'm sure you could've found something else to portray this shot more effectively than this. It looks like you may have skewed an arm piece a bunch to make it bigger.

"Spoiler"

This is kind of a nitpick.. but I feel like you could've ended the fight on something a little more satisfying than a black screen with a sound effect. I do get what you were going for. But again, it's just a nitpick.

You and Vuvu I felt could've added more sounds to your animation. While your character was looking down at that pencil I think some whooshing or dramatic-like sound effects would've really helped give that scene some life.

Another shot here shows me lack of attention to detail. While it may not be your fault her sprite is like that, it would've really done you some good to edit over it in an editing program.

"Her Feet "

There's a bunch more I could write, but I think that's enough. All in all, I just think the attention to detail was lacking. The strongest point in this animation was the tone you set. But again, your part was a hell of a treat to watch. I look forward to seeing more MBRs from you!

Vuvucue

To my understanding, you're really fresh into sprite animating. if I'm wrong, please pay no mind to that. But that improvement from your previous animations is phenomenal.

Overall, your part had much less fundamental mistakes in my eyes and although you didn't explore as much as Zeruma did in his, I think you nailed it pretty well for what you worked with. One thing I noticed in your animation in comparison to Zeruma's is that you changed the expressions to appropriately match what was happening. You showed more attention to detail in that department. In Zeruma's animation Vuvu's face only had 2 emotes for the entire animation. So good on you for that.

The text could certainly have been a little easier to read. On this shot here I had trouble reading it. I suggest adding a black dropshadow or stroke to the text so we can see it better.

"The Text"

I thought this scene here was very neat and easy to follow (I also think that's a cool ability) and you seem to know your stuff when it comes to narration and presentation. Adding that visual display instead of simply text. Even the dimming of the lights showed me you knew something about what you were doing. At your level, I thought that was really impressive.

"The Scene"

I also agree with Kayas and DjTiki. The suspense was nice. I too got Jojo vibes from some of this.

Overall, I love what I'm seeing and you should really experiment more with things in your animations. (Perspectives, sounds, etc)

My vote is going to Vuvucue. It was a tough decision, but overall your presentation and execution for what is was, won me over. Great job you two.

Voting for Vuvu.
Personally I enjoyed your animation a lot more and I could follow it easier than I could Zeruma's.

Alright then, both are unique in their own way and this was a hard choice to pick, buuuuuut I outta pick Vuvu.

Zeruma's style felt more smooth but felt like a random street fight, which is understandable, but a lot of things confused me, like that pencil thing making him pass out thing.

Vuvu felt long but still had an interesting storyline, still, it was a lot of talking but it still was satisfying to watch.

Considering this is y'all's first MBR, congratz on making your parts this good :)))

Two people throwing down in bronze! This is the shit I like to see - and it certainly was interesting enough to pull me in. These both looked great! And as much as I'd love to give both of you a point, a decision must be made. So let's get to it.

Alright, Zeruma:
Man, I like your gumption. You've got great ambition - much like Icarus! However, much like Icarus in my opinion this animation flew too close to the sun. The perspectives were shoddy, and the combat came and went so fast I barely had time to register what was happening. Storyline wise? What was with the pencil. Mans had a PTSD episode going to class. Minus the jokes, I had no idea what the heck was going on.

And VuVu:
While yours was slower paced, and less ambitious; it was a lot easier to follow - and you had a coherent storyline! A couple nitpicks, when VuVu withdrew her sword just a little out of the sheathe - you body skewed. And while skewing isn't bad, you skewed to the right; while pulling out your sword to the left. It looked pretty weird.

Ultimately, my vote goes to Vuvu.
And while it has no influence on my vote Vu, I really like your "Power of Opposition." It's unique, and interesting.

Hurry up and get to gold, I'll be waiting.

My vote goes to Vuvu I just love her style and the story line of what the fighting takes place. Zeruma I love your style and animation as well and I hope that you win.

With this being your first MBR both of you did really well but my vote goes to vuvu

I have a lot I want to point out with both animations but I'm too lazy sooooooo yea :(

This was a tough decision, but my vote goes to Vuvu.
I found it difficult to follow Zeruma's animation and the whole fainting to beatdown mode.
Vuvu had a slower animation, but explained everything that answered any possible audience questions.

Votes are 10-3 in Vuvu's favour.
Vuvu: +24 MBR Points (13>37)
Zeruma: -18 MBR Points (19>1)
Congratulations to @VuvuCue on the win. Locking up the thread.