TjA's Reviews

[Take a Key for Coming In]

A nice reference to the having to play the entire game over again after completing it once to get the true ending, masked with a nice stylised transition from 8 to vector renditions of the game.

Great animation for a great game. Though it seems more focused on fans of the series and i feel as if people who haven't completed the game won't understand the messages.

Shamoozal responds:

You are absolutely correct and you don't know how tough of a judgement call it was to make gearing it towards the fans of what is becoming an obscure series. Thanks!

["Seeing is Believing" rap]

I had to "jack in" (heh, remember that?) after so long of being inactive just to review this.

I know (or knew) you have (or had) a passionate behavior when it comes to your work, but this is just awful. Simply put. It's not MindChamber.

Note: Criticism drizzled with humor.

The video consists of about 20 or so loops all pasted together with near no real relevance other than it being either a 24 frame "animation" [see: tween] of a skew on a still image, an animation of a fist/arm movement then the same frames again... but reversed or a literal interpretation of what the... artis... rappe... singe... vocalist had just said.

The only time this is different is roughly in 3 instances: the 'lightning arc' effect (FBF or shape tween?) , the ending with the vocalist in some sort of ghetto-meets-KKK-meets-prototype outfit (the blood effects though, nice job) and the chroma keying at the end. Although get some better acting.

Minor gripe: was blobbing over the baseball caps brand logo really required?
Why not...
a. remove it with scissors (they're pretty damn cheap)
b. not where a cap and simply have the hood up like he does in the animated version, albeit without the cap?
Perhaps even a thin beanie hat over the cap with or without the hood?

It seems like you were struggling for ideas, like many directors for rap videos. Due to the poor lyrics (and i can back that up with examples later) you had to rely on "crowd shots" and "stage/DJ shots" constantly. This, combined with the very repetitive loops caused me to lose all interest about 2 minutes in, perhaps even earlier.

Perhaps the title "Seeing is believing" made you take this choice to literally depict things in the lyrics within the video, but I feel the title of the song and the lyrics of the song are both out of sync.

Seeing is believing is referring to something so peculiar that it has to be seen to be believed, right?
That doesn't mean you need to literally have a god beam them self down to the stage nodding their head. Especially how the lyrics seem to suggest the gods disapproval of the vocalists choices but a keenness on his vocals (and "bangin' tracks").

Ran out of characters :(

Lyrics:
The lyrics were really poor and had no word play for which rap/mc-ing is famous for (well that and some other things).
Here's one:
"Left for dead in the game,
On his last live,
you only get one."
First he says "on his last live" then "you only get one". It was contradictory to say "his last live" and that "you only get one". If you only get one, your always on your last life. The third line isn't needed and only brings the lyrics down. At least he got reference to the "the game" of life and a video game in there, though it's so cliché now.

The music felt like one of those Jay-Z songs that state,
"I've not made a single in 6 months, now I'm back and I'm still a wealthy narcissist."
as opposed to the subject matter of quickly changing from someone who isn't a role model but not exactly the worst person in the world, to turn into someone who is "killing challenges with homicidal bars that he writes" who will "lobotomize them while keeping it all insight".

Why in the video he starts to slaughter the crowd with break-dancing moves is beyond my point of understanding.
"so tell your people to run now,
warn a friend,
to sun up to sun down we gonna slaughter them."
This, I believe, isn't referencing the listeners but rather the challengers and their friends.
This is reinforced by the fact he goes on to mention challengers more and more.

Feels like a more fitting visual would be him killing a bunch of "haters" in his audience or so his audience can "see it to believe it". But that's just me.

Audio is a single drum loop, some pops, brass "hits", piano and scratches repeated infinity to point of nausea, Not much to say there. Feels like there's no sub-bass or bass. I have earphones and a sub-woofer to check and they pick nearly nothing towards the low end frequencies.

I had more to write but ran out of space.

MindChamber responds:

The rapper had an Idea of his words coming to life, and with it ending with him killing the two people watching his show on tv. I sat down, listened to the song, and worked out a scenario that I thought fit with his vision. Since you gave me zero stars I guess I failed.. so for that I'm sorry.. all the lightning is fbf...

I will try and do better next time.

[Best Burrito Ever]

Very good, has a nice Dexters Lab style to it (Hanna-Barbera is well know this style).
I find it hard to believe your only 12, but if that's the case, well done. You have talent whatever age you are, but always keep practicing and trying to new things. Try to not make references to popular culture if possible, as doing so will date your work and it won't age well.
For example you used the "troll face and lol problem?" memes, however if someone is to view this in the future, they may not understand what it is, and not get the reference.

Well done, good job.

-TjA

p.s. Loved the CN watermark reference at the start and end, subtle but effective touch.

Yusuf responds:

I get what you mean, thanks! :)

[Comic-Con 2008 Poster]

Nice work

but how come strawberry clocks tucked away at the back?

[Epic Clockflash Lol /caps]

Truly epic

B mcdonald, now thats an idea
happy clockday
-TjA

[AN Escape Series #2.5]

this is weird...

i was trying to get on your website today but it was saying it was down, now i dont need to check if youve added any stuff on ^_^ coincidence i guess.
nice game, bit dull though.
-TjA

[We Are Lost (full Vocals)]

This reminds me...

of the early 90's when house musicians were experimenting with what sounds they could produce using electronic instruments. The vocals (no doubt some sort of vocoder, a popular "instrument" in house) were repetitive and had the "background mutters". Very retro, very good. I enjoyed this a lot, not many people make audio tracks like this anymore. Hope to hear more like this.

statueofdiveo responds:

Hooray

[Pink Knight Jamz]

Sounds interesting

I think it sounds a lot like the soundtracks from Mortal Kombat but without the asian theme to it.

[Paroxym- Chillin]

Why havent i reviewed this yet?

I love it when people include Jazz and Metropolis-style to Drum and Bass. As ZSL said, its like Cyberpunk music, I think it reminds me of Ken Ishiis' music, not to say it isn't original but due to that breakdown leading into the Funky rhythm. The sounds are very soft, yet the drums are hard and the bass is thick and funky. It really gives this song a sense of movement.
I'd love to know what VSTs you used for this. They have great warmth and don't sound empty at all. Whether that was your doing, I'm not sure, but if it was, great work. The piano had a great feel to it, as i said before, very Metropolis sounding. If your wondering what i mean by "Metropolis", it's the sound track of the anime-feature "Metropolis" whichs soundtrack had a lot of futuristic 50's jazz sounds in it (as it was based around that 50's detective style).
I hope to hear more like this from you. If your not "bbbbbooooorrrreeeeddd" I think it'd sound even better.

Paroxym responds:

Wow what a review. I forget which Vst's I used ill pm u later. Thanks for listening.

[Starcraft Terran Ghost]

Damn...

You got to do a tutorial on how you did that smoke... nice high res... ultra smooth textures... "hidden" decals, very nice.
Also: texture pack NAOW!

[Pikasurf]

Pokemon Yellow

but not how i remember it, ha. Reminds me of Danny DeVito.

Kottbullar responds:

ye... actually I knew that it was Yellow... I just acted the pokenoob to avoid being associated with it because I neither played the games nor watched the goddamn series...

Oh and it was hm03 by the way...