Supersonic Motion

THIS REVIEW IS LONG OVERDUE

I absolutely love this track! I just watched it again and it just doesn't get old. It starts out chill but really fun to watch - reminded me of Violent Resitution by Chui Ninji because of the attention to rotation and the smooth sustained flings, but you have more control and more variety in the types of flings you do, and you're not afraid of a little messiness. But on the other hand you're not focused on maximum power or on technical difficulty, but rather on the movement of Bosh and the lines through space, and I appreciate that a lot. You did a great job of setting up parameters of what you wanted to do and knew would look good, and then leaving yourself room to play around within those parameters and have fun. The subtle music syncing in the beginning, whether purposeful or not (I believe you told me it was purposeful) was a nice touch that makes it fun to watch without being real obvious (like Jam, heh). I remember watching the beginning section and thinking "well I was expecting something massive but this is cool..."

Aaaaand then, the drop. Suddenly it becomes clear that you didn't just pick this song because it fit, you synced this track precisely to the song. And then you can see where it's going and you have just enough time to be like OSHIT MAN DIS GUN GIT INTENSE and then it does. That gravity tumbling bit immediately after the drop is such a great payoff after the build up and I think I laughed out loud when it happened. I felt like I was finally seeing what I was hoping to get at the end of Evolution of Line Rider. (6 years later haha)

Anyway though, I love how you keep the intensity going after the payoff - I can picture you being like, okay, that's the track! But the best stuff in the track is actually after the drop, which is what sealed the deal on the holy shoe for me. You keep the speed and the intensity going for the entire rest of the track. I do have some mixed feelings about introducing manuals - I can tell that you wanted to like, tease us with tiny manuals, and then go all barrel rolling on us, and then throw in the wacky tube and stuff to sort of transcend the all-gravity vibe, and like more and more of a Ima-do-whatever-I-want-and-it-still-looks-awesome feel (which culminated beautifully at the end which I'll get to in a minute) but I do think it would have been better to be like, manual tease, manual tease, barrel rolling, and then a BIG FAT MANUAL SECTION where you have like, big sustained nose and tail manuals and everyone just be like FUCK. Like, I know where you were going with it but I just think that would have been more effective. I assumed on first watch that the reason you didn't have manuals was because holy crap manuals at 200+ppf is friggin hard... but you did actually have some short manuals in there so I realized you maybe could have actually done a manual section, and then doing the tube and the green lines and the integration and etc after that to be like "look I can do manuals like a boss! but eh, that's boring so I'm gonna have fun now" and make that the last section before you did what you did for the ending. It's still cool to see all the creative stuff thrown in mostly-arbitrary places, but I think that extra structure in this last section could have been extra effective.

For a brief moment it seems like you might be losing steam a little, but then we get to the ending, which is one of the biggest mindfucks I've ever experienced in Line Rider. The first time I saw it I think I screamed "WHAT" at my screen because it has been years since I last saw something in Line Rider that straight up didn't compute - like, I didn't understand what I was seeing. It looks absolutely kickass and it really brings home how much attention you paid to Line Rider as an animation tool in this track rather than just focusing on technical stuff. Even now that I know what is happening it still looks like the track, like, stops, and now we have some weird edited effect or something - like it doesn't look like we're watching a track anymore and I LOVE IT. One of the best endings to a line rider track ever, right up there with mobius strip and omniverse This is slightly lessened by the "SSM" text at the end, which was actually mostly illegible - I couldn't actually figure out what it said the first time I saw it, I went back and looked at it and realized it said "SSM". So that does detract a little and it is a little disappointing. I understand that it was a challenge with all the kramual lines and that you were short on time and that you don't do a lot of scenery, but I still think you could have found a way to make it more legible. But the ingenuity of the kramual fling + the green line stuff makes up for it easily. Oh and the music sync is amazing. And I love how he falls down after stopping because the music didn't stop, it fits real well and I love me some avant-garde not-stall stalls

Okay now I wanna go through it all step by step and just give you a feel for my reactions.
0:55 - love the subtle rotation sync
0:57 - love the airtime and then the foot chain thing
1:04 - love how you're not afraid of using the simplest fling out there
1:09 - cool rolling coming out of the airtime
1:19 - airtime + groll sync is so good
1:22 - love this bit of tumbling! maybe my fav part in this early section
1:30 - love how the speed builds up here and you LAUNCH him down (already at speed 90!). Like, holy shit you are really going for it.
1:41 - I love how deliberate you are about where you want him to rotate. But the sync is so precise it almost seems to lag slightly behind the music. Probably a perception thing, but maybe putting them one frame before would fit better in the future.
1:51 - love the last four notes just making him "bounce". Looks real good.
1:53 - seriously looks like Bosh is in a blender, lol
2:03 - I love how you're maintaining the intensity here with flings (instead of smooth chains) especially ones that make Bosh appear to be vibrating or shaking.
2:24 - you have a really great feel for how long to sustain a trick before switching it up, and maintaining this sense of flow from one trick to another. It's not just a bunch of stuff, it is really pleasing to watch for people who don't quirk - making stuff that people who can't make it will now WANT to make it, which is the definition of inspirational
2:34 - love the barrel roll with this buildup in the song, and then the integration. (especially with the teasers leading up to it) But as I said before I wish it had gone into a big fat manual section instead of more quirk interspersed with integration shenanigans
2:40 - tube is soooo goood, and I love the fact that most of the lines are just there for decoration. Because basically all the lines thus far have been used, by the time this rolls around nobody is going to think "lame, he just added lines for effect" they're gonna be like WUTDAFUQWASTHAT (I retroactively predict anyway)
2:45 - same with the wonderful fake integration
2:52 - mixed feelings about the space recycling. I did notice it the first time around but felt kind of indifferent toward it.
2:57 - for the first time, this bit feels somewhat weak. Like you weren't sure what to do here and were losing steam a little, after the tube and the space recycling.
3:00 - love the extraneous green lines though. make it real fun to watch. wish you'd done more of this in the remainder of the track.
3:05 - on the other hand this denial of rotation (as WTB put it) is super cool and stands out even if you've never made a gravity well ever.
3:10 - again a somewhat weak spot, barrel rolls without a clear intention like the first time. I know you were probably just under a time crunch at this point but that's not an excuse
3:18 - and then the ending which i already talked about.

IMO this is easily better than Jam, and I think it will have a huge impact on tracks in the future. Raf for Line Rider Legend! (once I get the section made...)

Anyway, enjoy your holy shoe, feature, and your THREE PIPs off the one track (seriously? lol) and beating me in the battle due to my forfeit

rabid squirrel wrote:THIS REVIEW IS LONG OVERDUE

I absolutely love this track! I just watched it again and it just doesn't get old. It starts out chill but really fun to watch - reminded me of Violent Resitution by Chui Ninji because of the attention to rotation and the smooth sustained flings, but you have more control and more variety in the types of flings you do, and you're not afraid of a little messiness. But on the other hand you're not focused on maximum power or on technical difficulty, but rather on the movement of Bosh and the lines through space, and I appreciate that a lot. You did a great job of setting up parameters of what you wanted to do and knew would look good, and then leaving yourself room to play around within those parameters and have fun. The subtle music syncing in the beginning, whether purposeful or not (I believe you told me it was purposeful) was a nice touch that makes it fun to watch without being real obvious (like Jam, heh). I remember watching the beginning section and thinking "well I was expecting something massive but this is cool..."

This is such a joy to read because you essentially wrote down what I intended to do.

rabid squirrel wrote:Aaaaand then, the drop. Suddenly it becomes clear that you didn't just pick this song because it fit, you synced this track precisely to the song. And then you can see where it's going and you have just enough time to be like OSHIT MAN DIS GUN GIT INTENSE and then it does. That gravity tumbling bit immediately after the drop is such a great payoff after the build up and I think I laughed out loud when it happened. I felt like I was finally seeing what I was hoping to get at the end of Evolution of Line Rider. (6 years later haha)

And this makes me feel warm inside

rabid squirrel wrote:Anyway though, I love how you keep the intensity going after the payoff - I can picture you being like, okay, that's the track! But the best stuff in the track is actually after the drop, which is what sealed the deal on the holy shoe for me. You keep the speed and the intensity going for the entire rest of the track. I do have some mixed feelings about introducing manuals - I can tell that you wanted to like, tease us with tiny manuals, and then go all barrel rolling on us, and then throw in the wacky tube and stuff to sort of transcend the all-gravity vibe, and like more and more of a Ima-do-whatever-I-want-and-it-still-looks-awesome feel (which culminated beautifully at the end which I'll get to in a minute) but I do think it would have been better to be like, manual tease, manual tease, barrel rolling, and then a BIG FAT MANUAL SECTION where you have like, big sustained nose and tail manuals and everyone just be like FUCK. Like, I know where you were going with it but I just think that would have been more effective. I assumed on first watch that the reason you didn't have manuals was because holy crap manuals at 200+ppf is friggin hard... but you did actually have some short manuals in there so I realized you maybe could have actually done a manual section, and then doing the tube and the green lines and the integration and etc after that to be like "look I can do manuals like a boss! but eh, that's boring so I'm gonna have fun now" and make that the last section before you did what you did for the ending. It's still cool to see all the creative stuff thrown in mostly-arbitrary places, but I think that extra structure in this last section could have been extra effective.

I considered making a major manual section, but I decided not to because I thought long sustained manuals wouldn't have fit this song very well. There was no major change in the song that would allow such a major style switch. I maybe could've done a short section though, from 2:22 - 2:33 (it would start where the first long nose manual starts) and then proceed using both manuals and quirk. Yeah that might've been interesting.

rabid squirrel wrote:For a brief moment it seems like you might be losing steam a little, but then we get to the ending, which is one of the biggest mindfucks I've ever experienced in Line Rider. The first time I saw it I think I screamed "WHAT" at my screen because it has been years since I last saw something in Line Rider that straight up didn't compute - like, I didn't understand what I was seeing. It looks absolutely kickass and it really brings home how much attention you paid to Line Rider as an animation tool in this track rather than just focusing on technical stuff. Even now that I know what is happening it still looks like the track, like, stops, and now we have some weird edited effect or something - like it doesn't look like we're watching a track anymore and I LOVE IT. One of the best endings to a line rider track ever, right up there with mobius strip and omniverse This is slightly lessened by the "SSM" text at the end, which was actually mostly illegible - I couldn't actually figure out what it said the first time I saw it, I went back and looked at it and realized it said "SSM". So that does detract a little and it is a little disappointing. I understand that it was a challenge with all the kramual lines and that you were short on time and that you don't do a lot of scenery, but I still think you could have found a way to make it more legible. But the ingenuity of the kramual fling + the green line stuff makes up for it easily. Oh and the music sync is amazing. And I love how he falls down after stopping because the music didn't stop, it fits real well and I love me some avant-garde not-stall stalls

Yeah, I did lose steam a bit. It wasn't necessarily because of the time limit (or maybe it influenced me subconciously). I'm really proud you liked the ending that much. Honestly I didn't want to use text at the end but I didn't want to have those ugly Y lines being there. I had to cover them up somehow. I tried flames, all kinds of patterns, but it just didn't appeal to me. I made the text as a backup plan but when it was done, there was no time or inspiration left.

rabid squirrel wrote:IMO this is easily better than Jam

I disagree

rabid squirrel wrote:and I think it will have a huge impact on tracks in the future. Raf for Line Rider Legend! (once I get the section made...)

I hope it will. Thanks dude!

Anyway, enjoy your holy shoe, feature, and your THREE PIPs off the one track (seriously? lol) and beating me in the battle due to my forfeit [/quote]
Hehe I will. Above all I enjoyed this review the most, I've been waiting for it in anticipation. Thanks for taking the time to write it.