Flash Animation hate has to stop

Fish Hooks looked fine to me, after all it was animated by the fosters Crew. However, the Johnny Test animators didn't even TRY to make the character animation look anything like it did in it's first traditional season. It looks like to me they just traced model sheets from season 1 into flash, drew new characters in the style, and decided to throw everything animation wise out the window and animate it their way (AKA barely at all, and the constant annoying "whip" noise spells it out clear as day for me.). However its still better animated than the traditionally animated Family Guy, yet Johnny Test gets more animation criticism just because it's in flash, which really isn't fair. The characters actually move around, the characters actually have different emotions for different scenes, THE CHARACTERS BLINK, and more. Yeah it's not much, but it's at least SOMETHING unlike Family Guy.

However I completely disagree with your last statement. Emotions and simply by the way a character moves around can tell you so much more about a character than just dialogue. And of course, it's just funner to watch. If I wanted nothing but dialogue and words I'd simply read a book.



Agree completely. You need an animator who can write to make a good cartoon. Camp Lazlo made this mistake. The crew could storyboard, but couldn't write.
 
I'm going to take a stab in the dark and assume you mean Ninjai: The Little Ninja : http://www.ninjai.com/

The animations on the characters are a little off, but the overall background and the action are indeed, exceptionally good. Last I checked anyways (it's been a while since I've visited their website).
 
Yes, that's what I mean. :(


Here's a question.

Is flash hand drawn?
I mean, artists are perhapse not using pencils, but they are still using their hands for it.
I hope that makes sense...:crying:
 
At first, I wasn't too keen on Flash, and this is coming from someone who liked Foster's.

When Total Drama came, it kind of changed the of Flash animation to me. Sure, it's cheap, but at least it seems more free and wackier this way, especially on Total Drama's case.
 
http://coldhardflash.com/2007/06/title-drama-island.html
Like I said, doesn't matter what it's animated in. Flash, Toon Boom, or even traditional, the animation still blows. Maybe they switched to Toon Boom in the later seasons, but I sure as hell can't tell the difference.

Another show people often mistake for Flash but actually animated in Toon Boom instead is "Jimmy Two Shoes". It still feels like cheap animation to me personally, but the characters have to much more life in them than TDA. I can actually understand why people would like J2S's animation.

If you all want to see some good flash animation, check out this post you may have missed. Truly inspiring stuff.



And there's way more where that came from. You just have to do some research to find some well animated stuff. Whether it's a feature film, a TV show, or simply a web toon.

And yes, John K has done some flash work. -JohnK's ultra super fanboys realize this, then automatically jump on the "Flash is good" bandwagon.-
 
Hey, I like Flash. I've used Flash. It's a great tool and teaching device. I've seen some Flash cartoons with phenomenal animation. But my problem with a lot of the shows on TV that use Flash is that they are using it poorly and lazily. If we could get more cartoons done in Flash with the animation quality of something like, say, Superjail I'd feel better about it. But instead we get poorly done animation like Johnny Test. And so many of them have characters that are just so stiff and lifeless.

I also don't really think Flash animation can give the same quality and fluidity that the best hand-drawn animation gives off. Ed, Edd n Eddy looks better than any Flash cartoon I've seen.

I also did not like the Flash animation in the Powerpuff Girls special from a while back. With Superjail, I was shocked to find out it was done in Flash. The PPG special (as well as Foster's) just screamed Flash animation. To me, at least.
 
Ugly Americans is also done in Flash, something that shocked me the first time around. I just assumed it was animated in a very jerky, quick visual gags a minute style, but it fooled me.
 
It's all about how you use it.

Even Flash "cutout symbol" animation can look good. Case in point: Foster's was animated in that style and it looked better then most of the hand-drawn animation on Cartoon Network.

I, personally, hate the Flash program. It's very clunky and you basically have to force it to do character animation. It's a web-design program being forced to do character animation essentially.

Toonboom Animate and other programs like Anime Studio Pro, which are built to specifically do CHARACTER ANIMATION, have basically run Flash into the ground. I've been using Anime Studio for 5 years now and it just keeps getting better.

Yes, there's a lot of crap being made in Flash... but there's a lot of crap being made in CGI and hand-drawn animation.
 
This.

I've always felt this way when people complain about Flash animation. Yes, it's overdone, and yes... a lot of it stinks. But, when I compare the worst of the worst when it comes to Flash (and I'd say that belongs to the Total Drama series; the characters are just stiff and lifeless, in my opinion), it still looks a lot better than most of the CGI shows that we've seen over the years.

Case and point, for me, is Jimmy Neutron. I know I'll probably take some flack for this, but I've always hated that show, mainly because the CGI effects look so cheap. The cartoon itself, as far as the writing and everything goes, really isn't that bad... but the CGI animation just looks terrible.

Flash animation, in my opinion, can look good... if it's done right. There are a few, such as Foster's or Jimmy Two-Shoes, that are animated very well, and look good overall. The characters are brought to life quite well in those cases; they don't look stiff, like most Flash-based animation.
 
Superjail has the best flash I've ever seen, the show has the fluidity and off model style of early Ren & Stimpy. You're shocked to find out it's not animated traditionally with cels.

I also think South Park doesn't get flack for its animation style because of how improved the animation has gotten over the past decade. Each season the animation is getting more sophisticated. And honestly, the show's been on since 1997, everyone (as well as the creators) is aware of the show's intentionally crude animation style.
 
The thing about John K animating is that he has said before that he isn't that good of an animator. He rarely ever has to do it, and has to retrain himself each time.

I think he makes a better layout artist
 
I can't hate Flash animation. I've been watching Flash cartoons on TV and online for over ten years now, and I've seen some good as well as bad.

As was stated before, everything depends on who's animating. When done well, like with Foster's, Homestar Runner and Harvey Birdman's later seasons, it can run rings around stuff like the Total Drama series.

Joe Murray, in one of his recent blog entries, presented this adage:

"Inexpensive, good quality, done quickly. Pick any two. Because it's very difficult to have all three."
 
i dont have a problem with flash or cgi. i have a problem with how people use them. seriously most shows done in flash are so stiff and generic looking, but ive seen Superjail so i know what flash is truly capable of. and as for cgi, i just dont get why most of the tv shows look uglier than the first cartoons that were made using it(ReBoot and Beast Wars)
 
I dont hate flash animation, but I often question why there are a certain amount of people who hate it though. I've seen some of the best that flash animation has to offer on the web(Homestar runner, Foamy the squirrel for exmaples of good flash animation). Sure there has been bad flash animation but heck it just depends on who the heck is animating the damn thing to begin with. Like somebody said before, it depends on who's animating it. If you put your effort in the short with flash or even toon boom it comes out perfect. But if you rush the short it comes out horrible. Besides the Hanna-Barbara toons after tom and jerry were like the earliest "flash" like shorts we would see.

Heck i'm experimenting with toon boom studio and hell I'm not much of an artist to begin with. But if I put effort into it and memorize the basics. I can make some great cartoons for all of you guys.
 
Yeah, the thing with John K is that he's not a good animator. If you see his animation, a lot of it it looks really spastic and jerky. (more bits of John's own animation here)

When it comes right down to it he's a layout artist and a director... not an animator. He can draw funny poses... but he can't move them smoothly. That's why he needs the guys at Carbuncle or Copernicus Studios to do that for him. And that's perfectly okay! He should keep doing layout poses... but if he actually wants to animate he needs to take a few lessons.
 
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