The best and worst uses of Flash animation

[frogboy4]

AGAIN! Just TWO WEEKS later, I had to upgrade Adobe Flash Player AGAIN! Dang!

i do wish they'd do this quarterly rather than every several weeks. it doesn't take long to update, but it is a pain

 

[mr3urious]

After hearing that Arthur is switching to Flash, I thought I'd resurrect this thread to gush about some more Flash-animated stuff that I like to sort of take the pain away.

I'm really impressed with what the team did with the 2D animation of The Amazing World of Gumball, especially in the second season episode "The Colossus". Overall, very smooth animation with a great variety of exaggerated facial expressions.

I saw some promos of Brickleberry on Comedy Central (I'm still reluctant to watch the actual show), and I liked what I saw in terms of animation. Then again, it was done by Bento Box, the same people behind Bob's Burgers' animation.

I don't know if this Angry Birds Christmas short used Flash, but I could easily tell that some CGI was used in parts of it. Either way, I'm impressed at how well the mediums mesh.

 

[Drtooth]

You can make some of the smoothest, most fluid animation in flash there is... but too often do I see motion tween short cuts. Ones with stiff movements of dead limbs and head that don't turn with reaction. And they compensate by making something too bouncy to try to make it look more alive. That's the kind of animation Arthur looks like its getting.

I wish more studios would realize that Flash can be used just like a regular animation program, and you can draw frame by frame the same way traditional cel animation was, and not just paper doll cut out animation.

 

[D'Snowth]

I wish more studios would realize that Flash can be used just like a regular animation program, and you can draw frame by frame the same way traditional cel animation was, and not just paper doll cut out animation.

You'd need a butt load of diskspace and RAM to be able to pull that off.

 

[Drtooth]

You'd need a butt load of diskspace and RAM to be able to pull that off.

That comes down to budget. Some animation studios can handle it, others use libraries of body parts and just flip everything around. Some do it so well, you barely notice, some do it so lazily, it's the ONLY thing you notice.

 

[mr3urious]

Has John K. ever used Flash? If he did, I'm sure he wouldn't stoop to those shortcuts as he prefers that every frame of animation be drawn differently.

 

[Drtooth]

Has John K. ever used Flash? If he did, I'm sure he wouldn't stoop to those shortcuts as he prefers that every frame of animation be drawn differently.

He did, and he didn't use too many short cuts. The GXXDXXX George Liquor Show, that old web toon used something like that. I don't know if it was called flash... but I saw some indent from adult swim about Furries that looked like it was done in that program.

I agree... that's what bugs me, and I've been trying to put a finger on it, but it's the lack of individual expressions that loses me. Plus, I do like artistic license and evolution when it comes to animation. I like how character designs vary from studio to studio. Now, it's just a flat design that the character keeps through the whole series.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

Man, I don't remember posting any of what I posted in this thread X_x

Oh well. Might as well throw out there that the animation in Dan Vs has gotten better. Still a bit stiff looking, but not as bad as the first few episodes were...

 

[mr3urious]

Here's an excellent tutorial I found regarding hand-drawn/frame-by-frame animation in Flash. This should be of great use to future animators.

 

[AquaGGR]

The best uses of Flash would probably be Wow Wow Wubbzy and the new Mickey Mouse shorts. They don't have the uncanny movements and library expressions like other Flash cartoons have. I've seen some very impressive Flash work done by fans like this:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/574257