Daily post 09 Dec 2006 08:10 am
Flashed
- At Bill Plympton’s Christmas Party this past Thursday night, I ran into Xeth Feinberg. He told me that he was going to eventually find someone whose work would prove to me that Flash isn’t such a horrible program.
(Left the email invite for
Plympton’s Christmas Party.)
I obviously give the wrong idea with my writings. I don’t hate Flash, but I do dislike the lack of professionalism it engenders in the hands of less experienced people. These are the people who claim to be animators once they make an image move, and using the relatively simple program enables them to move images without much complication.
Great animation, of course, reveals character. As yet, I don’t think I’ve seen any real characters or character development done in Flash. I’m sure this isn’t the fault of the program, but the fault of those using it. It isn’t a pencil that makes bad drawings; it’s the person using the pencil. I’m also sure I haven’t seen enough to make any sweeping generalizations. I do see limitations in the medium, and I suspect expert Flash animators do, as well.
As a matter of fact, I quite like a number of Xeth’s pieces. He’s done a large number of films and has remained totally independent of the normal system.
His Bulbo character and the films he did with Bulbo provided me with early proof that interesting animation could be done in Flash.
His Queer Duck provided proof that Flash could conquer large subjects in large territories. I still haven’t seen his Queer Duck feature, but I have seen at least five extended pieces starring this character. They’re funny, and entertaining. I’m interested to see how it stretches over the course of 90 minutes. Features are another matter. To me Art Direction really comes into a place of importance in a bigger film, and the animation has to get better than it does in shorts. Looking for character development. (Click images to enlarge.)
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Watching some early parts of Debra Solomon’s upcoming work showed me another side of Flash that absolutely piqued my interest. I look forward to seeing how her movie-in-progress develops.
Bruno Bozzetto has been doing a number of very short films in Flash, and he told me that he loves working with it. The shorts are funny and provocative pieces, and it’s interesting to see someone of his caliber working with it.
Nina Paley’s Sitayana series absolutely delights me. She’s done a number of beautifully drawn shorts in Flash that are full of creative touches with beautiful design. Again, they’re ultimately going to be joined together as a feature. I love the shorts and look forward to seeing how they connect as a whole.
I’m curious to see where one of these artists, or someone whose work I don’t know, will take this medium in the future. However, to me it just seems a way of handicapping yourself for the sake of the simplicity it offers.
I also wonder if any of these artists will go past the realm of the drawn images. I see enormous character development in Paul Fierlinger’s films and suspect that the Mirage technology, which Paul uses, isn’t too far from Flash. I’ve diddled with both and find similarities. (ToonBoom studio is even easier – to me – than Flash.) Hence, that tells me that someone will take the tool into another dimension. I look forward to it.
on 11 Dec 2006 at 12:03 am 1.Chris Webb said …
I agree with you Michael – while there have been many interesting cartoons made with Flash, few of them really showcase great character animation in the Bugs Bunny/Donald Duck mode.
However strides are being made – check out Adam Phillips’ “Bitey Of Brackenwood,” which can be seen here http://www.biteycastle.com/biteyWindow.htm
Also, Mike Overbeck’s “Tongues and Taxis” is a lot of fun.
Xeth’s work is exemplary, as is Nina’s. But both choose to tell their stories by using tools other than traditional Preston Blair style animation. In Nina’s case the wonderful art direction and soundtrack, and Xeth’s case with Queer Duck mostly being the Hanna Barbera illustrated radio approach. There’s nothing wrong with that – I can enjoy their films just the way they are,and wouldn’t ask them to change a frame.
I don’t think either artist would claim to be trying to out-do Glen Keane.
But somebody should, and I believe a Flash made film whose purpose is to showcase acting and character is just around the corner. Someone will knock us all out in the next few years. Because its not Flash that has anything to do with it, it’s just the aspirations and talent and taste of the artists using it.
This generation of Flash artists will eventually push it further and further. It’s like when the electric guitar broke through in the early 60′s – by the late 60′s, we were all amazed at what people were doing with it.
Somebody out there is trying to be Preston Blair or Ken Harris. Great animation’s just too cool to ever completely go away, and making that kind of animation in Flash or Toonboom is completely possible – in fact it’s of course less hassle than the analogue approach.
Chris Webb
on 11 Dec 2006 at 10:33 am 2.Michael said …
I couldn’t agree with you more.
I think most of the people using Flash aren’t even in the “Farmer Alfalfa” era of silent film animation. A couple have made it to the Hanna-Barbera stage. I don’t see Adam Phillip’s Bitey of Brackenwood as much better than the current crop of Cartoon Network pieces. (Lots of violent movement to hide the lack of animation. It’s not Tex Avery; it’s just annoying.) Mike Overbeck’s Tongues & Taxis is closer to the mark, though the drawing – like almost all drawing done in Flash – is simple. It works well for this funny film.
Until someone brilliant comes along that everyone else can follow, I’ll keep watching.
on 11 Dec 2006 at 12:39 pm 3.slowtiger said …
I’d put it differently: If the artistic skills are good enough, someone could create good animation even in Flash, although the program was never designed to cater the needs of character animators. Within its technical and stylistic limitations it is a useable program. I don’t blame the many people who do simple, jerky animation in Flash, after all, they eventually have widened our idea of what animation can be and established a new style (which is a logical development from collage films like “Frank Film” and HB “moving radio”). All those amateurish attempts are the humus out of which some few “true artists” (whatever that is) might grow. It reminds me of the bloom of Super8 in the 70′s and 80′s when fresh animation with a punk attitude entered the underground short film festivals.
As of the similarity of Flash and Mirage, I cannot agree because the latter offers a much wider choice of possible styles and requires a higher degree of animation skills. Both programs (and others on the market) have their specific field of visual and animation style where they are excellent, but if you like to do something out of that focus other tools are much more appropriate. Of course both are fine examples of how software enables independent artists to work on their own.
on 13 Dec 2006 at 7:29 pm 4.Murray Bain said …
I feel the only limitations of flash is the seductive nature of it’s built in cheats.
Brad Cayford, (an animation director who works with us at Copernicus Studios in Halifax) has just completed a music video we produced using flash.
(the Backgrounds and compositing were done in photoshop and after effects respectively.)
Brad drew all the keys on paper, and cleaned up and separated them all in flash, to facilitate his meticulous inbetweening. I feel its closing in on feature quality, but he’s a close friend, so I’m biased.
http://www.copernicus.ca/jsb
there’s a generation of twenty something animators (especially in Canada) Who have only worked professionally using flash, some of them for the past 6-7 years. Its the sad reality of commerce,(hey I’d love to hand draw animation all day!) but it has allowed us to economically compete on full productions with India and the Philippines.
Mr. Sporn, I was lucky to see your film at the ottawa festival ‘the man who danced between the towers’ and it was my favorite of the festival entries. Although as someone who suffers from vertigo, it made me pretty dizzy!
on 14 Dec 2006 at 10:08 am 5.Michael said …
The Brad Cayford music video you attached is quite interesting. The characters are animated outside of flash and just composited within a flash environment. It’s very nicely done. He’s using it as a tool rather than a crutch. I can imagine working this way to do something with rich character development. It’s not the norm though.
Thanks for your comments on my film. I saw a number of films in that festival that caught me by surprise. It was an interesting selection.