What makes a good flash animator? Part02

And here comes part 2, its been 2 weeks coming. This weeks topic...

Good Characterisation

Interesting thing about these characters is that some of theme come from really bad cartoons. But what is good characterisation anyways? Well,normally a good character is an individual, the dialogue they use wouldn't sound right coming from any other character around them. Its also the driving force for relationships between characters, which is where most good dialogue based humour comes from. I will be limiting this to dialogue driven series, so sorry, no Bitey. This brings back to my first point, some of these characters, some of these characters are from horrible series, im not a fan of a number of these. But just because the writing/animation/voice acting/everything else is horrible in a number of these doesnt mean the personalities themselves behind the characters are there. So heres a list of characters that are just that, real characters.

Blockhead & His Consciounce:





The classic set up, energetic and stupid teamed up with short tempered and reasoning. This duo system has been around since the beginning of entertainment and the system has always worked, Blockhead and his conscience are no different. Blockheads voice is unique and distinct, and while his personality comes accross as random, it never seems like its random without a purpose. His conscience is exact opposite, but in a twist to the old formula hes completely helpless in the situation, having to watch on and give up rather then being able to slap the moron in the face as his genre of character normally would.

Salad Fingers:



Theres only one Salad Fingers,a creepy yet somehow pathetic being from the wastelands, between his love for rust and caressing things and his mental instability, Salad Fingers has established himself as one of the most unqie and creative characters out there.

Burnt Face Man & The Narrator:



Burnt Face Man, while at first seeming like the generic superhero parody, is really another clever send up of the buddy system buddy system, Burnt Face Man being a moron (tho obviously not as stupid as characters like Blockhead)and the witty and cruel Narrator, who seems to always win, and diss Burnt Face Man at any given oppertunity. Its the innocent idiot and asshole knowall that makes the series work. Its not only a clever play on the usual Superhero set up, but also of the buddy set up.

Strong Bad & Co:



Everybody already knows well and truly about the Homestarrunner Crew, Theyve been around forever. There also probably the best example of a large yet diverse cast of clever and individual characters. Its a wonder how the series has been around for so long yet nobodys came close to pulling off such a diverse cast again.

Ingus:



Ingus, whats there to say, hes random words that fly out of a red necks body. While that itself doesnt lend all that well to his personality, his voice and mannerisms help make him more then just another random line of dialogue.

Toast King & Insanity Prawn Boy:



Suprise suprise, the smart and the not so smart are teamed up again, and once again, they play off each other beautifully. Praw Boys voice absolutely perfectly suited to his mannerisms and dialogue, as is Toast Kings. Its hard to argue against the amount of personality these 2 have and the chemisty between them.

Weebl & Bob:



Weebl and Bob are getting on in years, but they proove very well that theres more to character then appearences. Despite being almost identical they both incredibly individual. Weebl is the idiot incharge and Bob the gullible guy that follows him. Its another well prooven system that Weebl and Bob pull of brilliantly.

Greasy Moose Crew:



Unlike most of the other characters listed, The Greasy Moose characters are just to deep to really have a short summary of, suffice to say, there all genious.

Jerry Jackson:



Jerry Jackson was without a doubt a stroke of genious, a fictional kid who makes flash about the events in his life. His voice is unique yet somehow doesnt sound like it couldnt exist out there in the newgrounds forums. His personality is a realistic parody of the kinds of kids you find on the net. Hes the ultimate fake personality, and since he has a fictional life outside of his cartoons he earns an even greater amount of respect from me.

So then whats bad characterisation? Well, thatd be when the dialogue is written in a way that its so gag based that it doesnt matter who says it. This is a popular system in most animated sitcoms, scripts arent written with the characters in mind but rather the jokes and pop culture references are decided on and divided amoung the characters afterwards. Its a poor system and leads to toons with little to no characterisation. Some examples would be...

College University:



High School Saze:



Waterman:



Notice also how these series consist of 99% standing around talking? Can we have some personality please?

Alternate Inspirational Artists

Oh noes, controversy. As we all know anime is uber popular these days, and theres alot of flash animators who have decided to try to immitate it. Usually these end up being horrible cliches, Xin being a prime example. Then you have those people who use that horrible imbrew east/west mix, that always has everyone looking like ass, but thats what seems to be popular today. ofcourse youve also got you people who blatently copy Jhonen Vasquez (Hot Diggity Demon as talented as he is, is a prime example of style theft.) and Jamie Hewett who apparently wasnt cool enough to immitate until after the success of Gorillaz. These are 2 artists who obviously insainly popular and are holding some ground for all cartoonists in the west, but there is also a large number of artists both past and present, who were incredibly talented, yet nobody seems to want to imitate or borrow ideas from, why beats the hell out of me. But next time you decide you want to make a flash toon that looks a little more individual keep these artists in mind.

Maurice Sendak

Everybody who reads this blog should know who she is, tho probably none will know her by name. Shes most famous for her 1963 childrens book "Where the wild things are". Its beautifully illustrated with fantastic monster designs, its been over 40 years since this book came out, why hasnt anyone followed her design ideas or borrowed some of her artistic direction?







Brian Froud

Another name every self respecting illustrator should know but for some reason most people i talk to dont know who he is until i mentioned what he worked on. You folks may recognise him as the designer of all the creatures in the 2 Jim Henson movies The Dark Crystal and Labrynth. Froud had an absolutely amazing sense of design, with the ability to create bizarre creatures that where somehow both cartoony, yet followed the laws of anatomy and life enough to be completely real. he had an insain amount of talent, yet he is another one of those artists that nobody seems to want to mimick the style of.











Murray Ball

Heres a name that most people outside Australia and New Zealand wouldnt recognize, tho apparently Lucky didnt know who he was, shame on him. Ball was the comic artist behind a series called Footrot Flats, set in the New Zealand countryside. His sense of design was absolutely brilliant. He could be best described as a charicaturist i suppose, but his characters were all his own, charicaturs of the stereotypes you find in the country.















I swear theres more personality in this guys face then there is in all of Pixars movies put together. Tho that has nothing to do with 3D, thats a blog for another time.