Keenspot

by **qwerts** on Sat May 06, 2006 1:26 am

it's still better than most of comic genesis.
And by most, I mean probably all.

by **Nar** on Sat May 06, 2006 6:11 am

Kisai wrote:What I'd like to see in a (new) series is simply something that
a) Doesn't take place in (new york, new jersey, los angelas, tokyo, or how about earth at all...)
b) Doesn't rely on toilet humor (been done to death)
c) More than one female characcter
d) Female characters that aren't dimwits. Likewise would appreciate seeing males that aren't dimwits too.
e) No random unexplained death and reincarnation between episodes
f) Less intentional religous metaphors.
g) Hell, less metaphors for modern society. (I want to escape reality, not be preeched to.)
h) Not be drawn in stereotypical Anime or Western Cartoon styles. But not PPG or SouthPark type of limited animation either. But not "sprite-rip"'ed or "stick figure"'d.
i) Stop pandering to the StarTrek, StarWars, and LOTR nerds. Gah!!! When the movies were released, it seems like nothing but references to these movies were the base jokes of everthing on the internet. Gawddamned nerdy uncoolness wars.
j) No using internet fads like AYB and "O RLY?" ... been done, been beaten to death. Needs to stay dead.
k) No more game/current events/movies jokes. Quick way to "date" the cartoon by referencing whatever is "new" at the time, and kill replayability.

A lot of stuff you mentioned is stuff I'm really attempting to...tone down on. Ones that apply to me, at least (more than one female characters, random deaths/respawning, etc). This being because I'm trying to make GEOweasel more like a timeless cartoon, and also one you'd see on TV with no internet humor. I can't really explain what I mean by "internet humor," maybe someon else can. But basically, I'm trying to retool the writing in the series so that people who aren't internet-savvy understand the jokes. Stuff that's just plain random could be funny to a lot of people who regularly visit forums, websites, stuff like that. But for a person who's not a big part of an internet community, some of that stuff just isn't funny. And it's not just random stuff either. Maybe you understand what I'm saying and maybe someone can explain it better. But basically, like I said, I'm trying to make it more like a TV cartoon. Not a cartoon for TV, just as if it were one. And I think it really shows in the next few episodes, so hopefully people will like the change.

by **Kisai** on Sat May 06, 2006 8:13 pm

Nar wrote:A lot of stuff you mentioned is stuff I'm really attempting to...tone down on. Ones that apply to me, at least (more than one female characters, random deaths/respawning, etc). This being because I'm trying to make GEOweasel more like a timeless cartoon, and also one you'd see on TV with no internet humor. I can't really explain what I mean by "internet humor," maybe someon else can. But basically, I'm trying to retool the writing in the series so that people who aren't internet-savvy understand the jokes. Stuff that's just plain random could be funny to a lot of people who regularly visit forums, websites, stuff like that. But for a person who's not a big part of an internet community, some of that stuff just isn't funny. And it's not just random stuff either. Maybe you understand what I'm saying and maybe someone can explain it better. But basically, like I said, I'm trying to make it more like a TV cartoon. Not a cartoon for TV, just as if it were one. And I think it really shows in the next few episodes, so hopefully people will like the change.

Yeah, the "random crap that goes nowhere" is probably the thing that bugs me the most about webcomics and flash cartoons. Anyone can write crap, and unfortunately all the idiots think that something is funny so they steal it for their comic, thus we get stuff like O RLY popping up everwhere and everything. In 2 years, someone will read back or watch a cartoon and be like "WTF? Typos are funny?"

Take any mass content portal (KeenSPOT, ComicGenesis, NewGrounds, DrunkDuck, etc, etc) and you will usually find the SAME stupid joke on everything that occurs on that day. That's the thing that annoys me.

"SNAKES ON A PLANE!"

Snakes on a plane is going to be the AYB joke for probably a few more months and then there will be another cool yet stupid thing.

There is stuff that just doesn't plain belong in flash/webcomics, our "fads" and crap don't belong in them if the flash/comic doesn't even take place "here"

A lot of the internet community is so ego-patting each other that they don't realize that there are people out there that don't even have access to the internet, or that the vast majority of people think "the web" or "the AOL" IS the internet and will never find anything that isn't in the G-rated real of their ISP's content portal. Hence making flash cartoons for "the internet community" , no matter how stupid or smart they are is self defeating because it will get it's 10 minutes of portal page on newgrounds, and never be seen again. The people that make good stuff, or even mediore stuff that there is enough of to make up a DVD with, should make a DVD and sell it (hell flog it in a link at the end of the flash) and then those people will show it to their friends, or pirate it back onto the internet and more people will see it. Hell, simply make a Mpeg4/Xvid/AVC version and release it onto the P2P networks yourself, more people will then find and see the stuff.

Um anyways.

The thing is, there aren't any currently running series that haven't already been mentioned.

The ironic thing is, that webcomics have pretty much been diluted, but flash cartoon series have not. What has been done to death in webcomics hasn't been done at all in flash.

by **Nukiad** on Sun May 07, 2006 10:09 pm

Another new Flash Tub!

HOLY CRAP! THE JEFFERSON BROTHERS ARE BACK!

by **Nar** on Wed May 10, 2006 4:52 pm

Nukiad wrote:Another new Flash Tub!

HOLY CRAP! THE JEFFERSON BROTHERS ARE BACK!

I didn't like the Jefferson Brothers that much, but I loved that installment of the Flash Tub. And not just for the shot he took at the Zelda CD-i game which was...beyond hilariously accurate.
Homestar, however, has once again had an updateless week. Seems kinda odd for them to be having this many. Ah well.
And for anyone watching this thread for my newest developments (though I don't know why you'd be watching here and not...the 200 other places I update), I settled with a domain at http://geoweasel.net . I wanted geow.com but that was...reserved or something.

by **EnoRed** on Sun May 14, 2006 8:56 am

I myself am trying to get a Flash series off the ground... Actually, I'm barely trying at all. So far I've yet to even draw finalized character designs of everyone who will appear in it or write any scripts. The only thing closest to these things is the stuff I have in my head.

The main reason is that I don't feel ready to make a full fledged series just out of the blue. I doubt my skills are good enough, and I'd prefer doing some smaller projects to work my way up to it. Things like perhaps fan-toons based on other series' before I start working on my own or just doing some small one-off animations.

I actually had ideas for a GEOweasel fan-toon, but my laziness has gotten in the way of that as well. The only thing I've done is practise drawing and animating them in Flash and doing the voices (Emulating their voices when you don't have an American accent yourself is quite difficult...). I have a decent idea, and I'll try and do it sometime... Perhaps once exams and stuff are over and I have a bit more free time.

by **Kisai** on Sun May 14, 2006 10:02 pm

I find that everytime I "redraw" the characters in flash, I find a better way to draw them. However I'm still overcomplicating them which makes it too hard to animate.

I started originally by making a "bones" set, because I was thinking in 3D, but then I realized this would require moving every single piece. It saves space in the flash file, but is extremely time consuming. Only useful if you want to do something that looks like a marionette.

My second attempt started by tracing over a drawing, this time I simplified the "bones" set, so that only ther major parts were separate pieces (head,eyes,torso,arms,legs), the problem I found here is that it is extremely annoying (in flash at least) to constantly lock and unlock, group and ungroup to move all the pieces in in sync (like above). I tried animated "graphics" and "movie clips" , but it didn't really look natural, plus I didn't realize at the time how to make the motion tweens work properly, so there were a lot of visual bugs.

My third attempt, was a do-over. This time I had flash vectorize the drawing rather crudely, and then I smoothed it out manually a bit. Then I "cut-out" the eyes and put them on a layer, cut the mouth and put them on a layer. So now there are only 3 layers to move in sequence. A Frame-By-Frame body, and a eyes and mouth layer. This made things much easier to animate, as long as the face doesn't suddenly shift (which unfortunately it did. Tip, anchor the corner you never use.) The problem with this method, although it's the fastest, is that the motion tweens don't work. (They "move" the graphic across the screen, or scale/warp, but because the animation is FBF'ed, you have to draw enough frames in the animation to make it look smooth, flash can't do it for you) which results in about 4 times the amount of work overall.

Fortunately, you can re-use nearly anything that is animated once. Just you have to make sure you don't change the frame rate later. (I switched from 12 to 30 and had to pretty much redo everything again)

So between the three different tries, I've learned that it's simply easier to draw things as you need them. If you waste time by drawing everything you "might" use, you just never use it when you were planning to. If something you draw happens to be resusable, then reuse it.

Something I always always found annoying in anime was the over-use of certain sequences that could have been done with less. All the anime with "BIG ACTION SEQUENCE" that is repeated in every episode is annoying. American cartoons are guilty too. It's okay to pad a few seconds here and there, but good gawds there are entire minutes of this stuff in some shows.

The other "defect" I find, mainly with flash stuff is that you can't use action script (scripted camera and such) and be able to export the flash to avi/mov. It took, about 3.5GB of disk space to create an uncompressed 90 second video that the original SWF output was only 2MB and the AVC(x264 or iPOD video size) wound up being 6MB. If Macromedia/Adobe could fix this, then it would make creation of DVD/Podcast versions of flash cartoons easier. Till, then you are stuck with Flash 5 level features to output to video, or flash 5 if you want to make it work on PDA's and Cell phones (that support it)

by **RichChap** on Fri May 19, 2006 4:07 pm

Sereously guys, you need to hand it to porplemontage, they're great people, and seriously mindcrush Is a really well animated series. Episode 3 is one of my favorite flashes ever. Masso really is a great animator, and to all you jackasses who said mindcrush sucks, sereously, I'd like to see you to better. If you say that and can't animate for your life, you really need to get one.

-Chris

by **Kisai** on Sat May 20, 2006 10:36 pm

RichChap wrote:Sereously guys, you need to hand it to porplemontage, they're great people, and seriously mindcrush Is a really well animated series. Episode 3 is one of my favorite flashes ever. Masso really is a great animator, and to all you jackasses who said mindcrush sucks, sereously, I'd like to see you to better. If you say that and can't animate for your life, you really need to get one.

-Chris

It helps when the site functions and the artists uploads more than once a year. I see Purple Montage mentioned a few times, but nobody links to any functioning cartoons. It's like going being given an invitation to a buffet at the at a hotel, and not being told what country, state, city or even floor it's on.

The problem with flash cartoons is that they pretty much have to be done by one person, otherwise they won't get done. Many people sign up to do things (like purple montage, comicgenesis, drunkduck, etc) but few ever DO ANYTHING once they get their account.

I am -NOT- going to click on every single thing to find something good, rather I'd have someone tell me what is good and link to it.

As it is, mind-crush, that you mentioned, site does -NOT- work, so before you pull the "suck" card, remember that professionalism on the internet is a key to success. Playing the "That's not fair" ,"you suck" or "well I'm leaving" cards just proves that you are not yet mature enough to handle the adult world of the internet where nothing is fair, and arguments are won by not participating in them.

So once again I ask

"Are there any GOOD flash cartoon SERIES that is CURRENTLY RUNNING?"

Give me links to things
Don't give me sites that haven't updated in a month
Don't give me sites that have less than 3 cartoons
Bonus if you can find something that doesn't resort to potty humor.

by **Brandon Clark** on Sun May 21, 2006 2:11 am

Kisai wrote:"Are there any GOOD flash cartoon SERIES that is CURRENTLY RUNNING?"

no

by **kichigiai-kiddo** on Sun May 21, 2006 8:44 am

If they don't uplaoded on the times they say they will, then oh well. Besides, some people upload comics on the web for fun. They may not even be intended to please us.

by **Nukiad** on Sun May 21, 2006 5:47 pm

Kisai wrote:I see Purple Montage mentioned a few times, but nobody links to any functioning cartoons. It's like going being given an invitation to a buffet at the at a hotel, and not being told what country, state, city or even floor it's on.

The problem with flash cartoons is that they pretty much have to be done by one person, otherwise they won't get done. Many people sign up to do things (like purple montage, comicgenesis, drunkduck, etc) but few ever DO ANYTHING once they get their account.

It's pOrple, with an "o", not the color purple.

by **Kisai** on Sun May 21, 2006 6:44 pm

Nukiad wrote:
Kisai wrote:I see Purple Montage mentioned a few times, but nobody links to any functioning cartoons. It's like going being given an invitation to a buffet at the at a hotel, and not being told what country, state, city or even floor it's on.

The problem with flash cartoons is that they pretty much have to be done by one person, otherwise they won't get done. Many people sign up to do things (like purple montage, comicgenesis, drunkduck, etc) but few ever DO ANYTHING once they get their account.

It's pOrple, with an "o", not the color purple.

Oops. Still not as bad as people referring to me as kasai, kisi or kasumi.

Any "possibly good" flash cartoons?

by **milieu** on Mon May 22, 2006 6:45 pm

Kisai wrote:What I'd like to see in a (new) series is simply something that
a) Doesn't take place in (new york, new jersey, los angelas, tokyo, or how about earth at all...)
b) Doesn't rely on toilet humor (been done to death)
c) More than one female characcter
d) Female characters that aren't dimwits. Likewise would appreciate seeing males that aren't dimwits too.
e) No random unexplained death and reincarnation between episodes
f) Less intentional religous metaphors.
g) Hell, less metaphors for modern society. (I want to escape reality, not be preeched to.)
h) Not be drawn in stereotypical Anime or Western Cartoon styles. But not PPG or SouthPark type of limited animation either. But not "sprite-rip"'ed or "stick figure"'d.
i) Stop pandering to the StarTrek, StarWars, and LOTR nerds. Gah!!! When the movies were released, it seems like nothing but references to these movies were the base jokes of everthing on the internet. Gawddamned nerdy uncoolness wars.
j) No using internet fads like AYB and "O RLY?" ... been done, been beaten to death. Needs to stay dead.
k) No more game/current events/movies jokes. Quick way to "date" the cartoon by referencing whatever is "new" at the time, and kill replayability.

Knock yourself out

by **Lightning Rod of Hate** on Tue May 23, 2006 11:25 pm

^ You forgot one:

L. No more Metahumor.

I'm tired of characters calling there own show stupid and stuff like that...ERRR...EXCEPT IF MATT DECIDES TO BRING BS BACK!

...in that case I would learn to love that type of humor all over again!...

...I should really stop trying and just move on... :-?

by **honks** on Wed May 24, 2006 2:54 pm

Well, umm....what about my Flash series?

It's gotten quite a following.

http://www.hyperboystudios.com

It pretty much follows the "guidelines" Kisai posted....except for maybe one...

Just throwing that out there. Hope you like!

by **Lightning Rod of Hate** on Fri May 26, 2006 11:47 pm

^Wow,that was actually pretty funny!

Keep up the good work!

by **Nar** on Sat May 27, 2006 5:28 am

Hyperboy's really good, definitely a breath of fresh air from...the rest of the internet, really. Too bad there's only a few episodes, but at least they're long.

Let's see if the new GEOweasel is a breath of fresh air as well.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/315117
Have a NG link. It's on the site too, but here I can really see what people are saying.

by **honks** on Sat May 27, 2006 9:03 am

GEOweasel's good, too. Reminds me of Bonus Stage...and that's a good thing.

by **Nukiad** on Sun May 28, 2006 1:26 am

It sounds weird to hear Dr. Schnoz with a new voice. :-|

I guess I'll just have to adjust to it...

Other than that, good episode.

Hey, I have an idea: Let's watch ABC Family.

by **Nez** on Mon May 29, 2006 8:17 am

Hyperboy was my favorite toon. Now, I'm not so sure because of the fact that it only has 3 episodes and gene hasn't made one peice of artwork in atleast 6 months. I'm glad Hyperboy 4 is almost done, but hyperboy seriously needs alot more stuff to make up.... I wee comic strip will get your fans to shutup, Gene.

by **honks** on Mon May 29, 2006 11:36 am

I know, I know.

It's hard to work on a Flash cartoon during your Junior year of High School. I'll get back in my groove.

by **Kisai** on Wed May 31, 2006 12:11 am

Lightning Rod of Hate wrote:^ You forgot one:

L. No more Metahumor.

I'm tired of characters calling there own show stupid and stuff like that...ERRR...EXCEPT IF MATT DECIDES TO BRING BS BACK! ...in that case I would learn to love that type of humor all over again!... ...I should really stop trying and just move on...

Self depreciation is common to webcomics and cartoons... moreso on newgrounds. "lol this sux0rs! vote5!!11!"

I'd rather see less breaking the 4th wall, but sometimes the humor works, at least with webcomics since it's easier to directly reference certain readers than like in a cartoon/anime on TV where they have to generalize the audience.

honks wrote:Well, umm....what about my Flash series?

It's gotten quite a following.

http://www.hyperboystudios.com

It pretty much follows the "guidelines" Kisai posted....except for maybe one...

Just throwing that out there. Hope you like!

Not bad, need to work on the audio quality, it sounds a bit clipped and muffled.

One of the polish aspects I find bothersome in flash is when people submitting the flash don't know how to compress or edit the audio, resulting in 5MB flash files with like 10 seconds of music. X_x I can usually predict which newgrounds flashes are going to suck just by hovering over the link to see the size, 4-5MB ones usually suck, and 0-500kb usually suck. I know for fact that even at maximum quality, if a flash animation is 90 seconds, the mp3 data alone will only be 1.5MB.

The other side of the audio problem is when people use more than one source for audio and don't normalize it before mixing and compressing. (Normalizing makes the sound of uniform volume) I hate it when there is like one loud clipped person and one soft quiet person and no subtitles.

EDIT:
x_x

I need to stop writing these things before I watch Nar's cartoons, somehow I managed to reference things in it before I see it.

Um anyway, 4th wall is something that is hard for people to get 'right', because it either winds up as insulting the audience, or breaking the suspension of disbelief when done poorly. So I've seen some not too bad attempts, but overall a lot of flash cartoons (and webcomics) seem to run out of jokes and start making "the artist is lazy, the writer sucks, etc" and progresses into "not like the audience is going to care, all 3 of them"

Audiowise, I think more background music could be used, but silence is also usable when sound effects are used with the action. Personally I prefer the music.

by **RichChap** on Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:31 am

Nar wrote:Let's see if the new GEOweasel is a breath of fresh air as well.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/315117
Have a NG link. It's on the site too, but here I can really see what people are saying.

Wow, nar that was really good. I defintaley love thisI have a quick question, how come in the end of the movie it said "No thanks to Riff~Raff."

Also, if you think about it, it's true that there aren't many flash series running, but there will be soon, considering matt wilson is working on his series, and he just finished the intro for the stupid adventures of mark an tony. Also, Andrew Kauervane is working on the MGR season finale.

Also all those porplemontage guys, are getting a lot better, and soon their series will probibally be a lot better, and more popular.

Also, Hyperboy is the freaking best thing ever, and since summer vacation is coming up, unless you're allready out like me, there'll be a lot less work for those people to work on their animation skills.

by **honks** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:39 am

Yeah, I'm working on Ep.4 a lot more now. So far, it's my crowning achievement.

Kisai: I know what you mean. I hate my own cartoon's sound quality, that's one thing I've tried to improve. But, everything else is good?

Keenspot

So... are there any flash SERIES still running?

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