Hand-Drawn vs. Flash

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Hand-Drawn:
*Crisper and darker colors
*No tweening, so characters move in one piece
*No jagged outlines, round objects are almost perfectly round
*animation is inconsistent, early seasons may look adversely different from subsequent seasons
*You pick up a utensil and draw each frame
*Frame rate is 2x faster
*More freedom since you don't have to rely on computers, you only rely on the computer to color the characters in
*Time-Consuming
*Boring to do, fun to watch

Flash:
*Jerkiness
*Characters move like puppets, items jiggle when walking
*Duller colors
*A whole season may look consistent
*Jagged outlines, nothing is round
*Slow frame rate
*You don't redraw every frame you just move the characters with the mouse
*Fun to do, boring to watch

 

[ScumBob]

Again, Flash is a tool. Not an animation style

Johnny Test's animation is the animator's fault, not the tool itself. The tool is just often incompetently used

 

[Illiniguy34]

Not all flash is bad. Shows like "Motorcity", "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends", and "MLP:FiM" are great examples of good flash animation. Same can be said for how not all hand drawn is good, just look at most things that came out of the 80's like "Transformers", "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", "My Little Pony", etc.

 

[The Drifter]

You probably never see Newground's flash animations.

In the end, it all came down to the writing.

 

[BabySmitty]

okay, here's the thing

a lot of animators who draw their animation frame-by-frame do actually use flash. So "flash animation" isn't an excuse for bad animation. Flash is just another tool that allows animators to work digitally. A lot of great animators use Flash AND the principals of good animation

*mic drop*

 

[Supmandude]

What people usually mean by "Flash animation" is actually called "puppet animation". As others have pointed out, Flash is a tool, not a style. You can do hand-drawn animation with Flash.

Anyway, puppet animation is always going to be way worse compared to frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation, but some shows like Teen Titans Go are amazing and try their best to incorporate hand-drawn moments and amazing art to make up for the more limited style that they're forced to have.

Shows like MLP are proud of being badly animated, though, unfortunately. Look at Equestria Girls, they all have the same body type, face, and skirt, the only differences are their skin color and hair, yet for some reason the MLP people are proud of that and expect praise. (To be fair, them all having the same body might be an order from the toy makers so that they can all have the same mold. If that's the case, it's a tiny bit more forgivable, but still dumb.) Not to mention the bad and lazy movements in it, it's not as bad as Johnny Test, but that's not saying much.

No other puppet animated show is anything as good as the amazing TTG does, in my opinion. TTG actually uses traditional animation concepts like smearing and doubling, they don't throw the old tricks out just because it's easier to be lazy, they try their best to make it look good and well animated. I'm not going to say the animation is perfect, but I can tell they're trying their best with the small budget and schedule.

But obviously traditional animation always wins and is the best thing ever for animation and will always be the superior way of doing any type of animation. I love traditional animation SO MUCH and I hope that one day shows that I like that have cheaper animation get the budget to switch to full frame-by-frame hand-drawn greatness!!! ;)

 

[BagelsinEurope]

I don't care. I mainly look for writing in shows.

 

[Jerry]

I don't care. I mainly look for writing in shows.

Same, since I'm also a writer.

Even though I do want animation to not take shortcuts and end up looking like MOST modren day or ANY 2000- present TELETOON ANIMATED SHOW!

 

[tEMMIE]

oh look this isn't biased at all

 

[Katniss]

Meh. I'm not an animation buff, so as long as the show doesn't look totally visually unappealing to me, I'm not too fussed about the type of animation used.

 

[The Drifter]

If you think Hand-Drawn is always good, see the 60's.

 

[MrTortellini00]

I really don't mind about the animation, unless it's really crucial to my enjoyement of the thing (character designs for example)

 

[BabySmitty]

If you think Hand-Drawn is always good, see the 60's.

every decade has good and bad animation

 

[Vuvuzela Smasher]

Flash is fine as long as you don't take shortcuts.

 

[The Drifter]

Every decade has good and bad animation

Yes, but the 60's have a disproportionately high amount badly animated shows. Most of them made it up with good writing and humor, but let's be honest, their animation is just horrid. Other decade have good and bad but 60's is just different than the other.

 

[Big Meaty Claws]

I care a lot about visuals and animation in a show, (Animation doesn't always have to constantly be moving swiftly, smoothly, and perfect, though.) but I don't mind Flash at all. Just because Flash is used doesn't mean the animation is bad. The way it is used is what makes a show's animation bad.

 

[DigitalDeathstraction]

No other puppet animated show is anything as good as the amazing TTG does, in my opinion. TTG actually uses traditional animation concepts like smearing and doubling, they don't throw the old tricks out just because it's easier to be lazy, they try their best to make it look good and well animated. I'm not going to say the animation is perfect, but I can tell they're trying their best with the small budget and schedule.

Moonbeam City, Ugly Americans, Hellbenders, anything with the name Egoraptor, Fosters Home, Dan vs., ::dolphin noise:: MLP (Not EG) I'm pretty sure Flapjack and Napoleon Dynamite: The Show has better flash animation than TTG

 

[BabySmitty]

Moonbeam City, Ugly Americans, Hellbenders, anything with the name Egoraptor, Fosters Home, Dan vs., ::dolphin noise::in MLP (Not EG) I'm pretty sure Flapjack and Napoleon Dynamite: The Show has better flash animation than TTG

Don't forget Superjail. The show's animation is absolutely gorgeous and very fluid, and it's done in an older version of Flash.

 

[DigitalDeathstraction]

Don't forget Superjail. The show's animation is absolutely gorgeous and very fluid, and it's done in an older version of Flash.

it's 2 years of work per ep. The budget is crazy for an 11 minute show.

 

[BabySmitty]

it's 2 years of work per ep. The budget is crazy for an 11 minute show.

God I know. The animation in that show was gorgeously fluid. Probably why it was canceled. :(