Nov
6
2009
Shepherd Second at 11 Second Club
Flash animator Matt Shepherd continues to outperform the majority of the field in the 11 Second Club competition. In October, this submission below placed second out of a record 207 submissions (BTW – the November competition is underway).
November 7th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Brilliant!!!
November 7th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
It’s really nice looking animation (congrats for another good one, Matt!) , but it puzzles me that you pigeon-hole Matt as a “Flash animator” . What is particularly “Flash” about it ?
This is just good, solid classical animation, whether it’s drawn on paper or on a Wacom tablet . (and it could have been drawn equally well using ToonBoom, Digicel Flipbook, TVPaint, PAP … or a Ticonderoga HB on Ingram Bond.)
I think if we were in the pre-digital days it would be a little odd to catergorize an animator as “a Blackwing animator” vs. “a Ticonderoga animator” vs. “a Faber-Castell animator” vs. a “Col-Erase 1276 blue animator”. Animators were animators whatever pencil they happened to prefer using. Matt does really good frame-by-frame hand drawn animation. What does it matter what the tool is ?
November 8th, 2009 at 6:56 am
It’s a badge of honor on this website, this often derided term “Flash animator.” True, Matt is many things other than a Flash animator, but for 5 years now, with each and every post, we’ve been trying (and succeeding, I think) to remove some of the stigma associated with this moniker. It’s also for clarity – his work is so well done, I think I owe it to the audience to certify that his animation was indeed done in Flash. They might think I’ve posted a pencil test, and not a digital creation.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:32 am
I do a lot of hand-drawn stuff in Flash (not anywhere near as good as this mind you) & that’s the only way I like to use Flash. Tweening symbols around is a chore. I like Flash’s drawing tools.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Ok, I understand you’re still trying to clear up the stigma surrounding Flash , that is some people think it can only be used to produce crappy looking ‘cut-out’ symbol stuff , but as an animator I wouldn’t want to be defined by the tools I use. I use several different animation apps (including Flash) but at no point do I self-identify with the software. When I was working mostly on paper sometimes a Col-Erase blue pencil was just the thing, but sometimes I might prefer a big soft 4B Tombow . To me “Flash Animation” means animation that uses the particular unique features of the Flash software (i.e. nested vector symbols which are “tweened”, asset libraries full of reusable parts ) as opposed to simply using Flash as a paperless digital animation disc.
But I guess it is helpful to point out that Flash can be used this way (for frame by frame hand-drawn, traditional style animation) for those who still doubt it. Matt’s animation is certainly one of the best examples of that.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:29 am
Flash is such a versatile medium, I think alot of folks see it as a quick and dirty tool, cheap and easy.
All my animations, everyting except 1 animation on my sites, were done in flash from start to finish. Even then, the 1 animation that wasn’t done in flash(paper), was complied and edited IN flash. I also used it as a dope sheet to make the lip sync(scrubbed audio frame x frame)
It takes half the time to animate something classical in flash than it does to do it on paper. Having said that, theres just something about paper that you can’t replicate no matter how hard you try, the look, the feel. Maybe if flash made an “app” that everytime you cycled through the drawings(frames) it created some “paper crinkles” on the frames or something…who knows.
Regardless, I really appreciate people taking the time to comment when ever they can, and for watching my animation for that matter. I also think getting featured on this site is fantastic. I check it regularly.
Now, if only I could get my name under the animators section, kidding, but it would be awesome.
November 9th, 2009 at 8:02 am
David: I agree %100 with you. I wouldn’t particularly want anyone to pigeonhole me as a ‘Flash animator’ even though I do know how to do cut-out animation in Flash. I think we all would like to just be known as animators first and foremost.
I also know Toon Boom inside and out, & depending who I’m talking to I may say that I’m a ‘ToonBoom animator’ or not! But it’s all the same thing, really, tweening peices around
November 9th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Matt! you made the list! Awesome!
Also, these 11 second lip-syncs are getting out of hand. They’re so fantastic…It makes it hard to spend my days being angry at you…ya’ know, just for the fun of it.
-C
November 9th, 2009 at 10:47 am
awesome!
Also, I just watched this version, as usual youtube dropped some frames. Curses!
November 9th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Man. You’re killing these 11 sec lip syncs Matt. They look great. It’s crazy how much you’ve grown with your animation in these past few years. Keep it up man! I look forward to seeing more!
November 9th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I am a Flash Animator. Hath not a Flash Animator eyes? Hath not a Flash Animator hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as a Traditional Animator is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
The Feature Of Animation, act 3, scene 1, 58–68
November 9th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
ahahahha! that’s our new call to arms, patrick. hysterical.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
If Flash is capable of this quality of animation, why aren’t artists taking advantage of the software and using it to create theatrical animated films?
Oh well, one can dream. Beautiful animation, BTW.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I think you COULD do a nice traditionally animated feature in flash if you wanted to. You just take all the “short cuts” that you see in flash animations and throw those out the door. Sure its easy to push symbols around, but no matter how nice it is, it’s still symbols being pushed around.
I don’t use symbols when I animate 11 second animations. Basically, if you can’t do it on paper, then I don’t do it in flash, i.e. zoom in 1000%, copy paste, tween symbols, extra thick brush (I use the smallest brush). etc…
Also, thanks for the kind words!