dirtshake 2010-10-04 20:34:45

Funny you should write this today. I was just thinking about how I used to watch XIN back in the day. Good times.

I wouldn't say its a fad. There are still flashes I look forward to and orgasm over when I see them in the portal. My theory is that as standards for art and animation have risen, it is more economical to make something that catches people's attention fast, holds it, and looks good. Comedy is great for that. Epic action flashes are harder to do that, though someone should bring it back.

I love epic flash tales that take 10 years to make because after year three the artist enters the real world, finds a job, loses a job, gets addicted to crack, goes through rehab, makes spam, and then realizes he has unfinished .FLA's on his hard drive. But after all these years his artistic talent has improved, so he has to re-start the project. Then a few more episodes are produced before his computer spontaneously explodes, and after saving up / whoring himself out for a new one finally finishes the epic...but the old fan base has died and the newer fans have no idea what is going on. So the Flash gets negative reviews for a few weeks because kids these days can't sit still through 18 episodes of awesomeness. So the artist gives up Flash forever and probably gets a job as a paper pusher or something. A few months after he leaves everyone realizes how awesome his flash is, and when we PM him...and get no response...we assume he's dead.

Three years later he makes a comeback but nobody cares and / or considers him an alt.

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Where was I going with this??? OH YAH!!!

Want to write an epic flash series?!??!?!?! :D LOL LOL LOL LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL XD XD XD XD

RiverJordan 2010-10-04 20:59:00

Yeahhh, way to get shown up by egoraptor, proving your point :P

IM STILL WORKING ON EXILE! PLOMISE! School's in the wai tho

someplaceelse 2010-10-04 21:32:14

I'll prove you wrong someday... you just wait.

ChocolateChipCookies 2010-10-04 21:40:35

A big part of it is that a lot of the super talented artists are getting commissions or putting months of effort in between their work. Harry Partridge, James Lee and Adam Phillips have a bunch of projects that pay way better than Newgrounds, Oney and LazyMuffin have television offers, and god only knows what Jeff and Stamper are cooking up.

You're also forgetting that the major traffic that comes through Newgrounds is for Flash games and hentai. And while hentai is certainly a joke, you must not play games much because there has been plenty of "OOOOOHHH SHIT!" material that's come through the portal lately. It's just that movies are taking a back seat. And speaking on behalf of some talented folk, it takes a lot more effort to make a good flash game than it does to make a good cartoon.

Go play this

<a href="http://w">http://w</a> ww.newgrounds.com/portal/view/538792

It'll make you feel better.

Desknight 2010-10-04 21:53:04

Think this might just be somewhat of a transition phase on the site. The older animators who could do the epics more or less moved on whether they gave up or are now employed and have no time for us (so sad), but most of these were people who were around with the site for awhile and played the animator game for a long time as well.
I think that the adults are moving out and kids are growing up at the moment, maybe some of the authors making crap are going to soon get to say your level given just a few years, you never know.
Don't think it's a fad but just a little phase of the life of NG, generations moving in and out. Not to say you're old but most people that are on here are usually 'bout 13-20s with the OLDest ones being in their 30s. I say wait for the kiddies like me to grow up :P.

Luis 2010-10-04 21:57:53

This is off the record... tho i dont know how off the record it is considering tom will probably read it... but i think artists are integrating way more than Flash into their shit. Like even Adam has moved over to ToonBoom, and the Marcy Twins are using After Effects, and Premiere and shit and its such a CHORE to convert it all back to SWF format so alot of animator artists begin to feel like and i feel embarassed quoting the movie 'The girl Next Door' buttttt... at some point you start to question if the juice is worth the squeeze...

BeamShank 2010-10-04 22:42:28

I'm planning an actiony series, just have a shitload of shit on my plate already. the biggest thing on my plate being an actiony jokey piece of junk. hang in there baby.

FrozenFire 2010-10-04 23:12:55

Sickanimations usually perk me up a bit but I like games too :)

Starogre 2010-10-05 02:52:07

I donno i've felt that getting better and better at animation, or at least more knowledgeable about it, you realize it takes a lot more time and patience to produce at the level of quality you want to. so maybe the people that have been here forever have just been getting better and not wanting to take the time to produce something higher quality and would like to stick to shorter things to use for demo reel variety? and the people that are still getting the hang of flash are probably not satisfying your epic needs for epicness?

i have higher standards for myself now so i'm scared to start a huge animation project. though i want to eventually when i have more free time

Starogre 2010-10-05 02:53:29

and by people being here forever and not wanting to produce higher quality stuff, i mean higher quality long animations rather than short

FatKidWitAJetPak 2010-10-05 04:17:36

denzel-crocker.newgrounds.com

agitatedferret 2010-10-05 09:21:30

Did you see Billy Mays the Birth?

<a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/543249">http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view /543249</a>

I was shocked by the length and quality for an NG animation. But hey maybe thats just me.

TomFulp 2010-10-05 10:12:16

Some of the really ambitious people have found themselves with projects that Flash can't handle. We'll uitimately be accommodating video uploads on a per-author basis, so animators who aren't using Flash will be able to still be a part of NG. It's gonna raise the competitive bar a metric fuck-ton and Flash guys will have to raise their own personal expectations to compete.

Great-01-Revolver 2010-10-07 17:50:49

I have to take a SHIT!