Alright so, we have made a long discussion in darkdemon about introducing ranks to Flash. But the thing is that we don't exactly know how to do it for sure. One side says that we can base ranks on the 12 principles of animation and creativity, while another side thinks of breaking the traditional formula of ranks (beginner-inter-advance). I know that ranks are indirectly introduced to this site whenever a competition happens (beginner-intermediate-pro), but some people don't think it should be this way. Some even want to neglect ranks because it's elitist and I understand that and I can already see that, plus is may hold people from being very creative.

What I want to ask you guys is how do you visualize ranks for a flash stickfigure community? And how would you visualize each rank? I mean, what makes you say that a certain animation has a certain rank (be it beginner or advanced or whatever) when you see an animation? What makes you classify one animation from another?

Don't forget that we're doing this mostly for you.

The way I see it, there are beginners, intermediates and people who have pretty much achieved a legendary status.

Beginners are people who animate shakily with naff foot placement.

Intermediates are people who know their way around the program and can create some good lookin' stuff pretty well.

Legendary = Terkoiz, Jomm, Resh, etc.

I'm lazy to type so I agree with mgee, there should be a list of class like he typed but more ranks.
And yeah there are some legendary ppl like he typed.



TERKOIZ DA BEST !!!

people already know there rank

http://forums.stickpage.com/showthread.php?91416-quot-Levels-quot-in-Animating-Tutorials-Discussion-(Semi-Rant)
If you haven't looked at this, it might help.

I feel that one of the reasons that this is so difficult to do compared to pivot ranks is that it is so much easier to see the limit of pivot. At DD, pivot elites are usually people who have pretty much pushed pivot to the limit and can't get any better with it. With Flash, I doubt that we will ever get someone, at least in the community, who has fully pushed flash to the limits, especially when you consider full body animation.

The way I think it should be done is maybe beginners being the ones who are still working on stick construction, physics, etc. The intermediates can be those who have gotten a solid grasp on movements and can create something visually pleasing (Gary and Juke with flash, for example). The veterans could then be those who have mastery of pretty much all stick figure animation (Yun , Chewy maybe). Then the elites would be those who are, like you said, have pretty much achieved a legendary status like Jomm and Terkoiz. They probably should have at least explored full body, too.

That's just my opinion; I don't know a whole lot about flash so it probably has a few flaws.

THERES FLASH THERE??!?! WTH!

goin to check it our :P

Flash is so diverse that it is hard to give off "Rankings" to animators. Generally speaking, if you look at the result as a whole, you may base it off on that but in a place where practices are made and shared, it would be better if "Segments" were made instead of "Rankings".

Areas in which certain animators can focus on what they love animating, whether it be movements, effects, facial expressions, or a mixture. Root is right, Pivot is quite linear, making it easier to give off "Ranks".

Quote from Zero

Flash is so diverse that it is hard to give off "Rankings" to animators. Generally speaking, if you look at the result as a whole, you may base it off on that but in a place where practices are made and shared, it would be better if "Segments" were made instead of "Rankings".

Areas in which certain animators can focus on what they love animating, whether it be movements, effects, facial expressions, or a mixture. Root is right, Pivot is quite linear, making it easier to give off "Ranks".

So instead of ranking someone on how well they animate now we have to rank them on how well they draw too? If you have a sexy background but you can't animate a walk cycle to save your life, guess what, you're still a beginner.

I like to rank based on animation skill, not flashy wow effects or a ton of camera movements to compensate for what you can't animate.

Quote from WafflesMgee

I like to rank based on animation skill, not flashy wow effects or a ton of camera movements to compensate for what you can't animate.

Camera movements, background work, sound design and effects are all parts of the whole when it comes to animation skill. If you're really good at movements on a 2d plane but you can't make an entertaining animation because you lack skill in those other areas you're going to find that people generally aren't going to appreciate your work as much as others

Quote from Drone

Camera movements, background work, sound design and effects are all parts of the whole when it comes to animation skill. If you're really good at movements on a 2d plane but you can't make an entertaining animation because you lack skill in those other areas you're going to find that people generally aren't going to appreciate your work as much as others

I do understand that. My problem is just that people forget the main part of animation; the animating. I don't want people to use all these flashy things to cover up shite movements and all that, I want them to learn how to animate beautifully and then use everything to enhance it. Don't use these things to compensate for what you can't animate, practice and struggle and improve so you can use them to put icing on the cake instead of a turd.

Maybe it should be ranked with points like 10.0 max so like Jomm is 9.8 I think. But that wouldn't be good cuz as some said, no one got the max status in flash cuz it's much more better and more complexed than pivot. Yeah I basically think that it's much harder to set a rank on someone who animates on flash.

Quote from WafflesMgee

I do understand that. My problem is just that people forget the main part of animation; the animating. I don't want people to use all these flashy things to cover up shite movements and all that, I want them to learn how to animate beautifully and then use everything to enhance it. Don't use these things to compensate for what you can't animate, practice and struggle and improve so you can use them to put icing on the cake instead of a turd.

this is ridiculous, why wouldn't someone accentuate their strengths and hide their weaknesses? the main point of animating is to create an animation for people to watch and enjoy, not to express your talents and abilities in one specific aspect of animation.

this is why I've never agreed with ranking animators, the people doing the ranking tend to have their heads up their asses and they never agree on how to do it properly in the first place. if you can create something worth watching to someone you're doing okay, if you can't do that you have a lot more improving left to do. that's it. everything else beyond that is just a giant circlejerk over arbitrary labels.

Weaknesses are there to be improved upon, and ranks allow people to have common goals. And I'm not saying to work on only movements, it's just that it can be the hardest thing to do.