Flash Animations

I thought I'd put up a flash animation that I like, and my thoughts on it. One thing that's become clear to me over the period of this brief, and I'm sure it's applicable across a much wider sphere of things than just animation, is that if you've got some good content then you dont have to go all guns blazing trying to make it look as jazzy as possible. Im talking substance over style, but not completely letting style go out of the window. If you can acheive the right 'look' for the content and feel of an animation, it doesnt have to be all bells and whistles so long as its distinctive and memorable. Another thing I keep realising more and more as this course has progressed is the importance of sound, and I'll go into this more in the animation I'm going to talk about.

Salad Fingers, created by David Firth, is an animation that's received a sort of cult status, I dont know many people who haven't loved it if they've seen it. The story revolves around the character Salad Fingers, and the strange things he gets up to in his grimy little world. The character models and backgrounds are by no means complex, but they do have a very distinct dark and grimy aesthetic to them, with the characters in particular being very strange, mishapen looking creatures. The thing that really make these animations is the sound. There is always a piece of music by Boards of Canada in the background, and this gives everything that happens visually an underlying feeling of uncomfortableness. Secondly the character voices/sounds (not many of them actually speak as such), especially combined with the way the dialogue appears in a sketchy, handwritten looking format as Salad Fingers speaks, create the weird and unsettling atmosphere. Not to be overlooked of course is the actual content of the dialogue, which leaves you hoping you never actually meet David Firth on a dark night. I do really love salad fingers, I find it equal parts hilarious and creepy. This is the first episode: