[Inspiration] The Big Names

I can't really avoid making this, a blog entry about animators I have been following for years and aspire to be better than or just as good as, however I have avoided talking about them because almost everyone aspires to be like them or to be better than. In a earlier post I talked about two big named animators, Max Gilardi and Edd Gould. These two animators are among the best and most followed animators in the Flash animation community, though unfortunately Edd Gould passed away earlier this year. These two animators do inspire my work alot, however there are other animators who are just as big, if not bigger on the internet that I would like to talk about or atleast mention, though I wish I had done so earlier. I will again talk about Edd Gould and Max Gilardi and go in more detail about why I like them and about them in general. I think I will start out with the biggest name of them all, Arin Hanson Aka. Egoraptor.

Egoraptor:

Arin Hanson is among the greatest animators on the internet in my personal opinion, nothing can compare to animations like his, everything is near perfection; the voice acting, the character design, the art style, the humor and the way he presents his animations. Arin is one of the animation pioneers of the internet dating back to 2006 when he first started his Awesome series. He has improved massively since then, creating animations reaching over 700,000 subscribers on Youtube alone. Though with a famous animator, there are people who don't only use him as an inspiration, but pretty much copy the entire art style, humor style and even character style, examples of people like this is Spazzkidd and Twisted4000, animators with a style near identical to Arin Hanson's.

Arin will always be someone to inspire my work, though I do love his style I don't intend to copy his style or his unique sense of humor. He will always be someone I watch and gain the inspiration to animate from, below is an example of his work:

Eddsworld:

Edd Gould, again is one of the first inspirations I had when it comes to animation, and one could argue that he was one of the main reasons I got into Flash animation. Until he passed away during March 2012, he animated a series called Eddsworld, a series widely popular on the internet and due to its simplicity and popularity it spawned alot of clones, by this I mean drawings by other people with a style near identical to Edds, such as Derricksworld, and various others. What inspires me the most is how much he has improved, and I think this goes for alot of people, one of his first animations was one called Breakfast, by no means a work of art, then a few years later he improved to create an animation called 25ft Under the Seat, and finally before his death got half way to creating an animation called Space Face. Watching those 3 animation's you wouldn't believe that it was the same person animating, but just goes to show that practice pays off well.

Like stated before, Edd Gould is a huge inspiration to me, and proved that hard work in the end will pay off, it is sad to know that such an inspiration died so young, and I will try my best to be a great animator like him, below is an example of his work:

Harrypartridge:

Harry Partridge amazes me with his animations, never before have I seen such a animator animate something so smoothly and beautifully. His animation's are near enough perfect, using frame by frame to animate he does this incredibly well and possibly the best I have ever seen. His animation style is unique on the internet, instantly recognizable by the Flash animation fanbase. His character designs are always different, they vary in shape and size and he is a great example of someone who creates characters well. His sense of humor is dark, which works well for his animation style, examples of this are Michael the Terrible Boyfriend and Chuck's New Tux, two of Harry's most popular animations.

Harry is one of those animators whose animations will blow me away every time, though I very rarely use frame by frame animation his work inspires me to keep animating so I can maybe one day surpass him. Below is an example of his work:

Ukinojoe:

Jonathan Gran only recently caught my attention earlier this year after being shown an animation he did, and I was increadibly amused by it. Jonathan's animations aren't really what inspires me, but more of his humor and sense of humor. He creates 1 minute animations with a punchline at the end, or jokes all the way through it. Usually internet humor, such as with the Youtube Commenters animation and the Brony animation he created. I call this internet humor because it is humorous to someone who spends time on the internet and understands certain things that happen on it, his humor is based towards people who spend time on the internet and knows how to reach them. He usually does parodies of games, tv shows and movies, rarely does he make something original, though this again is reaching his target audience, creating something that people will look at and react like "Oh I have seen/played that, I might watch it". 

Jonathan is defiantly a favourite humor wise, he has such a unique sense of humor which makes him stand out in my eyes, though like said before his animation style isn't anything amazing, but it is made up with his comedic sense of humor. Below is an example of his work:

Hotdiggetydemon:

Max Gilardi, again is an inspiration to my work sue to the fact that we have a similar art style, and by this I mean we both use model animation. Max usually works on one series at a time, first being the Jerry series, second being the Wacky Game Jokez 4 Kidz series, and now he is working on the .Mov series. His style has never been different, using models and then manipulating the models mid animation. He has a very dark sense of humor, similar to Harrypartridges animations, though has recently boarded the Brony bandwagon and started creating My Little Pony shorts (The .Mov series). He is by no means my favourite animator, but I always look forward to see what he will release next.

As stated before, Max's work is similar to my work and I consider him someone I will hopefully one day be better than. He isn't my favourite animator but is defiantly up there on my list. Below is an example of his work:

Psychicpebbles:

Zach Hadel is an animator who took my attention in late 2011, though I have started to sway away from him recently. He usually parodies current pop culture phenomenons or creates his own sketches up, I only really started to watch his stuff in early 2012 when he uploaded a video parodying the internet phenomenon at the time, which was the Arrow to the Knee jokes. He parodied it incredibly well and in my personal opinion I think it was this that made his name on the internet. His animation style is similar to another animator, well known on the interent but doesn't inspire my work at all, OneyNG. They are both working together now to work on a new series oddly enough. I really like his animation style, though it isn't the most original style in the world, it is clean and easy to follow. In which I mean it doesn't have too much going on, his sense of humor works well, though similar to Ukinojoe he targets his animations to people on the internet and uses recent events to reach them, I like his humor and animation, though since the release of KONY2012 I have yet to see an animation to really catch my eye.

Zach is an odd animator to talk about, I really like his style and humor, though since March I have yet to see anything from him that is worth talking about, or even to inspire my work. Below is an example of his work: