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So, I completely forgot about this one thing I used to do all the time called “Classy Critiques,” where I would offer research-based guidance and information on various aspects of the StickNodes community, and the entire Stickfigure community in general. That was back on the Amino for TZT, but I kinda fell off it once I got barred from Amino. However, I can make that stuff all I want here, so I’m just asking for some insights on the matter. If I were to continue that, would it get attention and help improve people’s stuffs? It’s a lot of work, and I don’t want to be spending that time on something that will only be seen by a selective few. I’d appreciate any thoughts or ideas on it! 😀
Stick Nodes®
A stickfigure animation app created for mobile devices!
Create your own stickman animations on your Android or iOS device!
User Banned
Lol you need to do some research on your figs first mate
That might be one of the topics in the future, but the series in the past has focused on “RHGs, Unoriginal/OP characters, and Animation Series,” stuff like that.
User Banned
So, like your RHG then?
Well, the first Classy Critique on RHGs explained their origin, the system itself, and its misuse in certain parts of the community. I’d call Classy Man an OC at this point, and I kinda gave up on any other characters I had lol.
User Banned
He’s an RHG. He hasn’t got enough detail to be a real OC.
RHGs are actually characters that stem from the StickPage “Rock Hard Gladiator” system. Essentially the first dueling system for stick figures out there, it ushered in a new age for viewership of stick figure animations. However, it slowly became inactive, and now Dojo Duels are pretty much the most well known form of dueling. For a character to be considered a RHG, they actually have to be registered on the official website as a gladiator. It’s a common misconception that RHG is just another name for a character. Similarly, Oc stands for “Original Character,” and encompasses any character created by someone, regardless of detail. So, in short, an OC can be any character created by someone, but a RHG is a character that has been accepted to the RHG official roster on StickPage and various servers.
User Banned
Whatever. Here the rules differ. RHGs are Scarf Figs, OCs are figs that actually had care and attention put into them
That kinda does a bit of injustice to RHGs in general, though. A lot of RHGs have detail put into them, like Umbrella and Alfa, as the most known ones. Scarf figures still encompass under the “OC” part in my book at least, but they’re definitely unoriginal characters.
lol umbrella as in the black base fig with wings
if resh can animate those wings, he can animate a detailed fig
I don’t believe detail should be the primary form of concern when it comes to creating good characters. There’s a plethora of different qualities to lead up to a great character, and simple styles can be pulled off very effectively. I don’t think a character should be judged based on their visual design (except for unoriginal designs cough cough scarf demons) but on their design as a whole, including personality, backstory, and etc.
sn is different from the rest
characters need to be original in all aspects
i get your point but that’s just how we are
I understand that completely; it’s absoultely great to strive for original characters, and I support that all the way! At the same time, however, I don’t quite think that additional detail creates originality, and no specific character can be 100% original due to there being so many characters out there. It’s good to branch out on your own and create new ideas, but it’s not wrong to have more basic designs and take inspirations.
User Banned
When the simple area has been done to death, detail becomes the only path to originality’s
Well, I wouldn’t call it the simple area, just the scarf area lol. Some of the most recognizable, authentic, classic, and all around original stickfigure can also be basic in design. Umbrella is one, but there are many others like Mr. Red and Dark Green from shock, and the famous Xiao Xiao. Design is but one of the many elements that makes a good character, and you don’t necessarily need to make everything incredibly detailed to make it good. Don’t get me wrong, details certainly help a ton, and I’ve seen a lot of StickNodes animations with beautiful detail, but I don’t think that characters are bad just because they are simple in visual style.
User Banned
But you miss the point that that field is now completely barren of originality because those people already took the ideas
Ah, now I understand what you’re saying. I believe it’s that more complex designs are more original because it’s harder to make them, and therefor less people use them, while other simpler designs are more used because they are easier to use, and that makes them less original. That is pretty true I’d say, more advanced designs do indeed increase the authenticity of a character, and I admire creators for managing to make great-looking figures. (Because I can’t make em for crap lmao) But design, like I said, is one of the many parts of a character. Sure, a black stickfigure may not be as memorable as a super cool soldier with gear and weaponry, but that’s what storyline and personality can be used for. It’s the job of the animator when creating a character to not only make a design of their character, but a name behind the face too. Simple stick figures become so much more than what they look when they’re given importance in plot, and they even become memorable when one can give them a memorable personality. I like to think of stickfigures not as characters, but as templates, because you can create practically anything you want out of a black stickfigure, and all of it can be original if you work hard at it. There’s nothing wrong with simplified characters, nor is there anything wrong with detailed, as long as work is put into the character to make them memorable. You can give a scarf figure all the flashiest effects and a detailed stickfigure with all the greatest designs, and neither one of them would be interesting to watch without a good story and personality. Characters become what you want them to become, and almost any character (almost, cuz scarves lel) can be made original by their personality and importance to the plot. Holy crap I wrote a lot lmao
User Banned
But a well designed fig looks particularly good in story based anims as they are entertaining in even the mundane moments simply by looking pretty
Epitaph, this is how you get people to hate you
Shut the f**k up
User Banned
Wait, you actually like Joker’s animations?
Wow, are you like 13 or something
Not that, dumbass.
Stop bothering toxic
mate
he’s being pretty nice here, he’s clearly not throwing any insults or anything like that, he’s just stating facts
Opinions**
he’s stating that it’s an unoriginal field and that we should move on.
“move on”
Yeah he should move on knowing not everyone is gonna change
Dude, stop being so pissy about this. This was a pretty civilized debate, and I think I can say that Toxic isn’t being bothered by this discussion
he be 16
If you are talking about me I’m technically 16
Well sh**
My bday is in November so…eh…I guess I’m 16 since it’s three months away
I believe about stories that they should involve a creative plot involving characters with great personalities and complex feelings and problems, it makes things rather interesting and original. Looking pretty is a plus, but that’s not really the main focus when telling a story. Not to mention, it doesn’t really have to do with originality.
In all honesty, your right. Detail really is only a plus, but then there is the part that has been done to death like demons and scarfs. Its the story that matters for story. But detail should definitely be brought in as it narrows down the amount of genericness in a character. Thought detail makes that character much more entertaining and enjoyable. In all honesty Toxic, your character is simple, but unique. I don’t often say this to other popular SN channels that put a lot into figures that got a rather small amount of detail in them.
User Banned
Still, imagine The StickNodes Movie but ever character was a base fig like in Elements. Good Stories can’t be told without unique characters to tell them. Roux and all the others are something we’ve never seen before and thus stand out as super unique characters seemingly no one has forgotten about
Indeed, those characters were definitely unique in many ways. The StickNodes Movie was definitely a success in regards to storylines, as it’s practically one of the only good storyline-driven series out there. Many characters were unique in personality and visual design. However, such characters are also a possibility even with more simple designs. Though it may be more difficult to pull off, it is by all means possible, and I hope to achieve that once I start my series production lol. And elements isn’t the best series to base off of, anyway lol. It’s got the flare and effects, but it’s pretty much an average power brawl shtick. Stickfigures can have simple but unique designs, but a big problem I see within the community is that there haven’t been any particularly great series to cement simple-styled stickfigures as characters with vast potential. Alfa is still a recognized and popular character despite his simple design. Both simple designs and detailed designs can be messed up or perfected depending on the skills and storytelling of the animator, and unfortunately there haven’t been that many great stories using simple-styled stickfigures. In no way is either style inferior or superior, as both are different methods of communicating a story.
User Banned
The reason why people like Oxob and Nahzul can still stay afloat is because of nostalgia and the ‘glory days’ of 2012 to 2015 when Animation dominated the YouTube scene and stickman fights were all the rage. They didn’t need to do big stories or super neato designs because that wasn’t what people wanted.
But things have changed and those tropes are dying. People want things to be more and more complex. That’s why Joker has become the joke himself here, why SGA is just seen as generic and why anything called an ‘RHG’ is just despised, because their time has come and gone.
We don’t see Minecraft juggernauting YouTube nowadays because it has passed its spike.
I’d say it’s best we try to adapt to the changes before they’re even cemented, hence why my popularity skyrocketed so fast, because i was and kinda still am ahead of the curve, and I’m keeping that curve rising rather than falling.
You can continue whatever animations you wish but in the end, only certain types will truly dominate the scene.
Currently it’s moreso the commentary and history animation channels like Odd1sOut and Simple History. However, I’m sure the Animation scene may eventually popularise story based, movie like animations, signs are already showing with the random 3D CGI animations that keep popping up in our reccomended bars.
By sticking to stickmen, we will miss that chance. By adapting and turning stickmen into men, we can jump on and glorify StickNodes and Flash once again.
“signs are already showing with the random 3D CGI animations that keep popping up in our reccomended bars.”
so, like this?
https://youtu.be/9mUh_n-beVM
User Banned
Kind of.
Johnny Johnny is an example as that is a random 3D animation yet it suddenly grew mass fame.
There are also random animations like ‘Tar Boy’ that have just popped up, simply cause animation is slowly making its comeback
YouTube kids videos are often disturbing
Memeulous and saberspark did good videos on that.
User Banned
Sabersark, yes my child
Memeulous, switch to Pyrocynical you uneducated youth
I watch both.
They make very similar but different types of content.
I heard someone say P y r o c y n i c a l
jesus it doesn’t even look like he is eating sugar here
it looks like he’s ingesting some sort of drug
At this point I’m talking down notes so when I complete my fully thought out opinion I can sound 40x smarter than I am
Plus it’s interesting these debates
Before I get into this, I kinda just want to say that it really does suck that RHGs are “despised” now or whatever. They were really cool, and a lot of em still are, and it sucks that people look badly upon them not because of RHGs themselves but because of the community.
With that said, I do understand the aspect of changing and keeping ahead with the curve and trends. However, I also see the major problem that comes with it, and that is the trend hopping. I understand that times change, and different animation techniques become popular at different times, but a key aspect of animation is being unique to the aminator and their preference. Stickfigure communities shouldn’t hop to fullbody communities if it doesn’t fit with their style, and fullbody animators shouldn’t stick to stickfigure communities if it doesn’t suit them either. However, if we got an incredibly large portion to switch from one style to the next simply because it’s more popular, then we would have a huge problem. The reason for that is, it would be the exact same thing as the scarf incidents. Everyone jumped on that bandwagon back then, and everyone thought it was cool. Looking back at it now, we all think it was a bad idea. But typically, things never seem like a bad idea when you’re doing them. The same goes for demon forms. A large portion of the community stuck to those simply because they were popular, and the creative aspect of the StickNodes community stagnated. By attempting to follow and use the styles that are popular at the time, we become the scarf-figure animators who did the exact same thing. Not to mention, it would be extremely hard to find more original content with an entire community switching to a certain style or design. Sacrificing our styles to become more mainstream only makes us the people we hated in the past.
About those YouTubers and videos you mentioned as well, TheOdd1sOut and Simple History aren’t completely animation channels, so they can’t really classify as a type of animation. The reason being, animation isn’t the main focus of their channels. For Simple History, they are telling interesting Vsauce-like history stories. As for Odd1sOut, it uses animation to tell vlog stories. The Animation is not their focus, but a tool they use to tell history and make vlogs. A majority of this community doesn’t animate to tell history or vlog, but simply to animate their story, and their character. Sure, StickNodes could be used to make vlogs and history videos, but it would be pretty ugly if the whole community hopped on the bandwagon. We’d only be mimicking the actions of the scarf users and demon form people in the past. And about Johnny Johnny, those videos didn’t become popular because of the animation, but because of its meme-worthy content. The animation isn’t really the focus, it’s how bad it is. And as for Tar Boy, that can’t quite be used as an example to demonstrate the trends right now, since it was released nine years ago. (I was kinda surprised when I found that out lol, Tar Boy is such a great animation, that one takes me way back.)
At the end of it all, the “glory days” were such because those animators made them the glory days. They were so great, that even now they stay afloat by nostalgia. They didn’t get popular because of the craze for stickfigure fights, but rather, they got popular for making the craze. I always think that looking back on “glory days” is time not spent well, because each moment of our day today, we can make a new glory day. Doesn’t matter what trend is popular, doesn’t matter what style, if you constantly put your heart into something and get recognized for your work, and be proud of your style of animation and stick to it, then you’ve got a lot of glory days ahead. As a quote goes, “Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect.”
It does a bit of Injustice Gods Among Us to them
I think i posted a link to the Classy Critique on RHGs on the site. That post with the link led to the creation of the term POC(Personal OC)
I think I’m actually going to create a specific group for “Classy Critiques.” It will be much easier to organize, and those who wish to gain advice and tips will get it. 😀
Also, I’m glad that the article could do that! It’s always gratifying to know that what I do helps.
That group would be h e l l a rad
User Banned
OR IF HE EVEN HAD PLOT