Hello folks. I thought I'd share a little something from one of my posts on DeviantArt.

For those who've read my MLP Opinions and Tune-up post. One of the things I would've changed in particular about G4/FiM is that I would've done it with Digital Ink and Paint instead of Flash.

Obviously graphics and animation are not everything. Far from everything in-fact but FiM's particular art-style and animation has always to some degree struck a somewhat undesirable chord on my proverbial piano.

Here's my reasoning for why:

One reason is that Flash animation can be stiff and awkward at times. Now I'm not trying to put down Flash animation or Adobe Flash based media as a whole because I've seen some pretty darn good Flash Games and Works on Armor Games, Miniclip.com, Crazy Monkey Games, Kongregate and even here on NewGrounds. Plus I also have fond memories of those platforms and their classic flash games.

Now I know that the crew behind the show was trying to make the graphics and animation as organic and appealing as they could but honestly they still had iffy animation and graphics at times.

One example of a Flash Work that I really admired was Fancy Pants Adventures. This game pre-dates FiM by 3-4 years and it's graphics and animation were honestly much more organic and fluid than FiM's. It almost looks hand-drawn.

But while these aspects may be subjective or debatable amongst people. The next reason I'm about to bring up carries a lot more of the weight in this argument. And I think you should sit down for this one:

The much bigger issue that I have with the Flash animation is the Following: Even if you take the stiffness and awkwardness out of the equation there's one other issue. It's pixel perfect and as a result it comes out lifeless and robotic. Where as with hand-drawn animation even when it's done digitally. There's always going to be imperfections even if we don't see them they are very much there. But that is actually a good thing because not only does it feel all the more organic but it's just part of nature. Imperfections are natural occurrences in everything. No matter how perfect it may seem there's always going to be a draw-back in some form.

No matter how much the animation and graphics are refined and cleaned up in post-production. The visuals are never truly 100% purely perfect. But that doesn't hinder our experience because what's most important is that people have a good time watching/playing it.

This is why movies and TV Shows such as Powerpuff Girls, Jimmy Neutron, SWAT Kats, Tom and Jerry, Classic TMNT and Transformers, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Little Mermaid, Tarzan, Atlantis the Lost Empire, Shrek, Toy Story, A Bug's Life heck even the Rescue Heroes Movie from 2003 became successful and treasured in the first place.

Or video games like Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, Ratchet and Clank. Or even things you might find through RealArcade, Big Fish Games, My Play City or even to some degree Caiman Games.

It was never the graphics or the animation. It was the fun, the functionality and the good times we had with them.

Anyway I got way off track. Back to the primary subject:

Another thing about FiM that's also bothered me is the character designs. Although this varies from character to character it's particularly the "common" ponies. (Mane Six + Supporting and Background Ponies) and especially the Cuitemark Crusaders + the Supporting and Background Foals. That bother me in terms of character design.

Now admittingly I also think there's room for improvement on the previous gen ponies' designs too. But FiM's pony designs in particular look more like cats rather than equines. And while also admittingly there is a charm to them. I still very much see room for improvement.

If you took the time to read this I greatly appreciate it.