If you have been referred to this page in a review, I think you could use some improvement in your flash. That doesn't mean that you suck at life, but it might be worth considering.

Step 1: Introduce Characters
The key to a successful flash is building an audience that appreciates your work. To draw people to your work, develop your characters so that people can relate to them. The first step is to identify who your main characters are. A great way to do this and develop them at the same time is to introduce them performing acts similar to what your audience would expect of that character. For example, if your flash is about a game character, portray the game character doing what that character does in the game from which they originate. This allows game fans to connect with your character in the same way that they connected with that same character in the game. If your character is an average Joe, then you need to make that character act like your audience. This allows people to connect to the actions of that character. By seeing similarities between the character and their own lives, they will grow interested. If your character is more abstract, then you need to make the character catchy. When you add color and depth to the characters, you create imagery that your fans will use to connect to the character. Try to make your unique character like something familiar so people know what they are seeing. While the unknown can be inspiring, people have trouble connecting with completely new things, so you need to find some way to relate your characters to something else. The most important thing to remember is to keep your introductions organized. If you introduce five characters, your viewers expect all 5 characters to appear throughout the flash unless you give a reason for any number of characters to depart. That means that you need to think out your flash and decide how many characters you need and what roles they will play throughout the flash.

Step 2: Develop Characters
Half of character development happens when the character is introduced. The other half you decide in your plot. For each character, ask yourself a few questions. Is this character dynamic or static? Does your character play a major role or a minor role? Try to come up with a history of your character and a thought process that explains that character's actions. For example, having one character always be the voice of impulse and another be the voice of reason creates consistent roles for each character. This gives them personality and purpose. The only time you should change this is in the resolution of your plot. If your characters are dynamic, then they should change after a major crisis or learning experience. That allows them to keep their purpose during most of the plot and keeps your viewers connected to them. When a character changes, that character must have rationale for changing. Spontaneous changes confuse and bother your audience. That's bad. Once a character is introduced, you should try to stick with the first impression given by the character when introduced. If that character seems stubborn, keep that character stubborn all the time. This reinforces the audience's perception of that character which helps you connect to your audience.

Step 3: Resolve Characters
Not all characters should be active members of your flash. Sometimes, a character needs to die or depart from the scene. You need to create reasons that would fit into the plot you created in your flash. For instance, if you make a flash about nine siblings, you need to give them all roles and personalities. Sometimes, you can create personalities off the screen by introducing any number of characters by using their name and describing them in a few words. When they finally arrive on the scene, you audience already knows how that character should behave. You can use these descriptions to end character involvement in your plot as well. For example, if you have a plot with nine siblings, and one of them is insane, you can flash an image of an asylum and never mention that character again.

THE BLACKLIST
The below list is about artists who have some serious work to do. Please vote 0 on all of their submissions until they are off this list. They will get off this list when their flash quality improves.

absent (I know you're a mod, but the Adolf Hitler Pokemon series, come on dude)
40ox
AfroUnderscoreStud
BigFuzzyKitten
Billy-Bean
Clefto
Death619
Erect-Vagina
etc...
F4Gg0t
Fag
FatBadger
FatKidWitAJetPak
Fleek
fleekinator
feeksbrother
fleeksdad
forty-two
fuck-y0u
Fubster
Heil
inversecoma
Joeypwnsjoo
JujubeLock
Kberkag
KittyKrew
LordZeebmork
Milfr3d
nigss
nrnr
Orangebeef
Paco96
Paradox
Peach-Socom
peanutbutterclawk
PepsiClock
qwer1234
Ravec
Reed
s0und
SAK
SocomSquad
Strength
supamariosbros
t-t-troll
TheCrimsonChin
TNOAT
Vegaz
VeinDigger
ZombieArmy

LOOK AT THIS MESSAGE FROM M-BOT. Read this deleted review regarding a movie. My response was within the site rules.

This message is to inform you that the following review, which you left for FUCK YOU on 1/2/08 at 10:25:35 AM, has been deleted:

===============
Score: 0 / 10
Summary: reviewers who agree should see my news
Review: This is spam. Please do not submit this to New Grounds.

I know you can do better. You ask us to score you higher to motivate you to make better flash. If you make better flash, you get higher scores automatically. We aren't going to give you a good score for this effortless loop.

Here is my constructive feedback so I'm still following the rules of the site:

When making a flash, try to use original characters or use characters that you had to draw or edit. You did not edit the character in this flash; therefore, the character in this flash is not your creation. You stole a cartoon.

In a flash animation, there should be animation. This is a strobe light. I can make one, too. The only difference is that I'm not going to add more spam to the site.

Your music audio quality is good, but since there is no story or plot with which to sync your music, I cannot give you a good score just for having halfway-decent music. Since the rest of your flash shows absolutely no effort, I'm compelled to believe that your music was merely laying around on your hard drive somewhere, and you randomly selected it for this flash. Yes, that makes you a lazy bum when it comes to making flash.

The title of your flash has nothing to do with the flash itself.

Overall, you have a lot of work to do. The best advice I can give you is to stop being a tool and make something more impressive than your fat ass in the back of whatever chair you're using. Try next time.
===============

Please review the review guidelines in the FAQ to ensure that you're following the rules and to prevent any further action being taken against other reviews you make.

Anyone who feels that artists should be added to this list should comment with their name. To read more about The Blacklist, view my 3rd news page.

THE BLACKLIST

absent (I know you're a mod, but the Adolf Hitler Pokemon series, come on dude)
40ox
AfroUnderscoreStud
BigFuzzyKitten
Billy-Bean
Clefto
Death619
Erect-Vagina
etc...
F4Gg0t
Fleek
fleekinator
feeksbrother
fleeksdad
Fubster
Heil
inversecoma
JujubeLock
Kberkag
KittyKrew
Lord Zeebmork
MAYORMCHEESE
Milfr3d
nrnr
Orangebeef
Paco96
Paradox
PepsiClock
qwer1234
Ravec
Reed
SAK
Strength
supamariosbros
t-t-troll
TheCrimsonChin
TNOAT
Vegaz
VeinDigger
ZombieArmy

There are just some artists that spam this site. As a result, I think it's time to really look at the quality of their work. I know that you all want experience for voting to get that extra 2% voting strength, but we are nowhere near as strict as we'd like to be. I vote almost 75-25 to save submissions, but I rarely see crap as awful as artist Kentucky Fried Chicken (Kberkag). That managed to stay on the site somehow, and it's your fault. Had I been there to vote, I would have voted 0, but all I could do was leave a very hostile review after it was already submitted to the site. The trash that shows up on New Grounds shows up because you vote 2 instead of 0 for trash. If it impresses you, vote 4. If it's fucking unbelievable, you should vote 5. Be stingy with high votes like those. Most of the time, I vote 3. Most films are average, so don't treat them better than that. You need to vote more aggressively.

I want to start a blacklist of artists who should get kicked off New Grounds. Obviously, we cannot kick someone off of this site, but we can vote down their bad submissions. Everyone should comment with the name of an artist that they hate with a link to their submission. Check back here every few days to see if you can help remove the so-called artists' crap from New Grounds.

THE BLACKLIST

absent
AfroUnderscoreStud
BigFuzzyKitten
Billy-Bean
Clefto
F4Gg0t
Fleek
fleekinator
feeksbrother
fleeksdad
Fubster
Heil
inversecoma
JujubeLock
Kberkag
KittyKrew
etc...
MAYORMCHEESE
Milfr3d
Orangebeef
Paco96
PepsiClock
qwer1234
SAK
t-t-troll
TheCrimsonChin
TNOAT
Vegaz
VeinDigger
ZombieArmy

I've been getting in trouble for some of my reviews for explaining to posters why their flashes suck. I can't help it if we have a large quantity of mediocre artists on this site. I just want to point them in the right direction when it comes to what to prioritize in a flash film. For example, there was this awful flash about a bad dog that involved almost no animation--just a couple of pictures that could have been drawn in MS Paint--and the worst audio since Jerry Jackson's Linkin Park flash. If these artists did not know that good audio is important to me, then they might not prioritize good audio the next time they post a new flash. If they did not know that I really don't like stick figures, then they will continue to make easy-to-draw stick figures. I'm not impressed by poor quality.

On the other hand, I've seen some really great flash that haven't gotten any reviews. If you don't get a review from me, it either means that I didn't see it or I thought it was good enough. Reviews are supposed to be constructive, but if I have nothing to improve, then you're doing great! Unfortunately, most of my review compliments are getting marked "no" when asked whether the review was helpful. I'd rather not be seen as someone who isn't helpful.

Now, I'm torn. I would love to know what I am supposed to do. Am I supposed to only review when I get to level 20 so people don't argue with me because I can outvote them, or am I supposed to review honestly and tell artists what to improve? The FAQ says to evaluate artists' work, but if it isn't art then do they deserve a good review? We all know that some groups spam this site with some of the worst crap ever. Those things need to get blammed, but they continue to get submitted and stay on the site. Perhaps M-Bot deleting my angry reviews isn't the best way to get rid of the trash on this site. After all, I'm only posting in response to what I see.

I've been a visitor to New Grounds for years. After seeing trashy animation after trashy animation, I decided to join to help improve the site. If I comment on your post, it usually means I think you can do better. Since I do not know flash , I cannot show you how, but I've seen enough to know the difference between good and bad. You know if your flash animation isn't good, so it's your job to improve. I don't want to see bad animation, so when I see one, I tell you what I don't like about it and what I think will get you higher ratings. If you don't like my response, it's your own fault, so please don't sent me messages saying how hard you worked on it or how crappy a person I am. The most important thing to me is quality. If you only produce one flash over the next year, I want it to be unbelievable, so give me the chance to give you a perfect score and tell you how great you are. Make high quality flash films, not crap.