The Heyday of Flash Animation

In a snow-covered mountain, a puppy is crying as it dropped an appetizing peach into the ice puddle. ‘Mashimaro santa’, rode on a bear-sled, appears and tries to appease the puppy. It is not easy, however. Although Mashimaro hands over a piece of bone, liquor, and even money, the puppy is not appeased. Suddenly, Mashimaro takes out a toilet compressor. When Mashimaro sticks his buttocks that were pressed by a toilet compressor, it looks exactly like a peach.

Here is one more story. A middle-aged man is dozing off in the subway. Saliva which dribbled from his mouth is dribbling on top of the hand of a female passenger. Having just woken up, the female passenger mistakes the saliva on her hand as her own and quickly licks it before others notice.

These are the scenes from ‘Bizarre rabbit’ and ‘Subway 999’. Instigated by these stories, flash animation has risen to stardom.

- Let’s see what kinds of projects are available? ‘Mashimaro’s forest story’ (www.mashimaro.co.kr), known as ‘Bizarre rabbit’, and ‘Zolaman’, which deals with the story of a stick man, are the good examples. ‘Subway 999’ (www.enpop.co.kr) is a middle-aged man’s story in the subway. ‘Aachi & Ssipak’ (www.aanss.com), a story played in a city where excrement is used as energy source, is Cho Bum-jin team’s project from Seoul Animation Center. ‘Pucca’ (www.postnut.com), the youngest daughter of a Chinese restaurant, is a popular character. ‘Zziksa’ and ‘Live show’ can be viewed on Clubwow (www.clubwow.com). ‘Woobiboy’ is an ambitious work created by Intz.com for the goal of ‘one source-multiuse’. Comedy TV (www.comedytv.co,kr) is airing ‘Yainoma cat’ and ‘Plastic flower’. Send2you (www.send2you.co.kr) and Navercard are also offering flash animation services.

- What is web animation? Web animation is made mainly using the software called ‘flash’, produced by the U.S. Macromedia (www.macromedia.com). The price is about 40,000 won. Because the size of the file is only one sixteenth of the general image the transmission speed is fast and the image is not broken even when it is extended. Since the manufacture process is also simple there are many two to three minute-long projects produced by small groups or amateurs. Web animation provides playfulness, creativity, and the dramatic shift. The production fee equals one tenth of the existing animation production. Park Jung-ju, president of Real Comic, a professional flash animation company, said, ‘With the success of ‘Bizarre Rabbit’, flash animation is extending its territory to the off-line arena, such as character goods’.

Kim Tae-Hwan freewill@donga.com