That’s inconsistently applied at best. Some stories stress that the dying Abin Sur told his ring to go seek a successor, but this was uncommon and the decision normally would be up to the Guardians.
The exact nature of the Black Lanterns is not entirely clear. The actual corpses of the dead do have a part in it, clearly, and their minds. But…
The state of the bodies - dead and decayed for a decade, returned to life and perfectly fresh, burnt to ash, reduced to stray atoms - has little to no effect on the appearance of the Black Lantern resulting from it (unless, of course, the nature of their death is being used to mess with whichever living person they’re approaching).
It seems that the Black Lanterns are comprised, primarily, of the ring energy, simply influenced by the imprisoned consciousness of whoever it was in life.
The Orange Lanterns are similar, actually - while Larfleez is, technically speaking, the only Orange Lantern, there are others, such as Glomulus who are at least semi-sapient, and semi-autonomous constructs of the lantern’s energy, their mental patterns copied from people that Larfleez had killed - typically for trying to take the lantern/ring. (The Orange Lantern Corps is thus large scale identity theft!)
Maybe at one point, but it’s been extremely consistent in the last decade or so that finding a new ringbearer is a semi-automatic function of the rings - it’s implied that for a time, Mogo had something to do with it, especially with the circumstances leading to his death, but the ring, upon the owner’s expiration will invariably be shown to zip off, to find a new one, unless stopped by some extreme means.
Abin Sur was also something of a unique case, in that he had the time to do that. He knew he was dying and rather than wait to die before the ring found a replacement, he went ahead and expedited the process.
There’s also the question of why was he flying a spaceship when Green Lanterns are perfectly capable of space travel without a ship, but that would take more explanation than I’m up to tonight.
I unno…you can argue about whether the explanation is a good one, but it’s pretty simple, once you pare away the unnecessary (to the topic at hand) details - after hearing a deliberately skewed prophecy, he stopped trusting his ring, and started using a space ship…which is ultimately what caused his death, in deliberately engineered irony.
Yeah… what does Ab need with a spaceship?
Well, I bought and watched the First Flight animated movie, I thought it was pretty good. Some random comments regarding it though.
Hal Jordans personality was very different between the live action and animated movies, I personally much preferred the live-action Jordan, he was a lot more sympathetic, likable and believable, animated-movie Jordan frankly fell on the wrong side of the smartass line and came across as something of a prick.
The voice acting for the alien characters was a lot better and more appropriate in the movie, Kilowog especially didn’t sound at all like the large heavyweight person he is depicted as.
I was surprised at how brutal and adult some of the scenes in the animated movie were, really not very appropriate for younger children, I had to rewind the DVD to make sure I had really heard one scene right (“the bastard is hiding in here somewhere”).
I thought the depiction of the Guardians was quite interesting, while stand-offish and arrogant they also seemed to really care for their ‘troops’, their horror when all the rings from deceased GL’s came back to Oa was quite well done.
I also didn’t see the Boudicca betrayal coming
Overall I liked the animated movie but I still think the live action film is underrated. 
I probably missed much of the fan-service references in the animated movie though.
On a side-issue, I was mulling over the capabilities of the GL rings and there was something I was wondering about. Can a GL use the ring to cause changes in the user? For example could they use them to make themselves more intelligent, or physically or mentally faster in combat (they certainly use them to increase their strength), what about effecting physical changes in their body and appearance to disguise themselves?
Tengu:
That’s when the ring-bearer is already dead. Abin Sur was alive (for a little while longer, at least) when he passed the ring along.
You don’t think Lanterns ever have to eat or go to the bathroom? Plus I’m sure it saves ring energy, has communications, sensors, information databases etc. that come in handy.
The ring itself provides communications, sensors, and information databases (or at least a direct link to the databases on Oa). In any case, it’s been noted in the comics themselves that Abin Sur’s use of a physical ship was quite unusual. His Wikipedia page explains it fairly well:
The Prophecy
During Sinestro Corps War, it is revealed that Abin discovered a prophecy concerning the Multiverse, The Powers of the Emotional Spectrum, and The Blackest Night prior to his death. Green Lantern: Secret Origin, reveals details of Abin’s quest to learn more about The Blackest Night as he interrogated The Five Inversions on Ysmault, who had foreseen the prophecy. He learns that Earth is the birthplace of The Black: the antithesis of the emotional spectrum that the prophecy predicts will “one day consume all light and all life.” He discovers that the prophecy foretells his own death, when his ring fails him in his time of greatest need. He subsequently journeys to Earth in an effort to learn more about The Blackest Night, so that he might stop the prophecy’s fulfillment. During his quest, Abin Sur begins to lose his faith in his willpower and his ring, and begins to feel fear. His weakened willpower results in his ring creating correspondingly weaker constructs, allowing his prisoner, Atrocitus, to break free and attack him, and cause his ship to crash on Earth. Abin Sur is critically injured in the crash, leading him to instruct his ring to seek out a successor and the ring chose Hal Jordan. His discovery of the prophecy from The Five Inversions was noted in the Book of Oa. However, this was believed to be a lie from their enemies and one of the Guardians, later named Scar, burned the page which has Sur’s prophecy years later. Only two Guardians, Ganthet and Sayd, as well as a Zamaron tribe, would take his discovery seriously.
…
The question was raised of why Abin Sur needed a ship, but in the Green Lantern Origins serial, it is stated that out of paranoia of the prophecy of his destruction, he navigated the cosmos in a ship filled with weapons, not trusting the powers of his ring, as the prophecy stated that his ring would fail him when he needed it most.
Pre-Crisis explanation
In the story “Earth’s First Green Lantern,” Jordan revealed that he wondered that himself and asked his ring to explain.
The ring told the story of how Abin Sur found a world which was still at a Middle Age stage of advancement even though it should have been in the atomic age, and discovered a parasitic energy being species that fed on sentient beings’ “I-factor,” a substance that enabled inventiveness, attacking civilizations and stalling their development, as they had no I-factor themselves. Sur captured them to stop their destruction, placing them in a bubble, but one of their number had escaped as it was attacking another world and vowed to free his brethren. To do so, he tracked down Sur’s planet and created a disaster by making a volcano erupt to force him to appear to stop it. Since Sur did not mask himself, the being recognized him immediately and followed him to his home. As Sur neglected to charge his ring before going to sleep, he was unable to stop the being from taking control of him.
With the being in control of his body and about to force him to go and free his fellows, Sur tricked the being into thinking that he would not be able to do so because the ring would be low on power after the trip there while in reality the ring’s charge is purely time based. The being decided to have Sur take a ship to the destination, but before leaving, Sur managed to get a hold of his invisible power battery without the creature noticing. On the ship, Sur piloted the ship and waited until he moved into a green colored planetary radiation belt which allowed Sur to charge his ring without the being noticing, as his ring glowed green when recharging. Thus armed, Sur battled and captured the being, sending it of into orbit of the same star that his fellow beings were imprisoned at. However during the fight, the ship wandered into Earth’s radiation belt. With his ring useless, Sur lost control of the battered ship and crashed. Mortally wounded, Sur sought out his replacement and drew Jordan to him. Jordan learnt of this from the ring.
According to Jordan, this account prompted him to keep a secret identity as a security precaution and to carefully navigate around Earth’s radiation belts.
Post-Crisis explanation
In Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 (1986) story “Tygers”, writer Alan Moore answered the question with a story of how the hero once visited Ysmault, a prison planet for an ancient race of demons, the Empire of Tears, vanquished millennia ago by the Oans. He was on a rescue mission and felt he could not wait for instruction from the Guardians.
While there, Abin Sur met a demon named Qull of the Five Inversions, a humanoid with a gaping mouth in his chest and a tongue-shaped head, crucified by three glowing spikes topped with the symbol of the Green Lantern Corps. This unholy messiah predicted the hero would die when his power ring ran out of energy at a critical moment, while he was fighting an opponent or unprotected in hard vacuum. Abin Sur, worried by this prophecy, began using a starship for interstellar voyages, as an additional safeguard.
A decade later, fleeing his enemy, his spaceship collided with a girdle of yellow radiation around Earth that rendered his starship and his power-ring useless within moments. Had he relied on his ring alone, he realized, he might have tested the planet’s magnetosphere before rashly entering it. Thus, while Legion may have wounded him, it could be argued that it was Qull that was actually responsible for Abin Sur’s death, having sown the seeds of doubt in the Green Lantern’s mind.
Green Lantern: Secret Origin
In the Secret Origins arc (Green Lantern vol. 4), Abin Sur’s final fate was tweaked again to incorporate elements of the Parallax impurity. Still forced to use a starship due to his growing fear of impending death, Abin Sur dies while escorting Atrocitus, another prisoner of the Empire of Tears to Earth in his search for the Black Energies foretold to bring on the Blackest Night. Atrocitus successfully manages to free himself and Abin Sur is left to choose between a crash landing on Coast City, or a riskier one in the desert nearby. Abin Sur chooses sacrifice, and lands in the desert. He dies of his wounds after warning Sinestro, still a loyal Lantern at the time, and designating Hal Jordan as his successor.
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The wrong actor for the role. It seems like he plays the same comedic role in all of his movies, including this one.
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Green Lantern’s power looked goofy. You’d think creating anything from your imagination would be portrayed in a way as to instill awe in the characters and the audience, but here it comes off as kinda whatever. The roller coaster race track seemed superfluous and silly when trying to save the helicopter.
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Hector Hammond was a weak villain. He was written pretty good but he seemed like a WB Smallville reject.
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They tried to pack too much story into one film. Hal Jordan’s origin, Parallax, Sinestro, Oa, Green Lantern Corps, Hector Hammond, etc. It felt really rushed, especially his training.
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Special effects for some reason didn’t look as good as seen in films like Thor.
The guy playing Sinestro was good though but he only had a few lines.
Even if we set aside the ring constructs, they couldn’t even get simple, everyday things like the Sun right. I mean, everyone knows what the Sun looks like, don’t they?
Wow, thanks. I just learned a bunch!