Six Point Harness Gets Classy
I spoke last night over at Six Point Harness, 
the Hollwyood-based Flash animation studio. Brendan, and the rest of the 6PH gang were hosting a free class called ‘Flash Animation Essentials.’ It was a 2-day, all-day seminar that was filled to capacity with 15 eager artists.
My segment of the class focused on the history of Flash animation, the current state of the industry (in particular – the job market) and where I believe it’s all headed. Other speakers included Eric Pringle & Mike Jacobsen (’Fosters’), Brendan Burch, Greg Foster and Clifford Parrott, the author of ‘Hollywood 2D Digital Animation: The New Flash Production Revolution.’ 
A great line-up and some intense learning. And class attendees weren’t just LA folk – three actually flew in from Boston, Seattle and Arizona.
Why a free class, you ask? Well, that’s actually the best part of this whole deal. The Flash animator talent pool in Hollywood is fairly tapped-out, so 6PH is taking the situation into their own hands, teaching the next wave of talent themselves. Speaks volumes about where we’re at today in terms of the job market, and also of how forward thinking the 6PH guys are.
Pass on a email if you’d like them to do more of these, and include you – class@sixpointharness.com.
January 16th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Thanks to all the speakers and the guys at 6PH for blazing a trail for the rest of us. It’s that kind of generosity and passion that will continue taking them down the path of success.
January 16th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
It was a lot of fun for all of the Six Point crew to do this. We plan to have events like this in the future with more specific emphasis on different skill levels. Thank you to all who participated-
January 17th, 2006 at 3:57 am
I attended the class and I wanted to thank 6PH and especially Brendan Burch, Greg Foster, Aaron Simpson, Clifford Parrott, Eric Pringle, and the other presenters for the opportunity to learn so much at this class. Flash and video are influencing each other in such exciting ways. My own work has been moving towards including video in Flash for the web. It was very interesting to learn how 6PH and others are using Flash to create 2D animation for video. What impressed me even more than the technology, though, was how incredibly helpful everyone was and how much 6PH opened up their doors and industry knowledge for those attending the class.
January 17th, 2006 at 9:40 am
Id just like to thank the guys at Six Point and all the speakers for an AWESOME weekend!!!
I learned alot, and met alot of cool people. It was not only cool of you guys to do something like this…but to do it for FREE!!! (UNBELIEVABLE! THANK YOU AGAIN!)Aaron…as usual, you FREAK’N ROCK! It was great to finally see you again (it’s been way to long) and i wish you the best of luck at Jib Jab.
January 17th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
It was great to get into the studio and see the process that Six Point is using to make their toons. Wonderful class, I’m looking forward to appling all this information.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
So where did word of this come from? I didn’t see anything about this.It might’ve benn fun to check out.
And the Hollywood Flash community “fairly tapped out?” Heh, just tell that to the guy cashing my unemployment checks.
January 17th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
“The Flash animator talent pool in Hollywood is fairly tapped-out”. The keyword is ‘Talent’. there are plenty of people in the Hollywood area that use Flash, not so many of them are good enough at it to help a production.
January 17th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Bryon – I believe the only place crowing about this class was here. Perhaps the 6PH crew posted news on message boards, but I had posted an ad banner on this site back in November, and I think most people found out about it that way. So keep you eyes peeled here for the next one, and get in touch with 6PH in the meantime.
-Aaron
January 17th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
James H., allow me to introduce myself: Bryon Carson, director of the Golden Blaze, the first all Flash animated feature to get an American theatrical release (now on Warners Home DVD) and director/animator of the Undercover Brother Flash animated series (also out on DVD) and a dozen other produced Flash shows. Currently, uh…between gigs so I found the statement a personally little ironic, that’s all.
Aaron, thanks for the info. I only started following Cold Hard Flash on a daily basis back in November and I must’ve missed the banner. I was just surprised I hadn’t heard anything closer to the date. I’m always interested in hearing about how other people use Flash.
January 18th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
Bryon- with credits like these… seems like you should be the President of Paramount by now. Perhaps you can hold a class for the rest of us who couldn’t attend the Six Point thing.
Unemployed= lots of free time
- Freedom Lover
January 18th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Mr. Carson, I emailed you a while ago but never got a response. I realize you created at lot of the cartoons on http://www.urbanentertainment.com Keep up the great work!
If you get an email from pcdoctor01@hotmail.com, please respond.
I’m a female wannabe animator.
January 18th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Sorry GG, I must’ve missed the email (from back when I was busy no doubt, LOL). Or maybe if it was addressed “from PCDoctor” it got tagged as spam (my PC don’t need no fancy doctorin’). Please feel free to contact me again. I’m flattered you noticed my work.
Freedom Lover: It seems like I ought to be the President of Paramount to my fan club too, but what does my mother know? LOL.
Run a class? Now there’s a thought. But at this point I’m a little more interested in just comparing notes with other pro Flash folks. But a class could be fun. Do they still ban corporal punishment here in California I wonder? Hmmmm…..
January 19th, 2006 at 2:33 am
Byron,
I just sent you an email.
I love the otters on your website intro. Thx!
January 20th, 2006 at 2:44 am
This class was amazing, and I can’t thank the people at Six Point and all the guest speakers enough for taking the time and effort to put it together. Just the fact that the people behind some of the great animation on TV today were willing to throw open their studio doors and answer every little question about their business and their craft was impressive enough — but on top of that, everyone was nice and there were donuts.
Brendan issued a disclaimer about lack of preparedness at the beginning of the class — this being the first time they’d done such a thing — but it seemed like a non-issue to me. The room was oozing with animation and Flash knowledge and if the current speaker touched on a topic that someone else thought merited expounding, he’d step up and do it.
In that way, they didn’t need to be quite as prepared because they all knew what they were talking about and work well together — and the style gave the class an open, relaxed feeling that I would imagine mirrors the work environment at a place where people seem to have good chemistry. And there were donuts.
There were some things about the business and other stages of production (writing, design, storyboarding) that I would have liked to have heard about, but given that this was a class focused on Flash, it would have been hard to pack more into a two day class.
I still can’t believe how complex those character comp FLAs are. Great stuff.
January 20th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
I’m trying to learn more Flash and I was wondering if you would send me copies of any handouts that you gave at the class? here’s my e-mail
thanks. ftown@earthlink.net
May 20th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Hello all out there in animation land . AAron, Brenden , Bryon, Cliff keep the tallent flowing. Great to see everyone doing there thing. Bryon my man whats up!!!! LOL!