Jonathan Lambe has posted a new short that emerged from a Flash class he recently taught. The instruction centered on acting, using a single line of dialog. Lambe too the challenge himself and this was the result – Candy land – Rise of the Candy Valkyrie. The actual animation starts around 1:00 minute. More info over at Jonathan’s blog.

This week, SuperNews descends into the dark abyss of Hell, or what locals call Las Vegas. In this lurid, 8-minute tale of high-desert decadance, a thoughtful soul is tempted to Sin City by a knucklehead pal. The resulting storyline plays out in a loose parody of The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri’s allegorical poem about the afterlife. I’m sure we all recall his poignant warnings on the temptations of bodyshots and baccarat. Ante up for The Divine Comedy of Vegas.

I just spotted an interesting item on Richard Galvan’s blog. Galvan is the product manager for Adobe Flash, and he brings our attention to a software update for CS4. Some of the issues they addressed with this update include things that have effected my workflow, and I suspect yours too. The Adobe site states that this fix…

….addresses stability and performance issues related to large animation files, such as timeline scrubbing and looping and nested movie clips, as well as text handling.

I first learned about this issue over at Chris Georgenes’s blog, and I suspect it’s one of the main reasons this fix got underway in the first place. +10 points for Chris.

Download the update here

AWN.com posted a new piece about the Brothers Chaps, the duo behind the online phenom Homestar Runner. Catching Up with Homestar Runner by Karen Raugust notes that the Flash-animated series Strong Bad Emails has been put on hiatus after the 200th episode. But according to the article, that doesn’t mean the brothers have stopped animating:

“The content is more varied now,” says Mike Chapman, who founded the site with Craig Zobel in 2000. “Before, at least 60% to 70% of the updates were Strong Bad Emails, but now it’s sort of a mixed bag. It’s a little more fun for us.”

The article also points out that the economic downturn has hurt their business, which relies heavily on DVD and t-shirt sales. I think it was a smart move to release a less expensive Strong Bad Emails DVD with 50 of the best episodes for $10. Should increase sales, me thinks.

The Chaps were also highlighted in a new book by Scott Kirsner, titled Fans, Friends and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. Here’s a quote from Mike Chapman:

We learned how to politely say no to things that were going to affect our lives negatively. If it’s going to be fun, if we’re going to enjoy doing it, and if the end project is going to be something we want to have happen, we say yes.

For more on this dynamic duo, check out our 2008 interview Chapman’s Cool Interview For Animation People.

You may have already seen this over at CartoonBrew.com, and if so, it’s worth another look. Joel Trussell (War Photographer), directed a music video for Kid606 (Miguel Trost Depedro), a techno artist out of San Francisco. The track is Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare, and Trussell employed a unique production method here – using live-action footage of real fruit and constructed sets, which were married together with Flash animation faces. Trussell had help from Anna & Mike Hollingsworth on the animation front.