Elwood and Ofie Wormington are the stars of Oddbot Inc’s new animated series, titled Around the World in 80 Wiggles. The Flash-animated series is “designed to spark a child’s interest in exploring diverse cultures.”

Nick Cross, the award-winning animator behind films like The Waif of Persephone and Yellow Cake, has embarked on a new short. For The Pig Farmer, however, Cross is staging a fundraising effort to help get the film finished quicker. Using the fundraising website IndieGoGo he aims to raise $5,000, and I just tossed $25 onto the pile. For that I get a mention in the credits and a DVD of the finished film. If I had forked over $100, Cross would have listed me as an Associate Producer and shipped me his entire catalog of films. (update – Nathan Malone added his name to the Associate Producer list)

There’s a few similar sites out there, including Fundable, Kickstarter and Indie Maverick, and animators around the world are having success using this model. For instance, I spotted Line, a stop-motion film by Justin and Shel Wagner Rasch, which has already raised $1,250 en route to their goal of $2,500, and a documentary about documentary about Bill Plympton that’s raised almost as much.

This method seems like no more than a sophisticated version of the ol’ Paypal “donate” button, but it’s apparently working. I’ve always imagined that fundraising is entirely personal, requiring lots of shmoozing, hand-shaking and repeated appeals. But perhaps you just need a slew of Facebook friends and a blog.

The premiere of HBO’s news animated series The Ricky Gervais Show is less than 2 weeks away (February 19th), and I spotted some additional Flash animated footage. Animation by W!LDBRAIN.

After sitting in your office or school desk all week, I say we end on this one. It’s a new Cyanide & Happiness short, created by Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker and Chase Suddarth. It’s titled The Man Who Could Sit Anywhere, and while the animation isn’t world-class, these guys are pretty damn funny.

Brackenwood boss Adam Phillips has already unloaded the contents of his brain into his online Animation Academy, and now he’s turning to video. Never doing anything halfway, Phillips has begun uploading a 33-part demonstration of his process of animating in Flash CS3. He uses scenes from The Last of the Dashkin, which he released at the end of last year, and while it’s not delivered as a tutorial, you can surely pick up some great tips. Here’s part 1: