Last night’s One Plus Hub Flash Animation event was a huge success. Thanks to all who came out, the Formosa for hosting us, and the biggest thanks to Jill Gilbert, who organized and brought us all together.

We estimated around 175 people made it to the rooftop bar in West Hollywood to hear us celebrate the advances Flash has made in the animation industry in recent years. The speakers included the chiefs of the five major Digital 2D shops in Los Angeles:

• Tim Jones from Animax Entertainment
• Christopher Hamilton from Oddbot
• Ashley Postlewaite from Renegade Animation
• Brendan Burch from Six Point Harness
• Chris P from Titmouse Inc

Some of the themes that were touched upon included that while we all love what Flash can do, that it’s just a tool, and it shouldn’t define our world, or our budgets and expectations. Ashley wished that anyone on the hunt for the right studio approach the 5 Digital 2D shops listed above with an open mind, and let us suggest a solution. We all work with a variety of software options, production designs, artists and budget ranges, so nearly every conceivable look you may be after should be achievable. As Brendan pointed out - we Flash folk often find ourselves fighting off pre-conceived notions of what is achievable in the software. The best answer is - it’s whatever you want it to be, and for those in attendance in West Hollywood, it was a topic that helped get us all together for an amazing night.

Thanks to Heath Corson and Marianne Hayden for the photos.

Los Angeles animation peoples - don’t forget about tomorrow night next week - The One Plus Hub Flash event. Jill Gilbert has invited me to co-host, along with the folks from 5 great animation studios - Oddbot, Animax, Renegade, Titmouse and Six Point Harness. There’s no charge, and we start up at 7:00pm, April 30th at the Formosa Café (2nd floor patio) at 7156 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. The focus of the night is Flash animation, but we’ll primarily be having a drink or two and meeting new folks and old friends.

This year’s Channel Frederator Awards will take place on June 4th in New York City, and I hereby implore you, as a Flash-loving fool, to go vote - especially in the Best Flash Film category. Last year Jessica Borutski took the top prize for her I Like Pandas short, and this year the 3 finalists should all be familiar to CHF regulars - The Bros. McLeod (The M Man), Doug Bresler (Trapped in the Drive-thru) and Chris Harding (Make Mine Shoebox). We posted about Make Mine Shoebox, a collaboration between Maura Cluthe and Harding, back in 2005 - but let’s enjoy that again…

Alex Dron, who was featured here back in November, is up for the Kiwi Award, which will highlight the top film from New Zealand. His short Fot is up against Mukpuddy’s Sparkle Friends - go vote!

Adam Phillips’ Flash-animated Brackenwood series was distinguished at this year’s Webby Awards as an Official Honoree. The awards is given to “sites and teams that demonstrated a standard of excellence.” The Webby’s are hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet,” and Phillips responded by saying that “this recognition validates the past 8 years in the dark, slumped and staring into the monitor.” He created this trailer for the Webby judges.

Several other Flash-animated series were bestowed this honor at the 2008 Webby Awards, including Dan Meth’s Internet People, Laith Bahrani’s Creep music video, Conan O’Brien & Jim Gaffigan’s Pale Force series, Kyle Boyd’s W’s World series and Devin Flynn’s Y’all So Stupid.

In the animation category, Nominees for the Webby Award include Jennifer Shiman’s 30-Second Bunnies Theatre and the Heavenly Sword shorts, both of which were animated in Flash.

Flash-animation pioneer John Kricfalusi has decided that this year Christmas will fall on April 10th.

The Cold Hard Flash Store just received a shipment of John K t-shirts, all screen-printed on high-quality t-shirt blanks (that’s how they say it in the t-shirt industry - *ahem*) like American Apparel brushed-cotton tees. Don’t believe us - have a look at this Flash-animated promo short.

We enlisted the help of Mike Pataki, the voice-acting legend who plays George Liquor, to ensure that our shirts don’t cause muscle decay. As you can see from this photo, Mike’s muscles are alive and well, and ready to join John K in future George Liquor voice record sessions.

If you order a shirt, rest assured that a professional fulfillment company will be handling your order. At one point, I did have the shirts strewn around my living room, but they’re now safely stored in an Texas warehouse, awaiting your credit card confirmation.

Which one’s your favorite?

Those in the Los Angeles area: mark your calendars for April 30th. Along with Jill Gilbert and the top dogs at 5 bad-ass animation studios (Six Point Harness, Titmouse, Renegade, Animax, and Oddbot), I’ll be hosting the next One Plus Hub event. Gilbert’s events have become staples in the Southern California animation community. It’s casual networking, drinks and perhaps a short presentation. We’re focusing on Flash, and more details will follow, but get this into your calendar - 7:00pm at the Formosa Café on the second floor patio - 7156 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA.

See you there!

Adobe’s plans to create a Flash player for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch have been announced. In Ben Charny’s article at the Wall Street Journal, he confirmed that Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen has approved his company’s effort to create a version of Flash Lite for the iPhone using the iPhone SDK. This doesn’t mean that the Safari browser for the iPhone will allow Flash content, but who knows what the future holds.

Thanks to Larry Rains for the story tip.

**** UPDATE ****

Seems like Adobe has their work cut out for them.