If a dozen Flash-animated shows are green-lit tomorrow morning, it’s undoubtedly a good thing for the Flash world at large. But it wouldn’t mean a damn thing if those shows were summarily canceled 6 weeks later, right? So put your hands together for the latest ratings success – ‘Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi,’ the new King (or should I say ‘Queen’) of the Kids 2-11 ratings segment (source: Animation Insider).

‘Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi,’ the plucky, eye-candy-filled, relationship-driven (sorry guys, no fights or power-ups in this show) has delivered the goods for Cartoon Network, the undisputed #1 supporter of Flash animation on US television. With the strongest ratings ever for an original premiere in the Kids 2-11 segment, ‘Puffy’ seems well poised for a lengthy run. Girls, not surprisingly, have taken to the show in droves, increasing CN’s female eyeball count by over 60% during that time slot.

As far as the show itself, the producers have chosen the perfect animation platform for the show’s look and feel (it’s animated by Renegade Animation). The simple, iconic designs and the Hanna Barbera-esque appeal make this is an ideal show for Flash, and I look forward to several more seasons of this beautiful show.

Earlier this year, a new book titled ‘Hollywood 2D Digital Animation: The New Flash Production Revolution,’ was released, and I’ve been slowly thumbing my way through it for the last several months. Some great stuff in there, and some fascinating interviews with a wide array of animation minds from around the industry (including yours truly on page 70).

Sandro and Cliff did a great job, and I encourage anyone looking to pump up their Flash skills to stop by Amazon and pick up a copy.

Check out the Cold Hard Flash Studio Directory

It was only 2 years ago, we must remind ourselves, that Flash barely had a toe-hold in any major US animation studios. There was ‘Mucha Lucha’ at Warner Bros. Animation, the Disney Channel shorts ‘The Proud Family Shorties,’ and the ill-fated ‘Kid Notorious’ at Comedy Central.

But check this out – as of today, there’s at least 9 Flash animated shows on (or soon to come on) US television.

1 Mucha Lucha – Warner Bros. Animation

2 Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Show – Cartoon Network

3 Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends – Cartoon Network

4 Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law – Adult Swim, Cartoon Network

5 Atomic Betty – Cartoon Network

6 The Venture Bros. – Adult Swim

7 Katbot – Disney (coming soon, I hear)

8 Omega Dome – Noodlesoup (coming soon)

9 Maggie – Disney TV Animation (coming soon)

I’m not positive on Katbot or Omega Dome, but the rumors are leaning that way. Regardless, it’s been quite an impressive run for ol’ Flash TV animation, once pronounced dead on the floor of the big internet bubble. That being said, most of these are being animated overseas or up north in Canada. But, as studios are quickly learning, the ability to do on-the-fly retakes, and maintain extremely strick on-model accuracy throughout a production is a huge plus.

Long live Flash animation!

What is vector-based and weighs 800 lbs? Stumped? It’s called Sparkle, and this gorilla is Microsoft’s supposed answer to the sweeping success Macromedia’s Flash software has enjoyed over the past 8 or 9 years. Sparkle, which is a code-name, doesn’t exist yet, and may be years away, but meanwhile Microsoft is hard at work on ‘Longhorn,’ (due in 2006) the next full-scale update to Windows. Longhorn will also introduce the ‘Avalon presentation layer,’ which defines the way applications appear and are controlled in the Windows environment. Now, what does this have to do with broadcast Flash animation, you ask? Well, this Avalon user-interface tool is vector-based, ala Flash. This is not news by any means, but after snooping around the Longhorn Software Developer Kit (SDK) today, I was reminded of the 2003 hub-bub surrounding ‘Sparkle.’ Articles posted back in 2003 hinted at Longhorn’s potential, and below is exactly what they were talking about.

Here’s some screengrabs from reference documention from the Longhorn SDK site, starting with some general graphics information…

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…and some graphics and animation functionality (looking familiar yet)….

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…and finally, some graphics transformation functionality.

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It’s not exactly the Sparkle software manual, but it sure is starting to look like one. I’d like to think that competition is good for all parties, and this looming challenge to Flash should bring along significant advancements to vector-based animation.