I got unceremoniously dumped from my previous host (long story), and I’ve spent the last two days moving to a dedicated host. It’s actually something I’ve been meaning to do for some time now, but I just wish is wasn’t staged like a fire drill. Message boards will be up ASAP, and so will the studio directory. Now it’s time for some sleep!

PS – if you’ve emailed me and didn’t receive a response, that email may have been lost in the mail server switch. please email again.

Variety’s Ellen Wolff has penned a new article that discusses the power of Flash animation. Animax Entertainment’s new series Popzilla is featured, pointing out how the software helps the team knock out 22-minute episodes in less than 3 weeks.

Flash-animated toons that lampoon topics ripped from the headlines are common on the web, but not so on TV. Thomas observes, “This show uses Flash the way it should be used, as opposed to using Flash to try and do cel animation. This is a digital tool that allows animators to build libraries of movement and reuse them, and this show utilizes that well.”

Animax also proved the production model for the pilot:

Brent Haynes, MTV senior VP of series development says that when Thomas pitched the show to him, he gave them three weeks to deliver a 6-minute test tape.

One of the things that stood out for me when I first learned my way around Toon Boom Animate was the color palette. It’s got intelligent color management that allows you to pair a color with an object – the equivalent of saying pants=blue. Down the road, if you want to change those pants to green, and on multiple drawings, it’s as easy as shifting that color — once. While Flash obviously has its advantages too, it faulters in this regard, as you can see in this video below:

Ex-Disney feature animator, Bernard Derriman (Arj & Poopy) is the subject of a recent article by Julia Talevski from The Sydney Morning Herald. Titled Getting Animated at Home, the article focuses on Derriman’s of new technology like a Wacom tablet, Skype and Toon Boom’s Animate Pro to create animation from his home office. It also mentions his recent Emmy nominations for the children’s series Big Green Rabbit. Congrats Bernard!

We’d like to take a few seconds to thank our advertising partners who have gotten us through the first 6 months of the year. Toon Boom, Titmouse, Aniboom, Happy Fatties, Flash on Tap and Adobe are all hereby commended by the ColdHardFlash Politburo of Advertising Affairs.

We’ve also hit a few notable milestones lately. Over the last 5 years, this site has seen over 5 million page views. We also just hit 100 subscribers to our YouTube channel and 500 Twitter follows. If you haven’t subscribed to these already, the esteemed CHF Social Networking Committee would appreciate your mouse clickery.