Flash animators began experimenting with “paperless” animation over 10 years ago. Artists fond of the Adobe creative suite have gone on to create hundreds of thousands of short films, and in an era when 3D animation seems all the rage, Flash animators have ushered in a powerful new wave of 2D animation.

Often derided as a tool that encourages shortcuts and poor illustration work, Flash is also the technological might behind a great deal of truly breathtaking work. Today, along with our main sponsor MyToons.com, “the Premiere Online Animation Community”, we celebrate these films with an online film festival – The Flash Animation 10: Best Animated. Want to know which film took first prize and an Adobe Master Collection valued at US$2,499? Click here to watch the 10 films and find out.

The 10 films featured here were selected by a panel of animation industry rock stars, few of whom are Flash users. This was intentional, as the judging criteria was simply “choose the best animated films,” leaving software and any preconceived notions of the medium behind. The resulting list of 10 films show that artists are simply unbounded.

Note that this isn’t our first Flash Animation 10. Back in 2006, we listed the top 10 Most Influential films animated with Flash. Click here to find out who made the list.

The five judges who shared their time in judging the Flash Animation 10 come from a variety of backgrounds and physical locales. Many thanks to these fine folks, who lent their time and keen eyes to this event. Let’s meet them:

MEGAN O’NEILL
Megan O’Neill is the VP of Acquisitions & Development for Atom, a MTV Networks website of original series, animations and shorts. Besides acquisitions, she oversees the development and production of original series like Hellholes, Possum Death Spree, Aardman Animations’ Pib & Pog and Pes’ Game Over. Her acquisition of JibJab’s political spoof This Land resulted in tens of millions of plays online. Prior to joining Atom, she was the co-founder of Forefront Films, a ten-year old distributor of award-winning shorts worldwide. In 1998, she co-produced Forefront’s first feature film, Relax… It’s Just Sex, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and has been released in over 35 countries worldwide.

ANDREW GORDON
Andrew Gordon has been animating characters professionally for over 14 years. He joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1997 where he animated on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and most recently, Ratatouille. The characters he has worked on include Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Gill, from Finding Nemo and Edna Mode, the costume designer in The Incredibles. Recently, he has supervised animation for Pixar’s new short film to be released with WALL•E. He is currently working on Toy Story 3. Prior to his work at Pixar, Andrew worked in the Looney Tunes division of Warner Brothers. He is a contributing teacher to Animation Mentor and a founding member of Spline Doctors, a blog/podcast dedicated to animation education.

WARD JENKINS
Ward is an animator and director currently living in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two kids. Formerly from Atlanta, Ward has worked at several award-winning studios such as LAIKA/house and Primal Screen, putting his unique style into various broadcast elements and commercials for the past 12 years. When not at work, Ward is a sought-after designer, illustrator and graffiti writer, evident on his blog, The Ward-O-Matic, where he writes about “art, animation and anything aesthetically pleasing to the eye.” Jenkins also contributes to the highly successful art, illustration, and comics blog, Drawn!

CHRIS FINNEGAN
Chris Finnegan is one of the founders of Screen Novelties, a Los Angeles studio that specializes in stop-motion animation. Chris and partners Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh have produced commercials for clients such as Nike and Hallmark and currently contribute segments to Cartoon Network shows Chowder and Flapjack. They are also developing their own television and feature projects.

RYAN HONEY
Ryan Honey is one of the owners of Buck and the creative director of the Los Angeles office. Founded in 2003, Buck is an award winning, multi-faceted design production company. Buck’s TV spot portfolio showcases world-class skills in motion graphics, live action, editorial, writing, design, animation, visual effects, music and sound design. Currently they have offices in New York and Los Angeles. Clients include Coca-Cola, Dominos, Toyota, Sprint, NBA, Hyundai, Fuel TV, Directv, American Express, Chrysler, Burger King, Comcast, Scion, Nike, GAP, Ford and MTV. Ryan earned a BA in Economics and has a certificate in multimedia from Vancouver Film School.