Mike Owens is a designer and animator currently residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It appears as if he learned Flash on his own and with the help of Cartoon Smart. The results are wonderful.

Working under the banner of his freelance animation company, HUMDiNGER! productions, Mike created 4 Flash animated cartoons for Gateway Mortgage. Below is one titled ‘How NOT to Market Your Branch!’

The other 3 are also on YouTube:
How NOT to Submit a Loan!
How NOT to Budget!
How NOT to Treat a Customer!

According to Mike’s blog, “the episodes were screened at a training seminar for Gateway employees.”

Mike has also posted a few other short segments on YouTube worth checking out. First, you should look at a clip from the pilot episode of ‘The Brick & Wood Show,’ which was produced as a pitch for the STARZ! cable network. Mike designed and animated the piece, which was written by Dave Barber and produced by Fischer Edit. ‘Cactus Charlie’ is the star of a show Brick and Wood like to watch.

And proving he’s got traditional animation chops, Mike posted a short animation test for an upcoming film from Chewbone Animation.

Thanks to illustrator Greg Scherrer for the story tip. Check out his blog!

With most major animation schools fully entrenched in Maya this or traditional that, Flash animation hasn’t been getting the educational support it deserves. It’s to the point where my good friends at Six Point Harness Studios have taken it upon themselves to go teach classes at local universities themselves for no money. The way they see it, their next wave of employees isn’t going to just appear out of thin air, sooooo….

Anywhoo, this leads me to the topic of tutorials. Last night I stumbled onto the CartoonSmart website, a cleverly designed, entertaining, all-Flash site with the solitary goal of bringing Flash knowledge to the unwashed masses. Justin Dyke, who also publishes a clever comic strip titled The Mows, narrates several Quicktime tutorials that walk Flashers through the basics, and even some not-so-basics. I followed him through one of his freebies he offers on his site, and I was impressed. Justin - keep up the good work. You’re doing us a big favor.