Several folks in the Flash community have been making headlines in the last month or so.

Joel Trussell, the brilliant designer and artist from Tennessee was featured in the Metro Pulse, the Knoxville weekly. They discuss his recent short for Yo Gabba Gabba!, his rise to web fame with War Photographer, and his fear of Flash games. Click here to read.

Tom Neely, who was featured here in 2005 for his Muffs music video, has been having one helluva year. His graphic novel The Blot has found a great deal of critical success, then the Black Maria Gallery in Glendale put on a one-man show, titled Self Indulgent Werewolf, of his painting and sculptures. Even in his still work, Neely can’t help but animate. Click here to read his interview at the LAist.

Gene Fowler, the top dog at Fatkat, won BDC’s (Business Development Bank) Young Entrepreneur Award for New Brunswick. The press release features a brief interview with Fowler. Click here to read.

There’s also been some echoes of a Flash-related dust-up that started over at Cartoon Brew.

Pete Emslie continues to berate Flash as the cause of bad animation.

And John Kricfalusi posted a thoughtful reply to Emslie and claims that if it’s Overseas vs. Domestic Flash - he’ll take Flash any day.

Fatkat, the 120-strong animation studio in New Brunswick, Canada, has just announced their inclusion in The Detour on TELETOON Pilot Project. Debuting in the Fall of 2008, the pilots are aimed at playing alongside Teletoon favorites like Robot Chicken and Tripping the Rift.

Fatkat’s submission, Space Knights, is an animated parody of superhero shows from the 90’s like Disney’s Power Rangers. The Fatkat blog explains that the series would follow “the misshapen adventures of the crime-fighting team who must battle bickering and in-fighting almost as much as the external foes they face.”

Jon Lambe, the younger brother of the character designer/animator Steve Lambe (El Tigre, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi), has been toiling away on a new series concept up in New Brunswick. Kid Odin is an idea that emerged back when Lambe was animating on Skunk Fu at Fatkat, and he more recently dove in to create this one-minute, Flash-animated sample.

Fatkat Animation studio chief Gene Fowler recently teamed up with his pal Mick Harrison to create a musically-driven short titled Bratwurst. Harrison wrote, designed and animated and Fowler sang and edited. Trimedia created the music.

Andrew “Beans” Embury here - I’m a creative producer and designer at Fatkat Animation Studios, and Aaron Simpson at Coldhardflash.com has added me on as a “reporter in the field.” Here at Fatkat, we’ve recently taken on a new project - Supa Strikas, an action series produced in Flash. Traditional techniques, and symbol-based animation combined with 3D action soccer scenes and backgrounds make for a unique look and feel, which you can see below:

I recently sat down with Hennie Blaauw, head of the Animation Department at Cape Town-based Strika Entertainment, for an interview. This summer, he spent 3 weeks at our studio to help oversee and steer the team.EMBURY: What’s the best aspect of utilizing Flash on a production?
HENNIE BLAAUW: Well, the whole re-usability aspect. Flash allows you to make changes and tweak colors much easier than the traditional pen and paper route. The cool thing about Flash is that it works so well with our current pipeline which utilizes Flash, After FX and the rest of the CS3 Suite. And since the newest versions allow a greater capacity to be integrated with one another it allows us to have a quicker turnaround and deliver higher quality animation.EMBURY: What’s the most difficult part of the production pipeline?
BLAAUW: The most difficult part of our production would have to be the soccer action scenes themselves. I found it being one of the hardest things to animate since you’re dealing with the human body first of all and secondly, soccer is a really technical sport so it’s actually quite hard to get all those things working for you. Not to mention it is probably the most watched sport in the world so that means we are going to have a lot of critics. At the end of the day we want to make an entertaining, action packed show for kids.

The HD Format presented some challenges as well that we managed to overcome, and thankfully we have an experienced post production team on board, so the rest of the production pipeline should run pretty smoothly.

EMBURY: How has the animated Strika concept been received in South Africa?
BLAAUW: Supa Strikas is well known in South Africa since the comic is very popular over there and it even gets distributed with one of our Sunday newspapers. Our first series was really well received and we got amazing feedback from fans and the TV broadcasters alike. A second series of one minute episodes will hit the small screen soon and I have no doubt that the full length series will be a huge hit. The fans hasn’t seen anything yet!

EMBURY: Could you give us a brief synopsis of an episode?
BLAAUW: Sure - determined to win the world’s greatest soccer league, Supa Strikas gather urgently at the Secret Training Compound. Here, Coach reveals their most fearsome rival ever: De Los Santos, the giant goalkeeper from Mexico’s The Azul. In the team jet, Shakes, discovers Mexico’s rich Aztec history, but he and El Matador discover how difficult it is to score through De Los Santos. Issued an ultimatum by Coach, Shakes and El Matador embark on a quest that leads them to an Aztec temple, a world of invention and, possibly, the key to success.

Thanks, Hennie. Let’s turn the mike over to Andrew Blodgett, the Senior Producer here at Fatkat - and the man we like to call ‘Big Show.’

EMBURY: So, Big Show, what separates Supa Strikas from other similar series?
ANDREW BLODGETT: The series is based on the phenomenally successful soccer comic by the same name that has a massive monthly readership in excess of 10 million people, across 4 continents and multiple languages. It’s a proven concept with a massive existing fan base that have been excitedly awaiting the animated television version of their favorite soccer comic for many years. Check out supastrikas.com to see the comic.

EMBURY: Was it difficult to merge the Maya environments and the 2D Flash animation?
BLODGETT: No - just basic compositing — throw on some motion blurs, and post lighting, and it blends quite nicely.

EMBURY: Where are you hoping this show will sell?
BLODGETT: As soccer is the by far the most watched and loved sport across the globe, the series will be targeting broadcast sales everywhere. More kids under-12 play soccer in the USA than any other sport – so we are confident that a world class soccer action adventure series, based on a phenomenally successful print comic book, will have no problem attracting a leading North American broadcaster.

EMBURY: Thanks for your time, Big Show. And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

At the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, I attended the 5th Annual Pitching an Animated Show panel, which was again hosted by animation writer/creator Jon M. Gibson. The panelists covered topics that I’m sure many CHF readers are interested in (myself included), so I took some notes and will regurgitate here.

Heather Kenyon, the senior director of development of original animation for Cartoon Network, said that a good pitch should have strong characters - the type that could hold our attention in an episode taking place in an empty room. Kenyon said her studio has even optioned a show after seeing only evocative drawings of characters in action - displaying their personalities with crystal clarity.

This type of advice sounds obvious, as Eric Coleman, VP of Animation, Development & Production at Nickelodeon, pointed out, but they assured us that unique, vivid and likable new characters are hard to find. The mantra repeated by all panelists seemed to be “know your characters” and avoid the common trap of the main character being the least interesting one in the bunch. Again, this sounds obvious, but Jill Stewart, manager of Original Series at Disney Channel Animation, said that she hears many pitches where the lead character is introduced as “just a regular guy.”

Kenyon also added that a good exec will be reviewing you as well as the pitch. Knowing that you’ll be a pleasant person to work with goes a long way for these buyers, especially when you consider that development can take 2 or even 3 years. This is exactly how long it took to launch Nick’s El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera which was created by Sandra Equihua and her husband Jorge Gutierrez - also a panelist at the event.

Other words of wisdom heard on the panel included:

1. Write complete episode synopses - don’t just set up the story and cop out with “and the gang has to get out of another jam.”
2. Eric Coleman offered another seemingly obvious thought - that if you’re pitching a comedy your pitch should be, well, funny. The development execs on the panel said that they hear countless pitches claiming to be “funny like The Simpsons” but unless you can illustrate that in the room, they “won’t buy the show to see if that’s actually the case,” said Kenyon. I couldn’t agree more - and feel that if you’re not the type of person who makes your friends laugh, you might want to team up with a writer who does. My good pal Heath Corson, a talented comedy writer, could read the want ads in the pitch room and leave the meeting in stitches (ironically the same reason he doesn’t need to read the want ads).
3. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the level of pitch bible “frills” and the quality of the idea. Meaning that if your pitch pack for a treasure hunter show is delivered to a studio locked inside an elaborate chest of gold coins - you should have spent less time mining eBay for miniature treasure chests and more time ensuring you’ve created unique, likable characters. And aim for a low page count - six or seven pages.
4. Know both who you’re pitching to and what the network is broadcasting. If you’re not up to date on their current slate, take in some episodes or at least read some synopses on tv.com or similar site.
5. Gutierrez suggested that getting a job in the industry is a great way to grow towards a successful pitching career. He claimed to have been turned down in hundreds of pitch meetings before he and his wife Sandra cracked through with El Tigre. Coleman chipped in adding that he personally watched Jorge’s pitches improve over time - so stick with it and invite feedback from your friends.
6. It was also suggested to those outside of California that you pick up stakes and move to LA. Not exactly what you want to hear as you’re readying your pitch materials out in Vancouver or Austin, and I’m sure there’s plenty of success stories that offer hope to those outside of the LA bubble.
7. Don’t pitch your “baby” that’s been slowly crafted over the last 7 years - something Mike Moon, VP of animation at Disney Channel cautioned against. Gutierrez likened the pitch process to a battlefront - fearless pitching of concept after concept while your ideas are bombed into submission along the way. Bottom line - if you have one idea, you might just want to make that one yourself.
8. If you have access to the network execs, ask what they’re looking for (see below). Or wrap up your meeting with a chat about their current “wants.”

On that note, I’ll list out what the three represented studios are looking for, which tends to change a bit from year to year.

• Nickelodeon - Eric Coleman said they’re looking for comedy and kid heroes with breakout personalities. He said the ideal show will have kid or kid-like characters - ala Spongebob, who flips burgers (a first job) and is seeking his boating license (driver’s license).
• Cartoon Network - Heather Kenyon is after 6-11 boy-skewing shows, both action-adventure (think Ben 10) and comedies (think Camp Lazlo) alike. CN is also launching a Primetime block filled with animated sitcoms - like an age-appropriate Simpsons. Some will be live-action, some animated, while others will feature a mixture of both. For more insight on Cartoon Network’s development plans, check out this great post on Fatkat’s blog.
• Disney - Mike Moon kept his needs short and sweet: gender-neutral, kid-relatable and no action shows.

I encourage anyone mentioned above to correct or elaborate on what I’ve written, as I paraphrased a bit. And remember that these “rules” are broken en route to success, but it can’t hurt to soak this info in before embarking on a pitch tour.

An exclusive, Flash-animated Family Guy webisode titled Up Late With Stewie & Brian went live this past Sunday on MySpace, the massive social networking website. The 10-minute talkshow parody was animated by Flinch Studio Animation, Zeek Interactive and Fatkat Animation.

There’s a list of TV series I always name as shows that could be produced with Flash. The Powerpuff Girls, The Simpsons, South Park, Futurama and almost any Hanna Barbera show are on this list. Family Guy is on there too, and now Flinch, Zeek and Fatkat have gone and proved the point.

Up Late With Stewie and Brian was actually created to help promote a new live-action series coming to Fox. The Winner, created by former Family Guy writer/creator Ricky Blitt, begins airing March 4 at 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm, but full episodes are currently available at Fox.com. The show stars The Daily Show’s Rob Corddry and it is produced by Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy.