Eric Pringle, the Emmy-nominated Animation Director on Cartoon Network’s Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, is paving his own animation path. Prophet Buddy launched online today with the pilot episode titled Mustard Must-Have. This Flash-animated series about a cat and his prophetic mouse pal will reveal new episodes weekly.

Pringle directs and animates what he calls “an internet comic that happens to be animated.” The voice acting team boasts an impressive cast - Eric Bauza, who currently plays Rodolfo Rivera on Nickelodeon’s El Tigre, is the voice of the Cat and Matt Danner, the Animation Director on Out of Jimmy’s Head, offers the voice of the Mouse.

For more on this new series, check out the blog.

[link]

Tropfest, Australia’s largest film festival, has awarded Steve Baker’s film An Imaginary Life (IE only) the top prize. Baker has faired well at two previous Tropfest events, and this latest film is heartwarming and beautiful. His efforts landed him US$27,600 in Tropfest prize money, but Baker’s live-action/animation composited film was subsequently enveloped in controversy. Variety recently ran a piece announcing that lawyers from Cartoon Network, the home of Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, are investigating the similarities between the two projects.

Baker explains that he had never heard of Foster’s until the Tropfest founder mentioned it to him, and I’ve got a feeling the guy is telling the truth. Baker would immediately realize that if he borrowed the concept from Craig McCracken’s immensely popular show, there would be almost no way to avoid comparisons. So why would a guy who has created clever, unique films like Confessions of an Animation steal someone else’s idea? It sounds unlikely.

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, An Imaginary Life, like Foster’s, utilized Flash in the film making process.

Studiodaily.com, a web portal “dedicated to helping film and video pros evolve in their crafts,” recently featured a couple Flash Masters familiar to CHF. Last week was Silvia Pompei, the documentary director behind Flash Goes to Hollywood, the seminal Flash animation documentary. But she’s not only a filmmaker. Sylvia is an experienced Flash animator, and some of her work is on display at studiodaily.com in the form of a Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends TV spot. Sylvia is currently working on The Simpsons feature film at Starz Animation-Film Roman.

This week, studiodaily.com focused on Dave Wolfe, an animator who works at Animax Entertainment in Culver City. He’s the same Dave Wolfe from the CHF Message Boards, who doles out amazing JSFL plug-ins and work-flow tips. He’s surely one of the rising stars in the Flash animation world. Below is an example of some of Dave’s work - Slammo and Sloshi, a project for AOL.

The other Flash-animation article spotted on the web was over on AWN.com - In a Flash: Animation Production in Flash Growing by John Cawley. It’s an extremely positive review of how Flash is gaining a stronger toehold in the TV animation pipelines around the world.

The article mentions one Flash-animated series I hadn’t heard of - Rintindumb (Rantanplan in France). It’s a Flash-animated series out of Xilam, the French team behind Shuriken School.

Thanks to Justin Weg for the story tip.

Devin Roth and his fellow animators at Nethatco made quite a splash a few months back, unveiling some extremely strong Flash work. John Martz at Drawn wrote them up in May of this year, posting mainly about Alex Hirsch’s phenomenal work.

But we shouldn’t overlook the rest of the Nethatco gang, including Devin Roth, who recently updated his blog with a feast of Flash animation clips. First and foremost is a Flash-animated spot that he animated on. This Ritz commercial was directed by Dave Wasson and produced by Acme Filmworks.

It’s not the first Ritz spot to be animated in Flash. Pascal Campion animated a commercial in the same campaign, and you can also see Aaron Stewart’s version at the Hornet Inc. website.

Devin also posted ‘Bubblebeard,’ a short he created along with Alex Hirsch and Sean Jimen.

And lastly, Devin has assembled his Flash animation reel, which includes clips from some ‘Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends’ commercials.

Check out this new animated intersticial for ‘Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends.’ It’s called ‘Coco Dances,’ and it was animated by the gang over at Six Point Harness Studios.

Who says creativity can’t happen by committee? Today marks the beginning of a new feature called Cold Hard Council. It’s a roundtable that taps into the minds of some of the more prominent names in the Flash animation community. Each time we convene here for the Council, we’ll tackle a different question, and you’ll see new names pop in and out as this feature unfolds. The envelope, please….

Question #1: Do Flash-animated projects still get a bad rap in the animation world?

I think so. If not for the simple reason that most animators fell in love with the golden age of cartoons, and Flash is known (fairly or not) to be unable to duplicate the quality and life that made those cartoons great. I think the common industry conception is that if it’s a Flash show, it can be
produced quick, cheap, and easy. Which is probably true in part, but this is also the constraint that keeps it looking that way. What made animation great 30 years ago are the same things that make animation look good now. Unfortunately, it seems Flash shows are budgeted to look like Flash shows, so it can be a tricky challenge to balance the quality of the animation you’d like to produce with the deadlines that are expected by a Flash production.
–Mike Geiger, Animation Director, ‘Yam Roll’

I don’t think that they do. Animation has taken a turn from traditional cel animation to new mediums. I don’t think that it is good or bad - just different. People need to understand that this software is bringing animation back into the US. So much work used to be sent overseas and now we have a way to get things done quicker and more cost effectively here. When we began to animate ‘Squidbillies,’ we were trying to find a way to make it stand out. We all knew that we wanted to try something new. Scott Fry, Radical Axis CEO, and I began talking about traditional and vector. We looked at several ways to make it new and fresh, including drawing all of the art into Illustrator. At that point we just decided to dive head first into making it a Flash animated show.
–Craig Hartin - Animation Supervisor, Radical Axis, ‘Squidbillies’

Here in Canada I believe that it’s all over and done with; Flash isn’t synonymous with lesser quality anymore. Also, in recent travels overseas and all over North America, Flash is becoming more then just another medium, it’s now the medium of choice. Flash is just ‘“the way’” now. Which is great!
–Gene Fowler, King of the Litter Box, Fatkat Animation Studios

I think so but it’s only because most people are unaware of all the amazing work being produced with Flash. Or maybe they know the work and simply not know that it’s a Flash-produced program or short. All someone has to do is visit this blog to see the amazing range and quality of work that is being created with the software. Flash, like anything else, is just a TOOL. Give it to a talented artist and they will figure out how to make great work on their own. That’s when it stops looking like it came out of a can.
–Evan Spiridellis, Head Art Guy, JibJab Media Inc.

It seems like they do a little. But it also seems like producers are feeling like they should learn a little more about it, like it might be worth it to finally consider Flash as a real animation tool.
–Matt Clark, Founder, Manbaby Studios

Hell yeah! But definitely changing. The fact that ‘Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends’ and other Flash shows are constantly getting nominated and winning awards is helping. And some studios (Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon) are starting to spend healthy traditional 2D TV budgets on Flash animated series and the results are speaking for themselves. To me, that’s the key. Don’t spend less and expect more.
–Jorge Gutierrez, Creator, ‘El Tigre’ (Nickelodeon 2007)

I think Flash is slowly coming out of the shadows of “dotcom shame.” One reason is that there are a number of recent shows from each of the major animation studios that have tested and proven the viability of Flash, particularly in TV production.
–Roque Ballesteros, Founder, Ghostbot

No, I don’t think so anymore. Around 2000, the majority of cartoons on the internet involved poop or stickmen fighting. So for awhile, Flash was definitely looked down upon in Hollywood. The publicity of the dot-bomb era certainly didn’t help. People thought that the idea of using this tool for broadcast was crazy based on their 30 second exposure to the technical and aesthetic limitations of the web. But history does repeat itself. When 3D first came out, it was very crude and looked extremely mechanical. The guys programming the algorithms had very little sense of timing, movement or acting. The software was very clunky. As the software got into the right hands, all those principles began to evolve with technology. Flash has gone through the same development process in the last 5 years. You now have studio talent harnessing Flash and applying all their knowledge into a new technology.
–Sandro Corsaro, Creative Director, Crest Digital
–Co-Author, Hollywood 2D Digital Animation

The 33rd Annual Annie Awards were held last night at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. This ceremony was hosted by ASIFA-Hollywood, whose members voted on awards ranging from ‘Best Animated Television Commercial’ to ‘Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production.’

Flash animation was represented by Cartoon Network’s ‘Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends’ and Disney’s ‘The Buzz on Maggie.’ ‘Foster’s’ was nominated for a total of 5 awards:

Best Animated Television Production

Character Design in an Animated Television Production - Shannon Tindle

Directing in an Animated Television - Craig McCracken

Production Music in an Animated Television Production - James L. Venable, Jennifer Kes Remington (won)

Production Design in an Animated Television Production - Mike Moon, Craig McCracken, Dave Dunnet, Martin Ansolabehere (won)

Jorge Gutierrez from ‘The Buzz on Maggie’ was nominated for Best Character Design in an Animated Television Production. Keep your eyes peeled for news on Jorge’s new show ‘El Tigre,’ which was recently green-lit by Nickelodeon. I managed to see a version of the Flash-animated pilot, which he co-created with his wife Sandra Equihua, and it was simply stunning. Think Fosters-level animation in an action show. I got the chance to work with Jorge on his first project out of school - ‘El Macho.’ I knew then that it was just a matter of time before he landed a series or two. I’ll start my groveling now to see if I can get a still image of ‘El Tigre’ for CHF.