I was recently in NYC, and spotted Orbit Gum’s giant Jumbotron screen in Times Square. As I tried to avoid slamming into hot dog carts and taxis, I watched and thought to myself “that’s made with Flash.” Sure enough, the spot was directed by Hornet Inc’s very own Aaron Stewart. Stewart had help from animators Efrain Cintron and Mark Pecoraro, and the spot was produced for BBDO, Chicago. Here’s the spot titled City, and over on the Hornet site you can see Park.

If you haven’t already read it, we interviewed Stewart back in 2005.

Dan and Jason, one of the director teams at Hornet Inc, have created a new series pilot for the 4Kids TV network. Rocket Monkeys is a Flash-animated series featuring a pair simians, Wally and Gus, who were blasted into space. The pilot episode is now “on the bubble” over at the 4Kids website - and if enough people vote, the series will continue. The pilot was animated by Markus Wagner, Justin Roth and Efrin Citron. NOTE: at two points during the stream, commercials play, but the show returns after 30 seconds.

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Hornet Inc. animation duo Dan & Jason give us an early Halloween treat with their latest animated project for the band The Cribs. Do You Wana Be Relevant is the new Flash-animated music video off the this UK band’s summer 2007 release Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever, and it features animated likenesses of the band slowly turning to zombies. Dan and Jason had animation help from Simon Ampel and Markus Wagner.

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Jason Archer and Paul Beck, who go by the handle Archer$Beck, have added their statement to the Live Earth movement. This summer’s event, which was held on July 7th, included dozens of high-profile directors and their shorts about combating climate change.

Archer$Beck’s film Cough, Cold and High Fever delivered a serious message, and utilized both Anime Studio and Flash in the production effort. Archer$Beck both animated on Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly features. Head over the the Hornet Inc. website to watch, and check out a write-up at digitalartsonline.co.uk.

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Illstrator and animator Monkmus has directed a second music video for the UK-band Los Campesinos! Produced by Hornet Inc., You! Me! Dancing! captures more of the disco battle that began in the video for We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives.

Monkmus had animation help from Simon Ampel.

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Hornet Inc., lead by Executive Producer Michael Feder, recently teamed up with Ogilvy & Mather to create a series of Flash-animated TV spots for SNY, a regional sports network in the New York area. The 3 satirical spots, directed by Hornet Inc’s Aaron Stewart, are part of a $1 million marketing campaign aimed at bumping up Mets games’ TV ratings.

Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen are the core of the Mets broadcasting team, and Stewart created caricatures, while Dan Abdo and Masako Miyazaki animated the spots. Below is Ron’s Arm.

Monkmus, who was interviewed here at CHF back in October of 2005, has completed his most recent music video - this time for Los Campesinos!, a UK band on the all-mighty Wichita label. The track is titled We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives, and it’s currently available for viewing on the Hornet Inc. website.

Monkmus also created the album packaging, cover artwork and other illustrations for the album We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives, which is due out soon. The video, according to an article in Digit, was created with both Flash and After Effects, and Monkmus had additional character animation help from Simon Ampel and Chris Siemasko.