Allan Dye, an animator we’ve written about a number of times before, has picked up the Grand Prize in MyToons’ Get with the Times! HD Animation Contest. His Flash-animated short A.D.D. Jane has landed him a number of prizes include an Adobe’s Creative Suite 3: Master Collection and a trip to NYC where he’ll see his short broadcast on the giant Clear Channel video billboard in Times Square. If you haven’t already seen it, here’s the film, which is embedded in MyToons’ HD player. Click that “FS” button (full-screen) to see the high quality goodness.

Today we’re thrilled to be launching the biggest ColdHardFlash online event yet – The Flash Animation 10: Best Animated (read the press release here). Longtime fans of the site might remember The Flash Animation 10: Most Influential story from 2006, which included hysterical shorts JibJab, Homestar Runner, Happy Tree Friends and many others. That was a celebration of online films that made an impact on our culture, but today we focus on the animation craft itself. We bring you 10 animated shorts produced in Flash, hand-picked by a blue-ribbon panel of judges.

Join us and our sponsor, MyToons, as we pay tribute to the artists who brought these visions to life. Click below and you’ll find lengthy interviews with each of the 10 directors and, of course, the animated shorts themselves.

As discussed here back in December, MyToons has announced their Bumper Blastoff Competition, and the deadline for entries has recently been extended until February 28th.

Todd Ramsay, the mastermind behind the Honkbarn series, took the challenge, and uploaded this short, musical bumper.

We don’t normally announce contests here on the main page, but as the MyToons gang come equipped with a Flash animated promo video (below), we’ll bend the rules a bit.

MyToons, if you don’t know already, is a free online animation community where users can upload and share their creations. The team has officially launched the MyToons Bumper Blastoff competition, and they’re calling on animators to create a MyToons bumper (a commercial for MyToons) in 30 seconds or less. The rules seem pretty simple – just include the MyToons logo in your short and deliver a piece between :05 and :30 seconds by January 21st, 2008, and you need to upload original material. They’re giving out $7,000 in prizes, so get cracking Flash folk!