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.

Renegade Animation, based in Glendale, California, is loading up on feature-length projects. They’ve got two in pipe, both of which are being produced in their proprietary paperless 2D method, which was developed for their ‘Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi’ production for Cartoon Network.

First is ‘Re-animated,’ a feature-length mixture of live-action and animation. The project marks Cartoon Network’s much discussed foray into original live-action work. ‘Re-animated’ is “about a 12-year-old boy whose life is turned upside down after an accident at an amusement park.” The film features voice work by Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman) and Tom Kenny, who voices Spongebob.

Second is ‘Christmas is Here Again,’ which was formerly named ‘Who Stole Santa’s Sack?’ According to an article at Digitalproducer.com, the 9-month long project is currently in post production. Kathy Bates and Ed Asner provide voices, and Jay Leno delivers the voice over. In the same article, Ashley Postlewaite, Executive Producer at Renegade, offers the perfect quote:

“By applying our traditional training and employing the latest animation tools, we have streamlined animation process and made it more affordable… We believe it is the future of 2D animation.”

Many, including myself, think you’re dead-on, Ashley.

Back in February, Nate Pacheco was featured here on CHF, where some of his recent work for Renegade Animation was featured. He’s since produced what he calls a ‘little spot’ with the amazingly talented Dave Wasson, who recently directed and produced Disney’s Flash-animated ‘The Buzz on Maggie.’ You can watch the Quicktime of the short over at the Renegade site, and then go browse through his great blog.

Nate’s done a fair amount of work on ‘Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi,’ and I want to pass on a few more links for your browsing pleasure. There’s the ‘official’ crew blog, and then Rob Lilly’s blog that features some of his Puffy work.

Anyone familiar with Renegade Animation knows the man behind the creative steering wheel is Darrell Van Citters, a Disney and Warner Bros. vet. But, as with any creative shop, there’s always the men and women behind the scenes making it all happen. At Renegade, Nate Pacheco is surely one of those people. He’s been at Renegade for nearly 8 years now, and he’s one of their Flash wizards that’s ushered Renegade into the forefront of the Flash animation revolution.

Nate’s work was recently highlighted over at Cartoon Brew, where readers were made aware of his blog. Nate’s been kind enough to make available several clips from his own animation reel:

A Target Halloween Spot

A ‘Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi’ music video reminiscent of Chuck Jones’ award winning ‘The Dot and The Line’

Renegade’s classic ‘Diamond Bar’ PSA

And below you can click on the video to watch a stellar hand-drawn Hilton TV spot that was produced entirely in Flash.

Film and Video Magazine recently published an article by Michelle Paster titled ‘Flash Equal Financial Freedom.’ The target of Paster’s article is Cartoon Network’s Flash-animated show ‘Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi,’ which is produced by Glendale, California’s Renegade Animation. The article offers up some budget figures and details why Flash has allowed Renegade to save a heap of money and keep the production stateside.

Darrell Van Citters, Renegade’s supervising director and co-founder, is a big Flash-animation proponent. He’s quoted in the article saying that after looking at alternative software solutions, Flash “…was the most cost-effective solution for what it had to offer, providing for quality control and [prevention from] going off model.”

Head on over to Film and Video Magazine to read the entire article.

Alex Dobuzinskis, of The Daily News of Los Angeles, recently posted a brief article titled ‘Last holdout embraces the future,’ which focuses on Glendale, California’s Renegade Animation. The article also discusses ‘Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi,’ and the future of the 2D animation pipeline, in particular, how the industry is quickly veering towards an all-digital workspace. One of Renegade’s storyboard artists, Scott O’Brien, is currently making the switch to a digital tablet device (presumably a Wacom tablet), and the article boasts that this transition marks the end of Renegade’s pencil-holders.

Dobuzinskis also offers up some cost saving figures, which very well may reflect what’s happening at Renegade, but I’d hate to see the whole industry painted with this brush.

Ultimately, the cost of Flash animation — about four times cheaper than traditional animation because it requires only one-third of the staff — helps save the company from sending work overseas for “finishing,” as many other animation firms have done.

I applaud Renegade for keeping the animation work stateside, as many of my friends are amongst their crew, but unrealistic expectations about Flash production have been an albatross around the movement’s neck since the beginning. Animating with a vector-based software package like Macromedia’s Flash can surely help shave costs, but I’d imagine an apples-to-apples comparison would show aggregate, across-the-industry savings to be a little less exciting than ‘four times cheaper.’

Glendale-based Renegade Animation has gone cuckoo. Earlier this year, General Mill’s cereal-loving mascot Sonny was lovingly animated for a brand new Cocoa Puffs TV spot. The 30-second ad features a redesigned Sonny model, which was also done by Renegade, and the team relied on Flash to deliver the appropriate look for this spot titled ‘Mr. Parrot.’ This isn’t anything out of the ordinary for Renegade. They’ve been pushing the Flash envelope for years now, and you’ve enjoyed their work on Cartoon Network’s ‘Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi.’

While ‘Puffy’ relies a great deal on re-use, this Cocoa Puffs spot contains a much heavier dose of drawings. In this situation, Flash becomes a turbo-charged ink and paint program. Wait - why don’t I let the press release explain:

Renegade employs Flash animation to expedite parts of the animation process while still relying on traditional cel technique to create the animation’s rich look and to give the character motion its fluidity. “Flash allows us to reuse assets and that speeds up some of the more routine aspects of the animation process,” said Renegade Animation director Darrell Van Citters. “But for us, Flash is more than a practical tool. We have integrated it into our creative process and take advantage of its strengths to enhance the aesthetics or our work.”

One way Renegade capitalizes on the unique qualities of Flash animation is by using it to introduce design elements into their animation. The environments in the Cocoa Puffs spot are highly stylized and dominated by geometric shapes. Renegade uses Flash techniques to change the environments’ color or shape, to evolve them, or to cause them to melt into kaleidoscopic patterns reflective of the swings in Sonny’s mood. “The background effects that we are able to achieve would be difficult to replicate using cel technique alone,” (Renegade Animation director Darrell) Van Citters said. “At the same time, we are able to retain artistic integrity and quality.”

I spoke with Ashley Postlewaite, Executive Producer over at Renegade, to learn a bit more about their pipeline. She explained that the Renegade team uses DigiCel for pencil tests, then the drawings are cleaned up, scanned, run through Adobe Streamline and then brought into Flash as vector art. It’s luxurious when compared to the type of methods applied to a TV production, and one that surely comes alive on screen. Check out the spot here (Quicktime).