Cold Hard Flash: Flash Animation News, Videos and Links » Siemasko

Krause Twosome Make The Upstate Four

aaron — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:51:41 +0000

The Upstate Four is an 11-minute Flash-animated pilot that was co-created by brothers Fran and Will Krause. It boasts a refreshing look, a high-drawing count and a big award – namely the Best Animation for Children honor at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival. Fran, a graduate of RISD, directed, animated and co-wrote it along with brother Will. The production turned to Bunko Studios for animation, where Sean McBride, Chris Seimasko, Jessica Plummer, Frank Suarez, Lizzi Akana, Kristen Chaippone, David Concepcion, Otis Braboy, Naree Song, Sarah Ramert and Adrienne Smith joined the animation effort. Have a watch:

PART 1

PART 2

Adult Swim Tunes Into City Suckers

aaron — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:18:03 +0000

Adult Swim and the indie record label Ghostly International have teamed up to bring 19 free downloads to the web. The first and last track of this compilition were then animated in a video called City Suckers staring BoyCatBird, which was directed by Jessica Milazzo and Daniel Garcia. Backgrounds were done by Liz Artinian, and the Flash animation team included Chris Siemasko, Nick Bertonazzi, Dan Forgione, Dave Haines and Anne Witbeck.

[link] – see the video link in the lower right column

Tek Jansen Returns With Masterful Episode

aaron — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:13:28 +0000

Tek Jansen, the animated series spawned by The Colbert Report, is back with the first new episode since the writer’s strike. This episode, titled For each great master was once a lowly student in a school of them, is the second chapter of the second series. Production was handled by Flickerlab, who are reportedly in production on six additional episodes.

Creative Director Harold Moss oversaw the design and animation team, which included Phil Lockerby, Simon Ampel, David Michael Friend, Frank Digregorio, Max Porter, Craig Wilson, Micah Cohen, Pedro Davies, Will Pittas, Jeff Lee, Anand Duncan and Rachel Hoffman.

Thanks to Christopher Siemasko for the tip.

FlickerLab Gets Heart Smart

aaron — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:32:00 +0000

The American Heart Association is dishing out healthy eating facts by way of a Flash animated short. The Bad Fat Brothers was conceived by the DC-based ad agency Porter Novelli, and they handed over the script to FlickerLab, who brought it life.

The New York animation and design studio utilized Flash, Photoshop and After Effects, and Apple Final Cut Pro in producing this short about the pitfalls of eating trans fats and saturated fats.

The Flash animation team included Nikolay Nachev, Phil Lockerby, Nicholas Bertonazzi, Frank Digregorio, Anand Nunnally-Duncan, Simon Ampel, Tom Smolenski and Chris Siemasko.

Siemasko has been mentioned several times here before, and most recently as the co-creator of My Adventures With Cloe. Smolenski is no stranger to CHF either, having been mentioned for his animation work on Pale Force. Ampel animated on Queer Duck: The Movie.

[link]

Fatkat’s Adventures With Cloe

aaron — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:22:00 +0000

Fatkat Animation is on a tear. Last year they booked their biggest gig ever – fistfulls of Happy Tree Friends episodes. They’ve also been pushing hard on the original series front and beatin’ the bushes at the various TV and media conferences; cutting deals and selling shows.

My Adventures With Cloe is a new animated series aimed at adults created by Buddy Bolton and Chris Siemasko (this duo also created the series Boy Sheriff with the Fatkat gang). Cloe is a “pleasantly violent parody of a Saturday morning cartoon,” and while the animation isn’t the finest in town, the script really delivers the goods. The Fatkat team, based in New Brunswick, Canada, recently boarded a plane for Las Vegas for the NATPE event. Having just signed a distribution deal with the Just For Laughs group, they unfurled their new trade show booth and the My Adventures With Cloe pilot. They impressed the head writer for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, and next they’re on to KidScreen in New York. So, settle in and enjoy the full 12-minute pilot episode (language NSFW).

To read more about My Adventures With Cloe, check out the series blog. and for more on Fatkat, check out the CHF interview with Gene Fowler, the founder of the studio.

Monkmus Teams With Los Campesinos!

aaron — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:09:00 +0000

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.

What’s New Pinky Dinky Doo?

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 14:57:00 +0000

Sesame Workshop and Cartoon Pizza, the New York City animation studio, are underway on a Flash-animated series for preschoolers called ‘Pinky Dinky Doo.’ Fifty-two 11-minute episodes are planned and are scheduled to begin rolling out in early 2006. According to C21media.net, ‘Pinky Dinky Doo’ mixes “Flash animation with photo collage backgrounds.” In the US, ‘Pinky’ will be seen on Noggin, on CBC in Canada, on BBC in the UK, on ABC in Australia and Discovery Kids in Latin America. ~~You can spy a short Quicktime clip from ‘Pinky’ here~~ (link removed at the request of the show).

Regular Cold, Hard Flash readers may remember reading about Cartoon Pizza before. They’re responsible for producing the Flash-animated show ‘Global Thingy,’ which was featured here back in May of this year.

Thanks again to Chris Siemasko for the story tip. Chris is an animator out a Cartoon Pizza, and he recently pitched a show for the 4th season of Frederator’s ‘Oh Yeah! Cartoons.’ Come to think of it – why haven’t you? Get on it!

Curious Animates Little Einsteins

admin — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:51:00 +0000

Along with Curious Pictures, Disney is set to launch ‘Disney’s Little Einsteins’ brand, extending on the wildly popular ‘Baby Einstein’ franchise. Disney purchased the Baby Einstein company a few years back, and they’ve wasted little time expanding the brand. Now, next month, Disney plans the launch of the first ‘Little Einsteins’ DVD/video, which will be closely followed by an October 2005 launch on Playhouse Disney on the Disney Channel. According to an AWN article from earlier this year, in each episode, “the characters journey through the landscape of a renowned painting or work of art from a range of cultures.”

Curious Pictures, the New York-based producer of shows like ‘Codename : Kids Next Door,’ is handling the animation, and from the looks of a few resumes I’ve found floating on the ‘net, the ‘Little Einsteins’ is being produced with both Flash and After Effects. The show, which is aimed at the pre-school market, is using a unique production method, mixing “animation, real-world footage and art.” ~~A trailer is available for viewing at the ‘Little Einsteins’ website, and more clips are cut into this testimonial promo.~~ Here’s the title sequence:

Big thanks to Chris Siemasko over at Animation Mafia for the story tip.