I just got the tip off from Six Point Harness Studios , that a promotional clip of MTV2′s ‘Where My Dogs At?’ is on Youtube. It’s some of the strongest Flash-animation (soon to be) on TV, and it’s great to see this ‘Lindsay Lohan’s Limo’ clip is already getting a heap of views. Nice work 6PH!

The show premieres on June 10th right after ‘Celebrity Deathmatch.’

We’re back with the second edition of Cold Hard Council. The first focused on Flash’s reputation in the industry and today, we’re asking…

Have you or your studio made the move to Flash 8?

We use 7.2, but not by any choice of mine. With it’s new undo function it’s probably my most unliked version of the bunch. For my projects I use 4. It feels the most comfortable and animator friendly to me.
–Mike Geiger, Animation Director, ‘Yam Roll’

We have not. We usually wait until the software has had time to flood the market and all of the kinks get worked out. I am looking forward to having it in our studio.
–Craig Hartin – Animation Supervisor, Radical Axis, ‘Squidbillies’

Yes we have. I initially played around with the Flash 8 demo and found it lackluster. Feeling disappointed that after all the feelers that were put out into the industry by Macromedia to get feedback from artists and animators that our suggestions were completely ignored. Having now worked in Flash 8 for several months, I still feel the same way, but have grown to enjoy some of the new features as I’ve appled them into our projects. For example all the layer blending modes make for some neato “photoshop-esque” backgrounds as you can see a music video for Microsoft, produced by Tony Grillo of Flinch Studio and Fatkat Animation Studios.
–Gene Fowler, King of the Litter Box, Fatkat Animation Studios

We have moved to Flash 8. It’s a definite improvement from MX2004 and there are a few more artist friendly features. Video capabilties have gotten way better and I’m already looking forward to Flash 9!
–Evan Spiridellis, Head Art Guy, JibJab Media Inc.

No, I use Flash MX.
–Matt Clark, Founder, Manbaby Studios

Yes and it was a big dissapointment.
–Jorge Gutierrez, Creator, ‘El Tigre’ (Nickelodeon 2007)

We have not made the jump to Flash 8. A couple of the guys have downloaded the trials and we have seen little bugs that resemble all early releases of Flash. For example – when bringing in artwork from Illustrator, some fills will fall out, and drops certain custom brush strokes. In addition, some of our projects require collaboration with freelance artists or occasionally overseas studios. We must be sure that everybody we collaborate with is able to work with us without losing a beat due to software incompatibility.
–Brendan Burch & Dave Vamos, Founders, Six Point Harness Studios

We’re still hanging on to Flash MX like fools. Creatures of habit, I guess. We sadly have our unopened boxes of Flash 8 collecting dust in our supply bin.
–Roque Ballesteros, Founder, Ghostbot

Yes, we made the move. As we find ourselves getting into a lot of emerging digital media, Flash has become a very malleable tool. I think it’s crucial to stay current with the program. Skipping versions is like cramming for a test. You don’t want to be working on a deadline and all of a sudden learning new tools.
–Sandro Corsaro, Creative Director, Crest Digital
–Co-Author, Hollywood 2D Digital Animation

Rob Lilly recently left Cartoon Network to join Six Point Harness Studios, where he’s been hard at work on ‘Where My Dogs At?,’ the new Flash-animated series for MTV. And over at his blog, Rob has posted a few designs he’s been putting together for the series launch, which is now set for
May. The show was created by Jeffrey Ross, who was an original staff writer for Comedy Central’s ‘The Man Show.’

Turbonick, Nickelodeon’s new broadband video platform, launched with a programming package that includes two Flash-animated titles. Turbonick is one of MTV Digital’s new broadband networks; the others being MTV Overdrive, VH1′s V-Spot and Comedy Central’s Motherload.

‘Making Fiends’ is now playing on Turbonick in the ‘Nicksclusives’ section, and you can find Klasky Csupo’s ‘Schmutz’ in the ‘Nicktoons Shorties’ channel.

‘Making Fiends’ is a series of Flash-animated shorts by the prolific Amy Winfrey. Her previous series ‘Big Bunny’ might be familiar to some, but it’s ‘Making Fiends’ that’s garnered Amy so much attention. Staring the impossibly sweet Charlotte and her nemesis Vendetta, ‘Making Fiends’ is in it’s 20th episode, and Amy has hinted on her website that her show may soon be a full series on Nickelodeon. Amy, a UCLA grad, currently lives in Los Angeles, and once worked as an animator on ‘South Park.’

‘Schumtz’ is a series of shorts emanating out of the once-mighty Klasky Csupo studio. ‘Schmutz’ is about a hairball and a wad of gum who live in a hotel, and these 1-minute shorts were animated by my good friends at Six Point Harness Studios.

With most major animation schools fully entrenched in Maya this or traditional that, Flash animation hasn’t been getting the educational support it deserves. It’s to the point where my good friends at Six Point Harness Studios have taken it upon themselves to go teach classes at local universities themselves for no money. The way they see it, their next wave of employees isn’t going to just appear out of thin air, sooooo….

Anywhoo, this leads me to the topic of tutorials. Last night I stumbled onto the CartoonSmart website, a cleverly designed, entertaining, all-Flash site with the solitary goal of bringing Flash knowledge to the unwashed masses. Justin Dyke, who also publishes a clever comic strip titled The Mows, narrates several Quicktime tutorials that walk Flashers through the basics, and even some not-so-basics. I followed him through one of his freebies he offers on his site, and I was impressed. Justin – keep up the good work. You’re doing us a big favor.