The gift I bought my wife for Valentine’s Day broke, and I never got these heart-shaped animations up on the site. Stupid romance.

We’ll start with a sneaker-themed Valentine from Tyree Dillihay. It’s based on his new online comic titled Sn’eads, as in “sneaker heads.”

And here’s a Flash-animated love song from Dave Schlafman and Evan Sussman. It’s part of their PBS KIDS GO! project, Fizzy’s Lunch Lab. This is titled Give Your Heart a Valentine:

Lastly, here’s a College Humor Valentine from Mike Parker. It’s titled Cupid is Out of Work:

As part of the ongoing CHF interview series for the In Rainbows Animated Music Video Contest, we bring you our first video interview. Tyree Dillihay, who directed the Flash-animated music video for Bomani “D’mite” Armah’s track Read a Book music video while working at Six Point Harness, details the production process, how the BET project landed in his lap, and the overwhelming reaction the video saw on the internet.

I personally think Tyree is being modest about the number of views Read a Book received so far. Of the clips currently still viewable on YouTube, there’s a good 3 million views, and previous clips accounted for millions more. I’d argue that Read a Book was one of the most viewed web clips of 2007.

I also want to direct your attention to Tyree’s Flash-animated short film Differences, which was also produced at Six Point Harness.

CNN’s Tony Harris recently delved into the hubbub surrounding BET’s Flash-animated music video Read a Book. If you want to see what the fuss is about, watch the video and then check out the comments on an earlier post here on CHF.

Bomani “D’mite” Armah, who created the song, and Tyree Dillihay, the director of the video, joined Harris on the broadcast, which did as much to stoke the flames as the song itself.

Here’s the crux of the issue – we Americans see animation and immediately associate it with kids. The song does echo themes pushed by the children’s literacy organization Reading is Fundamental, but if you listen to the lyrics, they’re mainly aimed at adults. What episode of Electric Company urged kids to “buy some land?” So once you accept that this message is aimed at adults, allow yourself to focus on the real messages, which all races should find some value in.

Read a Book was animated by Six Point Harness Studios in Hollywood.

Alan Smithee’s action-packed, sci-fi adventure series Akumi is back. Episode 3, titled Conspiracy & Capture, clocks in at a whopping 9-minutes and it’s as racy as ever, with jiggling and gratuitous crotch shots. The action is hot and heavy too, with an abundance of beautifully choreographed fight scenes. And in this episode, we meet a new character, Miltonius, who is surely an homage to Smithee, who provides the voice acting for this dark addition to the cast.

Pool’s Primal Instinct Productions is currently preparing for episode 4, which will be the last episode on the first DVD, due out later this year. Hats off to the crew: Dave Johnson, Dustin Remmel, Milton Pool and Tyree Dillihay.

Akumi, the violent, sexually-explicit new series from Alan Smithee is on to episode 2. After a controversial first episode (scroll to comments) , this series is really kicking into gear. It’s packed with action, excellent special effects and a great cliffhanger that will leave you anxious for the third installment, now slated for March.

The jiggling and wiggling of the various females got a bit tired by the end, and I wasn’t terribly thrilled with the lead actresses’ vocal performance, but the overall production values in this second installment (top-notch music and sound design) more than made up for any shortcomings.

Smithee is joined by Tyree Dillihay, David Johnson and Dustin Remmel who all elevated their games for this one. A beautiful and breathtaking production, fellas.