Ever wonder how people make all those animated 8-bit films? You know, the ones that look like Atari or NES games? Well, one method involves the Pixel Tools V2 plug-in for Flash, which lets you draw shapes with a pixel brush, or with pixel shapes. The tool was created by Patrick Mineault, who has since retired from the Flash developer game.

But his tool lives on – and it was recently employed by Mark Salisbury and his team at Worldwide Biggies on a title sequence. Below you can see the pixel animation for the new SpikeTV show Mocap LLC, which premieres in April.

Nickelodeon’s hit live-action series The Naked Brothers Band is rocking animation-style this week. At 8:30pm tonight, the band’s first half-hour cartoon special, The Supetastic 6, premieres on Nickelodeon. Check out a 1-minute clip on the Nick’s Turbonick site.

“We’re excited to premiere The Naked Brothers Band’s first animated special which showcases their humor in a fun, new, fantasy-filled format,” said Marjorie Cohn, Executive Vice President, Development and Original Programming, Nickelodeon Networks.

Mark Salisbury, an athlete-turned-artist, captained a small squad of artists through this ambitious production. Working out of Worldwide Biggies, Albie Hecht’s New York-based company which also produces the live-action series, the team drew from a creative playbook to bring this musical action project to life. We recently caught up with Mark to discuss this upcoming Flash-animated special.

AARON SIMPSON: Give us an idea of how this project came to be.

MARK SALISBURY: As far as I know, here’s how it happened. Scott Martin, my partner at my own company Peach Nova, and I did a music video for The Naked Brothers Band two summers ago. The creator of The Naked Brothers Band, Polly Draper loved what we did on that video and said that if they got picked up for another season that they were going to write an animated episode. I’ve since joined Albie Hecht (CEO of Worldwide Biggies and former President of Nickelodeon), where they produce the live action series. And that’s how it happened…. as far as I know.

AARON: Does the animated version of the property take place in a similar world to the live-action Nickelodeon show?
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If you’ve been browsing YouTube today, you may have spotted the homepage promotion for On The Bubble, the animated series created by Adam de la Pena (Code Monkeys and Minoriteam). The show, which is sponsored by Pepsi’s Sierra Mist, is a weekly satirical news report hosted by 5 animated, fictional Middle Town Community College students.

The Sierra Mist team worked with Levity Entertainment to enlist the digital animation studio Worldwide Biggies to bring the show to life. Emmy-winning animation director Mark Salisbury was brought on to help along with South Park writer Glasgow Phillips. In this episode, we get an election report and bear witness to an appearance by guest-star Brian Posehn, the brilliant comedian from The Sarah Silverman Show, Just Shoot Me! and the almighty Mr. Show with Bob and David.

The animation director is Mike Luzzi, who is joined by animators Todd Ramsay, John Busby and Mark Pecoraro. Visit onthebubblenews.com for more info.

Adam de la Peña, the creator of G4’s Code Monkeys, has envisioned a new online series called On The Bubble. The series is set at Middle Town Community College (which already has it’s own website), and the first episode has officially launched.

Mark Salisbury and his team at Worldwide Biggies (Albie Hecht’s company) is bringing this Flash-animated series to life. The squad includes animation director Mike Luzzi and animators Todd Ramsay, Jon Busby and Mark Pecoraro. See if you can pick out which character Dana Snyder (Master Shake on Aqua Teen Hunger Force) provides the voice for.