Lyons: We started using it about four or five years ago, to make short animation webisodes for young adults, and then did a title sequence with it. It was more trendy than useful at the time. When the dot.com bubble burst, we started thinking about using it for television production, and now have a unit dedicated to Flash animation.

I think you have to combine it with a good compositing package, like After Effects, or combustion. It’s becoming more user-friendly, but it’s not really designed for animation production for television. I suppose we have dropped in little Flash sequences into our model animation work (if there’s something playing on the TV in a scene, for instance), and we’ve used a Flash title sequence for a more traditional animated sitcom, Knife and Wife. It has a distinctive look, and you can’t really mix it much with other techniques.

Meza & Markowitz: We first became aware of Flash animation just after we graduated from art school, and jumped into the job force in the dot.com era. For traditionally trained animators, the transition to Flash was quite easy. We knew then that it was an excellent medium for animation.

When we were first introduced to Flash, we were just clean up artists who created the ‘symbols’ for the animators. That lasted a few months, until we were given our first scene to animate for the Web. When we began experimenting with Flash to broadcast, there were problems, but through good communication, and long nights, they were solved. You can know the basics to any program, but it is not until you start the production that you have to really start thinking outside the box to solve any obstacles in the way.

Nodelman: We started using Flash when I founded Noodlesoup in 2001. It was the most accepted delivery format for Internet viewing, and a cost effective way of providing animation to our clients. We have since included traditional 2D animation as well as CGI to our repertoire, but will always keep Flash as a very competent outputting tool.

We have a very talented staff of animators at Noodlesoup, each possessing his/her own bag of tricks. Our goal was to be able to use off the shelf technologies like Flash, combined with our own “duct tape and chewing gum,” to replicate any type of camera move that can be done traditionally. This is a definite trial-and-error process, but so far we have been successful in recreating all of the techniques we want.

The practicality of mixing Flash with other techniques depends on the look you are going for. If you want a cutout type of feel, such as South Park, then Flash is a great tool to use as is. You can archive body and mouth charts, walk cycles are a breeze and the background elements are flat. For a bit more complicated of a Flash show you can look at ¡Mucha Lucha!, which would then lend itself more toward the tweening tools and has more of the Flash look to it.

To get a traditional animated squash-and-stretch show with a full range of motion, you need to incorporate hand drawings. The example I always give is think of Flash as the skeleton you hang on your front door every Halloween. It can be well designed and is articulated at the joints so it can wave its bony little arms back and forth, but only in the way a puppet can. In reality, the radius would rotate around the ulna giving a more fluid motion. Incorporating hand-drawn inbetweens is the only way to achieve a traditional look. The backgrounds are a whole different story. For a more painterly look, we use programs like Photoshop, but then you have to start rasterizing for moves and Pandora’s Box gets officially opened.

An Internet commercial for an SUV showed Robert Watts (left) of Bardel Ent., the potential of Flash animation. Ron Crown (right) created Bardel Ent.’s first Flash series The Mr. Dink Show. Photos courtesy of Bardel Animation.

Schwarz: We first started using it on the Web and it was great because we could cheat on inbetweens and minimize file sizes. When we produce for broadcast, we combine Flash with traditional 2D devices, like hand-drawn inbetweens and using painted backgrounds. It looks just like 2D at a fraction of the cost. You get out of Flash what you put into it. If you do the work, you won’t be able to tell it’s not traditional ink-and-paint.

Watts: I found out about Flash when I wandered in to work and saw Ron animating a Ford Escape SUV Internet commercial. I immediately saw serious potential. At the time there was a lot of work out there that used Flash, but it was very simple stuff. I thought that in the right hands you could do a lot, if properly executed.

Using Flash with other techniques is quite practical. We’ll use other techniques as long as we achieve the desired result.

Wyatt: I started using Flash 2 in 1997, when we experimented with it to produce some simple web animations. We were soon using flash for broadcast productions and found it could easily be used in conjunction with other digital animation techniques.

3. How many Flash series have you produced, including those currently in production? What has been the clients’ reaction to them? The public’s reaction?

Chin & Mort: Before ¡Mucha Lucha! (39x30) we had produced several Web series, and some promos and station IDs for TV. Recently we also produced a half-hour pilot episode of Cosmic Baby with Cartoon Network Asia-Pacific.

We don’t think that the general public really cares if it’s Flash, traditional or otherwise. The reasons and benefits of producing with Flash are more relevant to producers and artists than to the audience.