6. Do you find that Flash animation is becoming more acceptable for broadcast TV production? If so, when did this start? If not, do you think that it will become acceptable soon?

Chin & Mort: We think that with ¡Mucha Lucha!’s success, the wider industry is being made more aware of Flash as a viable broadcast production method.

Crown: I think that the recent success of a Flash series like ¡Mucha Lucha! shows its acceptability.

Hardman: What new ones are coming up? Nothing we can speak to at this time, but we will keep Animation World Magazine posted in the future.

Lyons: I think it’s always been acceptable. What isn’t acceptable is bad animation, and that doesn’t depend on the tool, but the artist. Normally the broadcaster is unaware of the software used. In the early days of CG, animators used to create films traditionally and claim they were CG, and clients were none the wiser. Many productions that look like Flash are created using other software.

Alex Meza & Dave Markowitz figured out how to tweak Flash to give Kid Notorious a distinctive look for Comedy Central. © Comedy Central.

Meza & Markowitz: We think that, within the past couple of years, Flash animation has become a viable option to a few animation broadcasters. For Kids’ WB!, ¡Mucha Lucha! for the Disney Channel, the Proud Family shorts; for Spike TV, Gary the Rat and for Comedy Central, Kid Notorious. We believe that within the next few years, Flash will be a standard medium for broadcast television.

Nodelman: Flash has taken a bad rap in the industry because of its earlier primitive look and its effects on production budgets being slashed. After the inevitable learning curve on what is possible with Flash is over, it will become a more acceptable way of delivering television animation because it is already proven, in some ways, it cuts costs. There have been some moderate successes to date, but there is still some considerable growing to do.

Schwarz: When we first started using Flash for the Web, everyone laughed at us when we said we wanted to use it for television. Now, there are several shows on the air done in Flash, including the Kids’ WB!’s highly successful ¡Mucha Lucha! We’ve just sold an original series that we are going to be doing in Flash.

Watts: It’s been accepted already to a degree, but my guess is that if they developed the Flash program to be more suitable for broadcast animation, the increase in quality would broaden the audience.

Wyatt: Absolutely, we have been using Flash for broadcasting TV production for several years. It is ideal for short series and stings and we are about to start a long form series.

7. Flash has been through several versions. Do you foresee future improvements? What would you like to see Flash make possible that it cannot do yet?

Chin & Mort: Every version of Flash seems to bring improvements for web designers and developers, but not really for animation producers/animators. We would love to see a new version of Flash, which takes the needs of broadcast animation into account — for instance; more powerful processing/rendering power to handle longer animation formats.

Crown: In the newest version of Flash, I didn’t find a single new tool that will help with the way we produce our shows, so it’s hard to foresee future improvements. Macromedia could add many features to Flash that would allow us to up the level of animation we create. Just look at any 3D animation program and you can find the tools we need. Function curves, constraints, bones, kinematics etc., etc., would all be awesome additions. I’d even settle for the ability to animate a bend into an object. But in the end, Flash isn’t an animation program, it’s just one of the tools animators use.

Meza & Markowitz: We have worked with several versions of Flash, creating different styles of animation. Each new version seems to get better, with its diversity and improvements. We have not tried their newest version, but during our off time we plan to give it a try.

One thing we would like to say is that Flash is an excellent tool. It can be used for many different platforms. But it is just a tool. The person behind the screen and keyboard giving the inanimate character life, through emotion and acting, is more valuable than any tool.

Nodelman: Each version of Flash has been worlds stronger than its predecessor. I fully expect that trend to continue. I would love to see the program more paint and color friendly, with better brushes and textures; a better way to edit sound in the timelines; and of course a button that I can press that will just do everything so I can go fishing.

Schwarz: We’d like to see an improved ability to do blurs and to be able to better do kinematics. Right now we use After Effects for both.

Wyatt: We have always found a way to do virtually anything in Flash — especially when used in conjunction with other software. I would like to see however, a more animation friendly interface perhaps, with camera controls, multi-plane or focus controls.

Fred Patten has written on anime for fan and professional magazines since the late 1970s. He wrote the liner notes for Rhino Entertainment’s The Best of Anime music CD (1998), and was a contributor to The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons, 2nd Edition, ed. by Maurice Horn (1999) and Animation in Asia and the Pacific, ed. by John A. Lent (2001).