Shorties Watchin’ Shorties on Comedy Central, betrays the strong graphic style of Augenblick Studios. © 2004 Comedy Central. Image courtesy of Aaron Augenblick.

So, yes, the buzz within the Flash community is that Macromedia is soon to release a new version of its software, codenamed 8Ball. The rumors are that most of the new features will be filters, like drop shadows and transparency effects. While acknowledging that Flash is first and foremost a Web development tool, artists nonetheless wish for many improvements, including better “lighting” and “camera” control.

Author and animator Corsaro says, “I sneaked a peek at 8Ball and must admit I am very impressed. There are some major additions for Flash animators this time around. For the past few years, Flash’s enhancements have often been geared to programmers and action scripters. The broadcast market will certainly expand with 8Ball. Certain looks that required going into After Effects and Photoshop will be present in this updated version of Flash. That’s all I can say before a Macromedia henchman pays me a visit.”

Like many artists, Mauro Casalese of Atomic Cartoons is not beholden to Flash. He views it simply as a tool, not a panacea. He says, “Presently Flash affords us to keep work in-house for creative control and for employing local animators, but, like anything else, I do foresee competition from proficient overseas studios eventually making it cost-prohibitive to keep the Flash animation here. We have a window for who knows how long and we will take advantage of that for as long as we have it. After that, who knows what is around the corner technology-wise, but we’ll be ready.”

Across the continent in New York, Aaron Augenblick says, “We’re going from a position where, to make animation, you had to have a lot of funding, you had to have a lot of people involved — and this, that and the other. Now, anyone can do it. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, necessarily. The best thing that could happen is if new voices were heard in animation right now. Because, if there’s any problem with animation and animation history, it’s that it sort of feeds off itself a bit too much. People are still feeding off the same cartoons that everyone’s seen. Everyone is trying to make the new Warner Bros. or the new Disney. What we need is something absolutely, completely new.”

Greg Singer is an animation welfare advocate, eating in Los Angeles.