ColdHardFlash.com Announces The 10 Best Flash Films

Los Angeles-based ColdHardFlash.com, a source for high-quality, animated films produced with Flash, has named the winner of the Flash Animation 10: Best Animated event, which is sponsored by MyToons.com.

Barcelona-based animator Nacho Rodriguez took the top prize for his animated film MR. COO EPISODE 4, which features imaginative, stream-of-consciousness animation. The Flash Animation 10 was judged by a blue-ribbon panel of animation industry experts, including LAIKA/house animation director Ward Jenkins, who, after watching MR. COO, said, "Strange non sequiturs never looked (and moved) so good."

"I've literally spent hours enjoying the amazing animations that were entered into the contest," said Paul Ford, president and co-founder of MyToons. "Nacho's animation MR. COO really deserves the grand prize. It's one of my favorites and I'm really happy to see it recognized. I'm super glad that Aaron and the CHF team are working hard to promote the fine work of animators using Flash everywhere."

"It's quite an honor," said Rodriguez. "This encourages me to keep the gooey frames flowing, that is, to squeeze living liquid out of a sharp vector." For taking the top prize, Rodriguez walks away with an Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection, courtesy of ColdHardFlash. The suite includes all-new versions of Adobe InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, Fireworks CS3, Contribute CS3, After Effects CS3 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Soundbooth CS3, and Encore CS3, as well as Acrobat 8 Professional software.

"This collection of animated shorts is a testament to the fact that talented animators in this new digital age have unlimited potential," said Simpson. "It's been only 10 years since Flash arrived on the market, and in that short time we've seen films produced with the software emerge as world-class, award-winning shorts."

The Flash Animation 10, which began with the Most Influential award in September 2006, is a celebration of character animation produced with Adobe Flash software. Flash, which powers many rich and engaging websites and applications, is also the leading choice of animators looking to create paperless 2D films.

The 35 nominated shorts were narrowed down to 10 ranked finalists by a panel of animation industry experts. The judges, Ward Jenkins, Megan O'Neill, Andrew Gordon, Christopher Finnegan and Ryan Honey, were asked to view each of the nominated films and select the work that exhibited the highest in overall animation quality.

According to judge Honey, Creative Director at Buck, the first runner up film, Sylvain Marc's FERTILIZER SOUP, is filled with "great animation moments and original compositions." Michel Gagne's INSANELY TWISTED SHADOW PUPPETS, which took the second runner up prize, is "fabulous looking with beautiful composition and wonderful movement," said judge O'Neill, VP of Acquisitions and Production at Atom Ent.

Cold Hard Flash is an online news and entertainment source focusing on TV series, feature films and online shorts produced with Adobe Flash software.