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Cold, Hard Flash: April 2006: Flash animation news and links

Cold, Hard Flash: April 2006: Flash animation news and links
Penny Ditch  |  by www.coldhardflash.com. All rights reserved. 11.05 | 4:33

Guy Harlap animated this political cartoon, sending up the 2006 Israeli elections. The broad-shouldered 'hero' in this short is , who heads up the Yisrael Beiteinu party.


[UPDATE]
I received an email from Guy, elaborating on the production..

.
Guy did the storyboard, the design and animation. The story was created by Lieberman's team, and it was broadcast on the internet and on Israeli TV (channels 2, 24 and the Russian channel).

It was produced by Uri Lahav and he had help from Shira Korach and Neta Holzer on the animation.
[END UPDATE]

Another short I spotted on Youtube was this JibJab-style parody, which looks like it was perhaps animated in After Effects.

Jayson Thiessen's animation work first became known through a little short he created called (MOV) a fluid Flash-animation about a salesman named Chubby Dee.



But today we're highlighting a short film that he and some friends created called 'Maigo.' It's the beginning of a 7-minute short that they've planned, boarded and recorded. It's intended as a series for children, and they've been nice enough to post it online for us to watch.





AARON SIMPSON: Who's the team that worked on 'Maigo?

'
JAYSON THIESSEN: Besides myself, there's Jamie Mason, Robert Watts, Andreas Ohrt, Kyoshi Kohatsu and Tai Keattivanichvily.

AARON: What's the series pitch?
JAYSON: Its about Maigo, a little alien child who becomes stranded on Earth and struggles to understand Earth culture, which often gets him into trouble.

It's like discovering the world through the eyes of a child who is completely independent. I think a lot of kids would like that.

AARON: Who's the little sun-shaped guy?


JAYSON: "Beebee" is a symbiotic parasite that lives in Maigo's stomach. He acts as Maigo's conscience and guide when he's in trouble or faced with a problem.

AARON: Where's Maigo from?


JAYSON: He's from a distant galaxy somewhere in space. It's a location not yet known to humans, they're too busy watching TV to care.

AARON: How long did this take?


JAYSON: It took us about 6 months in our spare time creating the characters and story. I animated the promo in 3 or 4 months on my laptop and designed the characters, when I had time. Jamie did the backgrounds, storyboard and colour styling.

We both did the animatic and voices. Robert produced, Andreas wrote out the pitch bible and some episodes, Kyoshi helped with concept and story as well as some design, and Tai edited it together and did all the technical stuff.

AARON: Do you design on paper first?


JAYSON: I work out the design on paper because it's faster and there's more control. Plus you can do it on a post-it note on the fly. Then I duplicate it in the computer using Flash.

I try to design with Flash in mind, working with the program's limitations, instead of fighting them. Like how Maigo is mostly round, so rotations can be easily achieved by sliding the features around and masking off the edges.

AARON: Why did you choose to produce this in Flash?


JAYSON: Well, what other program allows you to create 2D animation easily with colour and sound with little to no cost and is easy to learn? It was either that or pay hundreds of dollars to hire animators, clean up artists, cell painters, camera, audio engineers, and video transfer. You can make animation in Flash look comparable, if not better than classical, as long as it's designed with Flash in mind.

I wouldn't want to animate a complicated realistic character in Flash.

contact
Jayson's

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Keywords: Jayson Thiessen
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