The Orange is a droll and effective piece of storytelling directed by Nick Fox-Gieg and based on a story by Benjamin Rosenbaum. It was created in Flash and AfterEffects. Gieg’s earlier short A Good Joke is another fun diversion.

Cartoonist M. Wartella (Wonder Showzen, Superjail!) created a stylish Aztec-art inspired two-minute segment for tonight’s episode of Xavier: Renegade Angel on Adult Swim. The segment is previewed below. Wartella discusses his creative process and offers a short ‘how-to animate’ video in this interview on Cold Hard Flash (if only creating animation was as easy for the rest of us).

Earlier this week, Cartoon Network premiered a new episode of The Powerpuff Girls in honor of the show’s tenth anniversary. Notably, the cartoon was produced in Flash for the first time. All previous episodes were animated traditionally on paper. In this post at Cold Hard Flash, creator Craig McCracken and animation director Eric Pringle discuss how they transitioned the show from hand-drawn to Flash. McCracken, who came up with the characters in 1991, thinks the show should have been made in Flash from day one:

“The show was designed with very tight, crisp, bold, clean-ups. Because it was originally hand-drawn, the line weights always varied, but with Flash we were able to get that crisp look every time. Looking back at the PPG series, I realized I designed a Flash show before Flash was invented!”

On an semi-related note, why didn’t I know Craig has his own DeviantArt page with over 5,000 fans on it? The image at the top of this post—the first drawing he ever did of the crime-fighting trio—is taken from his DeviantArt.

It’s not just Inauguration Day in the United States; it’s also the first-ever Outnauguration party. Cartoonist Joe Fournier created this animated short documenting the event.

Every year around the holidays I receive a whole slew of animated greeting cards. The new year’s greeting below by French artist Art Grootfontein is the most impressive from this past season’s batch of e-cards. It should be evident from the piece itself, but Grootfontein also tells me that one of his favorite sources of inspiration is my book Cartoon Modern.

Roger Ebert has discovered Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues and he’s written a lengthy piece raving about how wonderful it is. Among other things, he writes:

“I am enchanted. I am swept away. I am smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original. It brings together four entirely separate elements and combines them into a great whimsical chord.”

and

“One remarkable thing about “Sita Sings the Blues” is how versatile the animation is. Paley works entirely in 2-D with strict rules, so that characters remain within their own plane, which overlaps with others. This sounds like a limitation. Actually, it is the source of much amusement. Comedy often depends on the device of establishing unbreakable rules and then finding ways to cheat on them and surprise you. The laughs Paley gets here with 2-D would be the envy of an animator in 3-D. She discovers dimensions where none exist.”

I think it also says a lot about Ebert’s passion and love for cinema that he’s written such a long piece about a film that nobody can currently see and which has no shot at commercial distribution because of copyright issues. Ebert is not only writing about how much he likes it but has also arranged for it to screen at his personal film festival in April 2009 at the University of Illinois. We’re delighted at Cartoon Brew that Ebert is putting his weight behind the film since both Jerry Beck and myself feel that it’s an incredible accomplishment within the animation art form.

Read Roger Ebert’s article here.

UPDATE: Nina Paley has just posted her distribution plan.

Sally Cruickshank (Quasi at the Quackadero) explains the genesis of this Christmas greeting on her blog. She created the animation in one week because, she writes, “Flash is so nifty for animating. A week! And mostly I was doing other things during that week!”

What a perfect way to start the weekend! Today marks the debut of a new music video by illustrator/comic artist Dave Cooper in collaboration with animator/director Nick Cross. The video is for Danko Jones’ song “King of Magazines.” Nick says, “The animation was all done in Flash by myself and Steve Stefanelli, working from Dave’s storyboard and rough designs.”

I’ve already watched it a few times and can’t get enough of it. It’s so refreshing to see a cartoon that actually indulges and celebrates its cartooniness. Lots of joyful animated FUN in this one.