Flash animation

Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) platform or similar animation software and often distributed in the SWF file format. The term Adobe Flash animation refers to both the file format and the medium in which the animation is produced. Adobe Flash animation has enjoyed mainstream popularity since the mid-2000s, with many Adobe Flash-animated television series, television commercials, and award-winning online shorts being produced since then.

In the late 1990s, when bandwidth was still at 56 kbit/s for most Internet users, many Adobe Flash animation artists employed limited animation or cutout animation when creating projects intended for web distribution. This allowed artists to release shorts and interactive experiences well under 1 MB, which could stream both audio and high-end animation.

Adobe Flash is able to integrate bitmaps and other raster-based art, as well as video, though most Adobe Flash films are created using only vector-based drawings, which often result in a somewhat clean graphic appearance. Some hallmarks of poorly produced Adobe Flash animation are jerky natural movements (seen in walk-cycles and gestures), auto-tweened character movements, lip-sync without interpolation, and abrupt changes from front to profile view.

Adobe Flash animations are typically distributed by way of the World Wide Web, in which case they are often referred to as Internet cartoons, online cartoons, or web cartoons. Web Adobe Flash animations may be interactive and are often created in a series. An Adobe Flash animation is distinguished from a Webcomic, which is a comic strip distributed via the Web, rather than an animated cartoon.

History

The first prominent use of the Adobe Flash animation format was by ''Ren & Stimpy'' creator John Kricfalusi. On October 15, 1997, he launched ''The Goddamn George Liquor Program'', the first cartoon series produced specifically for the Internet. The series starred George Liquor (a fictional character rumored to have ended Kricfalusi's employment on ''Ren & Stimpy'') and his dim-witted nephew Jimmy The Idiot Boy. Later, Kricfalusi produced more animated projects with Adobe Flash Professional, including several online shorts for Icebox.com, television commercials, and a music video. Soon after that, web cartoons began appearing on the Internet with more regularity.

On February 26, 1999, in a major milestone for Adobe Flash animation, the popular web series ''WhirlGirl'' became the first regularly scheduled Adobe Flash animated web series when it premiered on the premium cable channel Showtime in an unprecedented telecast and simultaneous release on the Showtime website. Created by David B. Williams and produced by Visionary Media, the studio he founded, ''WhirlGirl'' follows the adventures of a young super-heroine fighting for freedom in a future ruled by an all-powerful "mediatech empire". The series originally launched in the spring of 1997 as a web comic with limited animation and sound. After gaining online syndication partners including Lycos.com and WebTV, the series first adopted Adobe Flash animation in July 1998. Following her Showtime debut, the titular heroine appeared in over 50 Adobe Flash webisodes on the Showtime website and starred in a million-dollar multimedia Showtime marketing campaign.

About the same time, Joe Cartoon launched the interactive animation "Frog in a Blender" to become one of the first true "viral hits" on the Internet, gaining more than 90 million views since its release in 1999.

''The Von Ghouls'' went live in November 1999, featuring the first music group with cartoon episodes online including original songs, in the vein of Saturday morning cartoons of the 1970s. A number of popular portal sites featured Adobe Flash animation during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, including Newgrounds, Icebox, MondoMedia, CampChaos, MediaTrip, Bogbeast and AtomFilms. Stan Lee, the late founder of Marvel Comics, launched an animated comics site.

The Internet also saw the proliferation of many adult-only Adobe Flash cartoon sites. Some of the shows from that period made the transition to traditional media, including '' Queer Duck'', ''Gary the Rat'', ''Happy Tree Friends'', and the politically minded JibJab shorts. Occasionally, the trend has been reversed: after being canceled from both ABC and Fox, Atom Films and Flinch Studio created net-only episodes of ''The Critic'' in 2000–2001. In another instance, Adobe Flash almost made the transition to the big screen. In 2001, production began on what would have been the first Adobe Flash-animated feature film, the ill-fated ''Lil' Pimp'', which also began life as an Internet series. As potentially controversial as its subject matter was, it had a relatively large budget, a number of well-known actors (including William Shatner, the late Bernie Mac, and Lil' Kim), a full crew, and a running time of nearly 80 minutes. Although Sony Pictures decided not to release the film, it was eventually released on DVD by Lionsgate.

In 2000, another major milestone occurred in the world of animation when the first broadcast-quality Adobe Flash animation aired on television. Dice Raw's music video "Thin Line between Raw and Jiggy" appeared on the big screen at Resfest 2000, on television via BET, and the Web on sites such as Sputnik7.com, Shockwave.com, Heavy.com and was also included with the CD. Its creation became one of media history's first convergent entertainment productions. Todd Wahnish, who would later go on to create Marvel Entertainment's "All Winners Squad", pioneered the early conversion of traditional hand-drawn techniques into vector-based animation seen in the video. The video triggered a flood of Adobe Flash-based television animation.

Several recording companies experimented with releasing animated music videos to promote their artists' releases online, including Madonna, Beastie Boys and Tenacious D; however, none became the hit that allowed for the expansion of Flash animated music videos. Adam Sandler and Tim Burton, among others, released original Internet-only animated works, but were not able to devise successful financial models and the trend dissipated, largely as a result of a lack of viable micropayment systems.

Several popular online series were produced in Adobe Flash Professional, such as the Emmy Award-winning '' Off-Mikes'', produced by ESPN and Animax Entertainment; '' Gotham Girls'' and '' Lobo'', produced by Warner Bros.; '' Crime Time'', produced by Future Thought Productions and ''Homestar Runner'' produced by Mike and Matt Chapman.

Many animated television series were produced using Macromedia Flash, inspired by both the comparatively low cost of production and the unique arrays of new animation styles that can be achieved through the medium, including ''Metalocalypse'', ''Being Ian'', ''Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends'', '' Kappa Mikey'', ''Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi'', ''Happy Tree Friends'', ''The Buzz on Maggie'', ''Astroblast!'', '' Odd Job Jack'', ''Little Einsteins'', ''Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!'', ''The Powerpuff Girls'', ''Total Drama'', the BBC
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