I’ve been watching a lot of student and independently animated films lately. Today I’d like to highlight Canadian animator Nick Cross’s The Pig Farmer. Be aware that the film is for mature viewers and not work safe.
I chose this cartoon to bring up because A) it’s a well done and weird little short that should be seen and B) it’s production was well documented with behind the scenes blog posts.
Original fundraising post with drawings
The animation process in 9 stages with video
Incidental paintings for the film being sold as prints
Cross mentions on his blog that he wanted to defend Flash from some of it’s detractors by showing that a film like Pinnochio could be made with it. I recall John K. mentioning when he switched to Toon Boom Harmony that Flash wasn’t really made for animators. I personally think Flash, like any other program out there, is a useful tool though it’s not exactly ideal for traditional animating. You can bend any tool with enough effort and know how, just look at MS Paint. It’s really more a matter of which software you feel more comfortable using, which fits your production pipeline better, and which gives you the best results you want the fastest.
Anyway, be sure to check out Cross’s blog and his profile on Vimeo for his other films.