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Check out the new Flash player at Colin Moock’s site. (You can always count on Colin, baby!)

The videos are all the same, I believe. Just take yer pick from Colin’s huge list of mirrors.

The new features are truly amazing and make me feel good about all the hours I’ve spent learning Actionscript. I was starting to give up on Flash, feeling that Macromedia was going in a direction that focused mainly on application development, but the new features prove they haven’t forgotten their animation (and design) roots. Hell yeah.

Oh, by the way, if I don’t seem to be posting as much lately, blame Rockstar Games for making Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Check out Stephen Crowhurst’s work at free the department. Very nice stuff with a “hand-done” touch. He’s buddies with the very talented John Black over at Cypher Audio (see Cream O’ the Crop) and is looking for broadcast illustration work.

Check out this article from Design in Motion about a huge series of new colloborative spots created by The Ebeling Group’s MK12, Lobo and Nakd. (Due to my incredible laziness, I refuse to link to each of those studios. If you haven’t already memorized their URLs, go fishing in the Cream O’ the Crop.)

You can see all three houses’ distinct styles in these pieces. It’s like a little time capsule of mograph zeitgeist. Tres fantastique!

In terms of cleverness, I think MK12’s “US Top 20” opener takes the cake. Gigantic soft drink cups resembling nuclear silos tower behind a retro motel sign as a fleet of fighter jets rockets skyward in the distance. What a wonderful montage of Americana.

Lobo’s stop-action “Neu” opener wins the originality competition. And if someone could please score me whatever bad-ass hallucinogens Nakd designers are taking these days, I’d really appreciate it.

Massive has announced that it will form a new VFX division of Psyop. This is bigger than that whole Time-Warner thingy that happened way back when.

Here’s an article with more info.

Here’s Massive’s site.

Here’s Psyop’s site.

Here’s a hot air balloon.

(Thanks to Cody for bringing all of this to my attention. Well, everything except for the balloon. That was all me.)

All right, I admit I’ve been slacking. So to make up for it, here’s a volley of tidbits from around the globe…

First up, Sehsucht mixes “I Want My MTV”-esque polygonal modeling with sexy camera effects and silky smooth animation in their “Auto Trophy Awards” spot. (Speaking of sexy, Sehsucht’s site is one of the sexiest destinations on the interw3b. I get a case of tight pants just thinking about it.)

You can watch the spot by going to Sehsucht’s site, and clicking on News > Oktober. (Why do German cognates always look cooler than their English counterparts?)

Next, peruse all ten short films from Panasonic’s Capture the Motion project. Yes, in web-time this is “old news,” but the work is well worth the 2nd glance. And I really like that you can download a high-res MPEG-2 of each film.

The good people of Ventilate have posted an interview with the demigod of motion graphics (er, sorry, “sequence design”): Justin Harder. Check it out here and don’t miss his new reel.

And last but certainly not least, soak your occipital lobe in the abstract beauty of Rizon’s work. (Big up to Jonz, who has some hot work himself.)

All right, now piss off.

I’m digging Colonel Blimp’s music promos, especially Dougal Wislon’s vid for Dizzee Rascal. (The same director also did “Fit But You Know It” for The Streets.)

(Man, what a cheesy headline. Sorry.)

Matt Fraction wrote some recently produced Lobo spots promoting the Gravity Games on the Outdoor Life Network.

Check ‘em out:

Dave Mirra, Sandro Dias, Nate Adams, Gravity Games Opener

More info from Matt Fraction’s blog

(Thanks, Vincent)

It’s official: “whimsical” is my new favorite word. It seems that the world is rediscovering the joy of having a good time, and who better to turn to for a dose of this zeitgest than The Brainbox?

With their update, The Brainbox gives us three new motion pieces, a new game and sundry graphic design projects. Head over to their site and enjoy their special brand of craziness.

At the risk of sounding like a Jane Austen character (or worse yet, a 20-something American hipster with delusions of Britishness), there is one word that leaps to mind when enjoying the work of Cerber: delightful!

Cerber, or Lorenzo Fonda (as his mom knows him), is an Italian graphic designer with a colorful, whimsical style and a site chock full of little surprises worth mousing around for. Enjoy yourself!

Those crazy kids at Logan have updated with some big-client work. Check it out:

http://www.hellologan.com/

(Thanks, Paul.)