Full disclosure: another tip of the hat to a friend chasing his dream.

I caught up with another close friend recently, Ando Sonenblick.

Ando is a 2D animation guru (and stellar Mac engineer in general), best known as one of the key figures behind Apple's QuickTime, After Hours Datebook PIM product (bought by Aldus, Consumer Division), Now Utilities, and Berkeley Systems You Don't Know Jack.

I got to play with his latest creation, Sprite Studio, last night. Sprite Studio is a multimedia authoring tool that allows you to (fairly easily) create extremely complex 2D animations, in the form of (cross platform) applications, QuickTime movies and web graphics.

I say fairly easily because it's an early beta; the things you'd probably want to really understand and maximize your experience (documentation, quick start guide, etc) aren't done yet. But it does indeed look promising.

While playback is cross platform, authoring is currently Mac only. If you're one of the multitude of Mac-developer-thought-leader-types that permeate the blogosphere, I encourage you to give his new toy a try and comment with your replies. Worst case, you'll help a great guy get it right; best case, you'll get a free, early look at a great new tool. Not a bad deal at all!