As posted here, Microsoft Buys 2D Animation Tools Vendor Creature House.

So yeah, check out the galleries on the Creature House site, especially Patrick Lee's.  Now if I could work on a WinFX app, with drawing tools that allowed work like that to be created, I'd be one happy camper (granted artistic ability is needed, but I think I'd get into more frequent practice if something like that was available)

I have to explain that my obsession with Sparkle is due to me dream of being able to create Flash-like animation in a MS/Windows environment.  I've always wanted to combine Flash, DirectX, SVG and Illustrator all together, so now I'm dreaming that is the killer-app I was hoping for.

Of course time will tell, but for now I can keep up the hype.