HP and Cartoon Network Asia are collaborating once again to launch the 2010 Toon Creator Awards, where kids aged six to 14 living in Australia, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Pakistan will be invited to step into the shoes of a Cartoon Network animator and submit their own entries.

Enhancements have been made to the second edition of the competition, which kicks off on July 12. New features include a character creator function that allows players to build personalized avatars to participate in adventures and have a leading role in their own animations. For instance, kids can travel to Australia and help Flapjack clean up the Great Barrier Reef or visit Taiwan to assist the Ben 10 Alien Force team. Kids can also design their own endings to clips starring a variety of Cartoon Network characters.

Once completed, animations are posted to the Cartoon Network website, where winners from two different categories will be determined by a combination of online votes and a professional judging panel from HP and Cartoon Network. Among the prizes are an HP TouchSmart PC, a Cartoon Network prize pack and a Ben 10 Quad Bike.

In addition, Cartoon Network will be developing four exclusive apps for the HP TouchSmart series of PCs that will be available beginning in July. The first will be designed to support swipe, tap and multi-touch gestures and the second will be an RSS reader. Two additional apps will be released later in the year.