Animation

8 Great Animation-Related Subreddits

Animation /

You’ve probably heard of Reddit, you know, that pretty cool website that aggregates stuff people find on the internet? Yes, that one! One of the best parts about it is that there are threads or subreddits devoted to specific topics. Animation is no exception with more than a few ranging from the general to the quite specifc. Check out these 8 below and don’t forget to follow me to see what I’m reading.

PS. Yes, there are tons of subreddits devoted to individual shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill,  Adventure Time and [of course] My Little Pony but I’m excluding those on the basis that I could list far more of those than this post could handle. Do visit them though and check out the links to other shows’ subreddits in their sidebars.

/r/animation – Your catch-all subreddit dedication to animation. Full of trailers, stills, tutorials, articles, you name it.

/r/anime – 51,000+ readers makes for a pretty big community

/r/computergraphics – Just like /r/animation, but for CGI and VFX!

/r/disney – Kinda obvious this one. Plenty of choice for everyone, from the films, the characters to the resorts.

/r/freeanimation – You know the Tube Open Movie project? It’s not the only example. A great subreddit in need of a bit of love at the moment.

/r/studioghibli – Lots of Studio Ghibli-related stuff here (as you would expect)

/r/stop_motion – The place for all things stop-motion. Plenty of shorts to enjoy too!

/r/thelastairbender – An exception to the above rule because its more than just a subreddit filled with screencaps and fan art. There’s lots of discussion about the characters and the universe that keeps things interesting. Also benefits from having two shows to talk about.

Do you know any more? Please add them in the comments!

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Disney, Nick, Netflix, No?

Animation /

This is an interesting story, an analyst called Todd Juenger has come out with a report about children’s programming, and one of the key points he makes, is that both Disney and Viacom (owner of Nickelodeon) should limit the amount of programming they give to Netflix. The problem as he sees it is that Netlfix, which is sans ads and allows users to cherry pick what they watch. is a threat to both companies’ existing business models:

 His advice for entertainment companies is to be cautious about how much kids programming they make available to the online video streaming provider and in which windows. “We remain firm in our belief Viacom and Walt Disney should limit their content availability on Netflix,” Juenger wrote.

As big a no-brainer as it is, it’s still amazing to see this kind of recommendation being made. Yes, it is a threat to the existing business model, but it also represents opportunities for new revenue streams, or even attracting new audiences to existing properties. I can tell you right now that if Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn’t on Netflix, there is only a slim chance that I would have even tried to watch it. Now that I have, I plan on buying all the DVDs. Yay new revenue for Viacom!

Instead we get a recommendation to partition content into individual companies’ services, not unlike Disney’s Keychest. Hardly a practical solution. I’m old enough to know that the internet didn’t really start firing on all cylinders until people discovered a world outside the walled garden that was AOL. Online viewing should not be going in the opposite direction.

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Is The BBC Olympics Ad A Rip-Off?

Animation /

To use the tired old quote, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However the line where it turns from imitation to blatant plagiarism is a blurry one that is often whipped out when two pieces of content appear to be eerily similar.

Witness the latest in the pantheon of “he copied me” accusations. British bank Lloyds TSB ran an ad last year that began the build-up to the Olympic games. It looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc9yKO-OCAc

Meanwhile, the BBC has launched the trailer for their coverage of the games, which has some crying foul. Here it is for comparison:

Never mind the fact that both films were created by the same ad agency, does the BBC one rip-off the Lloyds one?

Hardly. There is a similarity to be sure in terms of the look and feel of the spots, but that is only part of the story. Both spots have very different storylines and both have very different messages; the former selling a bank’s social connections, the latter selling an explicit product.

The likely truth is that someone at the BBC like the Lloyds ads and requested the ad agency, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R to create something similar.

Both videos should further illustrate that similarity does not necessarily mean stolen content.

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Animated Albums Brings Covers To Life

Animation /

Despite being near ubiquitous at this point, it’s still fun to come across a Tumblelog that pushed the artistic envelope just a wee but further. Enter Animated Albums, which takes actual album covers and, well, animates them!

Although they’re not the most graceful in the world, there is nonetheless a sense of satisfaction to be gleaned from the unquestionable Terry Gilliam feel to it all. Below are a few example and be sure to check out the archive too as the site sadly ends at November 2011.

 

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Disney & Pixar Should Not Make Any Marvel Cartoons [repost]

2 Comments / Animation /

Via: Screenrant

Just a little bit over a year ago I posted a bit of a rant about how Disney & Pixar had no business engaging in productions of Marvel properties, despite the fact that Disney owns the lot. My position hasn’t changed but the fact that there is a supposed co-production in the works, has spurred me to re-post it below.

There I said it. Disagree if you must, but please hear me out before you judge me!

Two years ago, The Walt Disney Company agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment in a massive deal that cost so much money, I could very happily live for the remainder of my years on 0.01% of it. The question arose at the time and it still exists today in what will the company do with the new acquisition?

Many answers abounded with one of the most prominent being the possibility that the Walt Disney Company could use its superior animation skills and artists to create some wonderful new Marvel-related entities.

There are numerous problems with this approach and I suppose the fact that we are discussing it two years after the fact is proof enough. Firstly, Disney and Marvel do not see eye to eye when it comes to their content.

Who would a Disney-produced Marvel TV show/film appeal to? Oh sure the likes of the X-Men films can be theoretically suitable for kids, but I’d be willing to be that the Old Maestro would be spinning in his grave at the thought of the company he built putting out such stuff.

Disney is purportedly all about the family whereas Marvel is about the individual. Each approach tends to deal with very different approaches to the story and characters and there is little common ground between them save for the fact that individuals can enjoy family-orientated entertainment too.

Who would produce the content? Marvel has its own department for such things but Disney has all the necessary staff. Can you imagine Disney artists working under people accustomed to comics? I can’t and I doubt the artists can either.

Comic animation is also very different to what Disney is accustomed to. The current artists wouldn’t be able to work on it so new ones would have to be found. Besides that, Disney has never done a comic-style film or TV show. Tron is about as close as they got and even then that was technically live-action.

On a related note, would Pixar take up the challenge? According to head honcho John Lasseter, no:

No, not at Pixar. We have The Incredibles, so we’ve done superheroes here ourselves and so we have that kind of history with Brad Bird doing The Incredibles.

Arguably the best situation is to run both companies independently. There is little common ground so why exert all the effort to merge for no real benefit. Unlike TimeWarner, Disney has no need for excuses when it comes to keeping its comic department separate from its animation one.

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Valve Releases Its Open Source “Source”

Animation /

It would appear that the game is slowly changing when it comes to making animated films. First there was the Tube Open Movie, and now, video game maker Valve has announced the beta release of its Source Filmmaker software. What is that? Well it’s Valve’s own program for creating animated shorts.

What is the best aspect to the annoucement? The fact that users will be able to use assests from the game Team Fortress 2. While this might not be the most ideal set of tools for moviemaking, it is a significant shift from the usual studio mindset of hiding all your tools away.

Think you could get access to all the sets and rigs used for Toy Story 3? Guess again. So it’s a bit of a fresh breeze to see a company stump up its own assets for regular folks to use, free of charge.

And if you thought this was a simple tool for the bedroom director, you’re mistaken. Powerhouse Irish outfit Brown Bag Films has signed on to create nothing less than a full feature film using the software, and the budget is a not so measly €15 million ($18.7 million).

The most exciting aspect to the whole thing? The fact that video game rendering engines are seeing a second purpose in rendering animation in real time. The future is bright I tell you.

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