Aardman Animations Releasing New Animations Online 59
michael writes "Apparently, Aardman Animations, who made the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films will be releasing their latest work over the Web rather than through cinemas or television.
They also mention that the company 'will encourage viewers to distribute the animated films by e-mail.' " It'll be using the new character, Angry Kid, who will /not/ be at all like Wallace and Gromit. May 7 is the first release date.
Re:Distribute movies by email????? (Score:1)
Hey, at least it's clearly meaningless. Would you prefer that message attachments looked like "at the heart of the rapidly growing movement of women onto the net" instead of "A45C892F394CE39091095FF0D472777"?
Not through email, pwweeetty puuweeez (Score:4)
Large attachments get even larger (Score:1)
Just look at your mailbox in Pine when you get a large attachment. Somebody once sent me a statistical model for all phonemes of the English language, which was more than 20 MB. In the "size" column in Pine, it just said "size = BIG!"
Re:The web gets uglier with each passing day... (Score:1)
Whenever you can make the world more useful and less annoying, you will find supporters. Originally, the web served this purpose, at least in part, and the web sites that succeeded furthered these goals.
(I'm thinking of places like google or freshmeat, they do something people want, and they do it well. Yahoo and slashdot were once squarely in this category, and I'd add all the IM software in it too, if they could work together...)
However, corporations ignore all that. They try to replace personability with reputation, and courtesy with lawsuits, and goodwill with money. And that can get you far in life, but it doesn't always get you to where you'd want to go.
Oh. And I'm *usually* a dumb bitch? Speak out, my man! Post your opinion. Even this little comment is something. Constructive feedback is a good thing...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].
Re:/. moderation gets uglier with each passing day (Score:1)
Did you read both of my posts in this thread? I suppose not.
I was surprised that my post got moderated up to 5 too, but I don't see what "Offtopic" has to do with this. If the story didn't have to do with web content, please enlighten me as to the topic.
I'm also sickened that Alex, who took the time to reply to my post, got moderated down for being "Offtopic". He was completely *on* topic! Why? Because he was replying to my post. Reserve "Offtopic" for someone who posts on a story and just can't stop talking about how cool fried bananas are in his blender, okay? *That's* Offtopic. (it might also be "Funny" too.
However, thank you for replying instead of wasting mod points. I'd much rather get *actual* feedback as opposed to some monkey clicking 'Offtopic' and never telling me why. (don't worry, one of those monkeys took your advice, too)
later,
Peter
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].
Re:The web gets uglier with each passing day... (Score:2)
I care more about having a site at least look nice in most web browsers (at least IE, Netscape and w3m) because let's face it, people don't write pages for specs, and specs don't view pages. However, the Times page couldn't even do that. From a coding, design, *or* user interface point of view, it's just sorry.
Slashdot, however, at least works well. It has a functional design that people like to copy. And the validator people usually point to is somewhat overzealous. (no doctype? ALT tags are required?) I'm also not a big fan of later HTML specs, because I'd be happier without Frames, but they've taken over somewhat. So it isn't perfect, but it's definitely usable, and not openly offensive.
You didn't miss anything, except that I tend to free associate a tad too much. Yes, that's what I meant to say. No, that's not how you're supposed to interpret it. And why can't I say it in the same breath? Slashdot does, they just don't tell you. Besides, my point holds: if the web designers for The Times would make silly movie files instead, I'd be very thankful.
Ah, but *if* you have an account, the contract you agreed to by getting that account is in the U.K., and it's meant to be interpreted under their laws (says so at the bottom). I don't know how they expect to *enforce* such a badly-written and ad-hoc agreement, but there you are. Oh, and I linked to their "Terms & Conditions" page, so *if* I had an account, I would have broken the terms already. And if they were written in 1998, the more reason to change them.
Actually, the trademark issue *is* hard to understand, from the contract. I don't believe that's what it says. It might be precisely what they *meant*, but it certainly isn't what it says. That's why legal contracts *need* to be 10 times longer, and written in legalese. The same goes for your other point about changing the rules, it's all pretty vague and threatening, trying to get more mileage out of the law than it actually allows.
Heh heh. Funny story at the end, there. I say, if they can weasel their way in there, they can subject the Chinese populace to their crappy 'media'. We know corporations have no ethics, and I'm amused when they find themselves having to prove it to governments that have no ethics (read: governments). Competition is a good thing when it works, and I'm not sure if that's an instance of this. (it's like going from a one-party system to a two-party system. Either you have one real option, or you have a choice, sorta, but it's a choice between evils..)
I try not to follow politics if I can help it, and I don't watch that much TV just because it's so *BAD*. This is the same issue, really. If all the content on the web dropped out, I wouldn't surf, I'd find something better to do with my time, like code, maybe.
Thanks for the reply, Alex, nice post.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].
The web gets uglier with each passing day... (Score:4)
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the creators of all cool-looking animated movie files for their work, because I'd rather be watching their movies than reading their HTML.
What inspired me, in my baseless ranting? I'm glad you asked! Not only does the story linked from slashdot look horrible, but so does its HTML--it's really broken. The HTML tag is commented out, the ads are in JavaScript, so not only are they annoying, but they output broken HTML if Java/JavaScript is not turned on; the commenting looks like some of the joking in the polls (this is the TITLE tag...), and the background and page layout doesn't scale at all.
Beyond that, their Terms & Conditions [the-times.co.uk] are also a travesty. First, the whole thing is invalid because condition #1 is false!
(I have no User Account with them, and I wish I didn't have to have one for *EVERY* frickin' web site I ever visit. That isn't the answer. A universal ID isn't, either, but I'm sure we could use some sort of common challenge/response method, at least...)
Let's hope our friends at Slashdot don't have an account, because you're not allowed to link below the main page of their site without express written permission from the webmaster. Oh, and you can only display the page on the screen or on paper, so you'd better delete that netscape cache...
You also need their express written permission to use the trademarks "The Times" and "The Sunday Times". So can I say "My grandfather likes to read The Sunday Times"? Can I write it? Sue me already, I'd love to see it.
Oh, and my favorite: we reserve the right to add or change this agreement, so if you do something we don't like, we can change that contract you agreed to, and sue you under the new one. Yeah, that's fair.
Summary: Screw corporations. Take back the web. If you need to have a DISCLAIMER on a web page, feel a need to sue your client base, or don't want to learn how to write HTML correctly, leave. If you'd rather make pretty pictures and movies, and let everyone see them, stay.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].
Re:Please, oh please... (Score:3)
rOD.
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Re:bandwidth cops (Score:1)
...and you've never used something for a purpose other than that for which it was designed?
Jeez, call yourself a nerd?
Aardman Animations Already Online (Score:3)
They were already sold on the web BEFORE angrykid.
MPAA (Score:5)
By reading this post, you consent to be bound by it's terms. TERMS: You must moderate this +1 if reading on slashdot, or reply saying something posititive if viewing on another medium or do not have moderator points. You further agree with the poster in all respects and will not visit the site, or download any video not MPAA Approved. Failure to do so will result in your monitor exploding and your speakers melting (thanks intel!).
Your compliance is appreciated,
~ The MPAA
Re:bandwidth cops (Score:1)
Email?? PLEASE NO! (Score:1)
Hmm... Probably around the time AOL, compuserve, etc. opened their floodgates...
________________________________
Aardman characters (Score:4)
Actually, Aardman has a whole history of great characters from before Wallace & Grommit. They did a series of claymation lip-synch portraits of people telling their stories or of office scenes, including an incredible one of this rough kid who'd just been released from jail ("Going Equipped," from 1985). There was also the one of the social security office ("Down and Out," 1977) which was an early one but really incredible.
Their homepage http://www.aardman.com [aardman.com] has details on these and many other great shorts. Well worth the visit!
Re:ok, if not email... what? (Score:1)
Re:Atom Films - Useless and Evil (Score:1)
Fortunately, they have provided content in RealPlayer format, and not just Windows Media Player, so that you're not entirely restricted to a Wintel box.
In any case, I think the animators that have allowed their work to be displayed on the web should be congratulated; they're certainly not useless and evil. The web site designer at Atom Films is the one who needs a talking to; not flames, but perhaps a little coersion.
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On a related note, I thought that M$ had dumped craptiveX (or at least a limited subset) onto Mac users. I'm almost certain of that. Perhaps they ditched the effort? Still there would have to be Mac-compiled binaries of the controls to actually work, assuming that activeX stuff is actually compiled and not VB or something godawful like that. I suppose we can only hope that they never got around to polluting other platforms with that crap.
Atom Films and Jolly Roger (Score:2)
It's nice to see a group of people who, unlike some organisations we know, are committed to making full use of new technologies rather than launching litigation against anyone who sees potential in digital distribution.
On a related note, it's important to support sites like this. By spreading the word, and voicing your appreciation, we can encourage others to venture into this new realm of distribution. Don't let the MPAA control the course of technology! Support this kind of thing by downloading their stuff and possibly even buying a video/DVD of their animation. (No, I'm not affiliated with them, or the animation industry, in any way!)
As I say, it's great to see people who see the Internet as a great new means of distribution instead of a threat. Keep up the great work!
Re:The web gets uglier with each passing day... (Score:4)
No offense, friend, but your reply was both hasty and misguided.
Yes, the HTML on The Times' website is fairly pathetic. Yes, it doesn't scale well. No, the 95% of web users who will ever look at it don't give a crap, and so it doesn't affect the webmasters who respond to customer needs, rather than complaints at Slashdot. Your ranting would've found a better place as a friendly email to the Webmasters. It probably would've been ignored, but then that's life if you try to be one of The Good Guys.
But now, on to the real issue.
the whole WWW gets uglier with each passing day
No shit. We're posting this on SLASHDOT, remember? The site that makes the HTML Validator choke and throw up dozens and dozens of errors in disgust. We're supposed to be the guys who fight for good code, open source, and the One True Way of Life, but what have WE, as a group, done to improve the Slashcode to be HTML4 compliant?
..or don't want to learn how to write HTML correctly, leave. If you'd rather make pretty pictures and movies, and let everyone see them, stay.
Did I miss something? The FIRST link is to Aaardman Studios, the makers of Wallace and Gromit, and the announced new films. What you are in fact ranting about is the website of The Times, one of Britains Conservative and corporate-owned broadsheet papers. Their terms and conditions are two years old as well, by the way. So please check what you're bitching about first, and then mention two completely unrelated companies in the same breath. Thanks.
Let's hope our friends at Slashdot don't have an account, because you're not allowed to link below the main page of their site without express written permission from the webmaster.
Oh, come on now. The rules and conditions were written in 1998, and even though the site resides in the UK, we know all about deep linking and its now established legality in the US. After all, the Slashdot servers reside in the US, so all complaints would be moot.
You also need their express written permission to use the trademarks "The Times" and "The Sunday Times". So can I say "My grandfather likes to read The Sunday Times"? Can I write it? Sue me already, I'd love to see it.
I assume you really enjoy exaggerating completely obvious points. 'The Times' and 'The Sunday Times' are registered trademarks. Which means they have to DEFEND them, otherwise their trademarks are lost. What this means, in detail, is that you're not allowed to use their trademarks for your own profit, or in a libellous or slanderous context, which is what the limitations to Free Speech(tm) in the US are.
So yes, you can go on about your Grandpa and The Sunday Times, but no, you can't create a newspaper, call it The Sunday Times, and sell it, or use the trademarked item to promote goods of your own. Is that so hard to understand?
Oh, and my favorite: we reserve the right to add or change this agreement, so if you do something we don't like, we can change that contract you agreed to, and sue you under the new one. Yeah, that's fair.
Duh, yes, it is. Terms and Conditions the world over include this clause. It doesn't mean that they're allowed to sue you for something you did BEFORE they changed the conditions. Re-read them. What they're doing is to protect themselves from having people exploit possible loopholes in the the rules. It's a normal clause, and that's it. All it means is that they reserve the right to fix any problems and patch rules loopholes, without the miscreant being able to complain 'since he used to do that when the rules were different so he should be able to continue doing that since the rules said - way back then - that it was legal. Ok?
Now, come on. I know you've got a lot of karma lately, but isn't this pretty much just pointless flaming? It doesn't help anyone to vent in this forum, all we're getting are just extended flamewars about bad HTML, etc, that lead nowhere. It's really a better idea to complain straight to their webmasters if you have any issue with the way their website works.
And finally - if you really need to bitch, you can find a great target in the owners of The Times, News Corp. Also owners of 20th Century Fox, Fox TV (aka Crappy TV 90210), innumerable TV and news publications, and a global media giant who's been cozying up with mainland china, has allowed their TV to be censored, and has had their chairman, Rupert 'Mogul' Murdoch openly criticise western media response to the Tiannanmen Massacre, so the Chinese dictatorship would allow his dubious media enterprise to operate in China.
See, now you have a much better target than crappy HTML
Alex T-B
Re:ok, if not email... what? (Score:1)
Since you obviously know nothing about email, let me suggest that you read RFCs 821, 822, 1421, and 1521. There are very good reasons why pure 8-bit data is not allowed.
The simple fact is that 8-bit data would crash most mail servers/gateways. Base64 encoding allows 8-bit data to pass through any RFC 821/822 mailserver without doing anything evil. Do you really think that this is "for nothing"? Do you suggest that every mailserver/client be updated so you can make your attachments smaller?
New movie: The Chicken Run (Score:2)
Good idea. Get 'em where they live. (Score:1)
<shameless plug>
In a related topic, my friends and I are releasing videos we make in the same manner. They're funny, trust me... and there will be more as time goes on, too. From a link on my home page [wpi.edu] you can download (and freely distribute) what movies we have.
</shameless plug>
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So does this mean.... (Score:1)
Yeah for spam-mail!
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Re:This is what we need (Score:2)
Distribute movies by email????? (Score:5)
Email was never intended to be used for file transfers, and is poorly suited to this task. Message attachments, or the ability to make attachments, is a hack of the system - if you've ever read an email without decoding the "attachment" all you see is a rather large amount of seemingly meaningless text.
It's also important to note that the majority of people connected to the Internet are still connected with analogue modems - and to download even a 2MB file can cause timeouts on a 56k (or 33.6k) line.
I cannot recount the number of times I had to clear a "blocked" mailbox in my 5-odd years of working in the ISP industry, mainly due to the presense of a message with a large (2MB or above) attachment.
Re:Distribute movies by email????? (Score:2)
that had a user which thought that sending attachments
by email was a good idea. U/ling an
to the local smtp server was fast, and at the
other end it was fast to d/l it from the local
pop server. Until one day he emailed an
to a friend, and got a bounce message back with
'This would exceed mailbox limits, try again later'.
... including a full copy of his message (and the attachment). It then quite happily resent this bounce message after 4 hrs etc, up until 7 days.
His ISP wasn't happy getting that many copies of the iso bounced back....
Re:Please, oh please... (Score:2)
Come to think of it, I think I'll do that right now...
ok, if not email... what? (Score:1)
Any ideas?
/. moderation gets uglier with each passing day (Score:1)
I took a quick glance at aardman.com and I think they made a pretty cool web site.
Did you really click on both links in this /. article? I suppose not.
And I'm really surprised that something as offtopic as this gets moderated up to five. (I could have wasted my moderator points on this, but this time I chose to reply.)
--Carpe diem!
Re:/. moderation gets uglier with each passing day (Score:1)
And it wasn't clear at all from your first post that your ranting wasn't about Aardman. Of course, it wasn't as offtopic as "cool fried bananas", but IMHO it's not quite on topic, either.
Anyway, I think I should stop now, because it's getting completely offtopic now. :-)
--Carpe diem!
Re:ok, if not email... what? (Score:3)
Defining a way to send the e-mail attachments as pure 8-bit data (instead of fluffy encoded garbage that inflates the data size by one third for nothing) would be a good start...
As if the overloading problem wouldn't be bigger with large e-mail attachments...
--znarkRe:Please, oh please... (Score:1)
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Re:The web gets uglier with each passing day... (Score:1)
Some websites need logins/passwords to identify users to each other. Slashdot does this. IRC (yeah, I know, not a website) generally does not do this adequately.
Some websites are completely static, so unless they're charging you, it doesn't make sense for them to ask you for a l/p. Most of these sites don't ask you for one.
Many websites let you set up preferences about what you see. Many of these sites (such as www.msn.com [msn.com]) only give cookies. Many (such as my.yahoo.com [yahoo.com]) require you to register with a login/password. Having to make up and remember a login/password is annoying, but so is trying to move preferences from one computer to another without one. These websites should use cookies and give users the option to create a login/password combination, but AFAIK, none do.
(I don't know which category www.the-times.co.uk [the-times.co.uk] falls under -- I'm just saying this in general.)
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if not email... freenet? (Score:2)
Freenet [sourceforge.net]? It doesn't waste lots of bandwidth outside of a given network if lots of people inside the network request it, and it doesn't get overloaded unless a huge number of people request one file at the same time. Of course, not a lot of people use it right now, but this animation could be good, legal reason to get lots of people to try it out (as Ian Clarke was hoping at the end of yesterday's slashdot interview [slashdot.org].
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Cool (Score:1)
Re:Atom Films - Useless and Evil (Score:1)
Re:The future... (Score:1)
Re:Not without my handbag! (Score:1)
Re:Not without my handbag! - not acting (Score:1)
Please, oh please... (Score:2)
Re:bandwidth cops (Score:2)
Well, yeah, probably. But this time they'll be taking a different stance. I mean, distributing the stuff on their website is one thing, but encouraging people to pass the movies around via email is quite another. I envision myself going away for a weekend, deciding to check my email while I'm on a 56k modem, and being forced to download a 26mb DamnVideo(tm) G2 movie at that time. (as opposed to while I'm sitting on the T1, where it wouldn't bother me as much).
The point is, for god's sake, EMAIL was meant for text, dammit! Maybe an attachment here and there, but not mass-mailing full movies a-la chain letter.
bandwidth cops (Score:2)
Bring on the video - bring on the audio...
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Re:Please, oh please... (Score:1)
Re:The future... (Score:1)
I'm not even a troll, and I think that's funny as shit!
and, watch me get moderated down to 0: offtopic just because some dipshit moderator doesn't understand the concept of replying to a post (*not* a news item)
SaintAlex
Observe, reason, and experiment.
Not like this! (Score:3)
Next thing you know, they'll release an animation of Craig Shergold taking a date rape drug and waking up in a bathtub full of ice -- MISSING A KIDNEY -- and comforting himself with cookies made from his $250 Nieman Marcus recipe while he sends a message to the FCC protesting their impending modem tax ....
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Nick Park (Score:2)
This is what we need (Score:3)
on a side note, one solution could be a marriage between capitialism and 'net' distribution, to course to leave commercials in. We're constantly arguing about no one does anything for free. Well - why is network telivision free? Because of commercials. I for one am willing to deal with a few minutes of advertising on my Mpeg in order to obtain freely distributable media that i actually WANT to see, and can see whenver i want to boot.
FluX
Re:Aardman characters (Score:2)
Also most people just know them for Nick Parks work (W&G, creature comforts) when in fact they are a stable of probably the greatest animator in the western world.
It's nice to see one of the other animators with another style coming to the fore as well to show their diversity.
Re:Nick Park (Score:2)
Re:New movie: The Chicken Run (Score:1)
Re:This is what we need (Score:1)
Of course it is also in their interests to encourage animation in general, so perhaps they don't intend to make any money from it at all.
Re:bandwidth cops (Score:1)
Not without my handbag! (Score:3)
I just hope that the video is *not* in Quicktime.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Re:MPAA (Score:1)
aardman.atomfilms.com (Score:2)
They've got a number of their works under the Aardman Observer section including Creature Comforts, one about a rambling old man's war story, and too many more.
You are given the choice of high or low bandwidth Real Media G2, or Windows Media.
Rant: while aardman's great animation, is it really slashdot news?
Re:Not through email, pwweeetty puuweeez (Score:3)
Systems Administrator
Servu Networks
http://www.servuhome.net
Re:Please, oh please... (Score:1)
Re:Nick Park (Score:1)
Angry Kid is directed by Darren Walsh- I guess Aardman is expanded.
And for those that still prefer the resolution of film, it is playing in the 'Spike and Mike classic festival of animation' on the West Coast. In California and BC,Canada through the middle of May.
They have schedule information at www.spikeandmike.com [ifilm.com]
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Re:Not without my handbag! - not acting (Score:1)
Re:Distribute movies by email????? (Score:1)
"This e-mail address is intended for personal correspondence. I hereby promise not to forward to you any inspirational messages or jokes-of-the-day. I understand that you reserve the right to amend this contract at any time."
I now need to add a line about movies as attachements.
Of course I had already begun drafting a new version for the holidays that bans animated, singing Christmas trees as attachments. I'll just roll it out early.
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Satire [m-w.com]
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