animation
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Animated spoof of Brawl invokes the spirit of Robot Chicken, only with Flash
Before you go clicking on any links, we want to warn you that the following flash is NSFW in many ways. Now that we're clear, we thought you might enjoy this (again, NSFW) jumble of short flash skits available at Newgrounds, based on the upcoming (and highly anticipated) Super Smash Bros. Brawl. These skits are meant to spoof many of the daily updates that we've gotten from the official Smash Bros. site. While some are completely unfunny, on the whole the Flash is pretty entertaining (specifically any scene with Snake in it). Keep in mind that although the scenes themselves are short, the compilation of them all leads to a pretty long video. On the chance that we've cause you to waste five or so minutes of your life that you'll never get back, know that we'll cry inside every day just thinking about it.[Thanks, hvnlysoldr!]
Disney making online game based on the movie "Cars"
According to the San Fernando Business Journal, Disney Online plans to release a virtual world game based on the hugely successful 3D-animated film Cars.Disney sees this as a way to keep kids invested in the franchise "for years to come" even without a sequel on the horizon. The article also says that Disney plans substantial future investments in these sorts of projects because they've had success with other titles like Toontown Online and Club Penguin.While games like this don't usually get as much attention from the gaming media, they're arguably no less successful or lucrative than games like EverQuest II. [Via Worlds in Motion]
Make animations on your DS with FlickBook
The latest homebrew to catch our eye is this animation app called FlickBook. The concept is pretty simple, but fun: you draw a series of frames and make them into animated films.The painting tools are very basic, so you won't be able to create detailed pictures like you would with Pocket Painter. The program is still cool, though, and seems less difficult than creating animations on your DS with Pictochat. We also like that we can export the films to our computers as AVI files. Besides, stick figure animations reminds us lovingly of Don Hertzfeld's (slightly NSFW) "Rejected" cartoons, which can only mean good things.
Make Love, Not Warcraft wins Emmy
The South Park WoW episode: "Make Love, Not Warcraft" won the Creative Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour). Though the Primetime Emmys will not take place until Sunday, September 16th, the Creative Arts Emmys were awarded yesterday, September 8th at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA.South Park beat out episodes from The Simpsons, Avatar, Robot Chicken and SpongeBob SquarePants for the award.This episode is on the 10th season DVD which recently came out and don't forget you can get a discount just for typing in the code WARCRAFT if you order it from Comedy Central.This isn't the first Emmy that South Park has won, but perhaps this kind of attention will get WoW more positive (or at least humorous) attention in other television shows. Though, when it comes to TV ratings, 9 million people worldwide does not a target audience make. For example, American Idol was considered slipping when it only had 30 million US viewers for an episode.Would you like to see WoW references appear more often on TV? Or are you too busy playing to care?
Friday Video: Wii hates Lego dudes
If you happen to be made of Lego bits, apparently, the Wii is not for you. In fact, all technology may well hate you and your cunningly fitted pieces. This short comedy video by YouTube user Metalzora, who specializes in the plights and perils of Lego people, features that thing we all fear -- high-flying Wii remotes destroying our televisions. We can only guess someone didn't replace their wrist strap.
Heavenly Sword animation: The Day of the Warrior
And finally, it comes: the day of the warrior. Entrusted with the Heavenly Sword, will this warrior succumb to the sword's mythical bloodlust? Watch this week's episode of the Heavenly Sword prequel animation and see Nariko's transformation into a skilled warrior. This episode will also be available for download this Thursday on the PlayStation Store. Check out the previous episodes here: See also:Episode 1: Legend of the Heavenly SwordEpisode 2: Guardian of the SwordEpisode 3: The Rise of EvilEpisode 4: The Divine Birth
Heavenly Sword animation: The Divine Birth
The Heavenly Sword animation continues. The latest episode chronicles the journeys of the clan that protects the Heavenly Sword. At the end of their trials comes a birth of the divine variety (is there any other kind?). What will this mysterious baby become? Well, you'll have to watch and find out, no?This episode will be available in HD on the PlayStation Store later this week. See also:Episode 1: Legend of the Heavenly SwordEpisode 2: Guardian of the SwordEpisode 3: The Rise of Evil
Ratatouille joins Cars for November 6th Blu-ray release
Those already saving up their $34.99 for Disney's Cars may now be inclined to pinch those pennies a bit harder, as it looks like Ratatouille will be landing on store shelves the very same day. Sure, this seems like a shameless attempt to get early-bird holiday shoppers (and grown-ups with youngsters in tow) to pick up twice the amount of Blu-ray films they were initially planning to come November 6th, but we won't be surprised if the scheme works out quite well. No word just yet on what kinds of rat-infested extras we'll see on the BD release, but we're keepin' our ears, er, nose to the ground.
Heavenly Sword animation: The Rise of Evil
It's Monday. You know what the means: another episode of the Heavenly Sword prequel animation. As if the titular Heavenly Sword wasn't cursed with bloodlust already, this episode chronicles the rise of evil. As usual, you'll be able to download a high definition version later in this week's Store update. See also:Episode 1: Legend of the Heavenly SwordEpisode 2: Guardian of the Sword
Heavenly Sword animation explains mythic origins
Ever wanted to know where the titular Heavenly Sword came from? Sony's releasing a brand new animated series highlighting the origins of Nariko's sword. Available first to GAP members, the video has made its way to the internet ... and to you. Watch the first part of an ongoing series, to be updated weekly.
Animation brings PSP to life
PSP "Come To Life" Animation - video powered by Metacafe See everything the PSP can do in this new stop-motion animated short film, called "Come to Life." It's a visually fascinating piece that really makes the PSP seem as cool as it is.
ChyTV's HD 100 enables 1080p digital signage
If you've been holding back on procuring that LCD4620, ChyTV's HD 100 just might be the accessory that pushes you over the edge. The latest in the firm's lineup of video graphics information display systems, this particular iteration steps it way up by enabling real-time 3D text and graphics to be outputted in stunning 1080p for all your potential customers to see. Sporting DVI and VGA outs, this system touts dynamic graphics, an integrated MPEG player, page scheduling, and all the other tools you'd expect to flash your wares to passerbyers. Unfortunately, it looks like you'll be forced to personally inquire about pricing options, but tempting citizens with beautiful high-definition footage could very well prove invaluable.
1UP: 360 football games to run faster than PS3
Football is a game of split second decisions, and simulating the sport on the Xbox 360 will soon let you split those seconds more finely. 1UP is reporting that this summer's major pigskin simulators -- EA's Madden NFL 08 and NCAA Football 2008 and 2K Sports' All-Pro Football 2K8 -- will run at 60 frames per second on the Xbox 360 and 30 frames per second on the PS3. The move represents a jump from previous Madden games, which ran at 30 frames per second on all platforms, including the Xbox 360 and PS3. While the additional frames mean smoother, more fluid animation in the 360 versions, it's still unclear how the jump will impact graphical fidelity or resolution. A comparison between both versions of last year's Madden 07 conducted by Gamespot showed the 360 version had "sharper textures on the character models in the close-up shots shown between plays." In comparing this year's games, 1UP simply stated that "All-Pro Football 2K8 definitely runs better on Xbox 360." The reasons behind this frame rate difference are hard to pin down. Todd Sitrin, EA Vice President of Marketing Sports Branding, told 1UP that there are trade offs in designing football simulations and that "every company making a football game this year made a decision that the best experience for the Xbox 360 included 60fps whereas the best experience for the PS3 was 30fps." Extra time and familiarity with the Xbox 360 hardware could have influenced the development, as could the purported difficulty in programming for the PS3's multi-processor architecture. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Forum Post(s) of the Day: Patch 2.1 changes females?
There was some hullabaloo this week over various changes that some thought had been made to the female avatars in patch 2.1. These changes made me think about who makes decisions regarding what female avatars should look like, and if these decisions tell us anything about ourselves as gamers.First of these alleged changes came to light when somehow some people got it in their minds that the... um... well... that uh... their... um... human and other Azerothian females wouldn't have to buy such large bras if they made a trip to the department store, because the two relevant glands had been reduced in size.Well, this time it was Death and Taxes to the rescue! Xaviera took up the supposed change with dedication, comparing "old" and "new" screenshots with the utmost precision, and proved for all to see that in fact NO change had taken place! As Xaviera says at the end of her conclusive argument, "you can sleep safely, take it easy."Stay tuned for more female avatar-change headline news and expert analysis after the jump.
Terminal Tip: Four ways to turn off Finder animations and speed up your system
Mac OS X Hints has posted several ways to disable Finder animations like the snap-to-grid animation and the Info window opening animation. They are: 1. Disable standard Finder animations.defaults write com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations -bool true 2. Disable 'snap to grid'. defaults Write com.apple.Finder AnimateSnapToGrid -bool FALSE 3. Disable Info pane animations defaults write com.apple.finder AnimateInfoPanes -bool false 4. Disable slow-mo animations (seen when you press Shift during Exposé launches or window minimization) defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableSlowAnimation -bool true Issue any or all of these at the command line, and then restart Finder. (Enter killall "Finder" at the command line.) To reverse these effects, change from true to false or false to true and restart Finder again. So did this make my creaky 733 G4 Power PC Mac run faster? Perhaps a little. The biggest changes in speed I noticed were in accessing folders from the dock.
WoW Moviewatch: With a little help from Wowhead
This may be the first time I've seen a video about a WoW web site. Wowhead is a site I'm very fond of personally, for reasons that I think this video makes clear: how else are you supposed to know where your SWORD is? The animated short is by the people behind the "Looking for Group" comic, and I must say I'm pretty impressed with the animation quality. Take that, rat!Previously on WoW Moviewatch
Team Fortress 2 gets cheeky
One part The Incredibles, one part Sony's crazy European bathtub ad, the new Team Fortress 2 trailer gets cheeky with "The Heavy." Although we are looking forward to continuing the Half-Life 2 story with the Black and Orange Box this fall, it feels like Portal and Team Fortress 2 is starting to grab our attention a lot more. Although, all that Half-Life 2 goodness in the Orange Box for those who've never played should be hard to resist. The comic-style first-person shooter of Team Fortress 2 might help grab some XBL players who aren't into the ultra-serious, super-hardcore, lifestyle that Halo 3 online will be. Team Fortress 2 could very well shape up to be the "other" multiplayer shooter for the Xbox 360 and some great multiplayer action for PS3 owners.[Via Xbox360Fanboy]
2D sprites get massive for the HD generation
While the arrival of HDTV has generally been a boon to the game industry, it's definitely caused headaches for at least one shrinking but still important sector of the industry -- 2D sprite artists. As the above illustration of the Ryu sprite for the upcoming Street Fighter II HD Remix shows, drawing good-looking 2D characters in HD requires a lot more attention to detail than the old standard-resolution sprites.This problem is not exclusive to Capcom. Castlevania designer Koji Igarishi remarked at GDC on the labor involved in creating high resolution 2D art and SNK President Ben Herman lamented in an IGN interview that bringing the company's fighters to the 360 and PS3 would require artists to "re-draw every single older game."The extra work leads to extra benefits, though, as the sleek new Ryu above clearly demonstrates. Still, the proof will be seeing these beautiful high-def drawings come to life. All the graphical fidelity in the world doesn't matter if the animation is on par with Star Wars Adventures.
Today's hand-drawn video: Super Smash Bros.
It's cute, it's simple, and it's better than a slew of video games we've been playing lately. We give you Super Smash Bros., in hand-drawn animation. A sweeping cinematic score only underlines the awesomeness of this fine video.Nintendo, if you want to save some money, get someone on this project, pronto. Release it, rake in the dough, and we'll have something to tide us over until the real game comes out. Trust us. Make sure you watch until the very ... end?
South Park: made on Macs
Maybe I shouldn't be admitting this publicly, but I'm a big fan of South Park. So I was pleased to see the latest Apple Pro Profile is about the South Park Studios and their use of Macs. The construction paper feel is produced with Photoshop and Maya on 30 Power Mac G5s, with the final product requiring Motion, Shake, and some other software packages as well. Then the heavy lifting is done by a 120 AMD processor Linux render farm. One neat tidbit: by working nearly around the clock, they manage to push out each episode the day it airs on Comedy Central, with an entire episode being produced in only 6 days. It's an interesting look behind a fun show. Check out the complete profile on Apple's Pro site.[Via Digg]
