Twitter announced Monday it is blocking animated PNG (APNG) files after trolls used them to attack epileptics.
APNGs are similar to animated GIFs, containing multiple images in a single file. The images, or frames, are displayed sequentially, creating the effect of an animation or video clip.
Unlike animated GIFs, however, APNGs bypassed Twitter’s safeguards that prevent animated files from auto-playing. Online trolls took advantage of this, hijacking hashtags used by the Epilepsy Foundation and displaying flashing APNGs in an effort to cause seizures.
To prevent this from happening again, Twitter has blocked APNGs from being used. Users will still be able to upload animations, but will need to use animated GIFs, as they don’t auto-play and therefore don’t post the same risk to users.
Twitter’s announcement:
“We want everyone to have a safe experience on Twitter.
APNGs were fun, but they don’t respect autoplay settings, so we’re removing the ability to add them to Tweets. This is for the safety of people with sensitivity to motion and flashing imagery, including those with epilepsy.”
Netflix announced on Thursday that it has secured an exclusive licensing agreement with the Disney/ABC Television Group for Star Wars content, which will see Netflix debuting the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars “The Lost Missions” on March 7th in the U.S. and Canada.
Accompanying the thirteen-episode season will be the director’s cuts of seasons 1 – 5 and the feature film.
According to Netflix, in the final season of The Clone Wars will reveal “some of the deepest mysteries of the conflict between the light and the dark sides of the Force.”
“An intrepid clone trooper discovers a shocking secret, Anakin Skywalker’s closest relationship is tested to its limits and what Master Yoda discovers while investigating the disappearance of a Jedi could forever change the balance of power in the galaxy,” the company says.
It’s a multi-year agreement, which also makes Netflix the exclusive subscription service for the whole Clone Wars series.
Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos said, “Star Wars is one of the most iconic franchises of all time and this series joins a long line of Disney content that Netflix members are and will continue to enjoy for years to come. The Clone Wars marks an important moment as Netflix welcomes more and more first-run content from The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries.”
This marks the first time that any Star Wars content has been available on Netflix’s streaming service. It also continues the relationship between Disney and Netflix, which will see several original series based on Marvel characters next year, as well as U.S. exclusivity for first-run, live-action and animated movies from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and beginning in 2016, Lucasfilm.
Our favorite science illustrators AsapSCIENCE usually take a couple-week break between uploading some of the finest 2-minute animated science videos on the internet. Basically, AsapSCIENCE takes complicated topics and boils them down to their most salient points, and then presents them to your average YouTube user in a clear an concise manner.
What’s not to love?
Well, here’s a treat. AsapSCIENCE has decided to tackle a bunch of topics that are related to the Olympics–performing in the Olympics, and general athletics in general. As the action in Sochi heats up (cools down?), take a look at some interesting scientific concepts that impact The Games like the actual advantage of stretching, talent vs. training, why we get nervous, and how music can improve athletic performance.
For many people, the Super Bowl is a chance to stuff your face with delicious but artery-clogging delicacies and check out some unusually funny commercials – and that’s about it. If that describes you, well, how about you give football a try?
Ok, I know – some people just don’t like football and that’s never going to change. But if you’re thinking about actually paying attention to the game this year (or at least thinking about making an attempt) – here comes a clever little animation to help you better understand the chaos.
No, this 3-minute explanation of American Football won’t teach you about offensive play calling, defensive schemes, or oft-forgotten rules. But what it will do is give the football virgin a decent idea about what’s happening on-screen.
Oh, so you know football? You’re an everyday John Madden? Ok, well, watch it anyway – it’s rather enjoyable.
Animated film “Frozen,” which was released in the U.S. on November 27, has had a very successful week in the box office all the while surpassing other Disney films.
The wintry film has earned over $300 million nationwide and $642 million worldwide, exceeding other popular films such as: :”Toy Story 3,” “Shrek 2 and 3,” and “Finding Nemo.”
During January 3 to 5, the movie topped $298 million in North America alone.
The 1994 film “The Lion King” is the only other film that has reached this milestone, so now Disney celebrates the prestigious achievement of two movies. However, “Frozen” still falls second runner-up to its predecessor.
On Tuesday, the animated film received not one but two “Best Animated Feature” awards at the North Texas Film Critics Association’s Awards ceremony and the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards ceremony.
What is even more shocking is that the “Frozen” soundtrack is now NO. 1 on the Billboard 200, beating Beyoncé’s self-titled album, “Beyoncé.”
““Frozen” is just the fourth animated film soundtrack to reach No. 1 since the Billboard 200 became a regularly published weekly chart in 1956. It follows Jack Johnson’s “Curious George” (2006), and Disney’s “Pocahontas” (1995) and “The Lion King” (1994).” (image)
It originally made is mark at No. 18 the second week of December, but the soundtrack continues to grow in sales because of its strong stance in the box office.
Overall, “Frozen” ranks fourth place as the highest-grossed film of 2013!
“Frozen” has definitely had an outstanding week and it seems as though people are enjoying the soundtrack or already in search to obtain movie paraphernalia of their own.
Does anyone know if they carry frozen movie toys at toys r us? I need a snowman and Disney is always out
After teasing the sequel earlier this year, DreamWorks today released the first official full-length trailer for How to Train Your Dragon 2. The movie will hit theaters on June 20th next summer.
The movie is the sequel to the 2010 hit animated film How to Train Your Dragon. That 3D movie became one of DreamWorks’ most acclaimed movies and the animation studio is now determined to turn what was an adaptation of children’s books into a full movie franchise. A third How to Train Your Dragon Movie has already been announced and will be coming to theaters during the summer of 2016.
For How to Train Your Dragon 2, Jay Baruchel is back as the voice of Hiccup, the young viking who plays by his own rules and is the son of viking chief Stoick, voiced by Gerard Butler. Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson, Cate Blanchett, and Kristen Wiig have also leant their voices to the production.
The sequel will show Hiccup and his dragon, Toothless, discovering an ice cave that harbors even more dragons – and a secret that is blatantly spoiled at around the 1:25 mark:
Walt Disney Studio’s subunit, Pixar Animation Studios, has laid-off nearly five percent of its workforce due to delays of an impending film, “The Good Dinosaur.”
Approximately 60 out of 1,200 workers at the Emeryville, Calif., location was cut from the project.
In August, the original director, Bob Peterson, was removed from the film. Then a month later, the movie’s release date was pushed back from May 30, 2014 to Nov. 25, 2015.
It’s clear that Pixar is undergoing a lot of changes. In October, Pixar Canada shut down after only three years, which a Disney spokesman claimed was the result of a decision to move all further operations to Emeryville.
“A decision was made to refocus operations and resources under the one roof,” Barb Matheson told The Province. “Staff [was] just told today. Not great news, obviously. It was just a refocusing of efforts and resources to the one facility.”
After 80 layoffs and the shut down of Pixar Vancouver Studios, this is yet another episode that the business hopes to use as a way to improve their company’s performance.
“At Pixar, we are constantly re-evaluating the creative and business needs of our studio,” a Pixar representative reported to Los Angeles Times. “With the release date change of ‘The Good Dinosaur,’ we have realigned our production and support priorities, which includes a small reduction in our staffing levels.”
Pixar is known for numerous successful films such as, “Toy Story”, “Finding Nemo” and “Monsters Inc.” However, this will be the first time since 2005 that the company doesn’t release a yearly film.
“The Good Dinosaur” is said to be a very humorous film that paints a fairytale of asteroids never hitting Earth, ultimately resulting in humans and dinosaurs living together in harmony. Arlo, a loving Apatosaurus, goes on a journey that leads him to his human companion named Spot.
Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen” will make its premier on November 27th on the silver screens all across theaters in American in the form of a Disney 3d animated adaptation titled, Frozen.
Lately, Frozen has fired up a lot of controversy surrounding its rehashed Disney-fied version of the story, where most of the female characters are replaced with men. And whether to make matters worse or simply follow the motto that there is no such thing as bad publicity, Lino DiSalvo, the head of animation on Frozen, said in an interview with blogger Jenna Busch that:
“Historically speaking, animating female characters are really, really difficult, because they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty and they’re very sensitive to — you can get them off a model very quickly. So, having a film with two hero female characters was really tough, and having them both in the scene and look very different if they’re echoing the same expression; that Elsa looking angry looks different from Anna being angry.”
DiSalvo’s comments were reposted on Tumblr with around 44,000 comments from users. Other well-known artists and animators voiced their input, like comic artist Faith Erin Hicks who mentioned that, generally, women should look human:
With all criticism aside, Jenny Hollander over at Bustle mentioned a motive as to why DiSalvo may have said what he said, adding citations and stating that, “It’s a stereotype that women have all the feelings (whilst men look neutral as Switzerland as they face dragons) but it’s not psychologically disputed that women tend to be more facially expressive than men. Let’s be clear: it’s not that women have more emotions, or are more expressive in general, but women do tend to have a wider range of emotional expressions, use them more often, and don’t try as hard to conceal their emotions.”
Amid Amidi at Cartoon Brew also put his feet in the shoes of DiSalovo, saying, “In fairness to DiSalvo, I get what he’s saying as an animator. Female characters in animation typically have a more limited range of facial expressions than their male counterparts, and they are caricatured only in villainous (think Cruella de Vil or Medusa in The Rescuers) or comedic contexts.”
Critics like Pam Ryan at Film Jam Blog mention how Disney princesses present a falsified sexist image of women, where they’re usually identical to their predecessors; cookie-cut, dependent on men, and always pretty.
Earlier this year, Disney and Lucasfilm announced a new animated Star Wars series titled Star Wars Rebels. The series is set to air in the fall of 2014 on the Disney XD channel.
The show will be set between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. The Emperor, along with a newly re-made Darth Vader, will continue to consolidate power across the galaxy while a small faction of rebels begins to form.
Today Lucasfilm provided the very first teaser for Rebels in the form of a trailer. Though the production company is still staying tight-lipped about the show, the teaser does feature a star destroyer of the design seen in the original Star Wars trilogy. This could be a hint that the series will have more in common with A New Hope than Revenge of the Sith.
More information about Star Wars Rebels is set to be revealed this week at New York Comic Con. The Star Wars Rebels panel at that event will reveal new art and new details about the growing Empire depicted in the upcoming series.
“I work for an awesome company that makes news videos. I have put my entire life into this job, but my boss only cares about quantity, how fast we write and how many views each video gets,” said Marina Shifrin on her now-viral YouTube resignation. “I believe it’s more important to focus on the quality of the content. When you learn to improve this, the views will come. Here is a little video I made explaining my feelings.”
And with that, she’s gone. She’s gone to the tune of Kayne West’s “Gone,” and a nice bit of interpretive dancing. If this isn’t the most meta way to quit a job where you produce viral videos, I don’t know what is.
Shifrin works worked for Next Media Animation – the popular Taiwanese animation company that has become internet famous for their short, bizarre animated renderings of the day’s hottest news items.
You can read her brief interview with Gizmodo from last year, where she talks about the hectic process of speed animation. I guess it all became too much to handle.
And if you’re going to go out, there’s nothing like going out with hundreds of thousands of YouTube views.
Dear Everyone, I am OK. According to the doctors I had what is known as a Lindsay-Lohan-esque break down. I am fine now! Quit yer worrying.
Being at the top of the creative heap isn’t easy, especially when success has been built on original storytelling and the meticulous quality. Pixar is now feeling some of this pressure, and may be taking the entirety of next year to perfect its future films.
The L.A. Times today reported that the Walt Disney Company is pushing its upcoming Pixar flick The Good Dinosaur to late 2015. The Good Dinosaur was announced just one month ago at Disney’s D23 fan club meeting. The movie was being touted with a May 30, 2014 release at the time, but the Times report now puts the movie’s release date at November 25, 2015. The more than one year delay places the movie after Pixar’s planned release of Inside Out on June 19, 2015.
Of course, Novermber 25, 2015 is the same date Pixar had previously given for the release of the upcoming Finding Nemo sequel Finding Dory. The Times report states that Dory has now been pushed back to a summer 2016 release date as a result.
The delays come just weeks after it was reported that Pixar removed Bob Peterson, co-director of Up, from the director position on The Good Dinosaur. The studio reportedly brought in some of Pixar’s top talent (such as Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter) to fix the project and get it into shape for its 2014 release. It seems now that Pixar isn’t confident The Good Dinosaur can be brought up to snuff in time.
Though the delays could be seen as a bad sign for The Good Dinosaur, they could also be seen as good for Pixar in general. Delaying a movie rather than shoving it out the door shows that the studio still highly values quality. As the Times quoted Pixar President Ed Catmull, “Nobody ever remembers the fact that you slipped a film, but they will remember a bad film.”
Hayao Miyazaki’s films have always couched some social commentary behind their colorful visuals. However, the director’s latest project, The Wind Rises, is a bit less subtle, and has riled conservatives in his home country of Japan.
The movie follows the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed the infamous Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane. Though the content in the movie reflects Japan in wartime, it is reported to be heavily anti-war. Miyazaki himself has taken outspoken anti-war stances in the past, most famously refusing to travel to the U.S. to receive an Academy Award for Spirited Away in 2003, just after the U.S. had begun the invasion of Iraq.
The Wind Rises will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September. The festival has just released a trailer for the movie, seen below. The trailer, much like Miyazaki’s films, is unlike other modern movie trailers. Instead of emphasizing story and action, the video lilts through several small, whimsical character vignettes.
The Toronto Film Festival will also host Fading Gigolo, in which Woody Allen plays a pimp, and one of Cory Monteith’s last movies, McCanick.
This weekend, Disney held it an expo for its D23 official fan club. The event was filled with celebrities and tons of news about upcoming Disney projects. Of particular interest is a brand new movie project being planned by Pixar.
The Good Dinosaur is an alternate-history tale of dinosaurs in a world where their extinction never took place. A specific dinosaur named Arlo, a teenage Apatosaurus, will be the main character of the movie. Arlo will be accompanied on his journey by a human boy named Spot.
The Good Dinosaur is scheduled to release on May 30, 2014. Disney was confident enough in the project to go ahead and reveal its voice cast at the D23 Expo. Lucas Neff, best known as Jimmy Chance from the Fox TV series Raising Hope, will be voicing Arlo. Neff appeared on-stage at D23, joining Bill Hader (of SNL fame) and Judy Greer (Kitty Sanchez from Arrested Development), who will be voicing characters named Forrest and Ivy, respectively. Other voice cast members include John Lithgow and Frances McDormand as the voices of Poppa and Momma, as well as Neil Patrick Harris as the voice of a character named Cliff.
The movie’s story is still being kept secret, though Disney did state that Arlo will be setting out on a “quest to restore peace” after a “traumatic event” upsets his home life. Bob Peterson, the co-director of Up is co-directing The Good Dinosaur with Pixar animator Peter Sohn. Peterson is also credited with writing the movie’s story, along with animator Enrico Casarosa.
A body dead on a New York subway. A mystery abounds. Move over “Law and Order,” because this “dead meat” goes great with mushrooms.
A dead shark found on a New York City subway left many city riders asking questions. One rider said she was simply shocked.
“It smelled extremely fishy,” Isvett Verde said. “I mean, I thought I’d seen it all, but even that was a bit much. I have no idea how it got there or how long it had been there.”
The mysterious nature of the event virtually sparked an Internet sensation. Police say no one is really in trouble as everyone can only speculate how the shark came to be on the train.
“The Metropolitan Transportation Authority discovered a dead shark shortly after midnight on Wednesday on an N train at Queensboro Plaza,” according to police. “If the responsible person were found, he or she would not be charged for littering because police would need to witness the act.”
It wasn’t just so bizarre the fact a dead animal was left rotting aboard a train. It was the timing of the bizarre occurrence. This month is “Shark Week,” on the Discovery Channel. So, in celebratory fashion, riders took pictures of the shark with a few props added here and there. One media company took things a step further.
Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week,” is a series of annual television shows dedicated specifically, of course, to sharks. Airing for the first time more than 20 years ago, the series has reportedly since become a staple in cultural consciencenous.
“When the photos started going viral, many assumed right away that it was part of a promotion for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which was ongoing at the time.”
Turns out, one family believes they know how the baby shark came to be on the train. Bergen Beach resident, Alicia Vicino says she and her kids first encountered the shark while at the beach after a lifeguard pulled it from the water. After taking a fews photos, Vicino says some teenagers came up wanting to touch it, as well.
“The were very sorry that it died, and they were very upset to see it on the subway,” Vicino said. “It was so weird.”
It didn’t take long for things to get back to New York “normal.” Subway personnel took care of business rather quickly.
“A supervisor unceremoniously tossed the dead fish in a garbage bag and dumped it in the trash. The car was then put back into service,” a MTA spokesperson Adam Lisberg said. “MTA has no further information as to who left the shark on the train and do not intend to investigate further.”
Frozen doesn’t exactly sound like a compelling film title, but its first trailer already has me sold.
Disney unveiled today the first trailer for its newest animated comedy – Frozen. Here’s the official synopsis from Disney:
Walt Disney Animation Studios, the studio behind “Tangled” and “Wreck-It Ralph,” presents “Frozen,” a stunning big-screen comedy adventure. Fearless optimist Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) sets off on an epic journey—teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff (voice of Jonathan Groff) and his loyal reindeer Sven—to find her sister Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter. Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom.
Admit it – you chuckled at least a little bit. While the above trailer had nothing to do with the movie, the actual film should be pretty good. It’s co-directed by Chris Buck (Tarzan) and Jennifer Lee (screenwriter, Wreck It Ralph). In even better news, Robert Lopez, the co-creator of broadway hit Avenue Q, is writing some of the music.
Chocolate in and of itself is pretty magical. Now, what happens when you carve out multiple chocolate sculptures and put them into a zoetrope? Well, just watch:
Still confused? For a better explanation, here’s Pixar showing off its own Toy Story zoetrope. It’s just as, if not more, magical.
In case you forgot, the entire Mcbain movie is hidden in little clips over several episodes of “The Simpsons”. The writers of the show love putting in Easter eggs wherever they can, so it wasn’t really a surprise to find out they’d actually written and animated the whole story for their version of a Schwarzenegger-like action hero and carefully chopped it up, placing the excerpts in order throughout the years.
Man, I love The Matrix. Remember when Leo and his girlfriend go to the computer whatever to rescue Moshimo? Ah man, that part was classic.
“My mom hadn’t seen (or heard of) the Wachowski’s classic sci-fi film The Matrix. We watched the entire movie together and right after she told me what it was all about,” says creator pixelspersecond.
A rope walks into a bar, and he sits down and orders a drink. Bartender walks over, annoyed, and says “hey, we don’t serve your kind in here.” The rope, confused, leaves the bar. The next day he comes back, sits down, and orders a drunk. Once again the bartender tells him to get out, and that his kind isn’t welcome in his establishment.
The rope, dismayed, walks out the door. Thinking that he could fool the bartender into serving him a drink, the rope messes up his hair and walks back into the bar.
The bartender, fooled by the rope’s new look, serves him a beer. But later on in the evening, the bartender seems to recognize the rope. “Hey, aren’t you that rope from earlier”
“Frayed not,” said the rope.
That’s my favorite dumb joke.
Well, Adam Patch’s wife had her own corny joke to tell after she drank a bottle of wine. He then decided to animate it. The result is drunk history-style gold:
Though Tuesday’s hack of the AP’s Twitter account that sent U.S. markets into a freefall is no laughing matter, our favorite Taiwanese animators over at NMA do their best to make it entertaining. According to NMA’s take on the event, the fake attack on the White House signaled by the bogus tweet has something to do with flatulence. The video also takes some shots at The NY Post and Fox News.
If that’s not enough of a reason to watch, I don’t know what is:
Ever wonder how Disney used to get character movements so lifelike before today’s computer technology existed? Well, this is how: they filmed actual scenes from animated movies with real actors so they could mimic the poses and actions on paper. Check out these awesome photos, which layer the animation and live-action scenes.
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