Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time!

Today I tried another piece of software specifically designed to apparently turn a swf file into a video file.

Now why?

Well you see my demo reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77VRAgc8Tfw
I wasnt exactly jumping for joy when I first finished this reel because the software I used to video-tize clips of my flash films (called Camtasia. I wouldn't recommend it) and it works by refreshing really fast and taking lots of screenshots as whatever it's recording plays and then compiles them into the video.

Unfortunately the software only works as well as your pc is capable of refreshing it, and since my pc is a steam powered coal burning wooden piece of crap, pretty much all my traditional animation done on 1's and 2's looks like I did it on 6's or something and run at 10 frames per second.


So me and my friend Bug and my friend HackBenjamin all got copies of a piece of software another associate of ours was using. A piece of software called Magic Swf2Avi.

And wow.

Did it suck. Despite not being a video screencapture program, it managed to turn Clown Show into an AVI. An avi where it only showed like every 8th frame. Even crappier than Camtasia.

So I decided to try to export it as another video format.
And the software stopped working. It also stopped working for Bug.

It saddens me that After Effects is still the best working option for converting a SWF file to a video file.
Seeing as Adobe hates its customers so much that they refuse to really improve photoshop or remove Flash's many glitches (like the sound lag) or for that matter make it where Flash itself can export a god damn decent video file ON ITS OWN without other kinds of software, then I assume all hope is lost until a programmer who knows what they are doing comes along and produces a piece of software that can actually do this.

Maybe one day.
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Another thing that's annoying me are the sheer amount of idiots angry at the new episode of the Powerpuff girls. If I may take a moment to release some nerd fanboy rage here for a moment.

Now look, the episode moved very fast. And hey, that wasnt the show's usual style. And if the speed of the dialogue annoyed you, then hey that's fine.

But don't think for a fucking second that the people who make that cartoon have forgotten how to write the characters. Has everyone become that dense? Has everyone forgotten how the cartoon show operated?

The PPG was not like Foster's or most other shows. It had very little continuity except for occasional throwbacks to other episodes. The show worked in that each episode was its own self-contained story and depending on how it was written the characters would change. Thats why in some episodes the girls were a team and would get along. And then in others they'd bicker the whole episode. Thats why in some episodes the Professor would be shown as a laid back casual guy, and in others as a goofy nutty professor who has little control over the girls.

The continuity of that show was NOT set in concrete. For example, in the episode where we learn that Mojo Jojo created the powerpuff girls, the girls exclaim that they don't remember the event.

"We had our very own pet monkey?"

Yet, the movie explained that the whole reason they used their powers to help Townsville in the firstplace, and gained the mayor's trust, was by GASP defeating Mojo Jojo in their first real big fight.

Yet, they dont remember that? Thats how the show operated. Continuity changed how it needed to be changed in order to tell the story.

But thats not the issue here. The new special "The Powerpuff Girls Rock" was a SATIRE. They made a self-satire. How more obvious could it be.
It was obvious from the start.
In the show Bubbles was shown to be the most innocent and cute of three girls. And a bit of a ditz.

So in the special, they took her personality to an extreme and made her a freakishly adorable kid who had wild ideas for cute things "give everyone a puppy"

In the show Blossom was often shown to be the most headstrong and bossy of the three. And technically the leader despite not having real authority. And the episodes where she shined the most were the ones where she beat people whose manly masculinity made them stupid. Like the episode where they defeat the woman who steals the Susan B Anthony coins but convinces the girls that they have to "look out for each other" or the episode where Major Glory and the rest of the Justice Friends appear. Not only defeating the villain, but having some sort of glorious slightly snobby speech at the end about how great she is.

So in the special they made her a slightly crazy uber-feminist. WHY? cause its funny. Its her personality taken to it's extreme.

In the show Buttercup was always shown to be the badass of the group. Filled with inner rage and practically anti-social compared to the other two girls in the team. Often finding a stronger connection to the villains than to her own triplet sisters. She was the toughest member.

So in the special they made her a totalitarian dictator who rules with an iron fist, and enjoys it. Because its her dark and controlling personality taken to its extreme.

Thats what the special's whole thing was.

Mojo inventions always fail and backfire. So hey, they made him the BIGGEST FAILURE ON EARTH, and in an ironic twist, he becomes ruler of earth and makes it a better place.

The professor, whom in the show was always at his giddiest when he invented a new gadget for the girls or himself, (see the episode where he made them a pet, the episode with the DYNAMO robot, or the episode where he makes himself a power suit), he is always sillier. He's filled with such joy for inventing he loses his cool and becomes a clown. Thats always been part of his personality.

So in the special, when he invents a Wacky Racer for the girls to ride in that easily outpaces all the other villains cars, he goes NUTS. He goes CRAZY!

In the show the Mayor was always stupid and unfit to be Mayor.
In the special he's even stupider and hands the key to the world to the most infamous villain in Townsville for almost no reason at all.

And somehow people just dont "get it"

The series finale was poking fun at ITSELF and all the tropes and odds and ends that made the show so appealing in the first place.

It just only had 22 minutes to cram it all into.
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In other news, a new project came and went very quickly, unfortunately due to a legal issue, it had to be canceled and soon will be replaced by something else. What that something will be yet, we have not yet decided.

But the bit of animation that WAS produced for this new project over the last week or so was so amusing and entertaining that I really dont want to get rid of it. I am gonna try to convince weebl to let me develop it into a short film.

Anyway here's a quick pic


I would of course have to change the logo if I want to make it into a short film. Anyway this came out so well so far that would like to include part of it in my reel. But I cant make a new reel because Camtasia and Magic Swf2Avi sucked.

Oh well.