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 July
2, 2010 So Avatar: The Last Airbender came out in 2005. James Cameron's blue cat people Avatar came out in 2009 so I'm going to keep calling The Last Airbender show Avatar. I loved this series. In a sea of brainless children's entertainment, this cartoon transcended its genre. It had heart, action, animation quality, character, and depth. Watching 5 seconds of Spongebob might make you want to walk in front of a bus. Growing up on that kind of television makes you wonder how these kids can develop into well-adjusted human beings. Well at least I know Avatar is there to help bring balance back to the force at some capacity. Enter M. Night Shyamalan off of a horrific train of unwatchable films. I'd thought his first three movies were great, but strike after strike were swung with Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening. Imagine my trepidation when he got his hands on The Last Airbender. In post-processed 3D, no less. Going to this movie was one of the greater movie-watching gambles I'd taken in awhile. Despite many negative reviews, I liked this flick. The elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire incorporated with martial arts were a site to behold. While some 3D layers were a bit flat, there were many great special effects sequences and set pieces present to awe the imagination. James Newton Howard provided a musical score that invoked emotion nearly as well as Signs' did. My main criticisms were the occasional flat line delivery from child actors, but I cut them a break. It was never baby Anakin bad. Plus there was a lot of story content crammed in a 2 hour time frame. This gave little time to develop characters for people new to the Airbender universe. Here's to hoping that's rectified by means of an extended cut for home video. Stefan's here this week talking about how Youtube appreciates Flash for being the best software for its service. Imagine that. Flash being relevant in the 21st century. *cough* Steve Jobs *cough*. Mark Rivera For any site suggestions or general musings, gimme a shout at mark@flashnewz.com And don't forget to check out our Flash Directory |
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See why the fanbase of all ages loves this this animated series. |
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YouTube Declares Flash Is Best For Video Distribution  By Stefan Richter John Harding, Software Engineer at Google, has posted a lengthy article about the pros and cons of Flash video and HTML5 video support in today's browsers. It's fair to say that the post is in essence a major thumbs up to the Flash Platform. The author points out that video on the web today is much more than a simple video tag pointed at a file, but involves other considerations such as widely supported codecs, secure delivery mechanisms where required by content owners, two way video and audio for recording live via webcam as well as immersive fullscreen options. All this is of course supported today via the Flash Player but not via HTML5, and whilst we all agree that it'd be very nice not to have to wrap a video into a SWF wrapper we must also face the reality that in many cases a simple click and play experience just doesn't cut it anymore. HTML5's video capabilities could have given Flash a run for its money about 10 years ago when Flash first started building momentum for online video delivery, but they are no match for the type of features that web users today are accustomed to and demand as standard. Sure, of course I am biased, but I am also smart enough to know when I'm beating a dead horse, and Flash definitely is not one of those. Whilst new technologies such as HTML5 are most welcome, especially when they make a developer's life easier they also need to make sure that they don't over-promise and under-deliver. The amount of hype some companies have been able to generate around HTML5 is almost unreal, yet the follow-up on that hype remains to be seen. In the meantime I'll get back to work to make bling with Flash, clients are waiting and the biggest app store of all is still the web  Comments About The AuthorStefan is a certified Flash Developer who has been involved with Flash Media Server since its very early days. From his home office in the UK he has handled a variety of projects, specializing in Flash Video and Rich Internet Applications for clients that include CNET, USA Network and Unilever. Stefan is the author of a series of Adobe Developer Center articles, has spoken at several industry events and contributes a regular column on Flash Video to Streaming Media Magazine. His site www.flashcomguru.com is one of the largest online resources on Flash Video. |
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