this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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alt text: "the state of the animation industry"

"you're pirating that show? don't you wanna support the creators?" "I AM the creator."

"haha the only way I can show future employers my work is to send a link to a bunch of pirated copies of it haha what a nightmare haha"

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 7 months ago

I watch a lot of "lost media" discussion channels.

There's been a lot of lost media searches where the people looking for the thing suddenly found a crucial hint when someone who worked on the project posted a 2.5 second clip of the thing in question in a video cv / showreel.

Expect a lot of that in the future. Except about media that probably didn't even get released at all in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 7 months ago

"Capitalism is the driver of innovation"

[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Is this the infinity train guy?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago

That's Owen Dennis, yeah.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Keep Circulating the Tapes" of the current era

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

🎸 BwaaAAaaAAnnnggg 🎸

[–] RIP_Cheems 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Why do they have to pirate their own show?

[–] [email protected] 110 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Animator works on show. Show airs.

Show has no physical DVD/BD version

Show only exists on streaming service or on DRM-locked "buy and own but not really" services.

Show gets pulled from internet because some corporate license expired or some shit like that.

Show no longer exists anywhere other than the corporation's hard drive and pirates' seedboxes.

Animator needs to show their own work as part of a video portfolio to a prospective employer. A scene they made for a well-loved show is great portfolio material.

The corporation ain't sharing. Not until someone sues for the right to get a hard copy of the show they worked on -- Which given how the entire American state does when corporate interests fight any other interest, is something no one animator is willing to do as it'll probably not just drain their finances, BUT has a legitimate chance of fucking over every OTHER animator down the line.

Ergo.
Animator needs to pirate it.

In ye olden days, shows often aired only on TV and didn't get VHS releases. But animators would often just. Tape the show they worked on. Off of the telly. With a VCR.

Which in practice is the same thing as what the pirates are doing, creating a local copy of media that is airing, but corporations don't want you to realise that. So. Here we are.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes I have been recommending Pantheon and I can't find it anywhere :,)

[–] KnightontheSun 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's a bit hard to recommend I feel because you can't say anything, from episode 1 the story takes off

Like it's about IAs? Sure but even that is an spoiler as in episode 1 it's not actually clear if it's actually an IA it's part of the episode

Besides the fact that Amazon current owner of the rights has uploaded it only in Australia

[–] KnightontheSun 2 points 7 months ago

I see it on the High Seas and it is on its way to me.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago

Probably because they worked on one of the many shows that have been pulled from streaming sites lately.

For example: Discovery is basically taking an axe to the shows on HBO Max and recently pulled another 87 shows and movies from it's service.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Im fully with you on the sentiment but realistically any show that this can happen with (is licensed) will have a wikipedia article and ratings and reviews on youtube and everywhere. But yeah for the whole thing you gotta sail the seas.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago (1 children)

any show that this can happen with (is licensed) will have a wikipedia article and ratings and reviews on youtube

How is this going to help with employers? I imagine the interview:

Trust me, my work is good. See this Wikipedia article that says that Rotten Tomatoes says it’s good.

[–] papalonian -3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The same way sending them the show will help. If your show is that big they can just look it up reviews or clips on YouTube or whatever. I don't think employers want to watch an entire season of someone's work to decide to hire them, but if it's a recognizable show like some of the ones pictured they may not even have to look it up

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah - but if you can show someone directly what you animated, that's far better than someone's review of what you animated. If a show is no longer available due to licensing, then the seas (or physical copies if you can find them) are the way to do that.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

Notably, if you're an individual animator rather than the show-runner, your contribution to it will be several short scenes scattered across several episodes, and just linking, idk, the wikipedia article or some trailer will not work for showing what you made for the show.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Different industry, but my first game industry project was doomed to fail. I put a lot of work into it before that though and so I stole a copy of the project to have in case I needed to prove work I'd done. I don't know how often animations go under before being released but in the game industry it is a very real concern. Sometimes you have to take things for yourself or they'll be gone forever

[–] LemmyKnowsBest 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

please help me understand why the OP OC creator would not be able to provide a prospective employer a link to his own original material from his own data storage cloud.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They don't own the show. The network that bought it owns it. They worked for, or sold the show to the network when it was created. Very few original creators actually own their own media. It's very expensive for animation to be fully produced so a corporation usually has to finance it. And a corporation isn't going to just allow a creator to retain rights if they paid for any part of it.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

when you explain & rationalize it like that, it seems fine and logical except

a corporation isn't going to allow a creator to retain rights

is SO blatantly sick & wrong & unjust on a fundamental level 😡

[–] affiliate 20 points 7 months ago

just wait until you hear about how academic publishing works

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sadly that's pretty much how all media works. The creator may have had the idea, but they usually license that idea out for a specific use to a specific entity in perpetuity. Usually because that entity is putting up all the money to create it. Almost always because the cost is well beyond what any independent creator can afford or to risk. Maybe if you are a Spielberg who has their own studios at this point, but that's pretty much it. :/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I can count on one hand how many times someone's creative endeavors that when aired/sold to a network went back to them. I can't begin to tell you how many times someone has a 100% original idea, a network funded it, aired it at such a bad time or had such bad ad campaign for it, it failed.

Then the network claims it as a tax write off so it never gets aired again, and no DVD/Blu-Ray sales are allowed. And the artists who worked on it can't get any rights to what they made. Because a company somewhere couldn't make money with the idea, now no one can. Even the inventor.

Animation is among the more common ones to have this happen to.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

They don't usually do the drawing and animating on their own machine, for one. They use a workstation owned by their bosses and therefore don't have a copy of the drawings at home.