From: Jed Hartman (logos_at_kith.org)
Date: 22 December 1999
It's mostly not interactive; it's not necessarily long-form; and it's largely not 3D. On the other hand, it is here today, and it's popular, and a lot of money (and big-name talent) is being thrown at it. See
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lds048.htm
for an article about various companies that are creating animated content on the Web. Apparently most of 'em are using Flash (one advantage of which is the near-ubiquity of the player software).
I think most of us here agree that the content is more important than any particular data format. Are any of you doing work in Flash or other non-VRML formats? Have you found any format particularly well-suited to *interactive* stories? Have any of you tried any of the non-VRML approaches to 3D (for storytelling, I mean, rather than pretty objects or e-commerce)?
I've looked at some of the Flash cartoons out there, and so far I haven't been impressed -- the art mostly *looks* fine (though still nothing to write home about), but the stories are mostly just bad. Is that a natural consequence of Sturgeon's Law and/or growing pains of a new medium? Are the good storytellers just hard to find among the chaff? Or are they biding their time, waiting for a better medium/format?
As usual, I have more questions than answers. Would be interested to hear people's thoughts about these topics.
--jed
This archive was generated by hypermail pre-2.1.8 : 28 November 2004 CST