Albino Blacksheep
Encyclopedia
Albino Blacksheep is an animation website made in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
that posts member-submitted digital media. Most of these are movies or games created with Adobe Flash
. The website also features image galleries, audio files, and text files. Additionally, there is a mobile
section that provides ring tone
s, screensaver
s, and wallpaper
for mobile phones. There is also a downloads section featuring reviews for popular free software.
In addition to the media available on the website, there is also a large user community that takes advantage of the forums
and Internet Relay Chat
(IRC) channel; members of which often offer tutorials on the production of the type of media found on Albino Blacksheep.
course and redesigned the website. This new incarnation contained rants, graphical images, and a video stream from Lerner's video camera. Perhaps Lerner's first famous work was in 2003, with his site's Google bomb
for French military victories. Since then the site has been growing in popularity, currently receiving about 1.50 million pageviews per day.
Albino Blacksheep is also famous for being a major portal for Flash
animation and animutation
(a Flash animation style created by Neil Cicierega
in 2001). The popular Webgame Musical Lantern can exclusively be found on this site. The website also helped the band Tally Hall
achieve some notability after posting their music video Banana Man.
On April 1, 2007, Lerner changed the homepage to a joke homepage, designed to make people think that the site had been bought and turned into "Google Animations". The joke was reinforced by a fake blog stating that
"Albino Blacksheep has been acquired by Google Inc. for roughly $32 million in stock options. The deal was discussed over a casual breakfast in Mountain View, California between the Canadian-born founder of Albino Blacksheep and the Google co-founders and CEO. Plans are underway for Google Inc. to tie its services and software into the former Albino Blacksheep website which will go by the new name Google Animation."
; by definition, a black sheep cannot be an albino because it quite obviously possesses skin pigmentation. He also points out that "black sheep
" can also be interpreted as "outcast" and that the site's title could be interpreted to refer to an albino outcast.
Albino Blacksheep frequently refers to itself as ABS.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
that posts member-submitted digital media. Most of these are movies or games created with Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
. The website also features image galleries, audio files, and text files. Additionally, there is a mobile
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
section that provides ring tone
Ring tone
A ringtone or ring tone is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call or text message. Not literally a tone, the term is most often used today to refer to customizable sounds used on mobile phones.-Background:...
s, screensaver
Screensaver
A screensaver is a type of computer program initially designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use...
s, and wallpaper
Computer wallpaper
Wallpaper is an image used as a background of a graphical user interface on a computer screen or mobile communications device. On a computer it is usually for the desktop, while for a mobile phone it is usually the background for the 'home' or 'idle' screen...
for mobile phones. There is also a downloads section featuring reviews for popular free software.
In addition to the media available on the website, there is also a large user community that takes advantage of the forums
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
and Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
(IRC) channel; members of which often offer tutorials on the production of the type of media found on Albino Blacksheep.
History
Albino Blacksheep was founded in 1999 by Steven Lerner to promote his band of the same name, which was started in 1996. Very little information on the band Albino Blacksheep exists. In 2000, Steven took a web designWeb design
Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
course and redesigned the website. This new incarnation contained rants, graphical images, and a video stream from Lerner's video camera. Perhaps Lerner's first famous work was in 2003, with his site's Google bomb
Google bomb
The terms Google bomb and Googlewashing refer to practices, such as creating large numbers of links, that cause a web page to have a high ranking for searches on unrelated or off topic keyword phrases, often for comical or satirical purposes...
for French military victories. Since then the site has been growing in popularity, currently receiving about 1.50 million pageviews per day.
Albino Blacksheep is also famous for being a major portal for Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
animation and animutation
Animutation
Animutation or fanimutation is a form of web-based computer animation, typically created in Adobe Flash and characterized by unpredictable montages of pop-culture images set to music, often in a language foreign to the intended viewers...
(a Flash animation style created by Neil Cicierega
Neil Cicierega
Neil Stephen Cicierega , is an American comedian, filmmaker and musician. He is the creator of a genre of Flash animation known as "Animutation". He has also released several albums as a musician under the stage name "Lemon Demon"....
in 2001). The popular Webgame Musical Lantern can exclusively be found on this site. The website also helped the band Tally Hall
Tally Hall (band)
Tally Hall is an American rock band formed in December 2002 based in Ann Arbor, Michigan with a relatively significant cult following. Once under the Atlantic Records recording label, Tally Hall is, again, signed to indie label Quack! Media who previously helped finance and nationally distribute...
achieve some notability after posting their music video Banana Man.
On April 1, 2007, Lerner changed the homepage to a joke homepage, designed to make people think that the site had been bought and turned into "Google Animations". The joke was reinforced by a fake blog stating that
"Albino Blacksheep has been acquired by Google Inc. for roughly $32 million in stock options. The deal was discussed over a casual breakfast in Mountain View, California between the Canadian-born founder of Albino Blacksheep and the Google co-founders and CEO. Plans are underway for Google Inc. to tie its services and software into the former Albino Blacksheep website which will go by the new name Google Animation."
Name
According to Steven Lerner, the creator of Albino Blacksheep, the name is an intentional oxymoronOxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms...
; by definition, a black sheep cannot be an albino because it quite obviously possesses skin pigmentation. He also points out that "black sheep
Black sheep
In the English language, black sheep is an idiom used to describe an odd or disreputable member of a group, especially within a family. The term has typically been given negative implications, implying waywardness...
" can also be interpreted as "outcast" and that the site's title could be interpreted to refer to an albino outcast.
Albino Blacksheep frequently refers to itself as ABS.