4 ms·

Inception Explained – HTML + CSS Experiment

65 points by msohcw 14y ago

shoopy 14y ago
It's neat, but flicking my scrollwheel that many times gave me RSI. :)
jmcdonald-ut 14y ago
This didn't work with my scroll wheel very well. Once I just grabbed the scroll bar, I had some better luck. It looks neat though, I just suggest making it so the scroll wheel is more graceful.
guynamedloren 14y ago
Posted a while back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3735039 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3735039
- msohcw 14y ago
  Whoops. Never saw that. My bad. I just got linked to it and thought it was pretty interesting.
trevelyan 14y ago
I love Inception (a genuine masterpiece), but wish people paid less attention to the details of the plot and more attention to the literary subtext! Because the plot is very straightforward, while understanding why the film is structured the way it is (and why Nolan does smaller things like naming the children as they are), is a genuine revelation.
- gingerjoos 14y ago
  > understanding why the film is structured the way it is (and why Nolan does smaller things like naming the children as they are), is a genuine revelation Could you expand on that? I had to google for the names - Philippa and James. What is the relevance?
  - bertzzie 14y ago
    See his post on previous thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3736009 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3736009
    - trevelyan 14y ago
      Thanks for digging up the link. Evidence I post far too much about Inception. :)
      - bornhuetter 14y ago
        Interesting interpretation. When I saw it, I assumed the metaphors were primarily to Greek mythology (calling Ellen Page's character Ariadne being the obvious tip-off) or at least a mix of mythologies. Do you mind me asking if you are personally a Christian?
        trevelyan 14y ago
        I'd be curious what other myths you spotted, because the reference to Ariadne is certainly an allusion to the Greek myth you mention. Just as her namesake there guided Theseus from the labyrinth, Ariadne's role in Inception is guiding Cobb out of the maze that is the mortal world. This why we get casual dialogue about characters "getting lost" in limbo and "spending a lifetime" down there. According to the logic of the film, life is a dream and all dreams are mazes. More neat things about Ariadne's character: she is a gift from his father ("ask and ye shall receive") and one of the first things she does is the very symbolic act of shattering a pair of mirrors which trap Cobb in another maze of sorts. Also, considering her thematic purpose, it is interesting to note that she is the single character who accompanies Cobb to the gates of immigration, wearing a sweater that appears to be made of red yarn. On the Christian front, I was raised as a soft Anglican so I hope I know enough not to be wildly wrong. That said, the first thing that clicked for me watching the film was the secular symbolism. When Nolan pointed his camera at the ocean while the narrator intoned about "the shores of our subconscious" it jolted me to attention as water is a common symbol for the subconscious in a great deal of English literature and film, and Nolan uses it in this very conventional way throughout Inception. The Christian references are omnipresent but subtle ("leap of faith", "goddamn beach", etc.) and the sandcastle bit didn't fall into place until much later, when I caught James' line of dialogue thanks to watching the film in a theater with subtitles, and then made the connection to the collapsing buildings of limbo and the sandcastles after the fact.
andymcsherry 14y ago
Too many spoilers for someone that hasn't seen the movie. I doubt your affiliate link will get much traction because of it.
- AgentConundrum 14y ago
  Why would you click on something called "Inception Explained" if you haven't seen the movie? Also, what's the problem with someone using an Amazon affiliate link to help pay for their site / earn some income from the work they put into the site?
- robmcm 14y ago
  Perhaps people read the explination and think, "I should watch that again now I understand it!".
hayksaakian 14y ago
Scrolling on my N7 was a hit and miss experience
unimpressive 14y ago
Thankfully I have a trackball mouse, or that scrolling probably would have been really awkward. (It didn't feel right with arrow keys, too much latency.)
jpswade 14y ago
I found trying to follow this a more difficult experience than watching the actual film.
sneak 14y ago
This is whatever the 2013 equivalent of "requires flash" is. > HEY THERE! INCEPTION-EXPLAINED.COM IS AN EXPERIMENTAL SITE WHICH USES INTERACTIVE SCROLLING TO ANIMATE THE PAGE. UNFORTUNATELY, AWESOME MOBILE DEVICES LIKE YOURS DON'T HANDLE THAT VERY WELL :( PLEASE DO CHECK IT OUT ON YOUR COMPUTER USING CHROME OR FIREFOX, I LIKE TO THINK IT'S WORTH IT!
- edu 14y ago
  But as far as this is an experiment, I don't see any problem. It would be a problem if this tried to be a general purpose site.
  - unimpressive 14y ago
    Eh, there was no reason to assume somebodies mobile phone was incapable of scroll. That's just making their decision for them.
    - killahpriest 14y ago
      It's not that the phone is incapable of scroll, it's that the phone is guaranteed to freeze up and not render the site properly on that page. But, even if the phone could handle the computation necessary to display the site, the author probably did not design a version that is easy to use on tiny screens.
      - chii 14y ago
        > the author probably did not design a version that is easy to use on tiny screens. true, but they should let the user be the judge of that, and have a button to allow it to press on and disregard the user agent.
culshaw 14y ago
Would be much better with some click based animation rather than scrolling to give this parallax effect.
elango 14y ago
nice try, good graphics, but i still find it confusing and boring after a few pulls.
josscrowcroft 14y ago
Beautiful - now if somebody can just make one of these for Primer I'll be all set.
johnpolacek 14y ago
Inception Explained uses Scrollorama, my jQuery plugin for doing scrolling animation. I have an updated version of this plugin, Scrollorama2: SuperScrollorama: http://johnpolacek.github.com/superscrollorama/ http://johnpolacek.github.com/superscrollorama/
jimsilverman 14y ago
this is a lot more interesting than the actual movie.

65 points by msohcw 14y ago

It's neat, but flicking my scrollwheel that many times gave me RSI. :)

This didn't work with my scroll wheel very well. Once I just grabbed the scroll bar, I had some better luck. It looks neat though, I just suggest making it so the scroll wheel is more graceful.

guynamedloren 14y ago

Posted a while back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3735039 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3735039

msohcw 14y ago
Whoops. Never saw that. My bad. I just got linked to it and thought it was pretty interesting.

trevelyan 14y ago

I love Inception (a genuine masterpiece), but wish people paid less attention to the details of the plot and more attention to the literary subtext! Because the plot is very straightforward, while understanding why the film is structured the way it is (and why Nolan does smaller things like naming the children as they are), is a genuine revelation.

gingerjoos 14y ago
> understanding why the film is structured the way it is (and why Nolan does smaller things like naming the children as they are), is a genuine revelation Could you expand on that? I had to google for the names - Philippa and James. What is the relevance?
- bertzzie 14y ago
  See his post on previous thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3736009 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3736009
  - trevelyan 14y ago
    Thanks for digging up the link. Evidence I post far too much about Inception. :)
    - bornhuetter 14y ago
      Interesting interpretation. When I saw it, I assumed the metaphors were primarily to Greek mythology (calling Ellen Page's character Ariadne being the obvious tip-off) or at least a mix of mythologies. Do you mind me asking if you are personally a Christian?
      - trevelyan 14y ago
        I'd be curious what other myths you spotted, because the reference to Ariadne is certainly an allusion to the Greek myth you mention. Just as her namesake there guided Theseus from the labyrinth, Ariadne's role in Inception is guiding Cobb out of the maze that is the mortal world. This why we get casual dialogue about characters "getting lost" in limbo and "spending a lifetime" down there. According to the logic of the film, life is a dream and all dreams are mazes. More neat things about Ariadne's character: she is a gift from his father ("ask and ye shall receive") and one of the first things she does is the very symbolic act of shattering a pair of mirrors which trap Cobb in another maze of sorts. Also, considering her thematic purpose, it is interesting to note that she is the single character who accompanies Cobb to the gates of immigration, wearing a sweater that appears to be made of red yarn. On the Christian front, I was raised as a soft Anglican so I hope I know enough not to be wildly wrong. That said, the first thing that clicked for me watching the film was the secular symbolism. When Nolan pointed his camera at the ocean while the narrator intoned about "the shores of our subconscious" it jolted me to attention as water is a common symbol for the subconscious in a great deal of English literature and film, and Nolan uses it in this very conventional way throughout Inception. The Christian references are omnipresent but subtle ("leap of faith", "goddamn beach", etc.) and the sandcastle bit didn't fall into place until much later, when I caught James' line of dialogue thanks to watching the film in a theater with subtitles, and then made the connection to the collapsing buildings of limbo and the sandcastles after the fact.

andymcsherry 14y ago

Too many spoilers for someone that hasn't seen the movie. I doubt your affiliate link will get much traction because of it.

AgentConundrum 14y ago
Why would you click on something called "Inception Explained" if you haven't seen the movie? Also, what's the problem with someone using an Amazon affiliate link to help pay for their site / earn some income from the work they put into the site?
robmcm 14y ago
Perhaps people read the explination and think, "I should watch that again now I understand it!".

hayksaakian 14y ago

Scrolling on my N7 was a hit and miss experience

unimpressive 14y ago

Thankfully I have a trackball mouse, or that scrolling probably would have been really awkward. (It didn't feel right with arrow keys, too much latency.)

jpswade 14y ago

I found trying to follow this a more difficult experience than watching the actual film.

sneak 14y ago

This is whatever the 2013 equivalent of "requires flash" is. > HEY THERE! INCEPTION-EXPLAINED.COM IS AN EXPERIMENTAL SITE WHICH USES INTERACTIVE SCROLLING TO ANIMATE THE PAGE. UNFORTUNATELY, AWESOME MOBILE DEVICES LIKE YOURS DON'T HANDLE THAT VERY WELL :( PLEASE DO CHECK IT OUT ON YOUR COMPUTER USING CHROME OR FIREFOX, I LIKE TO THINK IT'S WORTH IT!

edu 14y ago
But as far as this is an experiment, I don't see any problem. It would be a problem if this tried to be a general purpose site.
- unimpressive 14y ago
  Eh, there was no reason to assume somebodies mobile phone was incapable of scroll. That's just making their decision for them.
  - killahpriest 14y ago
    It's not that the phone is incapable of scroll, it's that the phone is guaranteed to freeze up and not render the site properly on that page. But, even if the phone could handle the computation necessary to display the site, the author probably did not design a version that is easy to use on tiny screens.
    - chii 14y ago
      > the author probably did not design a version that is easy to use on tiny screens. true, but they should let the user be the judge of that, and have a button to allow it to press on and disregard the user agent.

culshaw 14y ago

Would be much better with some click based animation rather than scrolling to give this parallax effect.

elango 14y ago

nice try, good graphics, but i still find it confusing and boring after a few pulls.

josscrowcroft 14y ago

Beautiful - now if somebody can just make one of these for Primer I'll be all set.

johnpolacek 14y ago

Inception Explained uses Scrollorama, my jQuery plugin for doing scrolling animation. I have an updated version of this plugin, Scrollorama2: SuperScrollorama: http://johnpolacek.github.com/superscrollorama/ http://johnpolacek.github.com/superscrollorama/

jimsilverman 14y ago

this is a lot more interesting than the actual movie.