Is the Anime Naruto Suitable For Kids?

Growing up from the US, most kids have grown up with cartoons such as Bugs Bunny and Popeye which portrays the good overcoming evil as well as satires that pokes fun of political figures in a none threatening way. For kids, the majority of the time these cartoons have provided a positive impact rather then negativity or problems.

With the recent months in the rising popularity of Japanese animation especially the series of Naruto, many parents are now worried that it may pose as a negative influence for children. Not only does it portray a lot of problems shown within society, it also contains a lot of adult humor as well. Is this something that we should allow our children to be influenced with? Will this type of influence give children bad ideas about the society or their engagements with one another?

Before we further examine this topic, we have to first understand the background of the anime Naruto. The story revolves around Uzumaki Naruto, a kid that has an inner demon of a nine-tailed fox who has once destroyed many villages until a powerful kage or a leader of a village who sealed his inner demon away through a powerful jitsu or a mystical technique of a ninja. The demon is then locked away and the story of Naruto begins with the life and adventure that he has to face. All the while knowing that the demon inside of Naruto may come out someday both from his friends and foes.

From the outer appearance and storyline, Naruto doesn't seem harmful for children nor is the general storyline provides any hint of negativity in anyway. However, with different Episodes there has subtle hints of sexuality. For one, he suddenly changes into a woman wearing a bikini from a man in ways through this Episode he seduced his teacher. In another Episode, various characters posses characteristic of a woman although by nature they are being presented as man.

For parents, these are major signs of red flags that tells parents that they are not suitable for children due to inappropriate content. I however on the other hand dare to say that it's actually okay for children to be exposed for these type of influences. Children nowadays are exposed to sex, violence, and crime whether it is from television or in the public area although some may minimize such influences. Whether you believe it or not, children pick things up rather quickly from adults. Instead of prohibiting negative influences, I believe parents should really educate kids at an early age the right and wrong and lead by example which is something that is lacking at large in causing a lot of division amongst the family and the society as a whole.

Even if we have successfully screened out the popular anime from our children in an effort to protect our children, is this eliminating the heart of the problem? I dare to say no and that we really need to examine ourselves in our communications with our kids in an educational way in light to talk about such events and things. Animations such as Naruto will only increase in this age of globalization and we need to learn how to cope with it rather then excusing ourselves from facing the true reality of this world. With proper education and support, I believe we can still enjoy anime the same way that we had enjoyed various cartoons in a positive manner with our children.

Free Animated Ecard and Free Animated Ecards

Free animated ecards are available from a multitude of Internet sources including business, religious, personal, and non-profit websites. You can find a variety of free animated ecards that address any particular holiday, occasion, time of the year, special event or activity. If you need a free animated ecard to say you are sorry, you love someone, you are thankful or you are celebrating, there are unlimited free animated ecards to express just every human emotion. A free animated ecard is an easy and quick way to send anyone a special thought via the Internet.

Free animated ecards have become wildly popular with the ease of Internet functions allowing web users the freedom to receive and send ecards that come in many different styles and designs. A user can find a free animated ecard that is humorous and displays cartoon clip art with cute quips. Beautifully illustrated, religious free animated ecards are also available offering recipients encouraging Bible verses. Free animated ecards displaying flash effects can be found through some sites that spark an enthusiastic response to anyone that receives it. A free animated ecard that displays realistic photography with colorful animation is an enjoyable offering to many web users.

Although ecards can be purchased that sometimes offer a more personalized card or more professional design, free animated ecards have continued to flood the ecard market providing more than just free cards to users. A website that offers free animated ecards, receives varying benefits from their offers. Although offered at no charge to user, a free animated ecard is offered as a marketing method for many websites. Pulling in card users can also expose those who visit websites to the other products offered for sale. It is always a great marketing move for any website to offer something free within its other offers. A psychological 'good will' is forged with many consumers as well as receiving the free product.

A free animated ecard can also be used to target a particular audience. For example, free animated ecards that provide a variety of occasional choices offered on florist delivery sites will appeal to consumers looking to also send floral arrangements and other delivery gifts to others. Another example is the huge religious interest in free animated ecards that spurs many consumers to visit sites offering other religious products as well. A free animated ecard offers something for everyone from sender to receiver. Any website that offers free animated ecards is not only providing a valuable service to web users, but will benefits from a smart consumer marketing technique. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." (Philippians 2:4)

Animation in Litigation - An Interview With David Marbach

The power of animation to depict and persuade makes it a natural fit for numerous applications, from advertising to training to product documentation. One industry that has seen a multimedia boom in recent years is litigation. Animated reconstructions have become so commonplace in many types of cases as to be expected.

I recently had a chance to talk to David Marbach, a litigation support professional who has used animation frequently in his work.

Solid Blue Development: Tell me a little bit about your experience in the legal profession and your current position.

David Marbach: I have been in the Litigation Support field for 10 years now with various law firms and corporate entities. I currently manage the Legal Technology department at a large law firm where we work very closely with our attorneys on Electronic Discovery matters and large-scale document reviews and productions.

SBD: How have you used animation in legal cases? For which kinds of cases is animation most useful?

DM: I have used animation in approximately a half-dozen cases. Most of the cases were product liability cases; one was medical malpractice and one was a negligence tort involving a slip-and-fall in a department store. Animations are most useful when they accurately summarize and simplify a complex mechanism or physical situation.

SBD: During mediation, an animation demonstrating the expert testimony a jury would hear at trial can have a profound impact on the opposing party. How can this convince them to settle during mediation? If they hope to capitalize on any confusion resulting from complex testimony at trial, how can an animation that clearly represents this testimony convince the opposing party to settle?

DM: Because of the cost and attention necessary for producing animations, they are rarely used during pre-trial alternative dispute resolution. The earlier in a case that they are unveiled, the higher the chances that the opposition will find a way to exclude them from trial. Animations are normally kept as "ace-in-the-hole" exhibits, however it's possible that they could be brought out during mediations to show how easy it would be to present one side of the dispute in a clear and convincing manner to the jury.

SBD: Admissibility as evidence is key to using animations effectively. How can a side ensure the animation will be admissible if the case goes to trial?

DM: It is virtually impossible to ensure admissibility of an animation unless every single facet of the clip can be substantiated by irrefutable facts. Thus, it is very important to keep animations very, very simple and not take any artistic license. Any deviation from or exaggeration of a physical situation is likely to be objected to -- potentially making the entire animation inadmissible.

SBD: A South Carolina court recently stated that concerns about the prejudicial effect of animations "are diminishing as judges and the public become more familiar with computer technology." How does this familiarity, as well as the opportunity for cross-examination of witnesses at trial, impact the risk of prejudice for animation?

DM: In "Chicago", Richard Gere is ready to speak to the jury when the announcer says, "Ladies and Gentlemen! A tap-dance!" The courtroom is not show business, but only in the same way that an election isn't a popularity contest. There are a set of rules that everyone must follow. This does not mean that you cannot make a fantastically effective presentation while operating within these rules.

The prejudicial effect of animations is certainly being negated as juries begin expecting multi-media presentations to clearly state an argument.

SBD: It seems that communication between the animator and the legal team presenting the case is critical to producing an accurate, admissible animation. How do you ensure that the animation faithfully represents spoken testimony?

DM: More importantly, an animation must represent the irrefutable facts of the case. An excellent way of ensuring this is by looking to facts and evidence presented by the opposition. Attorneys are obviously less inclined to object to facts they themselves have admitted.

SBD: How might a plaintiff's use of animation differ from a defendant's?

DM: A common mistake is to think that plaintiffs' presentations are more fantastic or flashy than those of defendants. All litigants are subject to the same laws and balancing test between the probative value and the potential prejudicial effect of any piece of evidence.

SBD: In practical terms, what are some of the limitations of animation for trial use? What can animation not accomplish?

DM: Animations absolutely cannot show or imply any fact not absolutely substantiated by undisputed evidence. It's greatest purpose is to reinforce, not reinvent or in any way alter the facts.

SBD: While animation can never completely replace descriptive narrative, when an entire courtroom views an animation - judge, witnesses, jury, everyone - and the events depicted are determined to be substantially true, how important is it in establishing the facts of a case? How much persuasive power does an accurate animation hold?

DM: Animation can be unbelievably effective in summarizing a particular version of the facts in a case. It's power lies not only as a tool for effective communication, but in making a series of events tangible to a jury. Chances are, when deliberations begin on a case, the jury will immediately begin talking about closing arguments and effective animations and multi-media presentations. These are the parts of a trial that stick in their mind and help to decide cases.

Kotobukiya Anime Figurines

Kotobukiya Anime Figurines are small figurines of women from popular video games and Anime Series from Japan. All of the figurines are generally in the size range of 6-9 inches tall. They are all of characters in the game or series and are portrayed in different positions and clothing accessories. Many of the figurines are scantily dressed as they give a classy sexy look to these animated characters.

All of the figurines have exquisite detail and craftsmanship and are sculpted by Japanese master animators. All of the figurines are exquisitely painted and are and ready for display right out of its original Japanese language window box. They are all attractive figurines that are exact replicas of their animated characters. All have different poses and looks, as no Kotobukiya Anime Figurines look alike.

The product line of the Kotobukiya Anime Figurines (all PVC statues)

• 1. Dead or Alive - DOAX 2: Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 Kasumi ARTFX Statue
• 2. Dragon Destiny - Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny Sonsaku Hakufu PVC Statue
• 3. Fate Hollow Ataraxia - Fate Hollow Ataraxia Sakura Matou Vacation PVC Statue
• 4. Neon Genesis Evangelion - Neon Genesis Evangelion Asuka Langley Sohryu - Casual Clothes, Neon Genesis Evangelion Rei Ayanami - BMX Trick, and Neon Genesis Evangelion Rei Ayanami Race Queen
• 5. Shunya Yamashita - The Art of Shunya Yamashita: Mirei-San ArtFX and The Art of Shunya Yamashita: Shii Arisugawa ArtFX
• 6. To Heart 2 - To Heart 2 Konomi Yuzuhara Swimsuit and To Heart 2 Manaka Komaki Swimsuit
• 7. Valkyrie Profile - Valkyrie Profile Trading Arts Mini Figure – Frey, Valkyrie Profile Trading Arts Mini Figure - Lenneth Valkyrie, Valkyrie Profile Trading Arts Mini Figure - Lezard Valeth, and Valkyrie Profile Trading Arts Mini Figure – Lucio
• 8. WitchBlade - Witchblade Maria ARTFX Statue and Witchblade Masane Amaha ARTFX Statue

The Kotobukiya brand has grown into Japan’s number one collector toy company. Kotobukiya was founded in 1953 in Tachikawa, Japan and quickly gained a stellar reputation for the craftsmanship and quality of their various products. Kotobukiya first became known to their fans with their famous line of Final Fantasy merchandise.

More recently Kotobukiya’s top of the line Star Wars and Batman ARTFX have excited their fans. Collectors and admirers from all over the world have come to expect top notch craftsmanship for every product line that Kotobukiya produces whether it be from classic and current Japanese animated series or gaming, comics and movie collectibles. Owning a collectible form the Kotobukiya line means quality assurance and top-notch design from one of Japan’s most honored brands.

Animation Art - 5 of the Most Common Mediums Purchased by Collectors

Animation Cels - A cel (short for celluloid) is a blank clear plastic sheet used by the studio artist to paint an animated character or object based on the animator's original pencil drawing. The cels are then placed over a background and photographed in sequence to produce an illusion of life in the completed film or cartoon short. Every cel is different but this does not mean that every cel is unique. Often multiple copies of a cel were created by the Inkers as color models in order to advance their technique and skills in Animation Art.

Limited Edition Cels - A non production hand painted cel created for sale to the collectors market. It is produced in fixed limited quantities and are easily identified by a fraction (150/500) in the lower right hand corner. They were not used in films or cartoon shorts, and the original intent was to recreate the original production cels. Nowadays many studios release new images not based on production Animation Art.

Sericels - A non production cel created by means of a printing process similar to silk screening. No work is done by hand, therefore no painting or inking is involved. They are often produced in limited quantities of 5000, and they are marketed as a low cost alternative to production and limited edition cels.

Animation Drawings - A drawing on paper in pencil, sometimes colored which is created by a studio artist of an animated character or object for which the cels are later created.

Giclee - The French term "Giclée", literally meaning "spray of ink," is used to describe these prints. Four precision nozzles spray up to a million microscopic droplets per second on to fine art paper. Then, each piece of paper is individually hand-mounted. Displaying a full color spectrum, the prints are lush and velvety, capturing the subtle nuances of the original artwork.

What is 3D Animation? How is it Different From 2D Animation?

In this article I will explain in simple terms, what goes behind the 3D animation that you watch in movies and what makes it different from conventional two dimensional animation.

What is that extra 3rd dimension? Take a piece of paper and sketch a simple figure on it (a cat, a dog or anything that comes to your head). Lets say it is a cat and it is facing you from that sheet of paper. So you have the front view of the cat in front of you. Suppose if you feel that you want to see the cat from a side, will it help if you rotate the paper or flip it? No. Why? It is simply because the sketch you have drawn has the 3rd dimension missing.

Every real world object that you see around has a 3rd dimension and that is the reason why you can take it and rotate it to watch it from different angles. The sketch you have drawn had a length and a width, since the paper you used to draw also had a length and a width. But it lacks a thickness (3rd dimension) and hence your sketch also didnt have that extra dimension.

Suppose instead of sketching your imagination down on the piece of paper, you decided to sculpt it on a handful of clay. Since the medium you used (clay) had volume, you had to define the cats shape from all angles during the sculpting. Hence you unknowingly added that 3rd dimension to it and that is the reason you have the freedom to rotate it any way you want.

How conventional 2D animation works:

Before computers started playing their indispensible roles in the animation industry, everything was done manually by animators, who were essentially artists. They would create a series of slides having images on it, where each slides image is the continuation of the previous one in the sequence. For example if an animator wanted to simulate a ball falling down, they would create a sequence of slides where first slide would portray the ball at the top. The next slide will show the ball, may be 1 cm lower than that in the first slide. In the next one, again lower and so on, till the last slide shows the ball hitting the ground. When the whole sequence of slides are shown in front of the viewer in a fast rate, it creates the feeling of the ball falling down.

The whole process was tedious and time consuming. When computers came into play, the frame redrawing works had been minimised since, copying and pasting duplicate elements between successive frames was very easy with the computers aid. The artist has to make only the necessary changes that should exist between successive frames. As technology advanced, softwares evolved that again minimised the work of a 2d animator, in such a way that several things started getting automated. Using motion tweening and other techniques, an animator can set the initial position or shape of an object and then its final position and shape and the computer would generate the intermediate frames automatically. The artist even has the freedom to make corrections to that.

What was missing in 2D animation?

The 2D animation always lacked the essence, since all the real-world sceneries and objects are 3D and when they gets transformed to 2D, they lose their reality. Later stage cartoons started to simulate the 3D effect by using gradients, and varying highlights, but it required huge extra effort from the part of the artist.

How 3D Graphics works:

The stages in 3D animation are more in number compared to the 2D animation. The first part of 3D animation starts with character sketching and 3D modeling. In the next stage the characters are rigged for animation. In the next stage they are animated. This is in fact a too compact form of what happens in the background. Lets see each of them in a little detail.

· Character sketching: This is the stage where an artist sketches how the character should look from various angles. Usually the sketch will be done on paper or canvas. As many variations in poses are created so that it would help the 3D Modeler to sculpt a 3D Model out of it.

· Character Modeling: A 3D artist, who is expertised in a 3D modeling and animating tool, will examine the sketches and starts sculpting the figure using his imagination and skill. I used the word sculpting because the process is much similar to the real sculpting we do with raw materials like clay. The software tool that the artist uses provides various approaches to perform the modeling. Usually organic modeling techniques like Polygonal Modeling (a polygon is subdivided to get the desired shape), NURBS modeling (curves are arranged to create a surface flowing through them), Subdivisional Modeling (A hybrid blend between polygonal modeling and NURBS modeling) are used. In these modeling techniques, the 3D modeling artist will sculpt out the characters shape in 3D using a set of tools provided by the 3D modeling software, by following any of the above mentioned approaches.

The 3D Model obtained finally will be in an editable form and the model will be dependent on the approach used. For example a NURBS technique will yield a 3D Model in the NURBS representation (curves and surfaces). Once the modeling is complete, the artist converts it into the basic polygonal mesh (vertices alone). The polygonal mesh is nothing but a huge number of polygons that are arranged so as it forms the whole character. This conversion to polygonal mesh offers many advantages like faster rendering speed, and multi-software compatibility.

· Scene building: In addition to the characters the animation will have an environment and related objects. The 3D modeling software provides methods to simulate the environment, model the world , sun etc. For example in the 3d modeling and animation software called Maya, the artist have a huge library of Paint effects that contains Trees, leaves etc from which he can drag and drop into a scene and customize it in accordance to needs.

· Texturing: During this stage, all the objects in the scene are given suitable textures using the 3D animation tools specific facilities. Some tools provide only facilities for mapping an image texture on to the 3d model, whereas advanced tools even let you paint on the 3d meshs texture surface.

· Lighting and Camera setup:

This process is much like that in a real world movie making. The 3D animation software provides different types of lights which you can place in the scene in any direction you want. You can adjust the intensity, cone angle or even the shadow cast by the individual lights. Camera also is the replica of the real camera we use for shooting. We can place multiple cameras in a scene; adjust its focal length, aperture size and almost every parameter that you can find in a real camera.

· Animation: Once the static elements have been set, the 3D artist applies motion to them. This process, called animation is performed by setting keyframes. In order to animate a ball falling, the animator would set the first key frame at say 0th second with the balls position at the initial top position. He would set the next key at say 5th second with the balls position touching the ground. The 3D animation software interpolates the balls falling action between the 0th and 5th seconds. The animator can customize the interpolation behavior using graphs or by setting intermediate keys.

In Character animation, similar principles are applied. The skeleton will be animated by the animator and the 3d mesh skinned to the skeleton gets animated automatically. Character animation is often aided by plug-in tools (e.g.: biped) that has been created specifically for creating character animation sequences like walking or running cycles. The various scene elements, cameras and lights are animated using basic key-frame animation, based on the story board requirements.

· Rendering:

Once the scenes are animated, it will undergo a process called rendering, in which the 3d representation is converted to a video format, which can be read and edited using professional video editing software.

· Editing and mixing:

The rendered scenes are imported into video editing software and edited. In the case of movies where the human characters need to interact with an animated character, proper mixing is done at this stage, though the 3D scene creation would have been done with that aim in mind, using techniques like motion tracking.

The advantages of 3D animation:

You might have wondered why we should go after the 3D animation, when the whole process itself takes a number of stages and appears to be very complex. Apart from the complexities involved, it does offer a lot of advantages. Once the modeling process is completed, the 3D software allows very flexible control over the scene and animation. You can rotate the model in any angle you want (unlike 2D). 3D animation software also gives a rich collection of tools that aid the process of modeling and animation. You can choose from a wide variety of modeling techniques based on your requirement. Lighting and camera setup is the exact replica of a real world movie shooting environment. Apart from all these, the ultra realism offered by the 3D rendered scenes makes 3D graphics the best solution for the emerging animation industry.

Free Animated Screensavers

Animation is the technology of creating a stimulation of movement by displaying a series of pictures, or frames, one after the another, after a specified duration, so as to create a moving effect. Cartoons on the television are one such example of the animation. Animation on computers is one of the chief ingredients of the world of multimedia. And one of the main aspects of this ever-popular world of multimedia is animated screensavers. Animated screensavers create an illusion of the moving images and figures on your display screen.

These animated screensavers are created with the aid of digital computers and specialized animation software like flash, director, Microsoft GIF animator, and many others.

There are large numbers of free animated screensavers available on the Internet, offering different themes and categories. These screensavers can be downloaded onto your screen without any hassle, just by simply downloading it from the Internet, free of cost. You can always seek help of the different search engines to look for your favorite animated screensaver to enliven and decorate your screen. Some popular screensavers are cascading waterfalls, falling snow, moving cartoons, singing Santa, and many others. Some of the other screensavers reflecting the effect of the magical world of animation are free lake scenes—a beautiful and relaxing display of a photographic lake scenes that come to life with animation. The dancing baby screensaver brings on your screen a dancing doll that can modify its steps based on your mouse instructions.

Bring these animated screensavers on your display screen and be ready to express yourself and your mood with beauty and style.

Animated Backgrounds - Wow Your Viewers With Your Choice

Using animated backgrounds for the first time can be a little bit daunting. Thankfully, it is actually easier than ever and can lead to some excellent results if you are prepared beforehand.

The first thing you need to know is that you've made the right choice in exploring backgrounds with motion in them. There is nothing more boring than staring at a presentation that uses a dull, stationary background. The fact that yours will be animated means that you're on the right track already!

The next thing you need to do, however, is make sure you're choosing the background that is right for your project. While most animated backgrounds are interesting, you need to make sure it's neither too subtle nor too over-the-top for the feel you're going for in your video.

To get a feel for the kind of background you might include you should imagine your target audience as they watch your video. What do they like to do? What kinds of things interest them? Knowing this and getting a clear picture in your head can help you choose the animations that will fit in with their style. Another thing you need to do before you choose an animated background is decide what you want the person to feel as they watch. Do you want excitement, empathy, inspiration, happiness, or what? Knowing what kind of emotion you want to evoke is half the battle when it comes to choosing a great animation.

Do keep in mind that while these things are all important, you don't want to over-analyze things either. As long as your video is great to look at and has professional appeal you should have nothing to worry about.

It makes it even easier when you have access to animated backgrounds that you can really trust. It's a great thing that there are so many backgrounds that are available royalty free. That means you can use them where you'd like in your videos! You can also make them shorter, loop them, or splice them together for a unique feel.

If all this sounds foreign to you right now- don't worry! As you start the process of creating video with motion backgrounds you'll realize that It's a lot easier than you think. Part of the reason this is true is because a lot of the work is done for you when the background is all ready to go!

Whether you've yet to make your first video or are a seasoned veteran, you can create professional quality videos in less time that you think. Better yet, it will cost a lot less than you think as well! That is a great thing since the more video you're able to produce these days, the better. Choosing animated backgrounds is easy, but there are some things you need to consider along the way. Knowing your audience and choosing animations that get your point across is key.

MySpace Avatars - Add A Little Spice to Your Profile

Avatars are a cool way to express your mood or something you believe in strongly, and they can really dress up a MySpace profile. What's an avatar? It is a small to medium sized graphic, sometimes animated, sometimes not, and almost always eye-catching and colorful. Browse some of the top profiles, and you will be convinced of their popularity. One reason that avatars are used in heavy rotation is because they are an easy way to tell the world what you are thinking or feeling

There are so many different types of avatars available that you could add a new one to your profile daily for a couple of years, and still not be even close to using them all. Just a few of the categories you can find by doing a search for "MySpace avatars" include -

• Animals

• Anime

• Cartoons

• Fantasy

• Funny

• Games

• Holidays

• Love

• Movies

• Music

• Sports

A good way to see what kind of avatars are the most popular is to search for "Top Ranked Avatars". This will give you a sampling of what other users have deemed the best and have used themselves. Trends can vary, but you generally can't go wrong in choosing animated avatars, those which feature famous actors or musicians, funny photos, suggestive photos, or various human emotions. All of these subjects seem to stay in the top ten among MySpace users.

That said, 3d avatars are HOT on MySpace. These can appear to be almost real! You can customize these by uploading a photo of yourself, plus a short recording of your voice or any other sound effects you want to use. Then, you add a body, clothing, special effects such as glasses or tattoos, and choose a background. What you end up with could be termed a "Talking Head" that looks like you and sounds like you, too. The mouth actually moves, and the facial expressions are truly lifelike! It's very easy to create one of these, too. A search for "3d MySpace avatars" will lead you to several web pages which have generators for these avatars that you can use for free to create a truly one-of-a-kind avatar for your profile.

Another extremely popular avatar on MySpace is called a Dollie. Girls love these, and part of the fun is that it is pretty easy to find a dollie that closely resembles you. Included in the avatar is a short message which can be funny, cute or a bit spicy to suit the occasion.

Message only and photo only avatars seem to be a well-liked form of self expression among MySpace users. These can add a lot of personality to a profile when used together. No, you aren't limited to just one! Any avatar is super easy to add to your MySpace profile. Just copy the code from the site where your chosen avatar is located, and paste the code into any section of your profile. Have fun with avatars!

Finding Nemo Trivia and History

The movie Finding Nemo has many popular characters including, Marlin the Clownfish, his son Nemo, Dory the Tang fish, and the characters from the aquarium, Gill, Bloat, Peach, Gurgle, Bubbles, Deb, and Jacques. This is an award winning movie that most kids and adults loved. Some parents certainly had to endure endless repetitions of, ‘can we watch it again’ from their kids. The popularity of Finding Nemo was somewhat surprising because it was intended to be a children’s show, but many adults loved it too. Primarily because it featured family related content, without a lot of crude humor.

As with any movie there is some conflict that needs to be resolved. In this one little Nemo, raised solely by his father since the mother died is captured by human divers. Marlin immediately goes on a quest to find his son, which takes him all over the sea and gets him into a lot of trouble. It also makes him a lot of new friends and helps Marlin overcome his fear of letting Nemo experience the outside world.

Finding Nemo set a record for the highest grossing opening weekend for a cartoon movie. Although the record didn’t last long it was a big deal for Pixar Animation Studios which created the film and Disney which released it. Finding Nemo is a computer animated cartoon, which means there are no live action characters but it’s not like at cartoon either. The entire movie is created with computer graphics and actors provide the voices.

It certainly makes for a good theme at any children’s party. You can combine it with an under the sea party theme for lots of extra decoration ideas. Kids will love watching the movie, over and over again for entertainment at the party. Don’t forget the fish sticks and hush puppies for good party food.

Cartoon Animation

Animation is the process of linking a series of slightly different drawings especially, cartoons together to simulate movement. Phenomenon of persistence of vision normally needs 24 frames per second in a frame. If a series of 24 or less cartoon images (slightly changes) run per second it will make a cartoon animation. Cartoon Animation is a combination of two creative arts from cartoonists and animators. Cartoon animations are funniest show ever in electronics media.

Why Cartoon Animations

Cartoon animations are merged in film industries as an impact of special effect technologies. The comic characters are graphically designed by the cartoonist with putting expressions and all and animated by animators using certain software tools. The cartoonist draw objects or character based on the storyline and the motion given as per the story directs. Usually cartoon pictures are funny illustrations with a theme behind. Cartoon should strike the viewer and has to provide food for thought. And animation adds life into the same cartoons. Making animated cartoon is tough and challenging job. Maintaining quality of execution of the cartoon and animation are real knowledge of thought on any expression like sorrow, happy as well as the motions into it.

Cartoon Animation is a sequential cartoon pictures with humorous expression based on a concept or story. Voice over is not mandatory in animations. You may or may not add voice over unless it specifies a language. It is a cross-cultural platform, where any concept can be displayed by cartoon characters. Cartoonist and Animators are such peoples, they can develop it. Computer and software help a lot to them to create varieties of animations in website stuff, games, cartoon movies and commercial applications.

Type of Cartoon Animations

The cartoon graphics may be 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional models. Due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision makes an optical illusion of motion to corresponding graphics types.

2D Cartoon Animation: Graphics are created on the paper or computer screen using 2D bitmap or 2D vector graphics. 2D graphics are drawn on X-Y coordinate and automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques such as of twining, morphing, blurring and interpolated. The GUI operating systems improved much of the techniques of 2D animations a lot. Software tools can be used for making 2D animations such as Macromedia Flash, PowerPoint etc.

3D Cartoon Animation: Characters, shapes and objects can be created in the computer using polygons. Three dimensional representations of geometric data is stored in the computer to perform calculations and rendering 2D images and 3D computer graphics rely on many of the same algorithms as 2D vector graphics. To give a movement for the object, a digital armature is applied that process is called rigging. Some examples of 3D animations are skeletal animation, Walk through Motion and 3D cartoon shows. 3D cartoon animation has its origin as a presentation and simulation tool for scientific data. This 3D presentation tool has proved to be more powerful and compelling than any other tool available till date. There is few latest technology to fulfill the cartoon animation needs.

Funny Animation

Animation is a very special media form. It allows the complete re-presentation of reality. Funny animation attracts attention of viewers to get into the purpose. Website, presentations, product demos, advertisements, public show must have some funny animation stuff to attract the reader or viewers. This is a very easy now with the help of computer, software and tools. Generating animation graphics and making it animated is also funny work. Animation may not be so powerful but widely used and appreciated. Funny animations are popular in computer games, Cartoon channels, blockbuster movies etc. Funny Animation is used to fill in the gaps when reality simply doesn't look real enough.

Funny Animation is the process of linking a series of slightly different funny cartoon drawings together to simulate a movement. There are normally 24 or less frames per second in moving film and it happens similar in animated GIFs you see on websites.

Techniques used for Funny Animations:

There are three different techniques types of cartoon animation: 1. Cel Animation cartoons are made on transparent sheets (celluloid) laid on top of each other to combine characters and backgrounds.
2. Stop Motion Animation is model or cartoons or puppet (or shadow) is shot a frame at a time, with tiny changes in positions.
3. Computer animation where computer is used for creating the shapes and colors of animated action, working from a series of mathematical codes, or can be drawn frame by frame cartoons.

Popular Usage of Funny Animation:

In User Interface design in software, web applications and websites, many funny animations are popularly used. The buttons, pop up stuff, comment box, help (like MS word help and search dog) are designed with animations that give a pleasure look at the animation. There are numerous funny animations are used in electronic advertisement on Internet and television media. Advertisers can make funny animation advertisement film without a human model. They can redirect the animation character to any extent. There are many cartoon animation films have been made in Hollywood film industry.

Making of Animations

Storyboards preparation is the first document work that conveys the list of task to be done sequentially. Making shapes body, faces, hands, legs, dress up and putting color are sequential steps. You can use some common shape, alphabets for making of face, flower, tree, house etc. Based on the distant of objects you have to draw the sizes of the objects or character. In computer you can repeat a partial drawing using mirror images effects. There are many effects, layer works can be designed for animating objects. Flip Book is a sample that can be used while making animation graphics in computer. You can draw frame by frame graphics and change in each frame like flip book sequential images. You will find a good animation of your drawing object.

Think of some funny sounds that match to your animation object movements or character movements. Funny sounds like laughs, claps, chains clanking, footsteps, doors creaking, whistle, wind, rain, thunder and lightening, barking dog etc. can be collected from libraries and incorporate in specific frames. To be a good funny animator, you need to think about how shapes can change and move with humorous way.

Doraemon

Doraemon (ドラえもん?) is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio (the pen name of Hiroshi Fujimoto) and Fujiko A. Fujio (the pen name of Motō Abiko) which later became an anime series and Asian franchise. The series is about a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy, Nobita Nobi (野比 のび太, Nobi Nobita?).

The series first appeared in December 1969, when it was published simultaneously in six different magazines. In total, 1,344 stories were created in the original series, which are published by Shogakukan under the Tentōmushi (てんとう虫?) manga brand, extending to forty-five volumes. The volumes are collected in the Takaoka Central Library in Toyama, Japan. Fujio was born in Toyama.

A majority of Doraemon episodes are comedies with moral lessons regarding values such as integrity, perseverance, courage, family and respect for elders. Several noteworthy environmental issues are often visited, including homeless animals, endangered species, deforestation, and pollution. Topics such as dinosaurs, the flat Earth theory, wormhole traveling, Gulliver's Travels, and the history of Japan are often covered.

Doraemon was awarded the Japan Cartoonists Association Award for excellence in 1973. Doraemon was awarded the first Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga in 1982,[5] and the first Osamu Tezuka Culture Award in 1997. In March 2008, Japan's Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation's first "anime ambassador."[6] Ministry spokesman explained the novel decision as an attempt to help people in other countries to understand Japanese anime better and to deepen their interest in Japanese culture."[7] The Foreign Ministry action confirms that Doraemon has come to be considered a Japanese cultural icon. In 2002, the anime character was acclaimed as an Asian Hero in a special feature survey conducted by Time Asia magazine.[8]

In December 1969, the Doraemon manga appeared simultaneously in six different children's monthly magazines. The magazines were titled by the year of children's studies, which included Yoiko (good children), Yōchien (nursery school), and Shogaku Ichinensei (first grade of primary school) to Shogaku Yonnensei (fourth grade of primary school). By 1973, the series began to appear in two more magazines, Shogaku Gonensei (fifth grade of primary school) and Shogaku Rokunensei (sixth grade of primary school). The stories featured in each of the magazines were different, meaning the author was originally creating more than six stories each month. In 1977, CoroCoro Comic was launched as a magazine of Doraemon. Original manga based on the Doraemon movies were also released in CoroCoro Comic. The stories which are preserved under the Tentōmushi brand are the stories found in these magazines.

Since the debut of Doraemon in 1969, the stories have been selectively collected into forty-five books published from 1974 to 1996, which had a circulation of over 80 million in 1992. In addition, Doraemon has appeared in a variety of manga series by Shōgakukan. In 2005, Shōgakukan published a series of five more manga volumes under the title Doraemon+ (Doraemon Plus), which were not found in the forty-five Tentōmushi pipi volumes. Many other series have since been produced, some not from official supplies.
Plot summary
The first appearance of Doraemon, who came via the time machine.

Doraemon is sent back in time by Nobita Nobi's great-great grandson Sewashi to improve Nobita's circumstances so that his descendants may enjoy a better future. In the original timeline, Nobita experienced nothing but misery and misfortune throughout his life. As a result of this, Nobita's failures in school and subsequently, his career, have left his family line beset with financial problems. In order to alter history and better the Nobi family's fortunes, Sewashi sent him a robot called Doraemon.

Doraemon has a pocket from which he produces many gadgets, medicines, and tools from the future. The pocket is called yojigen-pocket, or 4-dimensional pocket.

Although he can hear perfectly well, Doraemon has no ears: his robotic ears were eaten by a mouse, giving him a series-long phobia of the creatures.

The stories are formulaic, usually focused on the everyday struggles of fourth grader Nobita, the protagonist of the story. In a typical chapter, Nobita comes home crying about a problem he faces in school and/or the local neighborhood. After hearing him out, Doraemon always offers helpful advice to his problem(s), but that's never enough for Nobita, who is consistently looking for the "quick, easy" way out (which offers insight to the viewers as to why Nobita's life turned out the way it did). Finally, after Nobita's pleading and/or goading, Doraemon produces a futuristic gadget out of his aforementioned pouch to help Nobita fix his problem, enact revenge, or flaunt to his friends.

Nobita usually goes too far, despite Doraemon's best intentions and warnings, and gets into deeper trouble than before. Sometimes, Nobita's friends (usually Suneo or Jaian) steal the gadgets and end up misusing them. However, by the end of the story, there is usually retribution to the characters who end up misusing them, and a moral is taught.
Series finale rumors

There are three current and often quoted urban legends that started spreading in late 1980s of an ending to the Doraemon series.

* The first and the most optimistic ending was made public by Nobuo Sato several years ago. Doraemon's battery power ran out, and Nobita was given a choice between replacing the battery inside a frozen Doraemon, which would cause it to reset and lose all memory, or await a competent robotics technician who would be able to resurrect the cat-robot one day. Nobita swore that very day to work hard in school, graduate with honors, and become that robotics technician. He successfully resurrected Doraemon in the future as a robotics professor, became successful as an AI developer, and thus lived happily ever after, thus relieving his progeny of the financial burdens that caused Doraemon to be sent to his space-time in the first place. A dōjin manga for this ending was made by a "Tajima T Yasue" in 2005, and it sold 13,000 copies before Shogakukan halted its publication. Tajima apologized to Shogakukan in 2007 and paid an undisclosed amount of money for settlement.[9]

* The second, more pessimistic ending suggests that Nobita Nobi is suffering from autism and that all the characters (including Doraemon) are simply his delusion. The idea that Nobita was a sick and dying little boy who imagined the entire series on his sickbed to help him ease his pain and depression no doubt angered quite a lot of fans. Many Japanese fans staged a protest outside the headquarters of the publisher of the series after learning about this suggestion. The publisher had to issue a public statement that this is not true. (This ending actually correlates to the ending for the series St. Elsewhere, which ended in 1988.)

* The third ending suggests that Nobita fell and hit his head on a rock. He fell into a deep coma, and eventually into a semi-vegetative state. To raise money for an operation to save Nobita, Doraemon sold all the tools and devices in his four-dimensional pocket. However, the operation failed. Doraemon sold all his tools except for one used as a last resort. He used it to enable Nobita to go wherever he wanted, whichever time or era he wished to go. In the end, the very place Nobita wanted to go was heaven.

The plausibility of these issues was discussed here and it was concluded that there is no ending to Doraemon.[10]

There are three official endings to Doraemon that were made. Doraemon was discontinued in two media because readers were advancing in grades and an ending was believed to be needed. These two are not reprinted.

* In the March 1971 issue of the magazine Shogaku 4-nensei:[11] Due to the fact that visitors from the future were causing too much trouble, the government in the 22nd Century passed a bill to ban time-travelling altogether, meaning Doraemon would have to return to his time era. He leaves Nobita.

* In the March 1972 issue of the magazine Shogaku 4-nensei: Doraemon, for some reason, had to go back to the future but fakes a mechanical problem so that Nobita would let him go. Nobita believes him and promises to wait until Doraemon gets well. Realizing that Nobita can handle his departure, Doraemon tells the truth and Nobita accepts. Doraemon returns to the future.

The third ending was actually meant to be the official ending due to low TV ratings and the Fujiko Fujio duo being busy with other works, but Doraemon did not leave their minds and restarted in the next month's issue. In 1981, this episode was made into anime (called "Doraemon Comes Back"), and in 1998, this was released as an anime movie.

* In the March 1973 issue of the magazine Shogaku 4-nensei, Nobita again returns home after losing a fight against Gian. Doraemon then explains that he has to return. Nobita tries to have Doraemon stay but after talking it over with his parents, he accepts Doraemon's departure. They take a last walk in the park. After they split up, Nobita encounters Gian and gets into a fight again. After a long duel with Nobita trying to win at all costs so that Doraemon can leave without worries, Gian gave up (which gave Nobita the win) because no matter what, Nobita refuses to stay down. Doraemon finds Nobita passed out with a bloody mouth and takes him home. Sitting beside the sleeping Nobita, Doraemon returns to the future. This story was reprinted in the last chapter of the manga Book 6.

* The animated version is very similar, but lengthened. Nobita finds a box the shape of Doraemon in his drawer. The next day, which happens to be April Fool's Day, Nobita is jeered at by Suneo and Gian, the latter tricking him about Doraemon's return. He happily runs home and asked his mother whether Doraemon came back and finds out the truth. Nobita couldn't stand it and opens the box. Inside of it was a bottle of liquid. He hears Doraemon's voice explaining that the potion is called Uso 800 (Lies 800) it is used to make all untruths the drinker says true. Nobita uses it to play a few tricks on Gian and Suneo, like first taking cover then say that the weather sure is good, which becomes a lie and it started to rain heavily before he said it is raining heavily and the rain stopped. Gian and Suneo was scared away after a few tricks and when Nobita mentioned what is happening. Nobita was very happy at first but quickly loses interest in the absence of Doraemon. As he walks home, due to his earlier questioning if Doraemon returned or not, his mother asked him if he could find Doraemon, he unwittingly said, in great disappointment, the truth about Doraemon never coming back, just like what Doraemon told Nobita before his departure. Since the potion was still in effect, when he arrives his room he finds Doraemon there, and they have a happy reunion, but due to the effects of the potion, all his greets and joyful words have to be spoken in the opposite way like I am so unhappy that we can never be together again.. The extended ending from the animated series was eventually adapted to the first story of Book 7 in the manga series, with a few changes (i.e. Instead of hearing Doraemon's voice explaining the use of the potion, he finds a card inside the box describing the use of the potion).

When the Fujiko Fujio duo broke up in 1987, the very idea of an official ending to the series was never discussed. Since Fujiko F. died in 1996 before any decisions were reached, any "endings" of Doraemon are fan fiction. However, it is apparent from many episodes and movies where Nobita travels to the future that in the end he does marry Shizuka, leads a happy life and separates with Doraemon, although Nobita and his friends fondly remember him.[12]

Flash Animation

Flash movies are great favorites of Web designers, as they can have moving pictures, games, and interactive displays on pages that download in a reasonable amount of time. But what is a flash player? It is a plug-in that helps your browser play flash movies. Anyone who has visited websites with games, cartoons or interactive activities all on the same web page has knowingly or unknowingly used flash.

You can do quite a few things with flash. A flash-built web page might have cool buttons, or menu bars that change as you make choices. It could let you play a game, or do a drawing. It is even possible to have fully interactive web pages that look more like video games than the web.

The use of flash is very common on company websites. Design and media companies in particular prefer the use of flash because they want to impress visitors. Many newspaper and magazine websites also use flash to make interactive maps of places that are in the news.

Flash is the program used by web designers to make the pages, games and special files – or 'movies' - that this program creates. The movies are added to web pages just like pictures or other extras, like Java. When the page is sent from a web server to a browser, the movie file is sent too. The flash player, a special program, reads these movie files and displays them properly inside the web pages.

Although not a standard part of the world wide web, ever since flash was launched in 1995 it has become the most common way to add cool extras to websites. Many computers are sold with the flash player already installed. In fact, over 97% of Internet users have already got flash on their computers.

Flash gets a new version at frequent intervals, and you may need the latest version of the flash player in order to see pages created using it.

As flash animations have reasonably small file sizes, larger and more complex animations can be put online and downloaded reasonably quickly. They can also have interactive ability built into them, which is extremely popular for online games and special effects on web pages. The problem with flash is that it can make sites hard to look at and slow to download if it used too frequently.

Animation Challenges in Drawing People Walking - Sequence Sketching

Drawing people is something that every animator better know how to do and not just stick figures either. Animators must be able to draw people doing all kinds of things such as riding a bike, playing a sport, driving a car, or even walking or jogging. In fact, nearly every animation that has people in it will have the characters walking. Before you can set this into the computer to get the animation working, you'll need to have drawings to put that into the CADCAM software to help you grid it out.

This means you will have to sketch your character, in different positions while they are walking. You'll need a new sketch for each point of contact such as a foot touching the ground as your anchor sketches and then a few sketches in between. Once you do this you can set the parameters, and the computer will do the rest. If you've ever studied people walking or just sat in a coffee shop and watched people walk by out the window, you will notice quite a few interesting things.

People will swing their arms a certain way, and then move laterally to go around an object, thus, drawing a couple holding hands, or someone walking a dog adds more complications to your animation. However, if you will keep in mind the need to draw your anchor sketches each time a foot hits the ground, or in the case of walking the dog a paw, you'll be able to make all this happen.

Remember when you have a dog walking with a human you now have six legs and six points of contact. A small dog will touch the ground many more times between each step of the human, sometimes at the same time and sometimes not. And you cannot cut corners by having them walking in lock step, it will not look real.

Drawing sequential sketches is a necessity of a good animator, and until you can do that it really doesn't matter how well you can run the software, because you can never make it in the business until you can do both. Please think of all this.

References:

"The Animator's Survival Kit; a Manual of Methods, Principles, and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators" by Richard Williams (director of animation "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"), Published by Faber and Faber, New York; 2001. ISBN: 0-571-21268-9

And

"3D Graphics & Animation; from Starting Up to Standing Out," by Mark Giambruno; New Riders Publishing; Indianapolis, IN; 1997. ISBN: 1-56205-698-0

Animation in India - An Excellent Opportunity

Will India be the future of animation technologies? Could be and they may well be on their way. For someone who has these skills there it can mean a successful career and meaningful work. Plus it can save US Companies huge amounts of money and this means with lower budgets, the world will see more animation at a lower price.

In fact, in an article in Knowledge@Wharton the electronic newsletter for Wharton International Business School, there was an interesting article; "Frame by Frame, Indian Animators Move Up the Value Chain," which discussed films currently being created in Mumbai, India. The movies are created there, and licensed through companies here.

Many of the animated movies we see in the US in the future will be partially completed, or completely done and outsourced to animators in India. How big is the industry? Well, friends of Wharton in that country say it generates up to 500 million dollars per year now, and could easily double by 2012. This is huge news and great timing for those considering a career in the field. It is a huge growth industry.

Will this hurt US animation jobs in Los Angeles? Well, it certainly could on a temporary basis due to the recession, but there as more animation hits the scenes and with all the video game, simulation, and future social-networking-animation expected, there should be lots of jobs all over the world. Right now in their country they will have to work extremely hard just to keep up with demand. It takes a lot of work to train new animators, but luckily they have lots of people interested that they can train. Please consider all this.

How Flash Text Animation Can Help You

What is Flash Text Animation?

Flash text animation is exactly what it sounds like. On your web page, you turn plain text into text that is moving, full of colors and life. It looks even better than it sounds, trust me. Flash text animation is growing more and more popular, and graphic designers are finding that flash text animation gives web site a high-tech, glossy, more professional look.

Sure, you can have plain text on your site. But when your competition has flashing, animated, interesting text, viewers may like those sites better – which can be bad for business. In the world of the Internet, having page viewers is the key to success. You want people to come to your site, so you have to keep up with (and even outdo) the competition. Flash text animation is a great way to get your site looking professional, interesting, and lively.

How Flash Text Animation Can Help You

Flash text animation will make your site look more interesting graphically, giving it an overall well-done feel and professionalism. This will bring visitors back time and again, and help to draw in traffic for your site. The average Internet cruiser looks at twenty to forty different sites a day – having flash text animation on your site can help set you apart from the rest. You want visitors not only to come to your site, but also to remember your web site. This will bring in repeat visitors, which means more business for you and your site.

Flash text animation very simply looks good, and people want their web sites to look good. It makes your site a more lively and interesting piece of the Internet to visit, and will make you look like a professional web site designer. No one has to know how easy flash text animation can really be.

Flash Text Animation Programs

To be honest, designing your own flash text animation can be a very long and tedious process. You have to really know what you’re doing and go through a series of careful steps before you get any hint of animation to your text at all. Even very clever web site designers have trouble designing flash text animation.

And because it’s so hard, there are about a thousand programs you can get online to make the whole thing a lot easier. That’s one of the reasons the Internet is so great – it’s great for taking shortcuts. If carefully designing your text and spending hours and hours working with the bones of your web site doesn’t sound appealing, don’t worry – that doesn’t sound appealing to many people.

There are many free flash text animation programs that you can find online, and download for your own personal use. Using flash text animation programs is usually as simple as clicking some buttons and working your way through some pull-down menus. In a matter of minutes, you can add flash text animation to your site without a lot of hassle or even web site design. A simple search on the Internet will yield many different programs that you can try for free to create your own flash text animation.

Flash Text Animation

If it makes your site look better, if it’s easy to do, and if it means more traffic to your site, there’s no reason not to give it a try. Flash text animation will give your site a professional look that you and your visitors will enjoy.

Picking the Right 3D Animation Studio to Work With

Picking the right animation company for your project will determine the success and failure of your marketing effort! So...how do you ensure you are picking the right one? The following is my honest advice regarding this subject matter:

1. Let me first start by saying that some companies excel at certain genres and other companies at other genres. There are some - like mine - which specializes mainly in animated commercials, broadcast animation for documentaries, medical visualization, character design and architectural visualization. There are companies who specialize solely in special effects or architectural visualization work. The very first thing you do is to ensure that you find a company that best fits what you want to do. Find a company that has an extensive portfolio or one that has done something similar to what you have in mind. The first ensures an experienced company and the second gives you the confidence that they have done something similar before and can probably deliver the same to you.

2. Make sure that the company is using more in-house staff than freelancers. Many freelancers are unreliable and may disappear when the going gets tough. Ultimately the company is responsible for their conduct, but you would have wasted your time and perhaps missed a good opportunity to impress with your presentation or marketing campaign. So you stand to lose out even if you don't have to pay for the project ultimately.

3. Ask for milestones and deliverables. Understand what the company's pipeline is like. Any animation companies worth their salt would be able to tell you a pipeline and milestone delivery that sounds logical and reasonable. Click here if you missed my section on Working with an Animation Company to find out more.

4. Find a company that responds fast to emails and phone calls. If the company takes a long time to return mails and calls, chances are they are either too busy to respond, can't be bothered to respond or too disorganized to respond. Either way you should move on and look for the next vendor.

5. Find a company that has project managers or account managers in place. You want to speak to speak to marketing people who understand your marketing needs and not animators who think about cool special effects and nice animation.

6. After giving concise background information of your company and what you want to achieve, see how fast and pro-active the company is in coming back with a proposed solution and a quotation. See if the quotation makes sense and that the company can account for each of the service listed.

7. I would not advise going around for quotations because quite honestly every animation company may charge differently according to their staff strength, reputation, portfolios, whether they are using freelancers or perm staff, standard of work, etc. There are too many variables and it is akin to comparing the prices of cars of different makes. It won't be fair in this respect. Try to go for whichever company can possibly deliver what you need within your budget.

8. Lastly, always work with a company you feel comfortable with. Go with your gut feeling. If you don't feel good about the company, it means you don't have chemistry with the people there and chances are you won't enjoy the working relationship. This will affect the end product.

Media Arts and Animation Degree Online Program

What does Media Arts and Animation Degree Online Program have to Offer?

The presentation of any product is one of the key factors on which the sales ratio rely completely. Of course the product has to maintain the quality standards but other than that, to sell a product, it needs to be well presented. Apart from sales perspective, when it comes to entertainment, it's very important to make things look as real as possible on screen. For instance, a film is being shot and there is a stunt sequence in which the actor has to jump from a very tall building. Now in this sort of a scenario it's pretty likely that the actor will deny to shoot that scene (unless it's Tom Cruise) because of a lot of risks involved and the stunt sequence is also very necessary for the movie to progress. So instead of risking a human life, that stunt could be performed on a computer screen using a graphic designing software and thanks to so much of the hard work from the industry, its really not that hard to create stunts like that. Media Arts and Animation Design has traveled a long way. There were days when simple JPEGs and GIFs images were created on Corel Draw but now there are advance graphic designing software programs like 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photo-shop and Adobe Flash which creates high definition graphics. These software programs have unlimited possibilities and it all depends on the imagination and the creativity of the graphic designer that how he/she does that. The tools are there to create a perfect motion picture using nothing more than a computer system but it's very important to learn those tools first in order to be on the top of your game. For that matter, many top accredited online universities and top accredited online colleges are offering Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program. Media Arts and Animation Degree Online module is basically a branch of Visual Communication Degree programs. If you choose to get into any of the top accredited online university or top accredited online colleges to learn the art of animation and design then this degree could be the best option for you.

To learn animation and design, a lot of tolerance and skills are required. You might have to wait for months or years to gain the perfection you are trying to achieve but one thing's for sure that you will create that perfection. And after all, one of the benefits of getting into top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges is that you learn everything with perfection and are given ample amount of time to develop an understanding of all the given tools and software programs to achieve what you want. You will be working with software programs like Adobe Photo-shop, Adobe After Effects, and 3D Studio Max.

Course Outline

Some of the courses offered by top accredited online universities and top accredited online colleges in Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program are:

· 2D Animation

· 3D Character Animation

· Acting/Movement

· Advanced 2D Animation

· Advanced 3D Modeling

· Advanced 3D Textures

· Advanced Life Drawing/Gesture

· Advanced Modeling/Animation Topics

· Camera and Lighting Techniques

· Character and Object Animation

· Color Theory

· Digital Composition

· Digital Editing-- Video, Audio

· Digital Imaging for Multimedia and Web

· Digital Ink and Paint

· Drawing and Anatomy

· Fundamentals of Design

· Intermediate 2D Animation

· Introduction to Digital Composition

· Life Drawing and Gesture

· Portfolio Presentation for Animation

· Pre-Portfolio Presentation for Animation

· Pre-Production Team

· Storyboard Rendering for Animation

· Visual Indication

· Web Animation

Career Opportunities and Salary Info

Once after completing Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program of top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges, you would have to go for an internship after which you would be able to join a regular job. Internship could even be started before completing the degree program so this way you would be able to save some time. You could target jobs like Storyboard Artist, Texture Artist, Computer Modeler, Computer Generated Special Effects Artist, Creative Head, Media Consultant and a lot more. The salary depends on the sort of the job position you are on to and the experience. You would be able to earn around $80,000 or more per annum after successfully completing Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program from any of the top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges.

What You Really Should Know About 3D Animation and Animation Graphics

We have all seen animation and probably so much so that we have got to the point where we just take it for granted. If we have to stop and think about it, our explanation of it would be simply something that moves. Many of us would equate it to cartoons.

To become more technical what we are referring to is 2D or 3D animation. 3D being 3 dimensional by way of the order of the images be presented. Each movement is known as a frame. One frame very gradually moves onto the next and give us the illusion that the object is moving. The frames are then presented moving from one to the next very quickly.

To create this effect by hand or as we refer to the 2D was painstakingly consuming. The artist would have to draw a new picture each time the object moved in any way. Then all of these photos would be put together consecutively. These were called cell animation and hand drawn animation. Although it was detailed and a great deal of work, it was well respected by the true animator and received with pleasure by the viewer.

Cartoons have been based on 2Dimensional art for years. With the inception of the computer not long after came the capabilities for 3D. This does not mean that 2D still does not have its place of importance. Nor does it mean there is no skill involved. If one thinks that, an individual that who has no artistic basis can sit down and do 3D animation just by learning the software this is simply not the case.

To create 3D animation it requires the use of complex software. All of the characters are designed by way of the computer and hand drawing is not a consideration. It will progress through a series of steps before the project will be completed. The individual who is responsible for this project must have a thorough understanding of each and every step in order to reach the desired results.

There are many standard software programs that are used for 3D animation. There are several on the market. They all vary as to capabilities and complexity. If you have a real interest in this type of art, then you could start with a very basic program. As you, master the one move on up to the level. Remember though this does not replace the artistic eye. You need to be able to discern that the character looks perfect during every step of the way to becoming completed. If you are not able to critique your own work then you are not going to get good results. If you seem to have a knack for drawing but have had no training you may want to consider taking some art courses and at least learning the basics before you attempt 3D animation.

Finally, you should be aware that it is not just a matter of mastering the software. Large production companies have had their own software designed specifically for them. If you to approach these companies for a job then you would most certainly needs the basics as we have just outlined.

Animation Movies - Where To?

If we take a look at the recent releases, there is no major movie based on 2D animation. Is 2D animation worn out, or just not commercial enough? Even if those classic animations are always a pleasure to watch, you have to admit that the modern animation is more attractive. They are more real, and people seem to love that. If we take a look at the box office, we see 2 animation movies in top 10 (Shrek 2 and Finding Nemo) with 1,7 billion dollars revenue. That is amazing. And for both movies CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) was used.

So, why do studios use CGI, and why do we like it so much? I tend to say, that from the film fan’s point of view, it’s the story that makes the movie so attractive, because, anytime I would like to see a movie like Shrek, with real actors, scenes, and other real stuff. But it’s the story that does all the trick. From the creators’ point of view, it is cheaper. Because, with today’s special effects, anything is possible with real actors, and they can’t deny that. But, like I said, it’s cheaper than physical methods, such as constructing elaborate miniatures for effects shots or hiring a great deal of extras for crowd scenes, and because it allows the creation of images that would not be feasible using any other method. It can also allow a single artist to produce content without the use of actors or other contributors to the project.

The first studio to release a fully computer-generated feature film was Pixar, with their Toy Story. The movie was a major box office hit, generating $360,000,000. Pixar is also “responsible” with other successful animation movies, such as Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life or The Incredibles. The other real competitor for Pixar is DreamWorks SKG, with Shrek, Shrek 2(this is the animation that generated the largest income for an animation movie, over 880 million dollars), Antz or Chicken Run.

Now that I mentioned Chicken Run, this is a very interesting animation, because it’s not like the other. For this movie Claymation was used. What exactly is Claymation? Well, in clay animation, each object is sculpted in clay or a similarly pliable material such as plasticine, usually around an armature. As in other forms of object animation, the object is arranged on the set, a shot is taken and the object or character is then moved very slightly by hand. Another shot is taken and the object moved slightly again. To achieve the best results, a consistent shooting environment is needed to maintain the illusion of continuity. This means paying special attention to maintaining consistent lighting and object placement. Even if Chicken Run was not a huge hit, DreamWorks used Claymation again, for the remake of Wallace and Gromit.

So, no matter what techniques the creators use, it seems that the 2D animation days are gone and computer-animated movies become more real with every release, breaking revenue records.