Cartoons - A Popular Humor Dose

In Modern times, the meaning of cartoon has changed a lot from what it used to be in fine art of middle ages and renaissance period. In modern contexts, cartoon refers to a visual presentation that produces humor and satire. The word cartoon has originated from the Italian "cartone" and Dutch/Flemish word "karton", meaning strong, heavy paper board or dashboard. Newspapers and magazines are the most popular media where the cartoons are shown. The modern cartoons are drawn as one drawing and are often supported by a caption written just beneath the cartoon or in a speech balloon. These cartoons are mostly called gag cartoons. Peter Arno, renowned cartoonist of The New Yorker, is considered to be the father of gag cartoons. Some famous gag cartoonists include- Charles Addams, Gary Larson, Charles Barsotti, Chon Day and Mel Calman. Editorial cartoons are an integral part of the newspapers and news magazines. The humor shown in these cartoons is of somber nature. Irony and satire are found in them as the essentials. Editorial cartoons or political cartoons give a commentary on the current political or social situations. Editorial cartoons are also shown with speech balloons or the rough caption written on the cartoon itself or beneath. Herblock, Mike Peters, David Low and Gerald Scarfe are most acclaimed political cartoonists. Cartoons have made a permanent niche in electronic media too. Since kids like cartoons a lot, almost every entertainment channel show some cartoon programs. Above all, full time cartoon channels have been launched and they grab a significant share of the total television viewing. In electronic media these cartoons are called animations. People like Walt Disney, have created some cartoon characters that are the on the tip of the tongue of the individual, who once has been a kid. Tom and Jerry, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck etc. are the world famous and lovable cartoon characters. Cartoons are made on plethora of topics. Almost all aspects of life are covered in the cartoons, though in humorous way.

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. AniBoom has been promoting many amazing graphical stuff including cartoon animation. It strives to popularize the varieties, technologies and procedure of making cartoon as well as animation or all together.

Early Cartoons - How Did the Animation Go Wrong?

Ever noticed the cartoon shows that were animated before 1950's seem to have more life and exaggeration to it? For example, have you ever compared a 1940's Looney Tunes cartoon to a 1960's Flintstones cartoon? You know before I begin, if you're interested, why don't you Google, sit back relax and take a look at the two cartoon videos I listed below. See if you can point out something different about them, and of course you don't have to watch them. But if you can for fun, just take a peak. The first video is a Looney Tune cartoon short of Daffy Duck/Elmer Fudd called To Duck or Not to Duck. The cartoon short was a Warner Bros. production that was released to theaters in 1943. Yes, that's right 1943... The second show is a Flintstones cartoon, No Help Wanted, which premiered on ABC's TV network in 1960. Yes, Once again 1960... So go head, don't be afraid to give it a shot, take a look and I'll come back later. Trust me, I'll be right back. Okay, so notice any differences? Yes? Of course you did! But for fun let's assume you didn't. Though by looking at the two videos it's blatantly obvious that the animation in Looney Tunes seem much more fluent and exciting. Personally, I was drawn in by the exaggerations of the animation. Where as, the Flintstones portrayed little to no animation movements at all. In fact, I was getting very annoyed by the constant isolation of the bobbing heads. I was having constant reminders of driving to work, seeing the Bobblehead bobbing back and forth in the corner of my eye on the dashboard. With all honesty, I can't believe this was even considered to be a form of animation. But hey, I guess it falls under the same thought of Taylor Swift being a country artist. So why the step back? Why is a 1943 cartoon more visually appealing than a 1960 cartoon? (And even some of today's cartoons.) Simple, ready for it? Back in the 1940's and even before the 1940's, cartoons were called 'theatrical cartoon shorts'. These cartoons were originally released to theaters and only theaters. They were considered side shows or previews for a premiering live action film. Most cartoon shorts were only about 5-7 minutes long hence, the reason they were called 'shorts'. But the real key to why these cartoon shorts were more appealing than early TV cartoon shows were due to a few things. First, there were on average, approximately 10-13 theatrical cartoon shorts produced per year for a giving studio, with each cartoon being only a few minutes long. However, for TV cartoon shows, studios were producing a new show each week with a total run time of approximately 20 minutes. Of course to effectively produce a 20 minute show each week, the quality of the animation had to be cut. Often times animation cells or backgrounds would be re-used multiple times in different shows. (You'd probably noticed this a lot.) For animators and the animation studio, the process wasn't very fun, challenging or thrilling. But as for networks, they did not care if the animation was good or bad. The only thing they cared about were the ratings. But wait... There's more... Animation studios for TV networks were given very small budgets. In the early 1950's studios were given approximately $2,500-$3,000 to produce a 20 minute cartoon. Does it sound like a lot? Well it does until you compare the cost it took to produced the worlds first Technicolor cartoon short Flowers and Trees (1932), which turns out to be a whooping $27,500 with a runtime of 8 minutes. Honestly, I can't even imagine animating a 20 minute cartoon show for a mere $3,000, talk about trimming out the fat. Though, if being pushed on the brink of an edge; there are only two options, fall over or push your way out. Luckily, these animators and animation studios found a way to push their way back into the cartoon animation business. Otherwise, we'd all be stuck here watching Desperate Housewives and Days of Our Lives. Dominique Edwards is the founder and owner of Netoonime: The Evolution of Cartoonime, a website for cartoon and anime fans that offers fun and entertainment in many different forms, such as: quizzes, informed and personal articles, polls, discussions, trivia, puzzle games, and video clips that are based on cartoon and anime shows, movies, and history.

Animation Softwares That Come Helpful In Creating Cartoons

You may have liked to watch cartoons in your young ages. May be you are an adult still interested in watching TV cartoons or cartoon films. Have you thought about the effort behind the cartoon films? It may be a difficult and laborious task to develop cartoon films than shooting a film with actors. You have to be a graphic artist to create cartoon movies. Cartoon animation softwares are the platforms that can be used to create cartoons. There are several cartoon softwares available in the market and available in the World Wide Web. Swish, Plastic Animator, TV Paint, Pro Motion, Toon Boom digital studio are some of the software packages available for the cartoonists. Some of these softwares are open source or free to download. Some of the other softwares are sold to greater and lesser prices. The Cartoonist should look for the requirement of his before selecting software for his needs. This will save time and money expended for the creation of the cartoons. Cartoon is usually 2D or 3D animation composed of several picture frames. Movement of these picture frames shows you a moving object or a cartoon. So a creative person can make a meaningful story by using these moving clips. This is how cartoons are created. Let's discuss about several cartoon animation software. Synfig is an easy to use cartoon creating software. It is a very easy and user friendly software that can be used to draw the cartoons. There are several options available in this software that would be helpful for you to create cartoons with this software. This software is open source software. You can download it from the World Wide Web to create your cartoons. Swift 3D is a three dimensional graphic designing software. That can be used to create cartoon movies. This software integrates Adobe flash through the Swift 3D file importer. Swift 3d introduces four outline styles, five cartoon fill styles and 2 gradient fill styles to the graphic designers. Further this software is enriched with the features like pen style outlines, multiple overlapping shadows. Moreover this software creates vector reflections. The smart layer technology separates vector layers in the graphic. Further this software has robust animation features like drag and drop animation palette, morphing of text and path, Bezier path animation tools, full featured animation timelines and many more versatile features. However there is some special hardware requirements should be there to install Swift 3D in your computer. You need a 400 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, 25 MB of hard disk space, 1024 X 768 of resolution monitor. Further this software is compatible for several file formats. Do you know there are some software packages those can make you a cartoon figure? Funny isn't it? Cartoon effect creator is software that can be used to convert your video in to a cartoon movie. This is very user friendly software and its several tools will give you the ability of performing funny cartoon videos with the use of your real videos. The currently available version of this software is Cartoon Effect Creator 4.0. Today there is a trend to create more cartoon films. With the rapid development of the cartoon film industry there is rapid development of the cartoon animation software. There are several more new features are adding day by day with the release of new software.

Would You Like to Make Money Creating Cartoons

All of us have a talent and I can't think of anything better than making money from our God given talent. It's not like work because it is our talent and hopefully we enjoy doing it. Cartoons are a wonderful part of our lives. They say every picture tells a story and cartoons are loved by all age groups from the young to the old. I still remember going to the cinema as a child to watch Bambi and to this day I still love cartoons and I am sure that you have your favorite cartoon character. This article is not about making cartoons or how to draw cartoons. You can either do that already or you can't. Personally Walt Disney is one of my heroes, but I can't draw cartoons to save my life, but I love cartoons and I do make money from cartoons, but I use cartoons in a very special way. I actually provide laser animation and use cartoons as my medium. I get the cartoonists and animators to draw everything and I get my programmers to program the animation to laser and then we project the finished results for our clients. I still get paid for working in an area that I love but I am not talented at because I don't actually do all the work myself. If you love cartoons, you may want to look for similar ways to make money with your cartoons without having to do all the work yourself. However if you have the artistic talent already, then you are one step ahead of us less talented people. So once you have your cartoons, how can you make money from them? Well first of all like all projects you need to have laser like focus and a specific direction in mind. It is no good saying I want to make money selling cartoons, but I don't know what to do. You simply will not succeed. So first thing you need to do is to decide what area of cartooning you want to work in. There are so many different ways to make money from cartooning, but let us look at the internet. The first thing I recommend is that you start a blog so that people can find you. Now there are many mentors you can find who can show you how to start your own blog properly. If you don't do it properly, it simply won't work well. So find out how to start your blog and then get writing and create your blog if you don't have one. Once you have your blog, you can have AdSense running on your pages and other advertising. You can sell your own pictures or you can become an affiliate seller for other people and services such as Amazon and other websites. You can upload videos as well to make it even more attractive. So just with a blog, you can have 5 or 6 different ways to become a money maker. Also with a blog, you become an authority on the subject. People will perceive you as an expert and once you start joining the social websites and forums they will get to know you as the obvious expert. Very important when it comes to selling product. Greeting cards and holidays Once you have your blog, you may want to start designing and selling greeting cards. Virtually every day there is some kind of celebration happening from New Years Day to birthdays, to father's day, to Halloween, to Christmas and so on and on and you can make money selling cards. Again once you subscribe to forums you will have more exposure to be able to sell. Cartoon advertising Another area of business that you may want to consider is advertising with cartoons. Advark Animation became very popular because they produced adverts originally for clients based in England and now they have a worldwide following of some of the most incredible animated movies around. But it all started with cartoon advertising. Selling public domain One of my hobbies is public domain. I just love it. There are millions of cartoons and photos that you can use to make your own collections. Best of all you do not have to be able to draw. So this is an opportunity for us who have no artistic talent. It is legal and it is huge. You can use the art for calendars, books, pictures in fact any area of business you want and there are hundreds of websites to help you do it as well like cafepress. Newspapers Newspapers are always looking for new content. Content sells papers and cartoons have always been used in newspapers both for kids and adults alike. You may want to approach your local newspaper to see what opportunities there are, even if you have to do some work for free first to get started. In the end it will be worth it. For those of you who don't know, I am also a wealth creation coach. Many of my students have dreams and one of the things I get them to do is to write out there dream so that when they or someone else reads it, they can see it in their heads. How great would it be for someone to draw their dreams for them and frame it and hang it on the wall to manifest to the world? Are there any universities or schools offering similar programs that you could draw for? Public speakers As a coach I need to use powerful Powerpoint presentations to get my message across and cartoons are a great way to do this. Consider looking for coaches, teachers, schools etc, who maybe looking for their own original content to use for their presentations. Cartoons really break the ice and make audiences laugh. Great for the presenter! There are literally hundreds of ways to make money cartoon coloring and I hope that these few ways above have helped you to think about new opportunities. Choose one that appeals to you and if possible an area of business where not many people are competing against you.

Funny Cartoon - Steps To Create Cartoons

Cartoon conveys a message to the viewer. Funny cartoon makes us laugh. Cartoon is commonly a funny stuff itself. If it impacts more flavor on our laugh, we can say a funny or funniest cartoon. Cartoonists create cartoons based on funny instances around us. The activities of different creatures are few sources of making funny cartoon. The character of the funny cartoon acts some uncommon or abnormal activities that make viewer a laugh. The funny cartoon is a reflection some of our reality in life. Some natural theme is shown what we hardly find in our real life. The cartoonists have that sense to capture the snap and put on their cartoon art board. Where it is usedThe funny cartoons are used in print media as well as in electronics media. Most of the daily news papers bring some fresh reality in the cartoon column. Few regular cartoonists for the news paper, create funny cartoons conveying political happenings, sports jokes, film news, or on any current issue happened in the country or in the city. Funny cartoons put on the posters and advertisements billed on the walls of the streets. Magazines and study books are illustrated with context oriented cartoon images. Electronics media use funny cartoons in many purposes and instances widely. The cartoons are used in form of Logo, Mascot, Layout, Back ground, Intro etc. Television and web media have a huge usage of funny cartoons. Many funny animated or static cartoons in banners, buttons and intro are used in websites. Some popular funny faces with different emotions are used in websites. Same funny faces are used in documents in web and printing media. In computer games, we can see many types funny characters are design. In mobile, we can see many funny stuff and faces for each function during operations. Types of Funny Cartoons:Funny Faces, Funny Animals, Funny characters are the real resources of making of funny cartoons. Every cartoonist has a favorite face or character or style of making cartoons. That cartoon identifies the cartoonist. Two dimensional (2-D) cartoon graphics are static or animated. Most of digital 2-D cartoons are digitally designed for animation purpose. These are simple and can be created software tools. The 3 dimensional (3-D) cartoons are compressed and streamed digitally. Manual 3-D cartoons are Puppetry, Sketch cartoon or digitally drawn cartoons. Learning CartoonLearning carton can be possible if you have extreme interest on graphics and cartoon design. There are some basic attributes will help you to later and be a cartoonist. During study you may come across many instances, where you can learn some work as your mile stone. The activities are required like games, workshops, courses, contests, group processes to improve the skills. Courses are designed in such a way that helps for any type candidates to learn more. During learning Cartoon provides valuable insight though and ideas in you. Those thoughts can be applied into cartoon graphics and sometimes become popular and successful. AniBoom has been involved in the promotional activities in cartoon profession. It has a special zone for cartoon, where you can know information on the technologies, demand and application of cartoon graphics and contest events for career opportunity.

Animation fun

That's the Funny Animation Part II ,,
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Thanks for your attention gan,,, :)
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Animation in Computers

An animation is defined as a visual change in a scene with respect to time. The visual change in the scene is not only associated with the change in the position of the object, but also with its shape, color, transparency, structure and texture. An important point about animation is that it usually signifies the hand drawn or artificially drawn sequence of images, which contrasts to the movies where actors' performances with real-world scenes are recorded. In early times, animations were made by hand by drawing every scene one by one on paper and then painted.This method was obviously very troublesome and time-consuming. Nowadays, the use of computer technology has made the animation process progressively simpler and more powerful. The process of drawing images and playing them back at a high speed with the help of computer software in order to create an illusion of movement is referred to as computer animation. The illusion of movement is created by displaying an image on the computer screen, then quickly replacing it by a new image, which is similar to the previous image, but shifted slightly.
The field of computer animation is a subset of both computer graphics and animation technologies. Computer animation is generally achieved through a series of geometric transformations-scaling, translation, rotation or any mathematical technique-to produce a sequence of scenes. In addition, the animation can be produced by varying any of the following:
· Camera parameters: It involves the camera position with respect to the object, distance from the object, orientation, and focus.
· Lighting conditions: It involves direction and color of light, number of lights, and so on.
These days computer animation is widely used in the entertainment industry for producing motion pictures, cartoon movies, and video games. In addition, it is being used in education and training, industrial applications, virtual reality systems, advertising, scientific visualization and many engineering applications.
In the early days, an animation sequence was created by drawing different images in different frames and then showing them at a high speed. However, these days, animations are created with the help of computers. In computer animation, the frames required for animation are generated using computers, and are then displayed on an output device at a high speed. A basic approach to design an animation sequence consists of the four stages, namely, storyboard layout, object definitions, key frame specifications, and generation of in-between frames.
i. Storyboard layout: The storyboard is an outline of the action. This stage basically defines the motion sequence of the object as a set of basic events that are to take place. For example, while creating an animation sequence of cricket play, the storyboard layout would consist of action and motion of batting, bowling, fielding, running, and so on. Depending on the type of animation to be created, the storyboard consists of a set of rough sketches, models, or even in some cases it could be verbal description or list of basic ideas of the motion.
ii. Object definitions: Once the storyboard layout has been prepared, the next step is to define all the objects or participants in the action. The objects are generally described in terms of their dimensions, shapes (such as polygons or spline surfaces), colors, movements, or any other additional information which can help in defining the objects. For example, while creating animation for cricket play, the object definitions could be player's dimensions, colors of their uniform, dimensions of the ball, bat, stumps, etc.
iii. Key frame specifications: The next step in the process of creating animation is to specify key frame specification. A key frame is a detailed drawing of the scene at a certain time in the animation sequence. In each key frame, the position, color, shapes, etc., of all the objects is positioned according to a particular point of time for that frame. More the number of frames, smoother will be the animation. For complex motions, one need to specify more key frames as compared to simple, slowly varying motions. Some key frames are specified at extreme positions, where others are spaced such that the time interval between them is not too large.
iv. Generation of in-between frames: Once the key frames are specified, the next step is to generate intermediate frames. The total number of in-between frames required for an animation depends on the display media that is to be used. For example, film requires 24 frames per second, and graphics terminals require more than 60 frames per second. Typically, time intervals for the motion are set up such that there are three to five intermediate frames between any two key frames. In addition, some key frames can also be duplicated depending on the speed specified for the motion. For example, for a one-minute film sequence with no duplication, 1440 frames would be required, and if we put five intermediate frames between any two key frames, then 288 key frames would only be required.
There are twelve basic principles of animation which were introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in 1981 in their book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. The main aim of the principles was to produce an illusion of characters adhering to the basic laws of physics. However, these laws also dealt with more abstract issues, such as emotional timing and character appeal. The twelve basic principles of animation are described as follows:
· Squash and stretch:It is the most important principle of animation. Its main purpose is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to the drawn objects. Stretch and squash technique is basically used for simulating accelerating effects especially for non-rigid objects. This technique can be applied to simple objects like a bouncing rubber ball, as well as to complex constructions like musculature of a human face. For example, when a rubber ball bounces and hits the ground, it tends to get flatten on hitting the ground. This is squash principle. As soon as the ball starts bouncing up, it stretches in the direction of its movement. This is stretch principle. Another example is the stretching and squashing of a human face. When the muscles of human face are stretched or squashed to an exaggerated degree, it can give a comical effect. The most important aspect of this principle is the fact that the stretching and squashing of an object does not affect its volume. That is, no matter how an object is deformed, it should still appear to retain its volume.
· Timing: Timing is the most vital element of an animation. It refers to the spacing between motion frames.The more is the spacing between the frames, the faster the object will appear to move. The speed at which an object is moving gives a sense of what the object is, what can be the weight of an object and why it is moving. Timing in an animation is significant for establishing the mood, emotion, and reaction of a character. For example, the blinking of an eye can be fast or slow. If it is slow, a character seems to be tired and lethargic. However, if it is fast, a character seems to be alert and awake. Timing can also be used to communicate important aspects of the personality of a character.
· Anticipation: It is used to prepare the audience for the upcoming motion or action and to make such action more live and realistic. For example, a person throwing a ball has to first swing his or her arm backwards, or a dancer jumping off the floor must bend his or knees first. These are preliminary actions that are used to emphasize the object movements. Anticipation can also be used for less physical actions, such as a character looking off-screen to anticipate someone's arrival, or attention focusing on an object that a character is about to pick-up.
· Follow through and overlapping actions: Follow through refers to the actions that are performed at the end of the actual motion. Follow through actions emphasize the fact that characters follow the laws of physics, which state that separate parts of a body will continue to move even after the character has performed the specified action. In other words, follow through captures how parts of an object continue to move even after other parts of that object have stopped moving. For example, the arm of a person continues to move even after throwing a ball. This is a follow through action. Overlapping action is another important principle of animation. It is the tendency for parts of the body to move at different speeds and different times. For example, when a dog is running, all its body parts are moving at different rates. The timing of his legs is different from the timing of the movement of his tail, or ears. By overlapping the actions of an object's body, hair, tail, clothing, etc., you can make your animation more fluid, natural and realistic. It is to be noted that while creating an animation sequence, an action should never be brought to a complete stop before starting another action. Overlapping maintains a continual flow between whole phrases of actions.
· Staging: It refers to the presentation of an idea in such a way that it is completely and clearly understood. An idea could be an action, a personality, an expression or a mood. Its main aim is to draw the attention of the audience to the most relevant action, personality, expression or a mood in a scene so that it is easily recognizable. Staging helps in keeping focus on what is relevant, and avoiding unnecessary details. It can be performed in several ways such as placing a character in a frame, using a light and shadow, and setting an appropriate angle and position of the camera.
· Straight ahead action and pose-to-pose action: These two are the basic approaches of creating animation. In straight ahead animation, the animator draws a scene frame by frame from beginning to end. That is, he or she first draws the first frame of the animation, then the second, and so on until the sequence is complete. Pose-to-pose animation, on the other hand, is created by drawing a few key frames, and then creating in-between images. The straight ahead action allows you to create a more fluid, dynamic illusion of movement and is better for producing realistic action sequences. On the other hand, pose-to-pose allows you to create better dramatic or emotional scenes, where composition and relation to the surrounding are more important. With computers, people generally use a combination of the two techniques. That is, they first plan out the overall process using pose-to-pose approach, and then create the in-between images using the straight ahead approach.
· Slow in and slow out (or ease in and ease out): The basic idea behind this principle is that when the human body or other objects move, they need time to accelerate and slow down. For this reason, we add more drawings near the beginning and end of our animation sequence to emphasize the extreme poses, and fewer drawings in the middle. This makes the animation looks more natural and realistic. For example, a bouncing ball tends to have a lot of ease in and out when at the top of its bounce. As it goes up, gravity affects it and slows down (ease in), then it moves in downward direction more and more rapidly (ease out), until it hits the ground.
· Arcs: In real world, generally the actions tend to follow an arched trajectory. That is, all actions move in an arc. For example, when a ball is thrown or kicked, it moves along a parabolic trajectory. Thus, while creating an animation sequence, the animator should try to have motion following curved paths rather than straight line paths. This will make the animation look more natural and realistic.
· Exaggeration: Generally, a perfect imitation of reality makes the cartoons or animation static and dull. To make the animation lively and entertaining, the exaggeration is used. This effect is used to emphasize an action. One can exaggerate motion, for example, moving an arm just a bit too far briefly in an extreme swing. Exaggeration may also involve the supernatural alterations to the physical features of a character, or elements in the storyline itself. However, exaggeration should be employed in a careful and balanced manner, not arbitrarily. The main idea is to make something more extreme in order to give it more life, but not so much that it becomes unbelievable.
· Secondary actions: They are generally used to make animation look more interesting and realistic. Adding secondary actions to the main actions add more life to the scene, and can help to support the main action. For example, if a person is walking, he/she can simultaneously swing his or her arms, or keep them in the pocket, or express his/her feelings through facial expressions, and so on. The main idea behind secondary actions is to emphasize the main action, rather than taking attention away from the main action. Secondary actions are generally included at the beginning and end of the movement, and not during the action.
· Solid drawing: The main idea behind solid drawings is to create three-dimensional drawings, and giving them weight and volume. It is very important for an animator to understand the basics of 3D shapes, weight, balance, anatomy, light and shadow and other relevant characteristics. Though these days, the computer animators need to draw less images because of the facilities provided by computers, still they need to have a basic understanding of animation principles and artwork.
· Appeal: While creating an animation sequence, it is necessary to include something that appeals the audience. Appeal in a cartoon character is similar to charisma in an actor. An appeal can be quality of charm, design, simplicity, communication or magnetism. It is important to note that an appealing character is not necessarily sympathetic or good-evils or monsters can also be appealing. It is basically the charm and charisma added to the character to make it real and interesting.
To handle the design and control of animation sequences, several animation functions such as a graphics editor, a key frame generator, an in-between generator, and standard graphics routines are required. Though these animation functions can be programmed using a general-purpose programming language, such as C, Lisp, Pascal, or FORTRAN, still several specialized animation languages have also been developed. These animation languages are categorized into three types, which are as follows:
· Key frame systems: These are specialized animation languages which are designed to generate the intermediate frames from the user-specified key frames. Originally, these systems were designed as a separate set of animation routines, but now these routines are often form a component in a more general animation package. In the simplest case, each object in the scene is defined as a set of rigid bodies connected at the joints and with a limited number of degrees of freedom. For example, for a single-arm robot, one can specify six degrees of freedom including arm sweep, shoulder spin, elbow lengthening, pitch, yaw, and roll. If we specify 3-D translational and rotational for the base, then we can extend the number of degrees of freedom for this robot arm to twelve. However, for a human body, one can specify more than 200 degrees of freedom.
· Parameterized systems: These systems allow specifying the object motion characteristics as a part of the object definitions. The adjustable parameters control such object characteristics as degrees of freedom, motion limitations, and allowable shape changes.

Animation As a Form of Media

Animation can be used to inform, educate, advertise and express emotions just as live action can by using the same techniques; such as the use of colour, film language and sound. The NSPCC advert by Russell Brooke on television is a good example of how animation can be more effective than live action. There is no limit to how much a situation or an action can be exaggerated but still remain to be convincing. In the advert if a real child was being thrown around it would be extremely controversial and although it is actually what is going on behind closed doors it would be too much for some people to watch. The animated character is created in a way that portrays the child in a way that will get the message across. This example shows how valuable a tool animation really is, that it is not just a media form to entertain young children. It is also a good vehicle to show that cartoon violence can be used to a positive end.
On the other hand cartoon violence can be quite aggressive and graphic like the 'Grand Theft Auto' video games series and some Manga features involve a lot of violence and gore but created in a quite realistic way, not suitable for a young audience where as cartoons adapted from Marvel comics such as 'Spiderman' and the 'X-Men' are primarily orientated around fighting but done in a less bloody way. The fight sequences involve a few kicks and punches and a superhuman power is used which doesn't normally inflict much gory, physical damage on the opponent, instead the loser is left with a scratch or two on their face with a trickle of blood oozing from their mouth. The fights, realistic as they may be, are not overly graphic, otherwise they would have to be shown after the watershed, but they are descriptive enough to express what is going on within the story. Most important of all is the fact that good always triumphs over evil in these cartoons. This does not justify the fighting but neither does it encourage it. Fisticuffs in a live action feature is always more violent than fighting in cartoons as it involves real people who can get hurt whereas cartoon characters feel nothing, making the fighting seem less realistic than a live action fight sequence.
The belief that animation is a media form directed mainly at children is not necessarily true, but in some situations this can be used to the advantage of the producers. A good example of this is the recent 'DairyLea' commercials, created in a 3D Stop Motion technique it shows some talking cows encouraging children to eat their product, not just on its own, but with mashed potato. The advert shows that 'DairyLea' can be mixed with other foods and the format is more memorable to children (the talking cows), therefore they are more likely to ask their parents to buy them some. Another good example of animation aimed at children is the 'Green Cross Code' (stop, look and listen). This informative commercial shows hedgehogs crossing a road in an animated and musical way, encouraging children to do as they do and they will be safe. This format was chosen so children will remember how to safely cross the road as told by singing hedgehogs-which would not have been possible in real life through a live action format. The advert offers an interesting, memorable alternative to mundane, forgettable, live action instructions.
Since animation is made popular by children, (for example, the phenomenon of the 'Pokemon' series) there are a number of ways producers can capitalise on the launch and success of a series. The producers see many ways of making more money from a successful cartoon because they know that children will do anything to get their hands on elements of merchandise, for example the 'Pokemon' battle cards. Merchandise does not just stop at playing cards though; there is stationary, cutlery, bags, toys, clothing, books, posters and video games. It is this side of animation that results in adults distancing themselves from the genre because of the fact that the cartoon series is blatantly aimed at children and so this is enough to put them off watching. Formerly the animation format adopted a biased approach aimed solely at a younger audience. In the early days animation it was fascinating concept, a drawing that was moving. Since it was a new concept people of all ages took an interest.
Now the omnipresence of the format through the years that people find it entertaining up to a point in their lives then just stop watching animation as they get older, then when they have kids of their own the viewing process starts again. It is because of this misconception of the format and its association with youngsters that successful attempts have been made to break this mould. Since some adults have an interest in animation specific titles and series' have been aimed at an adult specific audience, these include the '2DTV' series, some 'Manga' titles, Comedy Central's 'South Park', 'The Simpsons', 'Futurama' and the Japanese 'Hen-Tai'. To conclude this point, John Serpentelli writes in an article, that "The connection between children and animation seems simple enough. To a child, anything is possible and the same is true for animation." The animation format is also able to inadvertently teach children about the artistic side of animation, as John Serpentelli says, "Since animation is an art form that can involve almost all other art forms and children can directly encounter the art world in an unfiltered manner."
A recent comeback of 80's animation has shown resurgence in popularity of classics such as 'The Clangers', 'Bagpuss' and 'The Magic Roundabout'. Adults who viewed these animations when they were younger tune in to see these classics of their day, and their children join in. Some adults are required to watch animated videos in the workplace, on issues of safety. Having to watch, follow and understand irritatingly obvious and drab pieces of animation could be enough to put some adults off the format, believing the genre is as bad as the video they had to view. This also shows that animation can be as realistic and informative as live action, but simpler to understand, where as on the other hand cartoons aimed at children, however unrealistic, sometimes incorporate a moral or advice at the end of the episode, in an effort to teach the youngsters watching what is right and what is wrong. The reason being for this is that if children see their favourite cartoon character doing something or telling them to do something then they might be encouraged to do as they say. This just shows that if done correctly animations can be as entertaining as they are informative or educational for a range of audiences.
Within video games the games character which the player controls is brought to life by using animation. The character would be lifeless if it was not animated and so the use of animation is crucial. The incorporation of animation does not stop there as FMV's (Full Motion Videos) are also used to tell a story within a video game. This is a good example of how animation can make the impossible possible; by giving inanimate objects and characters life.
Animation is a priceless tool for all types of media when the impossible is required to become possible. For example, there are no limits to action or comedy in an animated feature, and animation provides these additional effects in a live action feature, effects that would not be possible to recreate safely or due to the limitations of a human actor. An example of such effects that are used in the movies is in the film 'The Mask' starring Jim Carrey to allow the face of the mask wearer to become very rubbery, distorted and very flexible. Animation allows the actor's face to become very pliable, allowing things to happen to it that are not humanly possible. The animation techniques incorporated within films are normally used in the special effects areas. This has been true as far back as movies such as 'Sinbad' where Ray Harryhausen's 3D stop motion monsters were revolutionary in their day and opened up a whole new unchartered area of the world of film. As painstaking as the monsters were to bring to life the end results were astounding and very effective, adding a whole new atmosphere and dynamic to a movie. Examples of the use of this technique in films are: 'Robocop' and the ED-209 machine and the stone gargoyles in the film 'Ghostbusters' to name but two of many. The use of 3D stop motion within a live action movie did not get left behind though in favour of the technologically advanced effects that computer graphics offered. Animation can have a unique manipulative effect on objects as it can turn normally innocent lifeless objects into dark sinister beings In contrast, animation can turn toys into what children want them to be if they could come to life, as for example in Disney's 'Toy Story'. Again here is that element of target audience, depending upon what age group is being targeted animation can be as dark or as cheerful as required.
In the world today it is becoming increasingly clear how popular and widespread animation has become. The production of an animated feature or series is carried out in an almost identical process to that of a live action feature or series. For instance, both formats need a good story, as this will hold the attention of the audience. The story is then required to be storyboarded, just as a live action feature is. Correct use of film language is essential in both formats whether to create an action, suspense or an emotional sequence. Characters are incredibly important to both formats. The audience need to like, relate to or in the 'bad guys' case, hate them. If the cast lack the attributes then the audience just will not care what happens to the characters, will not feel involved in the feature and lose interest. Since a live action feature casts real life and famous actors to attract the audiences, animation is also taking advantage of this element but because the animated features involve computer generated characters, not real life actors it is just as important to give that character a personality, to convince the audience that a computer generated character can have just the same effect on them as a real life star. This is why Disney features are increasingly using big-name Hollywood actors and actresses within them to create believable and likable characters, as well as the fact that recognizable voice talent brings in bigger audiences just as live action films with well known stars attract bigger audiences. An example of this is 'Toy Story' where actors such as Tom Hanks, who provides the voice for 'Woody', have been involved with the feature and this in turn makes the genre more popular as it will encourage more people to see the film if they can recognize a voice or the film is associated with successful and famous actors.
There are many important similarities in the process of making a live-action feature and producing an animated feature. For example whether the character is animated or is a real person, they both have to convincingly portray emotions, express body language and provide an effective dialogue and realistic expressions. As well as the characters, aspects such as film language are important in both features to allow a situation to be suspenseful, emotional or to create an effective action sequence. As well as the visual aspect, the audio, too, has to be able to convince an audience and to add atmosphere to a scene. These are common similarities between producing an animated feature and making a live action feature. For example there is a much broader scope to what can be achieved in an animated feature over a live action movie, as live action tends to have a realistic edge since the actors are real people and props are real and so on An animated feature can be realistic or unrealistic and the situations and characters are in the hands of the animators. In live action however there are limits to what human actors can do. Also there is no need for stuntmen or stunt doubles in an animated feature, and animated characters are more flexible than real life actors since they don't question working hours and make no wage demands! As technology has shown there could be no need for real actors soon as computer generated characters are becoming more and more realistic, one only needs to view recent animated features such as 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within'. Even though the media forms of animation and live actions differ, the bottom line is best said by Professor Nina Martin, "The history of animation is in tandem with live action film. You cannot understand the history of live action narrative film without including animation".
Despite there being many comparisons between live action film and animation, essentially both are the same, since"...the definition of cinema is rooted in the ability of its basic technology to present a series of representational images (and perhaps sounds) that create the illusion of movement where of course there is nothing but still images flashing at a prescribed speed." An extract from 'The Cinema Book 2nd Edition'. This emphasises the fact that both live action and animated films are created in the same ways but the only difference being the way in which they are expressed, live action as live action and animation as a primarily drawn medium but both forms consist of multiple images to create a sense of movement within the piece. To break this down even further, animation has been described by some critics as "Cinema at its purest" also from 'The Cinema Book 2nd Edition'. "Since animation creates movement where there was never any 'real' motion at the pre-filmic stage".
As more people become aware of how animation can be used and what it can do, it is increasingly being incorporated within live action films. For example it can be used to recreate dangerous stunts without putting anyone's life at risk by using the 'Green Screen' technique, most recently seen it the box office hit film 'Spiderman' where the character is seen swinging high up from building to building, without actually having to in real life. An alternative use of animation is when something impossible for a human actor to do is done via animation, for example in the movie 'The Mask'.
It is not just recently that movie crossovers have become popular. However they were also used in features such as 'Mary Poppins', where the human actors were sharing a world with animated creatures that interacted with each other. Since then films such as 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', 'Space Jam' and 'Rocky and Bullwinkle' have each used this genre crossover successfully. The purest form of this technique is 'direct on film', where animation is created on film reels, specifically one medium is created on another medium. An extract from 'The Cinema Book 2nd Edition' explains that, "Such animation makes the fullest use of the medium as it foregrounds the entire process of making, projecting, and finally perceiving movement where none ever existed."
The advancements in computer technology have enabled the animation format to go a step further, creating frighteningly realistic films and film effects. Paul Wells shows in an article from 'Art and Animation', "Live action and 'animation' are once more converging in ways that make one indistinguishable from the other, and servicing a new orthodoxy in 'realism' in many feature films like 'Jurassic Park' and 'Twister'." As the genre becomes ever more popular and more widely recognized as 'Disney' is a household name, just as Steven Spielberg is known for making great live action movies, Disney makes great animated features, as well as Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera and more recently Matt Groening. As a tool, animation is becoming used more often as it becomes more flexible as animation becomes more technologically advanced and ever more ground-breaking.
Such an example is the use of animation within video games which enables realistic visuals to be used in a computer generated, fictional world. 'The Getaway' on the PlayStation 2 shows how games are becoming more like interactive movies. The setting, London, is a real location recreated in painstaking detail. Vehicles have been created to resemble them in real life and the game uses real actors that have been created to look like their real life counterparts. The actors were motion captured and scripts were recorded, the same processes which an animated feature is produced. They were then used in the game to make the characters more convincing and believable. The game shows how animation can be pushed to its technological limits, proving that animation can be as real or as unrealistic as it needs to be. The game offers such an element of realism that the actors involved have actually been offered roles in popular television shows, for example the Joe Rice who plays the police officer in 'The Getaway' has recently been in 'EastEnders', showing that the live action and animation cross over are becoming more popular. Advancements in computer capability and its technology have enabled animation to have even more uses than ever before, but as Sean Wagstaff says from his Book 'Animation on the Web', "There's no question that the art of 3D has not yet fully evolved, and in the hands of far too many users, it is still a science more than an art."

Modern American Animation

This article describes the history of animation in the United States of America since the late 80's until the early twenty-first century. This period is often called the renaissance of American animation, during which many large American entertainment companies reform and reinvigorate its animation department after the decline suffered in the 60, 70 and 80.
From 1988 to the present
Disney's return
In the mid 80's, the American animation industry fell into disgrace. Toy commercials masquerading as entertainment programs cartoons dominated the evening and the morning of Saturday, and the only experiment was carried out by independent developers. Even animated films were projected in theaters at times, but the glory of the old days was gone. Even the animation giant Disney, which had fought a corporate acquisition in the 80's, was considering abandoning the production of animated feature films.
Both the enthusiastic audience, critics, and the animators were taken by surprise when the long-awaited renaissance of animation began in the oldest and most conservative corporation, Disney.
Disney had a drastic change in the 80, its new chief Michael Eisner the company relocated to his feet, returning to its roots and revitalizing their studies. With great fanfare, in 1988 the study worked with Steven Spielberg to produce the animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film was a success, and gave to the animation industry awaited push for that time. Roger Rabbit not only earned him a pile of money for Disney, but also sparked the popularity of the classic animation that continues to this day. The history of animation suddenly became an object of study (and their fans). Several directors, business legend, such as Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng were suddenly in the spotlight, being acclaimed after decades of being virtually ignored by audiences and industry professionals.
Disney continued the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? with "The Little Mermaid", the first of a series of animated films that seemed to recapture the magic of the golden age of Walt Disney himself. The studio invested heavily in new technology of computer animation for such purposes, but could do super-productions like "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin," which attracted audiences that were not seen in decades, and Once provided a visual feast that has not been exceeded since the 40. The peak of the hit Disney was in 1994 when his film "The Lion King" exceeded all expectations of the study to become one of the most successful of all time. Even later Disney films as "Pocahontas," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Hercules," "Mulan" and "Tarzan" was blockbusters.
Disney has also made inroads into the neglected area of the animated TV series. With the success of shows like "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh", "The Adventures of the Gummi Bears Disney" and "Duck adventures", the "new" Disney made his mark in TV pictures. Through association and repetition, Disney can provide high quality animation for TV. A series of large diffusion was conducted in mid-nineties, with some critics designating "Gargoyles" as the Disney animation project for TV's most ambitious and best done artistically. The soundtracks of each of these animated films were an important part of its success, because Disney was including in each of these projects a loud voice from the world of music, such as Elton John (The Lion King), Luis Miguel (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Ricky Martin (Hercules), Christina Aguilera (Mulan), Celine Dion (Beauty and the Beast), Ricardo Montaner (Aladin), Jon Secada (Pocahontas), among others.
Spielberg and animation
Spielberg and Bluth
While Disney gave new life to animation, Steven Spielberg was making his own way. Animation amateur life, Spielberg was also interested in making high quality animation, and worked with his rival, Don Bluth animation producer to produce "Fievel and the New World." The box office success of this and Bluth's next film, "In The Land", Hollywood made him realize that Disney did not hold a monopoly on animated features. The other Hollywood studios resumed production of its own animated features, but still falling into the trap of trying to imitate Disney's 1997 film Don Bluth, "Anastasia", produced by Fox, is mentioned as the one launched the Fox Animation Studios and Disney's rival, however, these studies failed to succeed after "Anastasia" and closed in 1999. Like most successful productions of Disney, "Anastasia" was attended by Thalia, who played the central theme of the soundtrack in its versions in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Spielberg and Warner Bros.
Spielberg, meanwhile, switched to TV and worked with animation studio Warner Bros. to produce "The Tiny Toon Adventures," a high quality animated series that paid homage to the great cartoons of Termite Terrace. "The Tiny Toon Adventures" had a good rating thanks to its young viewers, which inspired the Warner Bros to resurrect his dying animation studio and once again a contender in the field of animation. The Tiny Toon Steven Spielberg were continued by presenting "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain". The latter not only attracted new viewers to Warner Bros., but also captured the attention of viewers adolescents and adults.
Bakshi's return
Ralph Bakshi, director of innovative animated films like "Fritz the Cat" and original "Lord of the Rings", returned to animation after making a brief stop in the mid 80's. In 1985, he teamed up with the young Canadian animator John Kricfalusi and the legendary British band "The Rolling Stones" to make an animated music video for "The Harlem Shuffle", which was completed in early 1986. Although the music video did not talk much, he built a production team "Bakshi Animation" project continued with the short-lived but well received, "The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse." Bakshi & Co, worked on numerous projects at the end of the 80, but the biggest project was "Cool World: a blonde between two worlds", which premiered in 1992. The production got out of hand and ended up being severely criticized and forgotten by almost everyone.
Outsourcing animation
The main reason for increasing the quality of American animation is the ability to outsource the heavy lifting to cheaper animation houses in the South and Southeast Asia gaining a large number of frames at low cost. The script, character design and storyboarding is done in American offices. The storyboard, models and color books are mailed abroad. Sometimes causes problems because no final product can be completed until the frames are mailed to the U.S.. Although budgets have been reduced, foreign productions houses are chosen per episode, or even per scene, depending on the amount of money available at that time. As a result there is a big difference in quality from one episode to another. This is particularly evident in shows like "Gargoyles" and "Batman": The Animated Series where, sometimes, the characters seem completely different from one episode to the dismay of its directors.
Adult Animation
The Simpsons
In the 90's came a new wave of animated series whose primary aim was the adults, after an absence in the genre over a decade. In 1989, "The Simpsons," an animated short based on the "The Tracey Ullman Show," became the first animated series in prime time since "The Flintstones" and captivated a large part of the audience. It was the first hit series for the fledgling Fox, caused little sensitivity, entering popular culture and gaining wide acceptance. In 2008, "The Simpsons" seem to show no signs of stopping, and could surpass "Gunsmoke" as the fiction program on the air longer the history of American television. In 2007 have released their first film, titled "The Simpsons: The Movie", dubbed in Spanish and Chinese.
Ren and Stimpy
In 1991, Nickelodeon premiered "The Ren and Stimpy Show," "Ren and Stimpy" was a quirky series run riot violated all the traditional restrictions of correct drawings of Saturday morning and instead favored the quirky style of the short the golden era. Moreover, the series creator, John Kricfalusi, who had worked as an animator during the downturn of Saturday morning, was much influenced by the classic works of Bob Clampett.
Spike & Mike
Alongside mainstream animation nineties there was a strange and experimental movement. In a short animation festival in 1989, organized by Craig Decker and Mike Gribble Spike (known as "Spike & Mike") and originally located in San Diego. It all started with the representation of a collection of thematic short, known as the Classic Festival of Animation, in places of business meetings and trade throughout the country.
The collections were made mostly by Oscar-nominated short, works of students of the Institute of the Arts in California and experimental work of the National Film Board of Canada. The first festival included works by John Lasseter, Nick Park and Mike Judge. Judge's work, "Frog Baseball" marked the first appearance of their franchise characters Beavis and Butthead.
However, the festival gradually became a film program called Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation and turned into an underground movement of adult humor and subject matter.
Adult Swim
In 1994, Cartoon Network gave consent to a new series called "Space Ghost" coast to coast with a particular postmodern turn, showed live interviews with celebrities, mixed with cartoon animations original "Space Ghost." The series made the leap with the production of Hanna-Barbera, now owned by Cartoon Network. It was the beginning of a common practice used old Hanna-Barbera characters for new productions, as the surreal "Underwater Laboratory 2021", based on the cartoon short early 70's "Sealab 2020." Also, Harvey Birdman, attorney, on a mediocre superhero, Birdman which was originally the star of Birdman and Galaxy trio had become a lawyer. Its customers, like many of the characters in the series, came completely from old Hanna-Barbera characters.
In addition to large animation files old and cheap, independent animators also began to benefit from new digital technologies. An artist with sufficient technical skills could explore new styles and forms with much more freedom. The traditional animation skills of drawing and painting had given way to digital manipulation and aggressive use new techniques of animation.
Along with these new programs, the American audience, particularly in geographic areas influenced by fusion with the cultures of the Pacific coast, began to adopt Japanese cartoon, or anime, 80. This growing market for anime videos satisfy the public child and adolescent, with a large number of Japanese series translated into English. Initially access was limited to videos, but the anime as it became a mainstream found its way into the film department stores throughout the U.S.. As the animation occupies a different place in Japanese culture, including a range of issues not addressed by the American animation.
"Adult Swim" is a block of animation for adults that is issued at the start of primetime on Cartoon Network, leads the adult industry and has the latest technology in animation. Adult Swim, which originally aired on Sunday night in 2006 was in the air until 5:00 AM, and was broadcast every night except Friday. The series, which is produced exclusively for Adult Swim, as "The Brak Show," "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" and "Tom Goes to the Mayor", tend to be surreal and bizarre, but also considered fresh and original. Adult Swim reissued series "Futurama" and played an important role to avoid the cancellation of "Family Guy". In addition, it also issues numerous popular Anime series such as "FLCL", "Lupin III" and "Inuyasha."
Other drawings for adults
Other TV stations also experimented with animation for adults. MTV has produced several animated series especially for young and adult audiences, "Liquid Television" and "Beavis and Butthead". Even USA Network program found a cult following with his "Duckman show". But the adult animated series of the 90 most successful was "South Park" which premiered in 1996 as a cartoon pirate on the Internet.
The more fast-paced animation and disturbingly clandestine saw the light, the more dominant force in television animation was, led to an increasingly frenetic territory and perhaps eschatological, for example in "The Tick and Duckman."
In 2005, adult animation pioneer Ralph Bakshi said he would work on another film, "The Last Days of Coney Island" which he would finance and produce independently.
The decline of the Saturday Morning
After spending nearly a coma for over two decades, the American animation industry experienced a sudden growth in the 90. Several new studies appeared keen to take risks, and found a large number of markets to sell their talent. Along with the animated TV series, the animation used in television commercials, video games and music videos. The small animation studios challenged "Hanna-Barbera Productions" in the market for TV animation.
In fact, Hanna-Barbera could not compete with the new varieties of animation on the market. During the time that dominated the entire spectrum of pictures of the Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera had virtually no competition, causing a deterioration in the quality of its series. In the 90's, the study could only offer fried as "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" and "Tom and Jerry Kids Show" to compete with "Fox Kids" and the new "WB Television Network" from Warner Bros. Hanna-Barbera stayed behind and found himself completely bought by Turner Broadcasting.
Hanna-Barbera not only had problems adapting to the changes that are spread all over the TV. The "Big Three" networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) found its loyal audience being eroded by competition from new channels, including new strains of "Cable TV" as Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. Video games and movies available on video also helped change the market, to the point that for a time gave NBC cartoons altogether. The ABC was bought by Disney, and Disney turned the grill on Saturday in a series of Disney animated productions.
While the series animated in large networks seemed mediocre, the cable television cartoon achieved several successes. Nickelodeon did see light cult hits like "Doug," "Rugrats," "Ren and Stimpy," "Rocko's Modern Life," "SpongeBob," "Invader Zim" and "The Fairly OddParents." Meanwhile, a new owner of Hanna-Barbera, Time Warner, the study focused on the creation of new drawings for the Cartoon Network. Hanna-Barbera was an influx of fresh blood and a new generation of drawings of Hanna-Barbera cartoon was born as "Dexter's Laboratory," "Johnny Bravo", "Cow and Chicken", "Powerpuff Girls" and " Courage the Cowardly Dog. "
Still, each new piece of animation was not a gold mine. The Disney animated films began to suffer in quality to late 1990, after the producer Jeff Katzenberg left the studio and team up with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to form DreamWorks. Also, several animated films were released in the 90 trying to imitate the success of Disney, but as in the Years 1930 and 1940, the animations of 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros could not catch a considerable market segment Disney movies that had been dominant. In particular, Warner Bros, had a string of failures "Cats Do not Dance", "The Magic Sword" and "The Iron Giant" (the latter being praised by critics and audiences, but virtually being ignored by most the public) died at the box office. Warner Bros. also tried to recreate the success of "Roger Rabbit" to "Space Jam", an attempt to combine the popularity of Bugs Bunny with basketball superstar Michael Jordan.
In addition, the market trend of children continued during the 90's, almost as ubiquitous as a decade earlier. Two major events dominated toy many children's programs in the afternoons of the weekend: "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" in the mid-90 and "Pokemon" from the latter half of the 90's to mid Years 2000. Until the animation suffered another revival in the 2000s, a great deal (and many dollars spent) continued to spend on merchandising.
The growth of computer animation
Yet another wild card is added to this crowded and competitive atmosphere with the emergence of a new wave of "Computer Animation". The decade of the 90 experienced an exponential improvement in the use of computers to enhance animated sequences and special effects. This new form of entertainment soon dominated the world of special effects in Hollywood (the film "Terminator 2": "The Judgement" and "Jurassic Park" included impressive computer-animated sequences), and was only a matter of time to find a film produced entirely with computers.
Once again it was Disney who led this area. Disney animators had introduced computer-generated sequences gently in his movies, as in early 1991 in "Beauty and the Beast." A computer-generated magic carpet played a significant role in "Aladdin." In 1995, Disney produced with Pixar "Toy Story", the first completely computer generated film. The film was a huge success and created a new movement, other studies investigated produce their own computer-animated films (CGI).
Perhaps because it first developed as a new method of creating special effects, computer animation was not seen as a form of "children's entertainment." After decades as related but separate industries, the line between animation and special effects are eliminated by the popularization of computer special effects, to the extent that the use of computers in Hollywood movies has become a natural. The best special effects are often so subtle they go completely unnoticed. The winner of the Oscar for best special effects with "Forrest Gump" (1994) relied heavily on computer special effects to create the illusion of realism, to the extent that the actor Tom Hanks was seen shaking hands with U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The movie "Titanic" used computer graphics to bring each scene in three hours, which produced a level of realism that helped the film itself to become the biggest movie box office tax collection so far.
The computer animation has also made forays into television. The series of Saturday morning "ReBoot" gained much popularity among adults, this was the first of many CGI series like "Beast Wars," "War Planets" and "Roughnecks". The quality of computer animation has improved considerably with each new series. Many non-animated TV series (especially science fiction "Babylon 5") invested heavily in CGI production, producing special effects of a higher quality of its predecessors could dream at a relatively low cost.
Other studies with Disney tried their luck with computer-animated films and discovered their weaknesses to the monopoly that was putting animated Disney box office successes. While DreamWorks with "Antz" and "Small Soldiers" paled in comparison with the productions of Disney-Pixar's "Bug" and "Toy Story 2", finally got a big hit numbers with "Shrek" in 2001. "Shrek" was a huge box office success, attracting the public on the production and mastering summer of that year, "Atlantis". Even 20th Century Fox pulled the oil when it conducted a CGI animated film in early 2002 entitled "Ice Age". Not all studies were successful at the box office with computer animation, Paramount with "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" released in 2001 they did so well at the box office, but received a nomination from the Academy and later found success with the television series based on the film which was awarded the following year.
But the real star of the CGI revolution seemed to be Pixar. Even before "Toy Story" The study made a name producing amazing animation shorts (his short "Tin Toy" won an Oscar) and when Disney tried to create a CGI film on its own without Pixar ("Dinosaur") the result was notably disastrous.
Despite this success, the computer animation continues to rely on characters drawn and stylized. In 2001, living first attempt to create a world completely animated using "human actors" digital "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," which found a moderate critical acclaim but did good box office.
The CGI special effects increased to such an extent that in 2002 science fiction film "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" was considered by its director, George Lucas, as the first animated film that used real actors. In fact, the CGI effects have become so common that it is difficult to distinguish computer-animated real life. A growing number of films begin using completely computer created characters interact on screen with real parts, as Jar Binks in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" Gollum in "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and the main character in "Hulk." While computer-generated characters have become acceptable actors, fully animated movies with virtual actors seem to lack a few years.
Disney seemed ready to lead the decline in hand-drawn animation, despite the box office success of "Lilo & Stitch", the failure of its hyped summer "Treasure Planet" seemed to assure that there would be further reductions in the study of Disney animation. The loss was most damaging to Disney in 2002 when the Oscar for Best Animated Film went to the artist (by hand) by Hayao Miyazaki, "Spirited Away" Disney inflicting a second defeat followed the Academy Awards.
Disney settled all their desks and Dreamworks Animation also announced it would abandon the traditional drawn animation and focus exclusively on computer-generated productions from 2003 onwards. While frame traditional animation is likely to remain supported by the TV cartoon and TV ads in the near future. The schools of animation history believe that "the era of classic American design," which began with the Walt Disney film "Snow White" is about to end. Others disagree, pointing a moderate success of traditionally animated film "Brother Bear" and the fact that Pixar has announced it will produce traditional animation films in their own attempt to revive this art form.
In 2004, he premiered the movie "Sky Captain" and "The world of tomorrow." Note that the entire film was shot against a blue screen with the background completely computer generated and all were real actors. Robert Zemeckis film "Polar Express" starring Tom Hanks with five characters is done entirely with CGI animation, but uses motion capture technology to animate the characters.
In July 2005, Disney announced it would close their studies in Australia in 2006. That study, responsible for video sequels like "The Lion King III" was the last bastion of hand-Disney artists. However in 2006, Pixar creative chief John Lasseter, told Time magazine that could restore traditional animation unit of Disney, saying that "of all studies should be doing 2-D animation, it should be Disney."
In December 2009, the last great animated film that has gathered huge profits at the box office is "Avatar" from 20th Century Fox, directed by James Cameron, has received high praise for the quality of special effects are really impressive.
Animation Awards
The animation has become so widely accepted that at the beginning of the XXI Century (2001), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences introduced the Oscar for best animated film. The two main rivals for the first year of this award were two CGI films: "Shrek" from DreamWorks and "Monsters Inc." Disney-Pixar. The award was for "Shrek." However, there were complaints that the award seemed to be geared more toward family movies to animated films, "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" was the third nominee, not the innovative and critically acclaimed adult film "Waking Life" or visually innovative "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." Hayao Miyazaki's critically acclaimed "Spirited Away" won in 2002 and the Disney-Pixar film "Finding Nemo" received the award in 2003.
The Annie Awards were presented at the Los Angeles branch of the International Animation Society (Association international du film d'animation or ASIFA), known as ASIFA-Hollywood, the month of February competing animation for film and TV.

Funny Animation

Maybe this is a funny animation titled post,,
yes for ngehibur blogger friends ...
maybe for a longer upset or affected by problems that can smile a little,,,, :)
see ya the funny animation :

 oke that's all the animation,,
thank's,,
wait another animation :)

Common Misconceptions About Forensic Animations

There seems to be many preconceived notions about forensic animations and their overall use in litigation. Many times, lawyers or accident reconstructionists will say that "An animation can show whatever the animator wants" or "Animations are difficult to admit in a court of law". However, to a forensic animator, this is also like saying, that your accountant can "fix your books". In reality, it is far from the truth.
Misconception #1 - "An animation can show whatever the animator wants"
Perhaps it is the fact that so much of what we see on television and in films is altered with lifelike special effects that we tend to associate anything with 3D visualization with more than a hint of skepticism. Ironically, much of the same software used to animate films such as "Spiderman" or "Lord of the rings" is also less known to be used in scientific visualization, research and forensic animations. People may associate the fact that an experienced special effects animator is capable of creating surreal, yet realistic looking effects. Therefore, it must not be accurate.
The greatest difference between a forensic animation and just any other type of animation is the "forensic" part. This implies that there is a large effort in understanding the details of what is being animated and that there is a large emphasis ensuring a high level of accuracy. An animator can spend more than 70% of his time on activities related to the verification of data and ensuring accuracy in the animation.
An experienced and qualified forensic animator would tell you that a large effort goes into building and checking each step of the animation process to the correct and accurate dimensions. In fact, very little is left to the imagination since most recreations are based on accurate data typically provided by the expert witness. A simple example is the terrain data of a particular scene. This can be obtained by means of a total station along with the positions of important features such as signs, traffic lights, debris or tire marks on the roadway.
Even the animation and motion of objects in a 3D recreation is typically based on information or data provided by the expert witness. This data is often obtained through careful calculations or through the use of simulation software. In the case of simulation software, the data can be directly converted or imported directly into the 3D animation software, leaving little room for error.
There may be cases where the forensic animator is provided with less than ideal information, however, even in these rare instances, an experienced forensic animator will have enough knowledge to ensure that the basic rules of geometry and physics (i.e. motion) are applied and adhered to.
Misconception #2 - "Animations are difficult to admit in a court of law"
Somewhere along the way, there have been animations which were so poorly constructed or erroneous they simply could not have been allowed in court. It would seem that these cases tend to stick in the minds of litigators and cause reluctance for future use of what is a perfectly acceptable and effective use of technology.
Normally, it is an inexperienced animator or lawyer which does not follow some of the basic rules of demonstrative evidence.
Some key points to consider when considering a forensic animation are:
1. The animation needs to support the testimony of the expert witness and should be considered an extension of the witness' report. The expert witness should be directly involved in authenticating and reviewing the animation.
2. Disclose the animation well in advance of the trial date. Evidence needs to be disclosed in a timely manner and the opponent requires time to cross examine the evidence.
3. The animation fairly and accurately conveys the data or matter that it purports to convey or depict. The animation should not be prejudicial in that it outweighs the probative value.
4. The animation should be relevant.
5. The forensic animator should be prepared to testify that the works created are based on sound technology, process and algorithms such that the final works are a reflection of the expert witness' opinion.
There are, of course, many other factors to consider which may be case dependent. Further materials and references are available for review including a paper entitled "The Admissibility of Demonstrative Evidence in Jury Trials:" Written by Barbara Legate of Legate and Associates and available at the AI2 forums (www.ai2-3d.com/Forums).
Today, most forensic animations are admitted into court since there are greater considerations and groundwork taken into account to ensure the accuracy, validity and quality of the animations. By choosing an experienced forensic animator and by adhering to the rules of demonstrative evidence, the risks associated with inadmissibility are greatly reduced.
Misconception #3 - "Animation and Simulation are the same thing"
There are two distinct ways to develop an animation and although the end result may try to achieve the same thing, they are fundamentally different in the means by which they are created.
A simulation is typically the output of a program which is operated by a qualified accident reconstructionist. The program has a set of key behaviours (i.e. mathematical equations) which define the movement of objects when given a set of known parameters. It is up to the accident reconstructionist to define all the input variables and ensure they are accurate. Once this is complete, the program is initiated to calculate all the positions of objects through some specific time.
The simulation software may also output the motion of objects in the form of exportable tabularized data and/or animation. However, most manufacturers of simulation based software programs have not been able to achieve the same level of realism as most animators are able to do with 3D visualization software. There may be a number of reasons to this which deal with further complicating already complex software or that perhaps the time spent on development is in the mathematics behind the simulation software and not primarily in the visualization or presentation of the data.
Another important issue which is common with simulation software is the validity of the data available. The old saying "garbage in, garbage out" is applicable. Since a simulation would typically be used as substantive evidence, it can get difficult to prove something is accurate without having solid data to back the animation up.
Animation
Demonstrative Evidence - illustrates how something works or how something happened based on the testimony of the expert or eye witness. The animator, not the software is responsible for accurately moving and positioning objects over time.
Does not try to prove anything, but just facilitates the account or testimony of a witness.
Simulation
Substantive Evidence - Takes actual dynamics and physics into account. The objects are not animated by "hand", but by software based on calculated inputs or data.
Tries to prove that something may have occurred a certain way.
Visually, an animation is more eye catching and realistic.
Simulations are improving in their presentation, but are still lacking realism.
On the other hand, an animation may be based on an eye witness testimony, calculations of the accident reconstructionist or from data output by a simulation package. All the events of an animation in a typical 3D visualization package are calculated and setup by the animator. Animations are almost always disclosed as demonstrative evidence and they do not try to "prove" anything. They are merely another form of expressing the opinion of the expert witness and are always presented as demonstrative evidence.
Misconception #4 - "We need it yesterday".
There have been many advances in the technology that forensic animators use which has improved the speed and efficiency of their work. Computer processing speeds have grown exponentially and the advances in software have allowed animators to do things which were simply not possible several years ago. There are even tools provided to animators which allow them to write custom scripts for repetitive tasks and specialized functions.
These advances in speed and ability would make one think that the time to complete an animation should also have been greatly reduced; however, this is not the case.
Part of this reason is simply the nature of the animation process. Much work needs to go into the understanding of the case, reading reports, taking measurements and verifying accuracy. This part alone can take a large part of the man-hours to create the animation.
Also, creating the 3D models ("scene assets") necessary to populate the animation is still a time consuming process. There are some advantages when a "library" of standard models is used (i.e. stop signs, light poles, traffic signs), however since each case is different and the specific details need to be reflected in the animation (such as the scene topography or specific damage to the vehicle), time must be spent to customize or create models from scratch.
Technology has effectively brought many more options to the realm of visualization which means that more work is being done in a similar amount of time. If one were to compare the time to produce an animation which was done 15 years ago to the same animation done today, there would be a noticeable decrease in the time to complete. However, the overall quality of presentation would certainly not be as appealing to the eye.
Due to media such as television and film and video games, people have become accustomed to a higher level of realism. The same animation which was used 15 years ago in a court of law, may not be as appealing or credible to an audience today.
It is important to leave as much time as possible to get a high quality animation and to allow time for the opponents to cross examine the animation. On average, a typical animation from a reputable forensic animator requires anywhere from a few weeks to months to complete depending on the availability of information, number of scenarios/views requested, level of realism and complexity of the animation. Unfortunately, there are still no "magic buttons" to do the manual work of a forensic animator.
Misconception #5 - "It's much too expensive"
Perhaps the most important piece of advice is to use a reputable and experienced forensic animator. There are some animation houses which specialize in advertizing or graphics which like to take on forensic work, but without a qualified and experienced forensic animator, there is a higher risk that the entire animation may be inadmissible.
A qualified forensic animator will bring to light all the options available, provide sound advice and set clear objectives up front. Setting clear objectives is possibly one of the most overlooked points. Without knowing the expectations, the goals of the animation are often missed or not well communicated resulting in last minute changes and edits which further increase the cost.
It is important the lawyers and accident reconstructionists understand the animation process and where the amount of man-hours are typically invested. Most forensic animators estimate or charge based on an hourly rate; however there are some which still prefer to quote by the case/project.
The general rule of thumb is that as the level of realism, complexity, number of scenarios and camera views increases, then so does the cost. This is why it is important to understand what is being requested of an animator. For example, changing a camera view slightly has a smaller impact on cost than does adding different animation scenarios with objects in different locations.
By taking a second look at forensic animations and their misconceptions, it is clear that there needs to be some understanding of the animating process by the client. Having an up front and open discussion about the objectives of the animation are imperative to having a positive impact on the case.
Drawing on the experience of a professional forensic animator who can explain the options available to a client and can discuss their associated costs removes the risk of falling short of the goals and ensures animations will be admissible in court.

Eugene Liscio is the owner of AI2- 3D Animations which specializes in forensic animations for litigation support. AI2 actively promotes the use of Forensic Animations, 3D Virtual Models, photogrammetry and other visual strategies for the courtroom. Eugene is a registered engineer in the province of Ontario, Canada.