Computer Animators - The New Stars of Hollywood

The presence of computer graphics in film has come a long way since Westworld in 1973 when 2D images were first used in a movie. Thanks to computer graphics, 3D animators are now the rising stars and major players in Hollywood.

Recent History of CG Films

In 1995 Toy Story was the first fully CG animated movies to be produced and since then, CG movies have been arriving thick and fast. By 2005 11 feature-length CG movies were released, and this figure was almost doubled in 2006 when the industry exploded, releasing 20 CG films.

Who's the Super Star Now?

Computer Graphics films are now definite players in the movie industry and their role is putting pressure on the traditional film industry, especially highly paid actors and actresses. Movie goers are finding that they get just as much enjoyment out of watching a big green ogre who moves and feels like we do, as they are from Pierce Brosnan or Nicole Kidman.

But who are the real stars of CG films? They are the 3D artists. This rapid industry growth means there is lots of opportunity for animators to get jobs. But the growth appears to depend on the amount of quality animators entering the industry.

The power of the 3D artist was made clear after the 2006 boom when a plateau was met. The number of CG films planned for this year is on a par with last year indicating that the supply of trained 3D animators is not meeting industry demand.

Training Animation Stars

Increased quality education could prove to be the key to growth in this industry. Educators have the role to keep the 3D star rising. If the industry requires educators who produce quality graduates in a short time frame, the trick for educators will be to cut out the theory and teach in an intense industry simulated environment.

Tips to the Potential Star

If you are looking to become a successful 3D Artist and want to work on CG films, research your training organisation and select one that will help your career rise relatively quickly and with quality.

Anime - The Popular Animated Japanese Art And Artists

Starting in the early 1960s, anime has blossomed into one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world. Originating in Japan as comic books and magazines, and going on to animated forms, the series of incredible stories developed with various characters, their life and growth have attracted fans around the entire planet, both young and old.

Anime is, of course, an abbreviation of the word "animation." There are a wide variety of artistic styles in anime because it depends on the specific style of the artist or studio and what they create in their own imagination. In many series, the characters have large, round eyes and big hair but this isn't always the case.

All animation must first be hand-drawn by the artist, and these artists have mostly also done comic renditions for comic books and started out with that as their goal. This then expanded into the animation sector, and was often assisted by other animators in studios, sometime using computer techniques. The procedure of turning drawn cartoons into animation is a long and complicated one but fulfilling for both the artist and eventual viewer.

Early on, the Japanese film industry solved the problem of low budgets and other restrictions by making their movies from the characters in the early comic books. The artist could have free reign to create whatever kind of characters they wanted. Since Japanese anime usually emphasizes backgrounds for atmosphere, any scene whatsoever was possible, from the big city, nature, to different countries around the globe and even outer space settings. Thus any story line could be complimented by the illustration coming from the artist's free creativity. Any sort of action and activity was feasible, from wild fights, to whole cities blowing up. The possibilities were endless.

The artists of these characters and story lines often took part in the animation process, sometimes devoting literally years to creating the series. The anime went on to become television broadcasts and occasionally full-length movies.

One of the most popular anime series is called Inuyasha, a feudal fairy tale. Rumko Takahashi, a Japanese manga (comic book) artist, developed the tale originally. Her incredible talents led her to become the best selling female comic artist in history. Studios adapted her comic illustrations to the screen, and now there are currently about 167 episodes of Inuyasha on DVD for all to enjoy. It is still an on-going plot and thus fans can continue to enjoy Inuyasha far into the future.

DragonBall, another extremely popular series, was created by Akira Toriyama who spent over 11 years producing hundreds of episodes. Over 160,000 people a month search for DragonBall Z on the main search engines, and it is likely growing by the day.

Credit must be given to the Japanese culture for producing such original and thoroughly enjoyable entertainment for all ages. It has competed with the American cartoon industry that has mostly concentrated on the children of our culture, but now competes with the animated movies becoming more and more popular in present day.

All About Anime, Manga, And Western Animation

The word anime is almost synonymous with Japanese culture, where it is as much a part of society as the newspaper or magazine. Most anime are actually derived from their manga (comic) counterparts, and the word is basically an abbreviation of animation, but specifically cartoon or comic animation. In fact, manga is a very popular form of literature in Asian countries, and a lof of manga titles are actually have a historical or contemporary flavour to it.

However, it might surprise many to know that there is not a lot of differences between Western and Eastern animation. Both share many common techniques and approaches, but perhaps Western animations have been trending towards using more sophisticated technology. Many of the most famous creators of anime still prefer to do things using the traditional methods, and are less reliant on computers and technology.

The biggest difference between the two styles of anime are probably the types of genres explored in the animation, and some of the peculiar features that are only found in Eastern animation.

Since anime and manga is such a big part of Eastern culture (you can find manga book shops everywhere in countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan), it tends to be more broad in the topics covered. Themes such as sports, relationships, history, military, political, humour and medicine or science have all been the subject of anime. In fact, there is probably an anime or manga for just about anything that you can think of. However, Western culture seem to be very specific with its animations, and tend to focus on heroes and villians, actions and consequences.

Some of the most interesting features of Asian anime is the use of dialogues within the dialogues. That is, as a particular scene is unfolding, there will be commentary from the characters within the animation providing a third person perspective from people involved in the plot. Also, the interplay between imaginary and real-life is often strong, with characters able to take words out of their speech bubble, or pull out various instruments from empty space.

To give you a taste of Japanese anime, and understand some of the things we've been talking about, have a look at some of the most popular Japanese: Naruto, Blackjac, Eyeshield 21, Slam Dunk. If there is something you are interested in, you will almost certainly find an anime or manga that covers the topic. So why not take a look in your favourite bookstore today, you never know just what you'll discover.

8 Steps to Producing a Cartoon Series

This article describes the process of getting the green light to produce a cartoon animated series from scratch. I am leaving out the details of raising funds for the project as that is an entire book by itself, but nevertheless this should give you a good idea of what it takes for a cartoon series to get produced.

1. Decide on a theme and the foundation of your cartoon series

2. Think of the different characters that would make up your cartoon series

3. Engage a good cartoon scriptwriter to develop a pilot script and a set of synopsis based on your theme and idea. You would also want him to describe your characters in detail and breathe life into them. An experienced writer would know exactly what broadcasters are looking for and deliver an ace. I won't advise you to do this yourself unless you are an experienced writer. I also would not recommend you to get a scriptwriter who writes for TV dramas as the genre is quite different.

4. Get a good design or animation house to design a set of characters for your cartoon series. Make sure that these characters are cute, unique, likeable and merchandisable - meaning that people would find them so cute that they want to make them into products! Alternatively, you can also go the edgy way, in which case the characters can look so cool that people just want to have them.

5. Compile the pilot script, synopsis, character designs, prop designs and various illustrations and you will have yourself what is called a character bible.

6. With a character bible, you can approach an animation house and ask them to produce a teaser or a pilot episode based on the series. A teaser is a 3-5 minute short of example how the cartoon series would likely run. A pilot episode is basically a sample episode from the series. For the pilot, never pick the first episode. Pick a middle episode because that will be more representative of how the cartoon series would usually look like. It would be better to engage an animation house who has done this before and make sure they explain their procedure to you.

7. From here, you can take two routes. The first route would be to approach a distribution company. The teaser or pilot would allow a distribution company to assess where they could sell your show and how marketable it is. They could gauge how confident they are in selling your show and if they want to distribute your show. If they do decide they want to represent your cartoon, they would provide a distribution plan and revenue projection. You should not sign any contract at this point because you can't guarantee production of the show yet. You should instead ask for a letter of interest from the distributor. With this letter of interest you can approach investors to show them that a distributor would take your show. It would help a lot if the distributor is well-known and reputable of course. This is an indication from an industry expert that your show is marketable. With investors on board you can approach an animation company to ask them to produce your show.

8. The second route you can take is to go to an animation company or a TV station to ask them if they would be interested to produce your show. If your concept is really good and they are in need of a show like yours, they might just decide to take on your concept and develop it. You could then negotiate for a royalty for the use of your concept, or even to be a producer or executive producer onboard the production team. This is all negotiable. It is also entirely possible for you to approach an animation company or TV station with just your character bible without your teaser, or even without a full bible. It has happened before, but the success rate declines dramatically with the lack of each marketing tool.

Stock Animation

Stock animation is one of the more popular forms of animation. Anyone looking for help with a project that needs animation can use stock animation. Stock animation has grown in popularity due to the increasing reach of the Internet and television. Stock animation is used to entertain and present information in an interesting way, so as to sustain viewer interest. In fact, many a company owes its profile presentation to stock animation.

Animation projects are time consuming and require a lot of creative output. With this being the case, the use of stock animation helps reduce the time and aids in increasing creativity required for completing an animation project. Stock animation is often the start for a project, as far as an animator is considered. Stock animation also goes well with other creative elements. You can now make your own DVD using stock animation. One can use stock animation for backgrounds, making certain sequences more interesting to view.

Stock animation comes in different formats like animated gifs, flash animation, and composite animation. The gif format, also known as the graphics interchange format, is used for some Web page animation. They can be found in literally thousands of Web sites on the Internet. These animations are considered annoying by some. The next most common form of Web animation is Flash, which is perhaps the most versatile and widely used form of animation as far as the usage. Stock animation for Flash, though expensive, is time saving and makes for excellent creative output. Composite animations are created by combining different animations together to create a single finished animation. They are used in television to a great extent.

Although there are different formats of stock animation, one can choose the right one suitable for one's project. One can get extensive information on stock information and the different types of software used through online resources.

Video Animation

Video animation is perhaps the most popular form of animation. Video animation started back in the 70s with the increase in the number of VCRs in homes. As VCRs became a common home accessory, the animation industry also grew at a furious pace to cater to the increasing requirements of animated films, especially kids who just could not do without an animated version of their favorite comicstrip hero.

Demand was at its peak and consumers wouldn't think twice before picking up scores of animation videos at their nearest stores. Another reason for the popularity of video animation was the increasing penetration television. With the advent of cable television and exclusive channels dedicated to animation films, their popularity reached unprecedented heights. Animation slowly made its way to mainstream movies. Animation has also been worked into major Hollywood hits to create unimaginable stunt sequences and other sequences, which could not be possibly filmed without animation. You have sequences in videos and films where entire cities are destroyed by volcanoes or humans being invaded by aliens. All these sequences appear spectacular to the naked eye and so realistic that it is hard to believe that these sequences were actually enacted using computer software.

Such has been the tremendous impact of animation software. The newer versions have made animation so much easier to do. Now even common people with a little bit of knowledge about computers and software can make their own animation videos. One can get extensive information about the latest animation software from leading online resources. One can find out about the latest video animation and the latest software on the market.

Clay Animation

Clay animation is also known as Claymation and is in fact a registered trademark created by Will Vinton Studios to describe their clay animated movies. The term is now commonly used to refer to all stop motion animation, which is 3-D, as opposed to traditional animation, that is not.

Clay animation is growing in popularity around the world. Schools around the world are using clay animation movies to make teaching easier. Students are actively encouraged to use their artistic and creative talents, while using this technology to tell a story. Clay animation is appealing to a broad variety of learners. For instance, language skills are being taught using clay animation. Logical and mathematical skills are being taught using clay animation, involving digital photography and video editing technology.

Clay animation helps to make learning more fun. It encourages students to collaborate during a project. Not only youngsters, one would agree that anybody would have fun making characters move on a screen. Clay animation also works on the basic principle of persistence of vision. Persistence of vision creates an illusion of movement, whereby you feel that the objects are moving. You can easily create a simple clay animation with as little as two images using this principle. All you need is a PC with the requisite software to get started.

You can find vast amounts of information on clay animation from online resources. In fact, you can create your own clay animation by following the steps mentioned in most of these online resources. There are no limits to what your imagination can do with a little bit of knowledge on clay animation. Alternately you can also enroll yourself with institutions who can teach you clay animation professionally.

The History of Animation

Animation, contrary to what many people think, has a long and illustrious history of its own. Ancient Egyptian excavations reveal that the Egyptians did extensive wall decoration way back in 2000 B.C. Even the Greek, in their ancient paintings and drawings reveal a fascinating sense of imagination. Leonardo Da Vinci has used some form of animation in his famous illustrations. The Japanese have used scrolls to tell stories from ancient times. The ideas behind animation are not a recent phenomenon and have existed for centuries now. With the increasing impact of technology, the face of animation has been revolutionized.

It has been mankind's quest from the beginning of time to capture the sense of motion in art. This gave rise to ancient paintings which could be found in caves. One has heard of such drawings associated with several civilizations of the past. A Frenchman named Paul Roget invented something known as the thaumatrope, which was a disc with a string attached to both sides. One side of the disc had the drawing of a bird and the other side an empty cage. When the disc was twirled using the strings, the bird appeared as if it was inside the cage. Such early inventions were forerunners to the present day animation.

Later, an instrument called the henakristoscope was invented by Joseph Plateau, which was a circular card with slits around the edge. The viewer had to hold the card up to a mirror and peer through the slits as the cards whirled. A series of drawings would be present around the circumference of the card. What the viewer would see was the optical illusion of a moving picture. Plateu introduced this to the US in 1826. Decades later, the advent of computers and software literally changed the way animation was done. Now literally nothing is impossible as far as animation goes. Using current animation software, one can create mind boggling animation. Hollywood is full of animation pioneers. In fact, who can forget Walt Disney's innumerable animated characters, which have become American icons. Animations have become more realistic in the sense that one can virtually duplicate real life situations using state-of-the-art animation software.

What Makes Anime Popular?

What is it that makes Japanese animation popular, not only to the young but to adults as well? I remember a few years ago when I was a freshmen and sophomore in university I was addicted to the Japanese anime "Dragon Ball Z". In fact, it even gave the famous American cartoon "The Simpsons" a run for its money in my book.

What I find odd is that "Dragon Ball Z" has about 39 episodes per season but if you want to write an overview of the entire season you can do so in just about one paragraph. And I mean you can add all the meat of the entire season into just that one paragraph. Here is basically what I mean...

Episode 1-10ish: Bad guy arrives and starts terrorizing the fictional planet. Minor super heroes fight the villain and lose (perhaps one even dies). Main hero who was conveniently not able to combat said villain for whatever reason finally arrives for the ultimate showdown. Episode 10ish - 38: Half of the time verbal fists are being thrown between said hero and villain while the other half goes to physical fists. Sprinkle in some dialogue from the minor heroes like, "Wow! He is at full power!", and you have yourself about 600 minutes. Episode 38 ending: Hero kills villain. Episode 39: Everyone is happy and life returns to normal.

And there I was, in my late teens, with my eyes glued to the television. I even knew nothing of importance was going to happen for about 25 episodes but there I sat unable and unwilling to move. "Dragon Ball Z", which aired in Japan from 1989 - 1996 did not first air in America until 1996. By the time I started watching this anime it was already 10 years old. And this length of time for an animated series is a long time when compared to the new techniques and styles of animated characters. But "Dragon Ball Z" was at the top of the charts for a cartoon series for its duration in America.

So back to the original question, what makes Japanese animation so popular? It may be this humble author's opinion but I would have to say the action, and to a further extent the deadly violence. As a prime example "The Simpsons" being probably the most popular America cartoon is a comedy based cartoon. In fact most of the newer American cartoons are based on comedy or to some extent mystery (Yes, Scooby Doo, I am looking at you).

In the 1980's America had its share of action cartoons like "Transformers", "Thunder Cats" and "He-Man" but as the end of the 80's came so did most of the American action cartoons. And with the release of the great "Akira" on video in 1990 and the subsequent mind blowing action/gore that came with it, most American cartoon lovers immediately turned their eyes to Japan. The movie stuck its "geta" in the door and made the debut for Japanese animation in the west.

In the 1990's newer American cartoons such as "Batman" and "Superman" came out and were enjoyed by most American action cartoon lovers, but with only these few American cartoons there left a lot of time for other action animation from Japan to fill the gap. With the amount of older Japanese anime being translated along with Japan's fresh anime, there is quite a lot of the Japanese component in the western market. So, this author's opinion is that Japanese anime happened to come along to the west at just the right time, and now that it's here it won't be leaving anytime soon.

How to Care for Your Animation Art - 5 Common Questions

Can we handle Animation Cels? Unframed Animation Cels should be handled as little as possible, preferably not at all. When handling your cel, it would be best to use clean cloth gloves. With or without gloves, cels are best handled by the edges.

Where can I store an unframed Animation Cel? Store it upright, in a cool room, away from sources of direct heat or sunlight. Cels seem to store better in moderate

humidity: not too dry and not too moist. Do NOT store in a Kitchen, bathroom, loft or cellar, unless properly insulated.

Where should I not hang a framed piece of Art? Do not hang any art where direct sunlight can cross it and neither hand it above a radiator. Watch for hot-spots reflected from glass tables; it can be just as damaging as direct sunlight.

If there is a high amount of reflected sunlight, you will want to make sure your cel is framed with a UV-reflective material.

Can I clean an Animation Art Cel myself? No, under any circumstances, do not attempt to clean a cel yourself.

Leave this to the professionals such as your framer, who can remove minor smudges and other imperfections, and they should do so with extreme care.

How should I frame my artwork? Always frame your art with the highest quality materials. Use acid-free mats and backing, especially for framing drawings or other, paper based artwork.

© Premier Animation 2005

Paul Callis is the proprietor of Premier Animation, a respected Animation Art Gallery in the UK . Paul’s passion for Animation Art, has helped collectors unable to source this fine medium, own pieces of art they thought were impossible to locate, and allowing many unknown to this specialized art form, gain great knowledge and understanding.

Tips for Digital Designs

Be true to yourself! Only create designs and art that you believe in. Don't participate in false advertisements or promote wrong ideas only because you can.

Let your designs be of your own origination and style.

Visualize the color wheel as a 3-D sphere. Make sure to include colors from the northern and southern hemisphere of the color wheel. If your colors are not just so, nudge your colors to conform to the color wheel's dyads, triads, and tetrads. For more information about the color wheel, go to: http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-theory-basics.html

The colors you choose have both emotional appeal and symbolic meaning. Make sure to choose colors which will support the visual meaning and message you wish to convey. For more information about colors, go to: http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

When designing, have the wisdom to know when to stop.

First learn what the design principles are, and then learn how to break them.

As a designer's knowledge and skill level increases, more complexity and design elements can be brought into each piece.

There are times when designers have to walk away from their work to clear their heads. Often times, design solutions come when you least expect it.

Make a habit to ask others what they think of your artwork as you formulate your ideas and design your pieces. It doesn't matter if they have art experience, just ask anyway. Everyone has different perspectives and valuable ideas.

If you have creative ideas wake you up from your sleep, quickly sketch out your ideas and go back to sleep.

Experience has taught me that it is not the tools that create great work; it is the talent behind the tools.

Build a personal library of artistic magazines and books, and use them for reference and as your foundation. Designing is not done strictly from the heart, but it is built upon knowledge of design principles which dictate how design elements are composed.

The Future of 3D Animation - The Virtual World on Steroids and Life As Simulator

The future of animation is nearly upon us, where you become your own avatar in a virtual world, interacting with characters and becoming one yourself. Let me explain, a few years backy I met an interesting Gentleman at a Coffee Shop, Robert V. Ries, was his name. Bob expressed to me that he felt our life experience was nothing more than a really good simulator which put us into organic bodies to experience the Earthlings Realm and to test our will and strength of character in a variety of situations.

He went on to say that we were interacting with many other is the same simulator. We talked for hours and his theories seemed somewhat far-fetched, although he did go into a long scientific explanation of how this might work. He explained our advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Simulation, Electronic Gaming, as well as modern day movies such as Vanilla Sky, The Matrix and Fight Club. We discussed the Department of Defense's Net-Centric Battlespaces where your targets came up in augmented reality and how your night vision and eye-tracking systems became human brain-mind-eye interfaces with the silicon world in a 4D world where you could see below, beyond and 360 degrees.

He explained paradigms of time, space and mind. Additionally I brought up other concepts which assisted the conversation; concepts of NASA's ten screen Air Traffic Control Simulators, Sci-Fi writer Ben Bova's insights on the future of Mars and space for entertainment tourism, Bill Gate's investment in Six Flags Magic Mountain and DARPA's research with mapping of a human life studying the experiences, emails, movies, conversations and events from birth to death.

The discussion in fact went through all the technologies of simulation from truck driving to first responders. It became apparent to me that even if the life experience was not a simulator, well with the rapidly approaching technology, it certainly could be. We also discussed issues of one in a state of animation where their bodies did not move but they remained in the life simulation event, which they had chosen, and their bodies were flipped over and biometrically watched as to prevent entropy; similar to the movie Coma.

We decided that perhaps it would not be such a bad life as you could chose your dream or simulation, rather than facing a reality. Another thought came out of the conversation which is intriguing and that is the use of a human collective of minds of those who were currently in their simulator. Since many parts of the brain would not be used they would be hooked together at a quantum level to work on problems and being fully exercised while the other parts of the brain were fully engaged in the simulator. In fact we determined by lengthening the dreamtime of the participant we could extend their life by ten fold and still borrow some of their brain capacity while idling the body.

We further surmised that we could use brain in the simulator during their pretend dream times and take them down to 1-5 Hz frequency for super immune healing of the body, blood filtration cleaning and ion-therapy. Meanwhile while operating at such low frequencies the mind would be straddling what we perceive as time. We could then send others into the simulator for brief visits to ask questions of the participant to see how their life simulator was progressing, interact with them and then report back the findings and possible futures that their brains had picked up on.

When the person woke up they would feel younger, be in perfect health, be many years forward in their actual life and then return to society free from psychological issues, health issues and in the future. But who would volunteer for this? Rather who might pay for this. Our thoughts were anyone dying of a disease, anyone who could not cope, anyone who felt that they were living in the wrong time period or anyone who really wanted to experience an extreme in life. Extreme pleasure, adversity or challenge seekers would be worthy candidates, also it would be great for offenders of society or prison rehabilitation as they would be donating brain capacity to the collective for important projects, learn a new lesson, be cured of their disruptive behavior and so on.

Our conversation ended abruptly as he noticed he needed to get to the airport top catch his plane back to the UK, although I had not gotten his email address for further dialogue to continue this conversation, perhaps me passing it on to you may be just as good. Think on this for me