Animation - It Has Life In It

'Animation' the word itself bespeaks loud that it has life in it. It is all about putting life into characters and models and making them look real and life-like. The story goes, to a couple of years back when becoming an animator was like a dream come true. But going down twenty years, the dream was practically impossible, for many to achieve. Then becoming an animator meant going to college, studying an illustrative graduation degree or probably if you are lucky enough you might get yourself an apprenticeship from a professional animator. It was earlier a mere diploma degree. But these days the path to becoming an animator is easier as many of the colleges are offering a certified degree course in animation.

Disney Dreams are no longer intangible. With the advent of Pixar, Toy Story 3D, aspirations soared high in dreamy eyes and the animation industry got changed forever. Consequently, the demand for animators, both traditional and 3D including visual effects got increased with the success of each 3D movie. However during the economic recession that had hit worldwide, the booming industry saw a setback. Yet the spirits of the true animators could not be canned down and they fought their way out. Adversaries should never be allowed to dominate your spirit. 

Your goal is to put life into every non-living character and bring them closer to the human heart and life. The challenge is to make them appear so real that people are able to relate to them and yearn to see them even after the movie gets over. They become such real super heroes, that the fans go crazy about them. Films like Madagascar, Ice Age and Despicable Me got made into several sequels because there was a great furor amongst the public for the animated characters.

You might have dreamt to become an animator all your life, but have always discouraged yourself, only because you are not very skilful when it comes to drawing. You might have heard that the very foundation to animation is drawing.

He who is good at sketching or drawing sees his future as a good animator. Then let me tell you, that drawing is a crucial part of animation, but not the only thing about animation. Do not feel intimidated if you turn out to be bad in drawing? Not all are naturally gifted. But it is through practise that one can acquire expertise in his skills.

Drawing is like a muscle that requires to be flexed everyday, making your will and skill stronger with every passing day.It takes a lot to become an animator. Every shot is like a new challenge even to an experienced animator.

Being able to produce a good quality animation, is not an easy task. Learning of animation does not end with the animation school course. It is just the beginning. Animation of every new character is a new chapter that requires thorough learning. One has to be meticulous and observant in his work. It is like your baby to whom you put in life and allow it to breathe.

Meet the expert in multimedia, visual effects and the animation industry. Get acquainted with the spirit of an animator and learn to create the magic of animation.


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Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie

Utena is the perfect example of a shÅjo anime. The movie is complete with a naïve fantasy of princes and princesses and adolescent girls with characteristically big eyes, flowing hair, and magic powers. ShÅjo themes remain clearly present throughout the film. It includes intensely emotional scenes overflowing with roses and relationship conflicts. But this story is not a traditional shÅjo tale. Utena is unique because the storyline overtly displays the shÅjo using her abject female identity to overcome patriarchal societies' expectations of the ideal female.

Utena appears similar to a regular fairy tale on the exterior but is clearly different underneath. The fairy tale-like story is used to critique the illusions found in fairy tales (Napier 176). Like a classic fairy tale, Utena arrives at a castle-like academy dressed like a prince and must fight other duelists in order to save the Rose Bride, Anthy. But Utena diverges from the regular fairy tale because Utena is female and the castle-like academy and princes are only illusions. Utena and Anthy created the illusion when they denied and rationalized the negative aspects of their princes' identities. 

After their idealized fantasy is shattered, Utena makes the revolutionary decision to leave their current fairy-tale world with Anthy. Upon leaving, the fairy tale academy is shown to be a dark and empty place filled only with straw dolls. The world is destroyed once Utena and Anthy decide to leave it behind since it was a fantasy upheld only by their imagined ideals of a patriarchal fairy tale land.

Utena really brings home the idea of shÅjo and possibilities available to the abject female identity because Utena uses her identity to carry out an apocalypse of the fairy tale world. According to Frenchy Lunning, the shÅjo is the perfect vehicle for potentially creating new female social identities because she is able to escape patriarchal societies' expectations of a woman by switching between the image of an innocent girl and a mature woman (Lunning).

Utena is a unique shÅjo because she consciously recognizes her potential to change the world. Utena carries out in the storyline what Lunning states that the shÅjo does through repeated manifestations in our society. Shes takes it one step further by seizing the opportunity created by her abject identity to create a new identity.

She does this through conscious rejection of patriarchal ideals. Utena and Anthy reject the existence of princes and the idealized female by deciding to leave behind the role of the oppressed Rose Bride and false memories of their princes.

Utena used the potential in her adolescent, not-quite-set shÅjo identity to pursue new identities and a relationship with Anthy. Utena takes the shÅjo story one step further because she is a shÅjo character herself but actively uses her identity to create new possibilities for herself.


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Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie

Utena is the perfect example of a shÅjo anime. The movie is complete with a naïve fantasy of princes and princesses and adolescent girls with characteristically big eyes, flowing hair, and magic powers. ShÅjo themes remain clearly present throughout the film. It includes intensely emotional scenes overflowing with roses and relationship conflicts. But this story is not a traditional shÅjo tale. Utena is unique because the storyline overtly displays the shÅjo using her abject female identity to overcome patriarchal societies' expectations of the ideal female.

Utena appears similar to a regular fairy tale on the exterior but is clearly different underneath. The fairy tale-like story is used to critique the illusions found in fairy tales (Napier 176). Like a classic fairy tale, Utena arrives at a castle-like academy dressed like a prince and must fight other duelists in order to save the Rose Bride, Anthy. But Utena diverges from the regular fairy tale because Utena is female and the castle-like academy and princes are only illusions. Utena and Anthy created the illusion when they denied and rationalized the negative aspects of their princes' identities.

 After their idealized fantasy is shattered, Utena makes the revolutionary decision to leave their current fairy-tale world with Anthy. Upon leaving, the fairy tale academy is shown to be a dark and empty place filled only with straw dolls. The world is destroyed once Utena and Anthy decide to leave it behind since it was a fantasy upheld only by their imagined ideals of a patriarchal fairy tale land.

Utena really brings home the idea of shÅjo and possibilities available to the abject female identity because Utena uses her identity to carry out an apocalypse of the fairy tale world. According to Frenchy Lunning, the shÅjo is the perfect vehicle for potentially creating new female social identities because she is able to escape patriarchal societies' expectations of a woman by switching between the image of an innocent girl and a mature woman (Lunning).

 Utena is a unique shÅjo because she consciously recognizes her potential to change the world. Utena carries out in the storyline what Lunning states that the shÅjo does through repeated manifestations in our society. Shes takes it one step further by seizing the opportunity created by her abject identity to create a new identity. She does this through conscious rejection of patriarchal ideals.

 Utena and Anthy reject the existence of princes and the idealized female by deciding to leave behind the role of the oppressed Rose Bride and false memories of their princes. Utena used the potential in her adolescent, not-quite-set shÅjo identity to pursue new identities and a relationship with Anthy. Utena takes the shÅjo story one step further because she is a shÅjo character herself but actively uses her identity to create new possibilities for herself.






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5 Reasons to Use Animation to Reach Younger Audiences

As an advertiser, you know the importance of capturing your target audience's attention with appealing and relevant ads. For years, static ads have been good enough to do just this. However, in today's market, animated ads offer an exciting and effective way to garner you the kind of customer attention you need to successfully grow your company, especially if you wish to target younger audiences. Following are a few of the reasons that using animation to reach younger audiences is the smart move to make.

Animated Ads Are Engaging

Part of the reason that animated ads are an effective way to reach younger audiences is that they are by their very nature more engaging than static ads. For instance, they tend to be more unique than static ads, and therefore more likely to grab your audience's attention.

In addition, people are hardwired to respond to movement. As a result, the activity in animated ads draws the consumer's attention away from whatever they are doing and focus it on your company's message.

Finally, animation advertising is an engaging way to communicate your brand because it allows you to create appealing characters and worlds that draw the viewer in and give them a positive impression of your brand. Mascots such as Manny Mo and Jack from Pep Boys put a friendly face on a business that will make young consumers more likely to trust that business. Once drawn to these characters and worlds, your target audience will be more likely to respond to your brand, giving you more customers than you could have achieved with more traditional ads.

Animated Ads Are Easy To Understand

The goal of any advertisement is to communicate the company's message to the consumer. Today's young people tend to have shorter attention spans and, therefore, need advertisements that are concise and easy to digest quickly. The less engaging and more complex static ads, as a result, can make it more difficult to convey your message simply and quickly. This is especially the case if the message you are communicating is complicated or difficult to understand.

Animated ads, on the other hand, prove the old adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words." Because they rely on pictures and characters to communicate instead of words, they can, within just a few moments, convey the essence of your brand in a way that static ads cannot do. In the hands of an experienced advertising animation company like Powerhouse Animation, your animated ad can boil your message down into a fun, appealing, and easily grasped format that will be more likely to convert younger audiences into paying customers.

Animated Ads Are Memorable

As an advertiser, your goal is to make your brand or product stick in the minds of the people who view your ads. In part because they are engaging and easy to understand, animated ads tend to accomplish this goal more effectively than do static ads. In fact, an animated ad enables the viewer to retain up to 58 percent more of the material than do other forms of advertising.

Today's culture, which is so dependent upon screens like smartphones and tablets, is especially ripe for the use of visual representations in advertising. Because of short attention spans and the ease with which pictures and videos can be digested on a small screen, animation provides a way to more effectively help younger audiences remember your brand. As a result, a commercial animation studio like Powerhouse Animation can provide the expertise and material you need to create an advertisement that will communicate your brand in a memorable way to the younger crowds you want to reach.

Animated Ads Are Modern

Younger audiences tend to be drawn to the modern and stylish. Animated ads, because of their use of graphics, motion, video, and design, are more likely to draw the attention of these audiences because they give your brand a more modern feel.

The very fact that animated ads use animation, motion, and appealing graphics make them a modern update on the more traditional static ad. They reflect more accurately the type of medium with which younger audiences are familiar and comfortable.

In addition, depending upon the design and characters you use, you can create an ad that communicates style, polish, and savvy to the audiences you wish to reach. Alternatively, you can, with the help of your chosen animation company, design an animated ad using your own unique style and personality to draw in younger audiences who resonate with the qualities your brand embodies.

Animated Ads Are Fun

Finally, you may want to consider using animated ads to reach younger audiences because they are fun. Rather than just reading words or looking at a single picture, your audience will be drawn into the world and characters that you and your animation partner create together. Excellent character design, creative and well-designed worlds, and the right amount of movement and action will create a story around your brand that your audience will enjoy watching. The more fun they have watching your advertisement, the more likely they will be to remember your brand and purchase your products in the future.

Advertising animation has many advantages if you want to target younger audiences. This type of advertising has the ability to connect with young people through a medium with which they are familiar, characters with whom they can relate, and motion graphics that they will find both entertaining and memorable. As a result, it offers an effective and appealing way to promote your brand.

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TV Characters All Men Should Try to Emulate

Although TV is mainly for entertainment, with an open mind and an eagerness to learn, everyone can get something useful out of it. The TV series characters sometimes portray behavior that should be included in one's arsenal as well. Here is a list of five TV characters that men should try to emulate.

 

Steven Hyde (That 70's Show) - Hyde represents the rebel that lies in all of us. He does what he wants to and ignores the rest, he drinks beer, does not care about his studies, and is laid back all the time. 

Although many students in high school do go through that phase, most of them stop after college, when they get a job and settle down with a family. However, is that how it should be? Should one just stop having fun altogether and become completely rigid and uptight? No. Actually, it is at this point of life that people should try harder to have fun, since life becomes more difficult. Everyone should bring out their inner Hyde occasionally to take a break from the hardships of life and stay from being burnt out.

Mike Ross (Suits) - With increasingly easier access to drugs and other self-destructive substances, it is very easy for someone to completely lose control over their live and mess up. That is when one should take inspiration from Mike Ross. He did not even go to college, but once opportunity knocked at his door, he welcomed it in. Instead of feeling sorry for his past mistakes, he moved on and decided to change life for the better, something ever man should do.

Fox Mulder (X-Files) - Agent Fox Mulder supposedly lost his sister to an alien abduction when he was a child, and never got over it. As result, throughout his life, he had two obsessions driving him: He wanted to find his sister, and he wanted to find extra-terrestrial beings. While such obsessions may be unhealthy, the lack of obsessions today is far more unhealthy.

 Every man must have a driving force, whether that be a car, a position, power, money or the knowledge, is irrelevant. The presence of an ambition is what really matters.

Harvey Specter (Suits) - Harvey Specter is the perfect mix of Michael and Sonny Corleone. He is smart, cunning and good with words, but he also loses his temper often, and is not afraid of a fist fight. He will go at any length to protect his loved ones, and has a very strong sense of ethics. He neither forgets a favor nor forgives an insult, which makes him all the more respectable.

David Palmer (24) - Of all the people to emulate, who better than the President of the United States, David Palmer. A confident man, totally in control of himself, and very well-respected by his peers, this man is the ultimate alpha male.

 However, what really sets him apart is his ability to make extremely sensitive decisions under a great deal of pressure. He is also quite fearless, and is not afraid of making personal sacrifice for the greater good. At the end of the day, David Palmer is the man to be.



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Far From the Madding Crowd - Review of 2015 Remake of Historical Romance

When poor orphaned Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) unexpectedly inherits a mansion complete with servants and a working farm, her options expand tremendously in this historical romance based on the classic Thomas Hardy novel. She's simultaneously courted by three men, a wealthy older man, a brash sergeant, and a quiet sheep farmer. The strong-willed, fiercely independent Bathsheba has a forth option to consider as well - staying single and maintaining her freedom.

 

If she chooses, Bathsheba can have plenty of help running the farm and making business decisions. There's no impartial advisor to help with matters of the heart, however. Along with her independent spirit, her impetuousness causes lots of trouble. Her rash decisions include (with encouragement from one of her young employees) sending a valentine to her rich neighbor, William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a seemingly cruel act because of his obvious devotion to her and her complete indifference toward him. This not-so-harmless prank begins a series of events that cause great hardship to the wealthy bachelor, who is plagued with self-esteem issues.

 

A Tale of Three Suitors

In addition, Bathsheba plays with the emotions of handsome sheep farmer, Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), another would-be lover whom she treats with casual disregard. Gabriel's solid (like an oak tree, naturally) character permits him to stay on her farm, working, watching, and caring for her from a distance. But even Gabriel has his limits to how much pain he can endure from her thoughtlessness.

 

Her third suitor, Sergeant Francis Troy (Tom Sturridge), an utterly detestable caricature of a soldier, has just the right amount of greed, lust, and deception to win her fickle heart. Apparently spurned by the real woman he loves, Troy has no qualms about taking what he wants from anyone else, and he clearly wants something from Bathsheba.

A Timeless Drama of Choices

How this troubling interconnected story plays out makes for timeless drama, as evidenced by the popularity of remaking the Hardy classic. This particular version provides a delightful journey back to Victorian England with beautiful scenes of the countryside, music, dancing, drama, and a colorful cast of young actors.

At 119 minutes, it runs longer than most films, but there's quite a bit of story to tell during that time. The film excels in all technical respects, and won't disappoint anyone seeking a great historical romance - although Bathsheba's bad decisions might have audience members shaking their fists at the screen at her exasperating "independence."

Far from the Madding Crowd

•    A young woman must decide between three different suitors in this historical romance based on the Thomas Hardy novel of the same name.

•    Starring Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge

•    Director: Thomas Vinterberg

•    Writers: David Nicholls (screenplay); Thomas Hardy (novel)

•    Genre: Historical Romantic Drama

•    Run Time: 119 minutes

•    MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some sexuality and violence)


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3 Things to Know About the Changing State of Cable TV

Like all things related to technology, the cable TV industry has changed dramatically in the last ten years. It wasn't that long ago when families gathered in front of the television at 8pm and watched only a handful of network channels together.

Nowadays, families may opt to watch different channels in different rooms of the house, play on their tablets or smart phones while viewing a show, or just watch their favorite programs directly on their mobile devices. The average family's viewing habits have become completely different than what they were prior to the 2010s, and things are likely to continue evolving. Industry experts have seen these changes and predict that they'll continue to gain popularity in the near future. Here are 3 of the changing aspects of cable TV:

1) On-Demand Viewing

Today's cable options make it easy for many households to look at an on-screen menu, choose the show they'd like to see, and watch it at any given time. Viewers appreciate this because it means they get to watch their favorite shows, and it also allows them do it at their own convenience. For example, if a show they like airs at 8pm on Wednesdays, but they have an ongoing commitment at that time, they can opt to watch it Thursdays at 10pm, or another timeframe that works for them. In the past, shows that were available for on-demand viewing were at least several weeks old. Now, you can see shows a mere 24 hours after they originally aired.

2) More Channels

Expect to see plenty of new channels making their debut on cable. While nature enthusiasts might have had two channels to choose from in the 1990s, now they have a dozen channels to enjoy. Spanish language channels are also expanding and, in many markets, they come as part of a standard cable package. Kids TV networks have grown from several to a dozen or more in recent years.

3) More Niche Shows

As a growing number of networks find a place on the cable TV lineup, shows that focus on unique or niche topics continue to appear. Specifically, the popularity of and demand for reality TV shows has led to a huge outpouring of low-budget, casually shot series that offer glimpses at the everyday lives of people in all types of situations. Unusually large families, individuals with unique jobs, and people who just have fun, overdramatic personalities, all regularly get their own TV shows which air for as little as six episodes. No matter what your interest is, you can most likely find a show you will enjoy on today's television lineup.

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Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?

I am a fan of science fiction! There are times when I yearn for television, films and comics that fit into that genre. Babylon 5 for all its faults is probably the only television show in the last twenty years that does. Solaris and Interstellar are the only films that I can't remember that I felt really satisfied me in what I was looking for.

I feel frustrated when I talk to other people about the lack of science fiction out there and their come back is 'what about Doctor Who?' You see for most people, who are not fans; all they need to see on their television or cinema screen is a space ship or an odd looking alien for it all just to blend into the same thing. It is all just Sci-Fi to them. If only they would look a little closer.

None fans (including comic book publishers, television and film producers and studio heads) will rarely bother to take a closer look, to try to examine, explain and interpret it in all its different forms.

However, for me as a fan, what is out there breaks up into three different categories...

What I would call 'science fiction substitute', that usually manifests itself in the form of the Police procedural drama; criminals from the future are chased back through time to present day earth by a cop who has to round them all up and send then back to the future or some such thing.

It is not the real thing; it is just the powers that be (producers and studio heads and so on) trying to take advantage of the cult fans reputation for spending money without spending much of theirs.

And then there is that curiously captivating category that seems to be about little more than space men running around blowing stuff up. As much as I love things like Doctor Who, Star Wars, Flash Gordon or the Marvel Studio's film Guardians of the Galaxy, they only tend to have elements of science fiction in them and lack any real science or speculation about the future.

Now the genuine thing for me, what some people call hard science fiction, be it the more thoughtful tales like Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, Harlan Ellison's Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman or tales with a little more action to them like Frank Herbert's Dune books seem to be a rarity in the world of comics, films and television.

Theodore Sturgeon summed up the genre perfectly in 1952 when he said "A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content."

In essence it tells stories about the human condition...

But why do we not see more that fit into the genre like for example the aforementioned Babylon 5 in comic, television or films? J. Michael Straczynski once talked about how difficult it was to get studio heads interested the genre. Now that Straczynski is a studio head and owner of Studio JMS could he be our saviour?

He has several film and television projects on the go. The Netflix show Sense8, the Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy adaptation for Spike TV, Straczynski has also bought an option on Harlan Ellison's classic story, "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman" and lets not forget a big budget film reboot of Straczynski own Babylon 5.

There are definite signs of improvement out there. There might even be a whole new wave of hard science fiction coming to a television or cinema screen near you.

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