The Growth in Computer Animation Software

If you are interested in computer graphics or animation, then you are in luck. There have been some amazing advances in that field, and as a result there are some great computer animation software programs available. Whether you are interested in creating cartoon animations for business or if you want to create animations for personal use, this is a great time to get started.

Animation has come a long way from Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie cartoon animations in the 1920's. Just take a look at films, such as Toy Story and Jurassic Park; even television shows like Babylon 5, where classic animation has jumped to new animations at warp speed by using one major tool - the computer.

The computer can speed up both the creative process of animating characters as well as the time it takes to get a film or TV show to the screen. Even Julie Andrews came out with the quote "Movie animation has come a long way since we frolicked with cartoon penguins, sheep and carousel ponies in Mary Poppins" when she was doing voice work on Shrek 2.

A computer is just a tool, so without a skilled artist at the drawing board or moving the mouse, nothing can be created. And, artists need proven solutions and programs that they can depend on in order to produce the wonderful images they do.

Computer animation software helps teach the skills needed to be a successful animator. Computer animation has been called a healthy marriage between art and science. That seems to say it all.

One of the largest and fastest growing areas within the computer graphics and animation field is in the area of computer games. Computer animation programs and software are constantly being improved to keep up with the animations and graphics that are becoming more complex, even as the technology in the hardware simplifies.

Also, since computers have become almost as common as blackboards, crayons and pencils in classrooms, including preschools and kindergartens, various creators of software applications have designed numerous programs for young children. They can learn to create animations, as well as several other skills specifically designed for their level. Many of the features of educational computer programs, such as interactivity, are completely in-line with educational principals, which is a huge advantage for everyone.

If you have children, then you may be interested in learning about computer animation programs that are available for them. Through fun games, animated tutorials and even vocabulary sections, children learn the essential computer skills they will need when using other computer animation software, even on the preschool level. Check out several programs, as some even have bonus items, such as a My First Software mouse pad and extra books.

A Beginners Guide to Cartoon Animations and 3D Animations

Almost everyone enjoys cartoons of some type whether it is in the newspaper or on television. They are so popular that you will often see cartoon characters in a variety of advertisements. Saturday mornings used to be famous for cartoons. In today's age they have somewhat been replaced with video games, but then even those characters are animated. In addition, the majority of animated box office hits are now all in 3D animation.

You may be intrigued enough by animation that you want to know more about it. It has its complexities and it is by no means an easy job. To put it in easy terms, it is a group of drawings that an artist has designed and then they are put into frames, which are then imaged very quickly to denote movement. It should be remembered though that animation is not just restricted to cartoons.

There are many fazes to producing a great cartoon. First, the idea has to be borne. An artist or cartoonist is this case will dream up a character then draw it. Then it goes to the computer for animation. The animator will use various software to take the character through various stages, which will bring it to life, and then it must go through processes where it can be produced and put out to the viewer.

There is a certain amount of talent required for this job. There must be artistic talent where the artist as learned the fundamentals. Although the computer will do much of the work, the operator must tell it what to do, and then be able to judge whether the computer has done it right. In addition to this, the animator must have a good understanding of the various programs available and how they work.

Cartoons must have a purpose or a storyline. It is the interest in the storyline enhanced by the characters that make it successful. They must be fun and light hearted as this is what attracts people to them. It makes them laugh. Voiceovers in today's media are important. In the case of major productions well known actors and actresses will be retained to do them. It adds creditability to the story and depending on how famous they are often serves as an attraction.

Cartoon animation has predominantly been dome in 2D and 3D formats. 2D was the forerunner and with the introduction of computers, it was not long before it progressed into 3D. They both play a major role in the industry. 3D has not replaced 2D, but it has enhanced it. The computer can be used for both types of formats and there is software that allows the capabilities to do this. The software is only the tool that the animator works with, as we said earlier that there still has to be a well-trained user to execute it.

Learn How to Create Animated Cartoons

Creating an animated cartoon seems like a pretty overwhelming endeavour, doesn't it? Well, you may be surprised to hear that it's not really all that hard. With the nature of the internet these days, internet cartoons are a dime a dozen and many artists can create them in less than a week if they're motivated enough. You also have options for there are several pieces of software out there that can help you in creating cartoons. Most of these softwares have 30 day free trials for you to download and experiment with, so you never have to take a gamble and spend a bunch of money on a piece of software you may or may not like.

In my opinion, out of all the software out there, I have found Adobe Flash to be the best option. You can do almost anything in it, from animating cartoons to creating interactive media. With Flash, while your skills evolve, the software is expansive and robust enough to never feel limited. Other softwares, like Anime Studio, while good for animation, aren't good for much else past that. And now with the new version of Adobe Flash, its animation tools meet and in many cases succeed that of rival softwares.

Okay, so you've tried out some animation softwares and found something that works for you. What now? How do you get started in making these cartoons? The good news is with places like YouTube and Google Video being so popular, you can find some great video tutorials on how to draw, animate and much more. Video tutorials are great for stuff like this because you can follow along with the lesson, pause the video, rewind it if you missed something, or replay it entirely if you need to watch it again. And if you want to really get into some elaborate lessons, many sites out there offer them at modest fees. Google is your friend, use it and use it often. If you have a question on the software you are using, just type that question into Google and you're bound to find a solution to your problem.

Free Funny Animated Ecards

Free funny animated ecards can be found on a variety of Internet websites simply by typing in a few key words on a search engine, and allowing that search engine to provide the Internet surfer with results. Free funny animated ecards can come in every subject area imaginable to tailor any special event or can be sent just to say hello. Ecards are electronic cards. All people have at one time or another received or sent a card the traditional way, through the postal mail. All people are happy to get cards in the mail because it shows that someone cares about them and was willing to show it by sending a greeting, birthday, holiday or thank you card.

While this gesture is sweet, it does take time, money and patience. Remember those times spent standing in the card isle at the store, looking for that perfect card to say exactly what the sender feels. The purchase of the card costs upwards of $3-$4 dollars or more. Once the card has been picked and purchased, a stamp is needed to mail it, taking anywhere from 2-10 days to receive by the recipient. With free funny animated ecards, item selection can be done from the comfort of home on the computer.

The free funny animated ecards are more than just pictures and words. The characters on the ecard move around, there may even be the option of adding sound. Most free funny animated ecards allow personalization of the ecard. Once the selection process is complete, the ecard can be mailed to the recipient and received instantaneously. Some free funny animated ecards can be sent with a personal message or song directed towards the recipient. Sending free funny animated ecards is a wonderful way to just say hello, or to acknowledge a persons birthday, holiday or special event.

Keeping in touch with people is much easier using the advances in technology that are available to the average person. The free funny animated ecards websites are user friendly and allow for free funny animated ecards to be forwarded and recycled by the recipient. If the free funny animated ecards are really good, more people will visit the company website and see other related products that are offered.

Make Your Own Cartoon

Are you an artistic Person? You know the kind of person who spent most of their time in school doodling rather than taking notes or someone who really enjoys telling stories or creating characters.

If you answered yes to any of those questions then making your own cartoon just might be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things you'll ever do.

It doesn't require that much to make your own cartoon.

All you need is:

• The desire to make your own cartoon

• An animation program such as Macromedia Flash or Toon Boom (both of which you can Download for free just Google them)

• A little artistic talent

• And an imagination

Once you have these things your ready to start making your own cartoon.

Make your own cartoon in 5 stages

There are 5 major stages that you need to go through to make your own cartoon.

1. Story

You need to have a basic series of events that will happen in your cartoon. This can be as detailed as a full length film or as simple as something moving from one point to the other. Either way you at least need to have a rough idea of what the point of the cartoon is and how you're going to get there.

2. Characters

Now that you know who and what you need to get the point of you story across to your audience, its time to design your characters. It is important to make sure that your characters will be easily animated. If you make your characters to detailed it will take way to much work to animate them and you may get discouraged and abandon the project.

3. Story board

Now that you have your story line and characters ready you can start story boarding your cartoon. For those of you who don't know what story boarding is it is a series of pictures that depict the main events of your story. I usually start by doing a different drawing for each scene. Then I go back and do storyboarding for each scene that needs more than one image to depict what its going to show.

4. Sound

Now is the time to record the sound for your cartoon. Depending on how much your cartoon depends on the sound to carry the story forward you may actually want to record your soundtrack before you storyboard. And then make the storyboard follow the sound. However most of my animations rely mainly on the visual aspect rather than the audio ( there isn't any dialogue in most my cartoons) so I record the sounds to follow along with my story board.

5. Animate

And now for the final step in making your own cartoon, the animation step. Your animation style will greatly affect this step but here are some basic guide lines.

Firstly you would want to choose a scene, in this scene you should have already decided on the cameras perspective in the story board stage.

You will then draw the background and map the lighting, after which you will draw the all the key frames (the frames where the extreme poses happen) and then do the inbetweening (the frames between the keyframes).

Keep in mind that you do not add color to the animation until you have gotten the movement to exactly where you want to be. After your done drawing all the frames and the scene is running smoothly you will add the base color to your character.

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.

The Crazy World of 3D Animation

Most of us are aware of 3D animation features and techniques. We also know that they are widely employed in entertainment sectors in different ways. 3D animation in general refer to the art of creating and modifying the images. Its entry can be traced back to as early as 90s when the first 3D animated by film "Toy Story" was released. A lot of changes and advancements have taken place since then.

The entry of 3D animation had brought a sort of revolution in past decade in the animation sector. Its importance and popularity cannot be ignored. There is hardly any area where it has not played its part. The real power and its effectiveness came into light when the film "Jurassic Park" hit the screen worldwide. The film showcased not just the all powerful animal-Dinosaur; but highlighted the wonders of 3D animation in bringing the animal to life in a virtual sense. Reasons for its popularity will be briefly discussed in the following paragraphs.

With 3D animation, you can expect perfect images and at a record time. The impact created is simply outstanding. The illustrations and pictures created cannot be described in words. The final products can generally be viewed from different perspectives. 3D animation software come with different dimensional features and its ability in portraying movements is simply impeccable. A huge amount of scientific data is worked upon and is presented in a simplistic way. 3D animated pictures and movies generally have long lasting impressions on the viewers for a long time to come. It also becomes easier for viewers to recall their experiences in an accurate way.

It is also an excellent tool to communicate fast and present complex ideas into virtual reality. No other software or programming techniques offer this kind of advantages to its users. Even a remote concept or a hint can be converted into reality. Using 3D animated techniques, even hazardous and expensive scenes can be recreated. If you want to depict building demolitions or air crashes for your film, there is no better way to go about than 3D animation. Among many areas where 3D animation has brought about changes is Architecture. Designing and studying 2D and 3D models of different sketches has been made easier. These models are found to be extremely accurate and can be easily be interpreted.

Of lately, many companies have left their footmarks in the 3D animation industry. Each of these companies has their own software products in the market highlighting their unique features. The choices in front of a buyer are virtually endless. Having said this, there is few standardized software in the market. Few of them include Alias Maya, 3DS max and etc. The former allows the user to create designs, textures on them. The latter software too offers similar services. Some other popular software include Bodyshop, Cinema 4D.

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