Friday, 29 April 2016
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Tuesday, 5 April 2016
Return of the Panda Warrior
Are you all set with your Kung Fu gear? We sure are. We can’t wait for the third part of the Kung Fu Panda franchise. And we’ve been binge watching the previous two parts.
So just before the release this weekend, we thought of sharing a few things that we know about the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Did you know that the film was called Daydreamer to keep the original title under wraps? Read on for more interesting facts.
Bringing real to reel
Since the story takes place in China, animators spent years studying Chinese art, and travelled to China before the actual production. In fact, all the 2D dream & flashback sequences resembled Chinese shadow puppetry. For the music, John Powell & Hans Zimmer travelled to China to study local orchestra & instrumentation, and spent time with the Chinese National Symphony. The entire team also took Kung Fu & Tai Chi lessons to understand how the characters would move & fight.
Coloured
The franchise uses a lot of colour symbolism. Gold represents heroism, red represents power, blue represents negativity or evil, and green represents wisdom.
Changing roles
While Kung Fu Panda was directed by John Stevenson (of Shrek fame) & Mark Osborne (of Spongebob Square Pants fame), Jennifer Yuh Nelson, the head of story for the first film, directed Kung Fu Panda 2, making it the first animated blockbuster solely directed by a woman. For Kung Fu Panda 3, she has joined hands with Alessandro Carloni, the animation supervisor of the first film.
Inspired
The filmmakers took inspiration from other popular films & animation.
The rooftop chase scene pays homage to the wirework of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and the interior of the Jade Palace is a nod to the king’s palace in Hero. The fighting style of Mantis was inspired from Hanna-Barbera’s Atom Ant. They liked the idea of the creature being so small that when moving fast, he couldn’t be seen. The Royal Bridge was based on the bridge in Indian Jones & The Temple of Doom.
A global affair
Although a DreamWorks production, the animation team had artists from all over the world, including USA, Mexico, Belgium, Italy, China, Sweden, Philippines, Canada, Ireland, Israel, UK, Spain, Japan & France.
Chinese influence
The film also uses a lot of character names that have relevance in Cantonese & Mandarin. Shifu’s name means ‘teacher master’, a title often used for addressing martial arts trainers. And Tai Lung’s name translates to ‘great dragon’. The name of the prison is Chorm-Gom, which literally translates to ‘sit in prison’. Also, the furious five are based on the five animal forms found throughout Kung Fu.
Animal spirit
As per the original story, Po was to be lazy in the beginning, and become more confident once the training began. But once Jack Black, the voice of Po, came on board, he suggested that Po be a Kung Fu enthusiast from the beginning to make him more likeable. We sure do like him!
Black got into the spirit of his character. He underwent Kung Fu training, and often acted out the scenes physically while recording. He also added a lot of lines during recording that were maintained in the final films.
Story changes
Early versions of the story gave Grand Master Oogway a mob boss personality. Thank goodness that didn’t make it to the later drafts! Initially, it was also decided that Mantis was to be the villain in the first film. However, it was later changed to Tai Lung, the snow leopard. This was a much better version as snow leopards hunt both giant pandas (Po) & red pandas (Shifu) in real life. Some versions also had Mr. Ping as Po’s stern boss instead of his adoptive father. This was later changed after the suggestion came from one of the storyboard artists.
From 2D to 3D
Before animating the fight sequences in 3D, the animators completed the entire sequence in 2D so that they would have complete knowledge & control over how the animals would move during the sequence. You can never get away from the basics!
Tough affair
The animators claim that Viper, in the first film, and Lord Shen, in the second film, were the most difficult character to create. Viper’s model contained 120 different bones, and they used Chinese poetry as the markings on her skin. As per Nelson, detailing Shen’s large body & feathers was like animating six characters, all at once.
A family affair
Remember the smitten bunny in the dream sequence of the first film? Well, the voice actor was none other than Black’s wife, Tanya Haden. And Black’s son & Angelina Jolie’s (voice of the Tigress) children will be the voices of various baby panda’s in Kung Fu Panda 3.
Jackie Chan
We cannot imagine a martial art film without Jackie Chan. And the Kung Fu Panda franchise does not disappoint. Along with giving his voice to Monkey in the English version, Chan also gave his voice to the Cantonese & Mandarin versions of the movies. In fact, if you look carefully, you’ll notice that Monkey uses Chan’s signature double thumbs-up in the movies.
Setting the date
The studio had to change the release date several times. The movie was originally set to release in December 2015. But that clashed with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And the studio is no fool. They realised that Kung Fu was sure to lose in front of the lightsaber. So the date was pushed back to 2016. It is obvious that they wanted the movie to be released at a time when it would get maximum mileage. But have they not thought about the T20 finals, or have they?
Emotion vs action
The first film was about Po realising his true potential. The second one was about Po using his skills & learning for a larger good. Looks like the third film continues on the theme where Po will not only save people but will pass on his teachings & train others in Kung Fu. This movie also promises to bring the story full circle, with Po meeting his real family & discovering his village & people. Will this be the end of Po’s journey or will it lead to new adventures? We’ll have to wait for DreamWorks to answer that one.
source:http://www.arena-multimedia.com/blog
So just before the release this weekend, we thought of sharing a few things that we know about the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Did you know that the film was called Daydreamer to keep the original title under wraps? Read on for more interesting facts.
Bringing real to reel
Since the story takes place in China, animators spent years studying Chinese art, and travelled to China before the actual production. In fact, all the 2D dream & flashback sequences resembled Chinese shadow puppetry. For the music, John Powell & Hans Zimmer travelled to China to study local orchestra & instrumentation, and spent time with the Chinese National Symphony. The entire team also took Kung Fu & Tai Chi lessons to understand how the characters would move & fight.
Coloured
The franchise uses a lot of colour symbolism. Gold represents heroism, red represents power, blue represents negativity or evil, and green represents wisdom.
Changing roles
While Kung Fu Panda was directed by John Stevenson (of Shrek fame) & Mark Osborne (of Spongebob Square Pants fame), Jennifer Yuh Nelson, the head of story for the first film, directed Kung Fu Panda 2, making it the first animated blockbuster solely directed by a woman. For Kung Fu Panda 3, she has joined hands with Alessandro Carloni, the animation supervisor of the first film.
Inspired
The filmmakers took inspiration from other popular films & animation.
The rooftop chase scene pays homage to the wirework of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and the interior of the Jade Palace is a nod to the king’s palace in Hero. The fighting style of Mantis was inspired from Hanna-Barbera’s Atom Ant. They liked the idea of the creature being so small that when moving fast, he couldn’t be seen. The Royal Bridge was based on the bridge in Indian Jones & The Temple of Doom.
A global affair
Although a DreamWorks production, the animation team had artists from all over the world, including USA, Mexico, Belgium, Italy, China, Sweden, Philippines, Canada, Ireland, Israel, UK, Spain, Japan & France.
Chinese influence
The film also uses a lot of character names that have relevance in Cantonese & Mandarin. Shifu’s name means ‘teacher master’, a title often used for addressing martial arts trainers. And Tai Lung’s name translates to ‘great dragon’. The name of the prison is Chorm-Gom, which literally translates to ‘sit in prison’. Also, the furious five are based on the five animal forms found throughout Kung Fu.
Animal spirit
As per the original story, Po was to be lazy in the beginning, and become more confident once the training began. But once Jack Black, the voice of Po, came on board, he suggested that Po be a Kung Fu enthusiast from the beginning to make him more likeable. We sure do like him!
Black got into the spirit of his character. He underwent Kung Fu training, and often acted out the scenes physically while recording. He also added a lot of lines during recording that were maintained in the final films.
Story changes
Early versions of the story gave Grand Master Oogway a mob boss personality. Thank goodness that didn’t make it to the later drafts! Initially, it was also decided that Mantis was to be the villain in the first film. However, it was later changed to Tai Lung, the snow leopard. This was a much better version as snow leopards hunt both giant pandas (Po) & red pandas (Shifu) in real life. Some versions also had Mr. Ping as Po’s stern boss instead of his adoptive father. This was later changed after the suggestion came from one of the storyboard artists.
From 2D to 3D
Before animating the fight sequences in 3D, the animators completed the entire sequence in 2D so that they would have complete knowledge & control over how the animals would move during the sequence. You can never get away from the basics!
![]() |
| Source:Google Images |
Tough affair
The animators claim that Viper, in the first film, and Lord Shen, in the second film, were the most difficult character to create. Viper’s model contained 120 different bones, and they used Chinese poetry as the markings on her skin. As per Nelson, detailing Shen’s large body & feathers was like animating six characters, all at once.
A family affair
Remember the smitten bunny in the dream sequence of the first film? Well, the voice actor was none other than Black’s wife, Tanya Haden. And Black’s son & Angelina Jolie’s (voice of the Tigress) children will be the voices of various baby panda’s in Kung Fu Panda 3.
Jackie Chan
We cannot imagine a martial art film without Jackie Chan. And the Kung Fu Panda franchise does not disappoint. Along with giving his voice to Monkey in the English version, Chan also gave his voice to the Cantonese & Mandarin versions of the movies. In fact, if you look carefully, you’ll notice that Monkey uses Chan’s signature double thumbs-up in the movies.
Setting the date
The studio had to change the release date several times. The movie was originally set to release in December 2015. But that clashed with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And the studio is no fool. They realised that Kung Fu was sure to lose in front of the lightsaber. So the date was pushed back to 2016. It is obvious that they wanted the movie to be released at a time when it would get maximum mileage. But have they not thought about the T20 finals, or have they?
Emotion vs action
The first film was about Po realising his true potential. The second one was about Po using his skills & learning for a larger good. Looks like the third film continues on the theme where Po will not only save people but will pass on his teachings & train others in Kung Fu. This movie also promises to bring the story full circle, with Po meeting his real family & discovering his village & people. Will this be the end of Po’s journey or will it lead to new adventures? We’ll have to wait for DreamWorks to answer that one.
source:http://www.arena-multimedia.com/blog
Wednesday, 30 March 2016
What is a Logo and How Does It Brand a Business/Website?
You see them on flyers, letterhead, billboards and building signs. They appear in televised commercials, websites and other forms of advertising. Chances are that you cannot go a single day without seeing a substantial number of logos. What are logos and why are they such valuable branding tools?
What is a Logo?
By definition, a logo (or logotype) is a graphic symbol or image that is used to represent a company’s trademark and name. It is often designed to create a unique way of easily recognizing and identifying a specific company or website.
There are so many different types of logo designs that are used for companies and websites around the world. Some are more popular than others primarily because of the success of the company represented by the images. However, one should never assume that a logo is just a fancy image. As a branding tool, it has more power and presence than you might realize.
Quick to Recognize, Easy to Identify
One of the most prominent benefits of a quality logo as a branding tool is the beauty of quick recognition and easy identification. With so many different business and website names, it can become very overwhelming to distinguish between them – especially when familiar logos are not available. However, an effective logo design can make that task a lot easier – allowing people to recognize your logo and identify your brand almost immediately.
For example, when you see the letter “F” inside of a blue box, chances are that you will automatically think of Facebook. Whether you love their food or not, golden arches shaped as an “M” will remind you about McDonald’s. A white apple with a bite mark might quickly remind you about Apple. Detailed explanations and wordy phrases were not needed for you to identify those familiar brands; the logos took care of that, right? That is the beauty of logo design by Designhill. Quality logos make it a lot easier for brands to identify themselves and for clients to identify those brands.
The Power of a Brand’s Name
Another benefit of using a logo as a branding tool is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a symbol or image. There are many cases where the company or website wants to keep both the brand name and basically turn it into a logo of its own. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Quite a few logotype names have become just as iconic as symbolic logo images, according to Design Shack.
Apple might use an actual apple, but its biggest competitor – Microsoft – uses the actual word with a definitive logotype. Think about IBM, Coca-Cola, and FedEx ad UPS. The names (even as abbreviations) have basically become their logos and there is nothing wrong with that. Effective branding power extends far beyond images and words; it is more about the actual design itself.
Appreciating the Essence of Color
When examining logo design by Designhill, you likely have noticed the broad use of colors. That is because colors can highlight the essence of a brand’s logo, allowing its personality to emerge directly through the design. According to Mashable, each color brings its own implication and nuance to the message conveyed through the design.
For example, the color red conveys sexiness and energy while the color blue conveys tranquility and trustworthiness. Black is used in designs to convey credibility and power while white is used to showcase simplicity and cleanliness. Pink is used for flirty and fun messages while green conveys growth and instruction.
The Basics of Logo Design
Understanding what a logo is and why it is such a powerful branding tool is just the tip of the iceberg. You need to be able to fully understand the basics of effective logo design. According to Creative Bloq, applying several simple principles will take your logo design work to new heights.
For instance, view simplicity as a requirement – not an option. Simplicity makes it easy to recognize logos and keep them memorable yet versatile. The logo design needs to withstand the test of time, meaning that it needs to remain effective on a long-term basis. When thinking about the longevity of your logo, focus on decades – not days. As mentioned earlier, versatility is of the utmost importance so that brands can use logos in a variety of applications and mediums.
The Bottom Line
From the surface, it might seem like logos are nothing more than fancy pictures or memorable images. However, logo design by Designhill focuses on turning those “fancy pictures” into effective branding tools by truly appreciating their value. Once you fully understand the branding power of logos, you will take one step closer towards creating the next iconic image (or logotype) for your client. Without appreciating its long-term value, though, you will never be able to achieve that goal.
courtesy:http://www.ourtuts.com/
Monday, 28 March 2016
Understand Responsive vs. Adaptive Web Design
Web design is evolving. Designers are ideating innovative design concepts to cut on the renderability issues, optimize load times and make sites search friendly.
Web design’s new ‘buzz words’ are concepts like responsive, scalable and adaptive layouts.
However, there has been a great debate between the responsive and adaptive layouts, so how should designers, and clients, differentiate these methods and apply them for a website template?
Let’s understand both the concepts in depth:
With the increased use of smart phones and tablets, the ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ isn’t necessarily the best practice any longer. When you view emails on mobile, you’re seeing a zoomed out view of the email, usually at 50%. This makes the text impossible to read as it’s half the size. This is where the concept of responsive design comes in. As the name explains, responsive web design responds to cross platforms such as tablets, desktops, mobiles and many more without being contorted. The biggest benefit of this type of web design concept is a quick call to action. Users will not have to constantly resize or zoom in and out of the page or even worse, try and tap a button the size of a pinhead. This results in better engagement, CTR, Response rate and Opens. Responsive designs are compatible with 70% of the major client emails.
So what is the difference with adaptive design? Adaptive web design is the practice of looking up information and coming to a consensus whether there is a need to apply CSS classes or not. An adaptive design uses the components of progressive enhancement to define design methods centering users over browsers.
Fluid Grids vs. Predefined Screen Sizes
Both responsive and adaptive web design projects have many similarities. They both ensure that the website is rendered in the correct format across devices and screens like mobile, desktop and tablets to create a seamless user experience.
However, responsive web design relies on flexible and fluid grids whereas adaptive design relies on predefined screen sizes. Adaptive web design is proactive and it ensures to detect a user’s device beforehand and then showing the best layout as per the screen. So what does this mean in plain English?
Client Side vs. Server Side
Technically, both are used for mobile optimization. Responsive design is more ‘client side’ which means that the entire page is given away to the device browser and then the browser makes it compatible to the screen. Adaptive on the other hand, is ‘server side’ which means that the server detects the device attributes even before the page is delivered. For the first one, the device itself does ‘all the work’ while for the later; the ‘work’ is done at server level.
With adaptive designs, incorporating additional features such as touch gestures and location is fairly straightforward. Adaptive web design uses three layers of progressive enhancement:
Content layer – Rich Semantic HTML Markup
Presentation layer – CSS and Styling
Client-side scripting layer – JavaScript or jQuery behaviors
To sum this up, responsive design and adaptive design have caused a lot of debate and confusion in the recent past. Designers need to have a clear understanding of both concepts. As far as the device user understanding goes, there is no major difference in both the concepts. To have the right web design solutions for your business, it is important to ask for an advised opinion from professional people who have a good understanding of both the concepts.
courtesy: http://www.ourtuts.com/
Web design’s new ‘buzz words’ are concepts like responsive, scalable and adaptive layouts.
However, there has been a great debate between the responsive and adaptive layouts, so how should designers, and clients, differentiate these methods and apply them for a website template?
Let’s understand both the concepts in depth:
With the increased use of smart phones and tablets, the ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ isn’t necessarily the best practice any longer. When you view emails on mobile, you’re seeing a zoomed out view of the email, usually at 50%. This makes the text impossible to read as it’s half the size. This is where the concept of responsive design comes in. As the name explains, responsive web design responds to cross platforms such as tablets, desktops, mobiles and many more without being contorted. The biggest benefit of this type of web design concept is a quick call to action. Users will not have to constantly resize or zoom in and out of the page or even worse, try and tap a button the size of a pinhead. This results in better engagement, CTR, Response rate and Opens. Responsive designs are compatible with 70% of the major client emails.
So what is the difference with adaptive design? Adaptive web design is the practice of looking up information and coming to a consensus whether there is a need to apply CSS classes or not. An adaptive design uses the components of progressive enhancement to define design methods centering users over browsers.
Fluid Grids vs. Predefined Screen Sizes
Both responsive and adaptive web design projects have many similarities. They both ensure that the website is rendered in the correct format across devices and screens like mobile, desktop and tablets to create a seamless user experience.
However, responsive web design relies on flexible and fluid grids whereas adaptive design relies on predefined screen sizes. Adaptive web design is proactive and it ensures to detect a user’s device beforehand and then showing the best layout as per the screen. So what does this mean in plain English?
Client Side vs. Server Side
Technically, both are used for mobile optimization. Responsive design is more ‘client side’ which means that the entire page is given away to the device browser and then the browser makes it compatible to the screen. Adaptive on the other hand, is ‘server side’ which means that the server detects the device attributes even before the page is delivered. For the first one, the device itself does ‘all the work’ while for the later; the ‘work’ is done at server level.
With adaptive designs, incorporating additional features such as touch gestures and location is fairly straightforward. Adaptive web design uses three layers of progressive enhancement:
Content layer – Rich Semantic HTML Markup
Presentation layer – CSS and Styling
Client-side scripting layer – JavaScript or jQuery behaviors
To sum this up, responsive design and adaptive design have caused a lot of debate and confusion in the recent past. Designers need to have a clear understanding of both concepts. As far as the device user understanding goes, there is no major difference in both the concepts. To have the right web design solutions for your business, it is important to ask for an advised opinion from professional people who have a good understanding of both the concepts.
courtesy: http://www.ourtuts.com/
Saturday, 26 March 2016
An Overview of the Animation Industry in India
Animation is regarded as an essential part of the creative industry, as creative or artistic effort is extensively required in the development process of animation. The animation industry in India today has emerged as the fastest growing section of the entertainment and media industry. This section has tremendous potential in creating jobs through the exploitation of intellectual property. The industry is preferred as an outsourced destination for animation work and has gained significance due to cheaper cost, skilled labour and English speaking manpower, are few among its several advantages. The animation companies and animation studios in India are partnering with international studios to develop animated projects for the audience all across the globe.
India, as Animation Hub
Today India’s being the biggest hub for outsourcing animation work, is expected to grow in domestic entertainment industry as well in coming days. The 2008 report on the entertainment and media industry by Ficci-PwC Entertainment and Media estimated the Indian animation industry at USD 0.31 billion in 2007, which is forecast to grow at CAGR of 24 percent and reach USD 0.94 billion by 2012.
The potential platforms for animation include online education and industry specific applications like medical, legal, insurance, architecture, etc. As a matter of fact, Indian studios do not cater to the needs of these areas but are opened with the opportunities in segments like TV programs and feature films with skills in 2D and 3D animation.
India is gradually transforming itself as a supreme provider of animation production services for following strengths and edge in the market:
Until the animation studios made its appearance in India in the second half of the 90s, the Indian animation market was more or less static. The development of more serious activity of the industry began in earnest on this front after the export-oriented outlook came into existence. The multiple players present in the Indian animation market providing it an identity and diverse characteristic.Some of these big players include Films Division Maya Entertainment, Pentamedia Graphics, Acropetal, Silvertoon Studio, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA), Crest Communications, Moving Pictures, Toonz Animation India, etc. The companies are situated mainly across cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore.
According to a recent NASSCOM study, the animation industry in India has begun taking shape where technical manpower, increasing demand from Indian television, establishment of more animation studios and training centres at domestic level and low cost animation production are included. The usage of animation has gradually increased in various end user segments such as advertisements/commercials, feature films, TV programs, and computer/omline games, where animation solutions have found a place in niches such as special effects, film titling, TV broadcast graphics, 3D modeling, Web entertainment programs and background development.
India, as Animation Hub
Today India’s being the biggest hub for outsourcing animation work, is expected to grow in domestic entertainment industry as well in coming days. The 2008 report on the entertainment and media industry by Ficci-PwC Entertainment and Media estimated the Indian animation industry at USD 0.31 billion in 2007, which is forecast to grow at CAGR of 24 percent and reach USD 0.94 billion by 2012.
The potential platforms for animation include online education and industry specific applications like medical, legal, insurance, architecture, etc. As a matter of fact, Indian studios do not cater to the needs of these areas but are opened with the opportunities in segments like TV programs and feature films with skills in 2D and 3D animation.
India is gradually transforming itself as a supreme provider of animation production services for following strengths and edge in the market:
- Availibility of English speaking manpower.
- Presence of several well equipped animation studios.
- Low cost of animation services.
- Heritage of traditional literature.
- India’s vast entertainment sector.
- Indian Animation Market
Until the animation studios made its appearance in India in the second half of the 90s, the Indian animation market was more or less static. The development of more serious activity of the industry began in earnest on this front after the export-oriented outlook came into existence. The multiple players present in the Indian animation market providing it an identity and diverse characteristic.Some of these big players include Films Division Maya Entertainment, Pentamedia Graphics, Acropetal, Silvertoon Studio, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA), Crest Communications, Moving Pictures, Toonz Animation India, etc. The companies are situated mainly across cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore.
According to a recent NASSCOM study, the animation industry in India has begun taking shape where technical manpower, increasing demand from Indian television, establishment of more animation studios and training centres at domestic level and low cost animation production are included. The usage of animation has gradually increased in various end user segments such as advertisements/commercials, feature films, TV programs, and computer/omline games, where animation solutions have found a place in niches such as special effects, film titling, TV broadcast graphics, 3D modeling, Web entertainment programs and background development.
Monday, 21 March 2016
Outsourcing in The VFX Industry: VFX Studios in India Are At The Forefront
The words rapid and exponential do not even begin to do justice to the growth that the animation sector of India has seen in the recent years. During the beginning of this calendar year, it was estimated to be at 247 million US dollars and it was estimated to continue growing at 15 to 20% per annum. The big guys of the west like Walt Disney, Sony, and Warner Brothers have been sending out work on character animation and special effects our way and small business have been budding and sprouting in large numbers. Entrepreneurs in the animation industry say that though they are in theory clubbed with the IT industry, the work is 70% art and 30% technology and passion needed makes it possible for them to survive the competition. They haven’t just survived but they have thrived and are now bagging more and more noteworthy deals. As the outsourcing demands increase, more and more companies are joining the race from all around the country with Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad as the hubs. These companies have their own high-end studios and employ highly trained and skilled artists providing a full array of services. They also possess the ability to provide to a client’s customized requests.
Outsourcing as a pattern started with the IT industry. Slowly but steadily it has made its way into every other industry including that of VFX. But why India? What makes India the preferred choice for the west? The reasons are obvious. They are listed below.
The fact of the matter is that it costs only about one fourth of the price to get a job done in India as compared to North America and only 35% compared to Korea and the Philippines. From the perspective of a business, you never skip an opportunity to save money unless it compromises quality.
Education and quality:
As the demand grows in the industry, more and more big advertising agencies and media schools are formulating courses focusing on quality training. And every year new talent pour into the job market, meeting the needs of skilled workers who can offer relatively better quality output.
Labour:
No job can be achieved without the labour to execute it. Having the second largest entertainment industry in the world gives India the scope to meet the labour requirements. And the constant improvement in the educational standards offers a bridge between the numbers and skill levels. After all, here the saying “what you see is what you get” is applicable in a very literal sense.
Communication:
With English being the primary language of communication in the profession environment across the country, outsourcing companies find it a lot easier to communicate their requirements.
Age of digital media
Digital media has changed the very way the world works. It presented the world an opportunity to interact continuously removing the age-old barriers of geography and reach. This contributed the growth spurt in the VFX industry. But the real change happened when Youtube became hit. The number of people searching, viewing, and interacting around video content has gone up tremendously. Youtube ready has the second largest number of search across the globe. Brands for a while now have leveraging this medium as a tool to reach out to its target audience. Because of this, the number of projects being made has also increased! It started out with the bigger brands and the IT companies that infiltrated the world markets and India. But has moved beyond that today but the concept of e-learning and other newer industries stepping in.
Because of these factors, outsourcing projects to India are only going to increase in numbers. The animation industry in India will only continue to grow and the VFX Studios in India will grow not just in number but also size and global presence!
Courtesy:ToolBox Studios
Monday, 14 March 2016
Adobe Makes Major Updates to Animate CC
Late last year, Adobe announced that it had renamed Flash Professional as Animate CC. Now, the software giant has launched an update which ranks as one of the tool’s biggest releases ever, tacking on more than a few new features.
The Animate February ‘16 release introduces direct integration with Creative Cloud Libraries, Adobe Stock and Typekit and additional features and enhancements, which include:
Adobe has also issued updates for its no-code website design tool Muse CC.
The Animate February ‘16 release introduces direct integration with Creative Cloud Libraries, Adobe Stock and Typekit and additional features and enhancements, which include:
- Creative Cloud Libraries
- Adobe Stock integration for high-quality images, illustrations, and graphics
- TypeKit support for HTML5 Canvas document type
- New vector art brushes
- Improvements to pencil and art brushes
- Brush Library panel
- Tagged Swatches
- Custom templates for HTML5 Canvas documents
- OAM publishing support for AS3, WebGL, and HTML5 Canvas documents
- Publish text as outlines in HTML5 Canvas documents
- Projector support
- Stage scaling
- Rotate your stage
- Import SVG files
- Enhanced drawing object bounding box
- Video export to multiple resolutions
- Contents scale proportionately to stage size
- Enhanced Onion Skinning
- HTML5 Canvas improvements
Adobe has also issued updates for its no-code website design tool Muse CC.
Saturday, 12 March 2016
First Image from New ‘DuckTales’ Revealed
As part of its March client presentations this month, Disney Television has unveiled the first image from the revamped DuckTales — an all-new animated comedy series based on the Emmy Award-winning series. Scrooge McDuck, his grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, and Donald Duck will return to the small screen through Disney XD sometimes in 2017.
The art charmingly shows off the kind of madcap, comically cartoony adventures that fans of DuckTales have come to expect, with an airborne jeep attempting to avoid an unseen, spear-throwing menace, Uncle Scrooge at the wheel, and Donald on the roof. The designs are just familiar enough while presenting a fresh, graphic novel inspired style.
DuckTales is one of 17 new series that Disney Media Sales and Marketing is presenting in the kids’ upfront this year — in addition to 28 current series, 785 episodes, the Radio Disney Music Awards and two new original movies spanning Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD.
The art charmingly shows off the kind of madcap, comically cartoony adventures that fans of DuckTales have come to expect, with an airborne jeep attempting to avoid an unseen, spear-throwing menace, Uncle Scrooge at the wheel, and Donald on the roof. The designs are just familiar enough while presenting a fresh, graphic novel inspired style.
DuckTales is one of 17 new series that Disney Media Sales and Marketing is presenting in the kids’ upfront this year — in addition to 28 current series, 785 episodes, the Radio Disney Music Awards and two new original movies spanning Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD.
Tuesday, 23 February 2016
Different Types of Animation Techniques and Styles
Animation is the process of creating the illusion of motion and shape change by means of the rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other. Animation is all around us, be it your favourite tv commercials, music, movies or even videos you can see the stop motion animation type. Movement creation techniques incorporate the conventional traditional animation and stop motion animation techniques of two and three-dimensional figures, for example, paper set patterns, puppets and clay figures. Keeping Stop motion as the base of all animation, different styles of animation techniques can be used to create the animated sequences.
Traditional Animation or Classical 2D Animation :
Traditional animation involved animators drawing by hand for each and every frame. If you love the feel of pencils on a paper, then the traditional approach is very fascinating. Traditional animation is creating the drawings one by one on the frame. 2D animation involves creating numerous drawings then feeding into a plastic cells, hand painting them and create the animated sequence on a painted background image.
Traditional Animation Movies : Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty, Aladdins of animation and animation styles,
Computer animation - 2D, 3D: The famous Mickey Mouse animation was created using the 2d animation technique.The first 2D animation was called Fantasmagorie, it's a short cartoon made by Emile Cohl. It's shot entirely in black and white, the cartoon is all about a simple stick man in live action. The cartoon is 75 seconds long and it took about 700 different drawings to create. This historic animation was released in 1908. During the 1960s many popular cartoons like the Jetsons and the Flintstones were created using 2d animation.
Digital 2D animation
Creating animations in the 2 dimensional space with the help of digital technologies is known as digital 2d animation. You don’t need to create digital models, you just need to draw the frames. Create 100s of drawing and animating them to show some kind of movement is technically known as digital 2d animation. Using Adobe flash, animators can limit the number of drawings used, which makes them easier to create digital 2d animation. Small variations like changing the color or frame rate can be changed almost instantly, thus making it easier for the animators to work on.
Digital 3D animation
If you are interested in making the unreal characters into a realistic one, then it’s Digital 3d animation. Digital 3d animation characters are much faster to create and they are quite popular in the movie making industry. Using a computer software 3d animated images are used to create many short films, full length movies and even tv commercials and a career in digital 3d animation is highly rewarding. Comparing to 2D animation and the traditional approach, 3d animation models are highly realistic.
Stop-motion animation
Have you ever wondered if a piece of stone can walk or talk, well anything is possible in animation? Using frame by frame animation, physical static objects are moved around and during the post production it is shown in a fluid movement. Stop motion animation has been around ever since the evolution of puppets. There were many movies created using the stop motion method, some of the finest examples are “Fun in a bakery shop” created in 1902.Edwin Porter directed "The Teddy Bears," which was one of the earliest stop-motion animation films. The movie is a short sequence of playing teddy bears, just over a minute in length, which took over 50 hours to animate.
Mechanical Animation
Instead of robotics, machines can be animated by using the mechanical animation technique. Instead of creating the original machine, creating these mechanical animations, allows the animator to understand how the machine works. Explaining the functionality of these machines is quite easy through this kind of animation technique.
Audio-Animatronics and Autonomatronics
Walt disney imagineering created the trademark audio animatronics which is fitted in its disney theme parks. Otto is a robot which can easily sense a person in a room, converse with them and can also tell if they are happy. Autonomatronics technology is different from Audio-Animatronics technology. Audio-Animatronics technology repeats a pre-programmed show over and over again. Autonomatronics technology is driven by sophisticated cameras and sensors giving Otto the ability to make choices about what to say and do.
Chuckimation
Chuckimation is one of the popular animation techniques created by "Action League Now!" creators. It's a combination of stop frame animation and live shots, where characters are dropped into a particular frame. It has some similarities to the famous puppet shows.
Puppetry Animation
Puppetry animation is created using the life like puppets instead of objects. The film ‘The Humpty Dumpty Circus’ (1908) created by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert smith receives credit as the first stop-motion animation film that features puppets. Nowadays puppet animation is most commonly used in children’s cartoons and films. An example of puppet animation used in cinema is in the film King Kong (1933).The Nightmare before Christmas (1993) is an American stop motion musical fantasy horror film directed by Henry Selick. It used 227 puppets to represent the characters in the film and also 400 heads were used to allow the expression for every possible emotion.
Traditional Animation or Classical 2D Animation :
Traditional animation involved animators drawing by hand for each and every frame. If you love the feel of pencils on a paper, then the traditional approach is very fascinating. Traditional animation is creating the drawings one by one on the frame. 2D animation involves creating numerous drawings then feeding into a plastic cells, hand painting them and create the animated sequence on a painted background image.
Traditional Animation Movies : Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty, Aladdins of animation and animation styles,
Computer animation - 2D, 3D: The famous Mickey Mouse animation was created using the 2d animation technique.The first 2D animation was called Fantasmagorie, it's a short cartoon made by Emile Cohl. It's shot entirely in black and white, the cartoon is all about a simple stick man in live action. The cartoon is 75 seconds long and it took about 700 different drawings to create. This historic animation was released in 1908. During the 1960s many popular cartoons like the Jetsons and the Flintstones were created using 2d animation.
Digital 2D animation
Creating animations in the 2 dimensional space with the help of digital technologies is known as digital 2d animation. You don’t need to create digital models, you just need to draw the frames. Create 100s of drawing and animating them to show some kind of movement is technically known as digital 2d animation. Using Adobe flash, animators can limit the number of drawings used, which makes them easier to create digital 2d animation. Small variations like changing the color or frame rate can be changed almost instantly, thus making it easier for the animators to work on.
Digital 3D animation
If you are interested in making the unreal characters into a realistic one, then it’s Digital 3d animation. Digital 3d animation characters are much faster to create and they are quite popular in the movie making industry. Using a computer software 3d animated images are used to create many short films, full length movies and even tv commercials and a career in digital 3d animation is highly rewarding. Comparing to 2D animation and the traditional approach, 3d animation models are highly realistic.
Stop-motion animation
Have you ever wondered if a piece of stone can walk or talk, well anything is possible in animation? Using frame by frame animation, physical static objects are moved around and during the post production it is shown in a fluid movement. Stop motion animation has been around ever since the evolution of puppets. There were many movies created using the stop motion method, some of the finest examples are “Fun in a bakery shop” created in 1902.Edwin Porter directed "The Teddy Bears," which was one of the earliest stop-motion animation films. The movie is a short sequence of playing teddy bears, just over a minute in length, which took over 50 hours to animate.
Mechanical Animation
Instead of robotics, machines can be animated by using the mechanical animation technique. Instead of creating the original machine, creating these mechanical animations, allows the animator to understand how the machine works. Explaining the functionality of these machines is quite easy through this kind of animation technique.
Audio-Animatronics and Autonomatronics
Walt disney imagineering created the trademark audio animatronics which is fitted in its disney theme parks. Otto is a robot which can easily sense a person in a room, converse with them and can also tell if they are happy. Autonomatronics technology is different from Audio-Animatronics technology. Audio-Animatronics technology repeats a pre-programmed show over and over again. Autonomatronics technology is driven by sophisticated cameras and sensors giving Otto the ability to make choices about what to say and do.
Chuckimation
Chuckimation is one of the popular animation techniques created by "Action League Now!" creators. It's a combination of stop frame animation and live shots, where characters are dropped into a particular frame. It has some similarities to the famous puppet shows.
Puppetry Animation
Puppetry animation is created using the life like puppets instead of objects. The film ‘The Humpty Dumpty Circus’ (1908) created by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert smith receives credit as the first stop-motion animation film that features puppets. Nowadays puppet animation is most commonly used in children’s cartoons and films. An example of puppet animation used in cinema is in the film King Kong (1933).The Nightmare before Christmas (1993) is an American stop motion musical fantasy horror film directed by Henry Selick. It used 227 puppets to represent the characters in the film and also 400 heads were used to allow the expression for every possible emotion.
Clay animation or Claymation
If you like to play with clay then this is of the best forms of stop motion created in Claymation. In this Claymation, pieces of clay are moulded to create characters and based on the imagination of the animator, a story is unfolded. There are oil based and water based clays available. Sometimes the clay is moulded into free forms or filled up in a wire like structure called armature. The animated characters are kept in a set and with only short movements, the whole scene is film.
Zoetrope Animation
The zoetrope is one of several animation toys which were invented in the 19th century, as people experimented with ways to make moving pictures. It was invented in 1834 by William George Horner, and is one of the early forms of animations. Some still images are drawn on a drum and when turned in a circular way, you have an illusion of movement. The visual effect created by a zoetrope is still used today to create animated GIFs.
Cut-out animation
Cut – Out animation is probably one of the oldest forms of stop motion animations in the history of animation. The first cut-out animation was created by Lotte Reiniger in 1926 and it was named “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”. She used quite detailed paper silhouettes to convey a beautiful story. In this method paper cut outs are moved under the camera lens to say a story. Ever since the evolution of computers, it was much easier to introduce the computerised cut images in a queue.
Sand Animation
This technique is messy as you will have to get your hands dirty with sand. A lit glass table is used as a canvas and the animator creates animation by moving the sand in certain directions and yes you guessed it right, animators have to constantly erase their creations to create another scene. The whole process is photographed and then during post production, they are merged to show the sand animation. Even though it takes hours to complete the animation, the end creation will truly blow your mind away.
Typography Animation
Typography is all about font faces and letters and animation is anything that is in motion, well a combination of text in motion is known as typography animation. Typography animation is widely used during the titles part of a movie. If you have a love for the font faces and types, then one must watch the stop motion typography animation created by Barrett Forest called the “The Atlantic”. It’s so easy to create new kinds of font face by using softwares such as Fontlab.
Paint-on-glass animation
In this technique, slow drying paints are used on a glass canvas, which allows the animator to manipulate the art and photograph them simultaneously. Sometimes turpentine is used in the paints, which makes it easier for the animator to work on the paintings. It’s tough and laborious task as you have to paint on glass, take photographs and then create another scene which is then blended together in the post production, to give an animated version of the painting.
Drawn-on-film animation
Drawn-on-film animation has been around from 1916, but most of the animations are lost from that period. This technique involves scratching, etching directly on an exposed film reel or alternatively can also be created in a dark room introducing the light in variations to create shadows which are permanently embedded on the film. Sometimes animators can just stick the black film reel on to a workboard and punch holes into them or stick just about anything on the film reel. This animation was one of the earliest forms of animation technique and probably one of the cheapest, since you just need a role of film, etching tools and a projector.
Experimental animation
Experimental animation is the art of combining two or more illogical paintings or art to create an animated scene. Different kinds of animation paintings are introduced at odd points which are totally irrelevant to each other. So the randomly introduced paintings create a different frame altogether in the animation process. Some animators have used a magnifying glass on paintings and multiple frames are captured to create an animation.
Erasure animation
Erasure animation uses 2d animation for motion graphics. Many popular charcoal erasure films have been created using this technique and one famous animator is William Kentridge. Photography and animation has to be done at every change to create a fluid motion in the animation film.
Pinscreen animation
A screen being pricked by thousands of headless pins is used to create pin screen animation. Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker invented the pin screen animation technique in the 1930s. The two people used the pin screen to create Night on Bald Mountain. Once the pins are pricked, the screen is lit on one side, which casts shadows, based on the depth of the prick, the deeper the shadow. Night was the first animated film to use their pin screen, a 3×4 foot rectangle containing around 240,000 pins that move laterally in order to create different shadow lengths.
Flip book Animation
Even before the time of computers, animation was very much in practice. Artists used to carry a small flip book or flick book and draw a series of images, with little variation to the pictures, so when the book is flicked rapidly, you can see the series of images in a fluid motion, trying to show a scene. Flipbook animation is one of the oldest but fascinating kind of animation.
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