You have probably seen them on the internet or on your everyday cartoon shows. Yes, anime cartoons are taking the world by storm and now you can get to learn how to draw your favorite anime cartoon character. If you are a budding cartoonist or animator then you probably want to learn how to draw anime.
Learning how to draw anime is not as easy as you might think it is and it takes hard work and determination to get the art just right. You can always come up with your own characters and make a cartoon series for yourself. There is one such anime cartoon that I found quite entertaining. It is called little Ninjai and can only be watched on the website online. The little Ninjai series shows a young ninja boy going through his own adventure as he meets various dangers that almost get him killed. Usually you can write to the creators of the Ninjai online cartoon series on ideas of different episodes which they will take and review before putting it on.
For you to learn how to draw anime of your own, it would be best if you first start with a pencil and paper. First try creating characters that you already know before creating your own character. Once you have mastered the art of drawing anime cartoons you can now create the same using your computer.
You will have to think of various ideas of what kind of characters you want your anime cartoon to depict. Such as do you want your cartoon to be about fantasy and fiction or to depict today's growing times. Your story can be about epic adventure and can show stories on olden times.
Peter Gitundu Creates Interesting And Thought Provoking Content on Animes. For More Information, Read More Of His Articles Here ANIME ACTION FIGURES If You Enjoyed This Article, Make Sure You SUBSCRIBE TO MY RSS FEED!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Gitundu
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Otaku Nation: Anime's Effect on American Pop Culture
The modern age of Anime arrive in Japan in the 1960s, and over the course of the next decade or so boomed into the giant robot, space battle genre bender that we would soon recognize as the anime of today.
Evolving over the next 30 years or so, it reached a peak where it could begin to overtake and become an integral part of other cultures, much like the Hollywood of the 1930s quickly grew to encompass the rest of the world and inform their pop culture. In the same manner, American pop culture becomes increasingly informed by the trends and cult response to anime.
Anime first appeared in the US market in the 60s with shows like Kimba the White Lion and Astroboy. However, the national consciousness as to where these shows came from as well as the poor marketing of the shows made them forgettable and rather than a jumping in point, they act as a nostalgic reminder.
When Speed Racer arrived, the beginnings of a true consciousness that Japan was creating something new and exciting began to set in. The popularity of Speed Racer was never that of its American contemporaries, but it created in a set fanbase the willingness to devour newer offerings later on in Starblazers and Robotech (a convoluted perversion of multiple animes, but still a relative success in the states). Still, the affect was mostly underground.
In the 1980s, the introduction of Beta and VHS made it possible to join together with friends and watch more varying forms of anime. Truly it was the technological revolutions of the coming years that would make it truly possible for anime to perforate the American entertainment bubble. When Akira arrived in 1989, the effect was palpable. Receiving only a limited American screen release, few saw it in initial release, but the copying of VHS tapes and word of mouth made it something of a cult sensation. Those that knew of Akira were fans for life, eagerly awaiting their chance to partake more and more of the growing trends out of Japan.
For Japan’s part, this era was a period of major expansion, a veritable boom in the business. The 1980s saw the success of shows like Gundam and Dragon Ball overgrow the national consciousness and become runaway sensations. The explosion of the manga industry before hand, with serializations of works by Akira Toriyama and Katsuhiro Otomo in the early 80s simmered in the youth of Japan and finally seeing the commercial possibilities of these works, creating in the process a major conglomerate of companies in the Akira Committee to bring the massive budget of Akira to fruition.
By the 90s anime was the mainstream in Japan, and the result was the ramping up of production and increased output of shows. In part because of the simple, streamlined art style, multiple artist were able to work on a single project and create on episode a week for years at a time, resulting in monumental runs such as the case of Dragonball (156 episodes) and Dragonball Z (276 episodes). The ability to serialize and turn a story into something that millions of youths would tune into each and every week made companies billions (of yen) and secured the kinds of commercial sponsorships and funding necessary to undertake incredible projects that would require vast sums of money to complete.
Back in America, a few executives were beginning to see the effect these shows were having in Japan. Slowly and very carefully they began taking the most popular, Dragonball Z and Sailormoon for example and finding timeslots very early in the day, before the daily retinue of American cartoons, testing the waters of marketability. In 1995, the trickle of anime into the states was just that, a relative trickle. Sailormoon aired every morning in syndication, but chopped up and missing key seasons to relate the endings of important storylines. Dragonball Z ran an equally mild run early on Saturdays in syndication that was abruptly cut when the rights to the show were lost by the initial company and purchased by Funimation.
All the while, works from Japanese masters like Hayao Miyazaki were being overlooked, passing unnoticed through limited release in the states, while making him a God of his craft in Japan. All the while companies like Manga, Funimation, and Viz were buying up licenses and releasing little known, untraceable shows that no one knew the origin of. The shows were treated poorly, often dubbed and cut up to match American audiences. Viz even launched the first Anime magazine in 1993 with Animerica, primarily reviewing their own products but still giving a view of the culture that no one knew anything about.
But, in 1995, the release of the shows in America along with the premiere and rave reviews of Neon Genesis Evangelion in Japan, Otaku interest abroad began to spike. Otaku is a bid of a misnomer as it’s a bit of an insult in Japan, a mean spirited way to call someone a nerd. Here though, it generally means a purveyor of Japanese pop-culture and with the Otaku so in style right now it’s less of an insult than a clique. The import and fan subbing of shows began in earnest via VHS editing software that few if anyone had access to. The early 90s was a time of massive growth of interest in the little known import of Anime though, and the American marketplace wasn’t slow to react.
In 1997, television networks made broad sweeping moves to bring shows to the mainstream. The Sci-Fi channel had always had a small niche in its latenight line up for cult classics like Vampire Hunter D, but Warner Bros finally brought the genre to primetime. Funimation finally got their licensing figured out and Dragonball Z saw its triumphant return to the Cartoon Network, with new episodes to follow a year and a half later. And in 1998, a little known video game for the Gameboy exploded in the American market, bringing along with it its entire arsenal of marketing ploys, including the overwhelmingly childish, but enormously popular Pokemon anime. Finally, children across the nation were gluing themselves to the television set as earnestly as their Japanese counterparts had for nearly a decade before hand.
Miyazaki’s new film played to better reception, receiving a proper release via Miramax. Princess Mononoke was a success in the terms of the time, even receiving the coveted two thumbs up (let alone a review at all) from Siskel and Ebert. Films began to arrive in America more liberally, still finding limited release, but release at least. And the shows began to pour in. At the time, the fansub scene was more or less the only way to get access to some of the more obscure titles being released in Japan. But as the market boomed, so did the licensing by major companies, and it actually started to become illegal to fansub certain shows because they might be released by a company eventually.
Thus began the final and full assimilation of Japanese pop culture into American. The DVD format sped up the process, as more episodes of a show could be packed into a disc than a VHS and production costs plummeted, removing a lot of the financial risk of an untested foreign product in the American marketplace. Cartoon Network debuted its Toonami afternoon cartoon slot, in which they featured anime that had been around for a little while, but managed to appeal to a much larger demographic and spread the word about these great story driven cartoons from across the ocean. An entire generation grew into the growing popularity and became entranced by the epic storylines, amazing storytelling and ability to show in a cartoon what many considered adult themes and much more mature perspectives on things like competition and personal success. The Japanese ability to cross genre and the extremely high production values that started to go into shows made in the late 90s and beyond meant amazing shows that appealed not just to children but to adults and beyond.
What started as a crossover, slowly began to actually change the way in which American’s marketed their television to children. Shows with more adult content appeared, and in some cases emulated the Japanese format. The writers at Pixar crafted brilliant, more maturely themed cartoons without the silly musicals of Disney past, and Disney even dissolved their tried format in favor of more mature, complete stories. The devolution of American quality in cartoons though as they attempted to match the output meant even more Japanese entries in the market. Now, if you turn on Fox kids in the morning you’ll find over half of the shows on are animes. And Cartoon Network still presents multiple entries themselves, with more mature offerings in their Adult Swim block late at night. Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animation in 2003 and South Park, the quintessential American barometer of cultural trends at first knocked the trend with their Chinpokemon episode, later to embrace it (while still mocking it) via changing their own art style in the Weapons episode just a couple years ago.
Nowadays, you’ll find anime oriented t-shirts everywhere, an entire aisle devoted to DVD releases in Best Buy (compared to the one row only seven years ago) and the success of the Anime Network, a channel solely devoted to Anime programming. Magazines like Newtype, a Japanese trade magazine for the Anime industry is now translated and released in America every month with previews of new shows, and American directors like James Cameron are looking to direct live action versions of manga like Battle Angel Alita.
Now, we see new releases from Japan within six months, and the fansub community has to scramble to keep up with what’s legal and what’s not legal to offer via their online services. The internet itself has made it a huge community, where a show can be recorded on Japanese television, ripped and subbed, then uploaded within a couple hours for the world to view. There’s no lay over, and new shows are immediately available. And it’s evident in the universities too. Japanese is one of the most sought after languages, filling up immediately with a yard long waiting list every year, and more sections being added every year.
Japanese pop culture managed to tap a certain perspective that American counterparts were unable to do themselves and in so doing, cornered and grew in a market that few thought existed in America.
I'm a self avowed unemployed writer, working on semi-constant basis to try and overcome the need to go and work a real job. I've written more than 200 articles and reviews and am constantly scouring the internet for any and all excuses and methods to make myself less dependent on corporate pay days. Visit my website at TheChatfield.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anthony_Chatfield
Evolving over the next 30 years or so, it reached a peak where it could begin to overtake and become an integral part of other cultures, much like the Hollywood of the 1930s quickly grew to encompass the rest of the world and inform their pop culture. In the same manner, American pop culture becomes increasingly informed by the trends and cult response to anime.
Anime first appeared in the US market in the 60s with shows like Kimba the White Lion and Astroboy. However, the national consciousness as to where these shows came from as well as the poor marketing of the shows made them forgettable and rather than a jumping in point, they act as a nostalgic reminder.
When Speed Racer arrived, the beginnings of a true consciousness that Japan was creating something new and exciting began to set in. The popularity of Speed Racer was never that of its American contemporaries, but it created in a set fanbase the willingness to devour newer offerings later on in Starblazers and Robotech (a convoluted perversion of multiple animes, but still a relative success in the states). Still, the affect was mostly underground.
In the 1980s, the introduction of Beta and VHS made it possible to join together with friends and watch more varying forms of anime. Truly it was the technological revolutions of the coming years that would make it truly possible for anime to perforate the American entertainment bubble. When Akira arrived in 1989, the effect was palpable. Receiving only a limited American screen release, few saw it in initial release, but the copying of VHS tapes and word of mouth made it something of a cult sensation. Those that knew of Akira were fans for life, eagerly awaiting their chance to partake more and more of the growing trends out of Japan.
For Japan’s part, this era was a period of major expansion, a veritable boom in the business. The 1980s saw the success of shows like Gundam and Dragon Ball overgrow the national consciousness and become runaway sensations. The explosion of the manga industry before hand, with serializations of works by Akira Toriyama and Katsuhiro Otomo in the early 80s simmered in the youth of Japan and finally seeing the commercial possibilities of these works, creating in the process a major conglomerate of companies in the Akira Committee to bring the massive budget of Akira to fruition.
By the 90s anime was the mainstream in Japan, and the result was the ramping up of production and increased output of shows. In part because of the simple, streamlined art style, multiple artist were able to work on a single project and create on episode a week for years at a time, resulting in monumental runs such as the case of Dragonball (156 episodes) and Dragonball Z (276 episodes). The ability to serialize and turn a story into something that millions of youths would tune into each and every week made companies billions (of yen) and secured the kinds of commercial sponsorships and funding necessary to undertake incredible projects that would require vast sums of money to complete.
Back in America, a few executives were beginning to see the effect these shows were having in Japan. Slowly and very carefully they began taking the most popular, Dragonball Z and Sailormoon for example and finding timeslots very early in the day, before the daily retinue of American cartoons, testing the waters of marketability. In 1995, the trickle of anime into the states was just that, a relative trickle. Sailormoon aired every morning in syndication, but chopped up and missing key seasons to relate the endings of important storylines. Dragonball Z ran an equally mild run early on Saturdays in syndication that was abruptly cut when the rights to the show were lost by the initial company and purchased by Funimation.
All the while, works from Japanese masters like Hayao Miyazaki were being overlooked, passing unnoticed through limited release in the states, while making him a God of his craft in Japan. All the while companies like Manga, Funimation, and Viz were buying up licenses and releasing little known, untraceable shows that no one knew the origin of. The shows were treated poorly, often dubbed and cut up to match American audiences. Viz even launched the first Anime magazine in 1993 with Animerica, primarily reviewing their own products but still giving a view of the culture that no one knew anything about.
But, in 1995, the release of the shows in America along with the premiere and rave reviews of Neon Genesis Evangelion in Japan, Otaku interest abroad began to spike. Otaku is a bid of a misnomer as it’s a bit of an insult in Japan, a mean spirited way to call someone a nerd. Here though, it generally means a purveyor of Japanese pop-culture and with the Otaku so in style right now it’s less of an insult than a clique. The import and fan subbing of shows began in earnest via VHS editing software that few if anyone had access to. The early 90s was a time of massive growth of interest in the little known import of Anime though, and the American marketplace wasn’t slow to react.
In 1997, television networks made broad sweeping moves to bring shows to the mainstream. The Sci-Fi channel had always had a small niche in its latenight line up for cult classics like Vampire Hunter D, but Warner Bros finally brought the genre to primetime. Funimation finally got their licensing figured out and Dragonball Z saw its triumphant return to the Cartoon Network, with new episodes to follow a year and a half later. And in 1998, a little known video game for the Gameboy exploded in the American market, bringing along with it its entire arsenal of marketing ploys, including the overwhelmingly childish, but enormously popular Pokemon anime. Finally, children across the nation were gluing themselves to the television set as earnestly as their Japanese counterparts had for nearly a decade before hand.
Miyazaki’s new film played to better reception, receiving a proper release via Miramax. Princess Mononoke was a success in the terms of the time, even receiving the coveted two thumbs up (let alone a review at all) from Siskel and Ebert. Films began to arrive in America more liberally, still finding limited release, but release at least. And the shows began to pour in. At the time, the fansub scene was more or less the only way to get access to some of the more obscure titles being released in Japan. But as the market boomed, so did the licensing by major companies, and it actually started to become illegal to fansub certain shows because they might be released by a company eventually.
Thus began the final and full assimilation of Japanese pop culture into American. The DVD format sped up the process, as more episodes of a show could be packed into a disc than a VHS and production costs plummeted, removing a lot of the financial risk of an untested foreign product in the American marketplace. Cartoon Network debuted its Toonami afternoon cartoon slot, in which they featured anime that had been around for a little while, but managed to appeal to a much larger demographic and spread the word about these great story driven cartoons from across the ocean. An entire generation grew into the growing popularity and became entranced by the epic storylines, amazing storytelling and ability to show in a cartoon what many considered adult themes and much more mature perspectives on things like competition and personal success. The Japanese ability to cross genre and the extremely high production values that started to go into shows made in the late 90s and beyond meant amazing shows that appealed not just to children but to adults and beyond.
What started as a crossover, slowly began to actually change the way in which American’s marketed their television to children. Shows with more adult content appeared, and in some cases emulated the Japanese format. The writers at Pixar crafted brilliant, more maturely themed cartoons without the silly musicals of Disney past, and Disney even dissolved their tried format in favor of more mature, complete stories. The devolution of American quality in cartoons though as they attempted to match the output meant even more Japanese entries in the market. Now, if you turn on Fox kids in the morning you’ll find over half of the shows on are animes. And Cartoon Network still presents multiple entries themselves, with more mature offerings in their Adult Swim block late at night. Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animation in 2003 and South Park, the quintessential American barometer of cultural trends at first knocked the trend with their Chinpokemon episode, later to embrace it (while still mocking it) via changing their own art style in the Weapons episode just a couple years ago.
Nowadays, you’ll find anime oriented t-shirts everywhere, an entire aisle devoted to DVD releases in Best Buy (compared to the one row only seven years ago) and the success of the Anime Network, a channel solely devoted to Anime programming. Magazines like Newtype, a Japanese trade magazine for the Anime industry is now translated and released in America every month with previews of new shows, and American directors like James Cameron are looking to direct live action versions of manga like Battle Angel Alita.
Now, we see new releases from Japan within six months, and the fansub community has to scramble to keep up with what’s legal and what’s not legal to offer via their online services. The internet itself has made it a huge community, where a show can be recorded on Japanese television, ripped and subbed, then uploaded within a couple hours for the world to view. There’s no lay over, and new shows are immediately available. And it’s evident in the universities too. Japanese is one of the most sought after languages, filling up immediately with a yard long waiting list every year, and more sections being added every year.
Japanese pop culture managed to tap a certain perspective that American counterparts were unable to do themselves and in so doing, cornered and grew in a market that few thought existed in America.
I'm a self avowed unemployed writer, working on semi-constant basis to try and overcome the need to go and work a real job. I've written more than 200 articles and reviews and am constantly scouring the internet for any and all excuses and methods to make myself less dependent on corporate pay days. Visit my website at TheChatfield.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anthony_Chatfield
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Naruto - A Prologue on One of the Best Anime and Manga Series
Naruto - A Prologue on One of the Best Anime and Manga Series By Lance Thorington
The story of Naruto began when sixteen years ago a Nine-tailed demon fox attacked the ninja village of Konohagakure. Its power had the ability to flatten mountains and bring forth tsunamis. It was destruction, chaos and death rolled into one.
Konoha, the strongest of the five shinobi nations, was on the brink of destruction. In order to save the village from total annihilation, the village leader known as the Forth Hokage gave his life to seal the demon fox into an infant Naruto.
Before dying, the Forth Hokage asked that Naruto be treated as a hero. But people in Konoha were suspicious. Instead of granting the Fourth Hokage his dying wish, people began to shun Naruto and treat him as if her were the demon fox himself. Naruto grew up without friends of family. He expressed himself by pulling pranks on other people as a way of getting attention. His school work suffered and as a result he failed three times in the ninja exams.
A teacher at the ninja academy, Mizuki told Naruto that there was another way to pass the test. That is to steal a scroll from the Third Hokage. All Naruto had to do was to master a technique from the scroll and he would pass the test. Unknown to Naruto, Mizuki was tricking him. He only wanted the scroll for himself as this scroll contained hidden and forbidden techniques important to Konoha.
But Iruka found out Mizuki's plot and intercepted Naruto and Mizuki. During the confrontation, Naruto found out that he was the container of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, and finally knew why the villagers hated him. Mizuki urged Naruto to release the demon fox's power and to kill Iruka. But Iruka intervened and told Naruto that he was not a monster. Enraged, Mizuki attackes Iruka but before he could strike, Naruto unleashes the technique he learned from the forbidden scroll. He creates hundreds of clones and attacks Mizuki. Shocked that such a prankster and failure could master a high level technique in a short time, Mizuki is stunned and finally defeated by Naruto.
Iruka allows Naruto to graduate and gives him his forehead protector as a gift. Iruka befriends Naruto and finally Naruto gets the recognition he desperately wanted.
As a graduate of the ninja academy, Naruto teams up with Sakura and Sasuke. They accomplish missions and tasks under the supervision of their Jounin (high ninja) teacher, Kakashi. Along the way, they meet other people and learn more about being a ninja.
As the series progresses, Naruto will have to learn about losing friends, teachers, and working hard to obtain his ultimate goal: to be Hokage.
Naruto is an ongoing manga series created by Misashi Kishimoto. It was first published in Japan's Shounen Jump in 1998. As of today, Naruto is one of the most widely read and watched manga and anime series not only in Japan but in the whole world. It ranked 4th in Google search in 2007 and 7th in 2008.
Lance Thorington, a professional writer and online publisher, has written and published numerous articles in many different niches. Visit http://userfamily.org
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Thorington
The story of Naruto began when sixteen years ago a Nine-tailed demon fox attacked the ninja village of Konohagakure. Its power had the ability to flatten mountains and bring forth tsunamis. It was destruction, chaos and death rolled into one.
Konoha, the strongest of the five shinobi nations, was on the brink of destruction. In order to save the village from total annihilation, the village leader known as the Forth Hokage gave his life to seal the demon fox into an infant Naruto.
Before dying, the Forth Hokage asked that Naruto be treated as a hero. But people in Konoha were suspicious. Instead of granting the Fourth Hokage his dying wish, people began to shun Naruto and treat him as if her were the demon fox himself. Naruto grew up without friends of family. He expressed himself by pulling pranks on other people as a way of getting attention. His school work suffered and as a result he failed three times in the ninja exams.
A teacher at the ninja academy, Mizuki told Naruto that there was another way to pass the test. That is to steal a scroll from the Third Hokage. All Naruto had to do was to master a technique from the scroll and he would pass the test. Unknown to Naruto, Mizuki was tricking him. He only wanted the scroll for himself as this scroll contained hidden and forbidden techniques important to Konoha.
But Iruka found out Mizuki's plot and intercepted Naruto and Mizuki. During the confrontation, Naruto found out that he was the container of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, and finally knew why the villagers hated him. Mizuki urged Naruto to release the demon fox's power and to kill Iruka. But Iruka intervened and told Naruto that he was not a monster. Enraged, Mizuki attackes Iruka but before he could strike, Naruto unleashes the technique he learned from the forbidden scroll. He creates hundreds of clones and attacks Mizuki. Shocked that such a prankster and failure could master a high level technique in a short time, Mizuki is stunned and finally defeated by Naruto.
Iruka allows Naruto to graduate and gives him his forehead protector as a gift. Iruka befriends Naruto and finally Naruto gets the recognition he desperately wanted.
As a graduate of the ninja academy, Naruto teams up with Sakura and Sasuke. They accomplish missions and tasks under the supervision of their Jounin (high ninja) teacher, Kakashi. Along the way, they meet other people and learn more about being a ninja.
As the series progresses, Naruto will have to learn about losing friends, teachers, and working hard to obtain his ultimate goal: to be Hokage.
Naruto is an ongoing manga series created by Misashi Kishimoto. It was first published in Japan's Shounen Jump in 1998. As of today, Naruto is one of the most widely read and watched manga and anime series not only in Japan but in the whole world. It ranked 4th in Google search in 2007 and 7th in 2008.
Lance Thorington, a professional writer and online publisher, has written and published numerous articles in many different niches. Visit http://userfamily.org
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Thorington
Monday, January 12, 2009
An Illusion of Space
An Illusion of Space By John Parks
3D Animation is a concept, which portrays or gives an illusion of a space. Simply, it is a technology where movements and placing of the objects resemble a real life scenario, as in the actual world. Before the advent of an advanced technology, 2D technology was used by drawing pictures on multiple pieces of paper and subsequently drawing every single movement of an object. Now, computers can easily manipulate these movements of objects in real time.
There are six steps that are needed to create such a 3D illusion in cartoons and films.
Modeling
The idea of modeling evolves from the fact that every object in nature has three dimensions, which are height, width and depth. If we draw a ball on a piece of paper, it will normally have a height and a width. Computer technology has made it easier to draw another dimension, which is depth. Add depth to the ball and anyone with the right software can view the ball from all directions, which cannot be done on paper, even if we try to draw the depth.
Texturing
Texturing is basically done to differentiate one part of the object from the other part. A ball can have a number of cubes of different colors like in a soccer ball. Each cube will represent a part in the whole, the football. Likewise, textures are not only restricted to colors but also play an important role in determining the amount of glow, reflection and transparency.
Scene Setup
This is a process where the creator of the image rotates the object to provide only that particular view of the object, which is desired. A good example will be two different logos on either side of the football. If each logo is embedded in one single cube then the creator of the image can rotate the ball to show only the logo that is needed to be viewed by the audience.
Lighting
It is a process where a light is lit to expose certain parts of the object. Without any light, the entire 3D animation will be dark. Sometimes, the creators of a scene use multiple lights to illuminate a certain spot. It can take many lights to light up a scene in order to reach the desired effects.
Rendering
Rendering is one of the most time consuming of all the jobs. To create a movement in multiple objects and synchronize them accordingly, a large quantity of drawings is required. Fortunately, computers have made the job much easier but still it is a painstakingly difficult task.
Compositing
It is the last but the most enjoyable process for 3D Animation design. The process involves playing around with several different contents to draft a final image. In the final phase, creators change and modify the shape to construct a concrete single coherent image.
It should be noted though that 3D Animation is although much more advanced representation of an object but the basic principles are the same as any 2D model. A 3D model is actually a mathematical illustration of the model, which could not have been made possible without the fast calculating computing machines of today.
For more information on animation, visit http://www.3dtoon.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Parks
3D Animation is a concept, which portrays or gives an illusion of a space. Simply, it is a technology where movements and placing of the objects resemble a real life scenario, as in the actual world. Before the advent of an advanced technology, 2D technology was used by drawing pictures on multiple pieces of paper and subsequently drawing every single movement of an object. Now, computers can easily manipulate these movements of objects in real time.
There are six steps that are needed to create such a 3D illusion in cartoons and films.
Modeling
The idea of modeling evolves from the fact that every object in nature has three dimensions, which are height, width and depth. If we draw a ball on a piece of paper, it will normally have a height and a width. Computer technology has made it easier to draw another dimension, which is depth. Add depth to the ball and anyone with the right software can view the ball from all directions, which cannot be done on paper, even if we try to draw the depth.
Texturing
Texturing is basically done to differentiate one part of the object from the other part. A ball can have a number of cubes of different colors like in a soccer ball. Each cube will represent a part in the whole, the football. Likewise, textures are not only restricted to colors but also play an important role in determining the amount of glow, reflection and transparency.
Scene Setup
This is a process where the creator of the image rotates the object to provide only that particular view of the object, which is desired. A good example will be two different logos on either side of the football. If each logo is embedded in one single cube then the creator of the image can rotate the ball to show only the logo that is needed to be viewed by the audience.
Lighting
It is a process where a light is lit to expose certain parts of the object. Without any light, the entire 3D animation will be dark. Sometimes, the creators of a scene use multiple lights to illuminate a certain spot. It can take many lights to light up a scene in order to reach the desired effects.
Rendering
Rendering is one of the most time consuming of all the jobs. To create a movement in multiple objects and synchronize them accordingly, a large quantity of drawings is required. Fortunately, computers have made the job much easier but still it is a painstakingly difficult task.
Compositing
It is the last but the most enjoyable process for 3D Animation design. The process involves playing around with several different contents to draft a final image. In the final phase, creators change and modify the shape to construct a concrete single coherent image.
It should be noted though that 3D Animation is although much more advanced representation of an object but the basic principles are the same as any 2D model. A 3D model is actually a mathematical illustration of the model, which could not have been made possible without the fast calculating computing machines of today.
For more information on animation, visit http://www.3dtoon.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Parks
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Into the Amazing World of Anime/Manga !
Into the Amazing World of Anime/Manga ! by Naggy Extreme
Into the Amazing World of Anime/Manga ! - If you are interested in or curious about Anime, you came to the right place.
Allow me to invite you into the amazing world of Anime/Manga world ! Anime is a lot like regular movies or ordinary T.V. series except that they are cartoons. The word, anime, is strictly a short Japanese term for animation, therefore when you see "anime", it only means Japanese cartoons. When Japanese comics called manga (always run in series) or stories from books are animated in Japan, they become "Anime". It has been around in U.S. since early 1900's, known back then as Japanimation.
If you are one of those anime fans, you know what Anime is about and is like. For those who are not, let me tell you something about it. It is more than just a cartoon. Firstly, the biggest difference between Anime and any other cartoons is eyes. Those of the characters in Anime are huge with lots of bubbles or sparkles inside. The cartoonists utilize the size well to express emotions. You see happy, sad, excited, or watery eyes. Secondly, the closeness between Anime and our real life needs to be mentioned. Each character develops and grows up in his/her own way as a story goes on. This is just like we all do in our life as we grow older. Moreover, the animation for children employs ordinary children as main characters. If not, the main characters interact with ordinary children. This setup makes child viewers feel as if they were in the stories. The anime for older children or young adults has similar contents to ordinary drama T.V. shows. For these reasons although it is a cartoon, feeling close to it is sometime unavoidable. A good animation sucks you right into it, and you are with your favorite character. Lastly, but not the least, a lot of Anime contains some degree of educations; academic or moral. Some anime cartoons have clear messages to convey to the audiences.
Generally I like cartoons although not too crazy about them. There are a few Anime series I enjoyed in the past. "Lupin, the Third" is one of them. It offered me a sheer entertainment. How Lupin (he is an international thief) escaped from the hands of his life time enemy who was a detective always gave me a laugh and sometimes amazed me as well. Then, I stumbled across another anime show called "Inuyasha". Before I knew it , I was hooked ! It took place in a feudal era in Japan about 500 years ago. I was impressed by the author on how she kept adding a character as well as a plot. Soon there were several things going on through the series; romance, hatred, sibling rivalry, revenge, pain, adventures, a triangle relationship, etc. Basically mini dramas within the adventure story. The Anime was not so educational, but one phrase has been echoing in my mind till this day; if you have someone to protect, your power and strength grow exponentially. I believe this is true. When you cannot find a good movie to watch, why don't you try something different ? You would be surprised to see the quality and details although you might think it is funny and odd the first time to see how cartoons are drawn. ...so come on and dive into this world ! Click Here!
About the Author
Just a few years ago, I discovered Anime and was impressed.
Into the Amazing World of Anime/Manga ! - If you are interested in or curious about Anime, you came to the right place.
Allow me to invite you into the amazing world of Anime/Manga world ! Anime is a lot like regular movies or ordinary T.V. series except that they are cartoons. The word, anime, is strictly a short Japanese term for animation, therefore when you see "anime", it only means Japanese cartoons. When Japanese comics called manga (always run in series) or stories from books are animated in Japan, they become "Anime". It has been around in U.S. since early 1900's, known back then as Japanimation.
If you are one of those anime fans, you know what Anime is about and is like. For those who are not, let me tell you something about it. It is more than just a cartoon. Firstly, the biggest difference between Anime and any other cartoons is eyes. Those of the characters in Anime are huge with lots of bubbles or sparkles inside. The cartoonists utilize the size well to express emotions. You see happy, sad, excited, or watery eyes. Secondly, the closeness between Anime and our real life needs to be mentioned. Each character develops and grows up in his/her own way as a story goes on. This is just like we all do in our life as we grow older. Moreover, the animation for children employs ordinary children as main characters. If not, the main characters interact with ordinary children. This setup makes child viewers feel as if they were in the stories. The anime for older children or young adults has similar contents to ordinary drama T.V. shows. For these reasons although it is a cartoon, feeling close to it is sometime unavoidable. A good animation sucks you right into it, and you are with your favorite character. Lastly, but not the least, a lot of Anime contains some degree of educations; academic or moral. Some anime cartoons have clear messages to convey to the audiences.
Generally I like cartoons although not too crazy about them. There are a few Anime series I enjoyed in the past. "Lupin, the Third" is one of them. It offered me a sheer entertainment. How Lupin (he is an international thief) escaped from the hands of his life time enemy who was a detective always gave me a laugh and sometimes amazed me as well. Then, I stumbled across another anime show called "Inuyasha". Before I knew it , I was hooked ! It took place in a feudal era in Japan about 500 years ago. I was impressed by the author on how she kept adding a character as well as a plot. Soon there were several things going on through the series; romance, hatred, sibling rivalry, revenge, pain, adventures, a triangle relationship, etc. Basically mini dramas within the adventure story. The Anime was not so educational, but one phrase has been echoing in my mind till this day; if you have someone to protect, your power and strength grow exponentially. I believe this is true. When you cannot find a good movie to watch, why don't you try something different ? You would be surprised to see the quality and details although you might think it is funny and odd the first time to see how cartoons are drawn. ...so come on and dive into this world ! Click Here!
About the Author
Just a few years ago, I discovered Anime and was impressed.
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