Animated Backgrounds - Wow Your Viewers With Your Choice

Using animated backgrounds for the first time can be a little bit daunting. Thankfully, it is actually easier than ever and can lead to some excellent results if you are prepared beforehand.

The first thing you need to know is that you've made the right choice in exploring backgrounds with motion in them. There is nothing more boring than staring at a presentation that uses a dull, stationary background. The fact that yours will be animated means that you're on the right track already!

The next thing you need to do, however, is make sure you're choosing the background that is right for your project. While most animated backgrounds are interesting, you need to make sure it's neither too subtle nor too over-the-top for the feel you're going for in your video.

To get a feel for the kind of background you might include you should imagine your target audience as they watch your video. What do they like to do? What kinds of things interest them? Knowing this and getting a clear picture in your head can help you choose the animations that will fit in with their style. Another thing you need to do before you choose an animated background is decide what you want the person to feel as they watch. Do you want excitement, empathy, inspiration, happiness, or what? Knowing what kind of emotion you want to evoke is half the battle when it comes to choosing a great animation.

Do keep in mind that while these things are all important, you don't want to over-analyze things either. As long as your video is great to look at and has professional appeal you should have nothing to worry about.

It makes it even easier when you have access to animated backgrounds that you can really trust. It's a great thing that there are so many backgrounds that are available royalty free. That means you can use them where you'd like in your videos! You can also make them shorter, loop them, or splice them together for a unique feel.

If all this sounds foreign to you right now- don't worry! As you start the process of creating video with motion backgrounds you'll realize that It's a lot easier than you think. Part of the reason this is true is because a lot of the work is done for you when the background is all ready to go!

Whether you've yet to make your first video or are a seasoned veteran, you can create professional quality videos in less time that you think. Better yet, it will cost a lot less than you think as well! That is a great thing since the more video you're able to produce these days, the better. Choosing animated backgrounds is easy, but there are some things you need to consider along the way. Knowing your audience and choosing animations that get your point across is key.

MySpace Avatars - Add A Little Spice to Your Profile

Avatars are a cool way to express your mood or something you believe in strongly, and they can really dress up a MySpace profile. What's an avatar? It is a small to medium sized graphic, sometimes animated, sometimes not, and almost always eye-catching and colorful. Browse some of the top profiles, and you will be convinced of their popularity. One reason that avatars are used in heavy rotation is because they are an easy way to tell the world what you are thinking or feeling

There are so many different types of avatars available that you could add a new one to your profile daily for a couple of years, and still not be even close to using them all. Just a few of the categories you can find by doing a search for "MySpace avatars" include -

• Animals

• Anime

• Cartoons

• Fantasy

• Funny

• Games

• Holidays

• Love

• Movies

• Music

• Sports

A good way to see what kind of avatars are the most popular is to search for "Top Ranked Avatars". This will give you a sampling of what other users have deemed the best and have used themselves. Trends can vary, but you generally can't go wrong in choosing animated avatars, those which feature famous actors or musicians, funny photos, suggestive photos, or various human emotions. All of these subjects seem to stay in the top ten among MySpace users.

That said, 3d avatars are HOT on MySpace. These can appear to be almost real! You can customize these by uploading a photo of yourself, plus a short recording of your voice or any other sound effects you want to use. Then, you add a body, clothing, special effects such as glasses or tattoos, and choose a background. What you end up with could be termed a "Talking Head" that looks like you and sounds like you, too. The mouth actually moves, and the facial expressions are truly lifelike! It's very easy to create one of these, too. A search for "3d MySpace avatars" will lead you to several web pages which have generators for these avatars that you can use for free to create a truly one-of-a-kind avatar for your profile.

Another extremely popular avatar on MySpace is called a Dollie. Girls love these, and part of the fun is that it is pretty easy to find a dollie that closely resembles you. Included in the avatar is a short message which can be funny, cute or a bit spicy to suit the occasion.

Message only and photo only avatars seem to be a well-liked form of self expression among MySpace users. These can add a lot of personality to a profile when used together. No, you aren't limited to just one! Any avatar is super easy to add to your MySpace profile. Just copy the code from the site where your chosen avatar is located, and paste the code into any section of your profile. Have fun with avatars!

Finding Nemo Trivia and History

The movie Finding Nemo has many popular characters including, Marlin the Clownfish, his son Nemo, Dory the Tang fish, and the characters from the aquarium, Gill, Bloat, Peach, Gurgle, Bubbles, Deb, and Jacques. This is an award winning movie that most kids and adults loved. Some parents certainly had to endure endless repetitions of, ‘can we watch it again’ from their kids. The popularity of Finding Nemo was somewhat surprising because it was intended to be a children’s show, but many adults loved it too. Primarily because it featured family related content, without a lot of crude humor.

As with any movie there is some conflict that needs to be resolved. In this one little Nemo, raised solely by his father since the mother died is captured by human divers. Marlin immediately goes on a quest to find his son, which takes him all over the sea and gets him into a lot of trouble. It also makes him a lot of new friends and helps Marlin overcome his fear of letting Nemo experience the outside world.

Finding Nemo set a record for the highest grossing opening weekend for a cartoon movie. Although the record didn’t last long it was a big deal for Pixar Animation Studios which created the film and Disney which released it. Finding Nemo is a computer animated cartoon, which means there are no live action characters but it’s not like at cartoon either. The entire movie is created with computer graphics and actors provide the voices.

It certainly makes for a good theme at any children’s party. You can combine it with an under the sea party theme for lots of extra decoration ideas. Kids will love watching the movie, over and over again for entertainment at the party. Don’t forget the fish sticks and hush puppies for good party food.

Cartoon Animation

Animation is the process of linking a series of slightly different drawings especially, cartoons together to simulate movement. Phenomenon of persistence of vision normally needs 24 frames per second in a frame. If a series of 24 or less cartoon images (slightly changes) run per second it will make a cartoon animation. Cartoon Animation is a combination of two creative arts from cartoonists and animators. Cartoon animations are funniest show ever in electronics media.

Why Cartoon Animations

Cartoon animations are merged in film industries as an impact of special effect technologies. The comic characters are graphically designed by the cartoonist with putting expressions and all and animated by animators using certain software tools. The cartoonist draw objects or character based on the storyline and the motion given as per the story directs. Usually cartoon pictures are funny illustrations with a theme behind. Cartoon should strike the viewer and has to provide food for thought. And animation adds life into the same cartoons. Making animated cartoon is tough and challenging job. Maintaining quality of execution of the cartoon and animation are real knowledge of thought on any expression like sorrow, happy as well as the motions into it.

Cartoon Animation is a sequential cartoon pictures with humorous expression based on a concept or story. Voice over is not mandatory in animations. You may or may not add voice over unless it specifies a language. It is a cross-cultural platform, where any concept can be displayed by cartoon characters. Cartoonist and Animators are such peoples, they can develop it. Computer and software help a lot to them to create varieties of animations in website stuff, games, cartoon movies and commercial applications.

Type of Cartoon Animations

The cartoon graphics may be 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional models. Due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision makes an optical illusion of motion to corresponding graphics types.

2D Cartoon Animation: Graphics are created on the paper or computer screen using 2D bitmap or 2D vector graphics. 2D graphics are drawn on X-Y coordinate and automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques such as of twining, morphing, blurring and interpolated. The GUI operating systems improved much of the techniques of 2D animations a lot. Software tools can be used for making 2D animations such as Macromedia Flash, PowerPoint etc.

3D Cartoon Animation: Characters, shapes and objects can be created in the computer using polygons. Three dimensional representations of geometric data is stored in the computer to perform calculations and rendering 2D images and 3D computer graphics rely on many of the same algorithms as 2D vector graphics. To give a movement for the object, a digital armature is applied that process is called rigging. Some examples of 3D animations are skeletal animation, Walk through Motion and 3D cartoon shows. 3D cartoon animation has its origin as a presentation and simulation tool for scientific data. This 3D presentation tool has proved to be more powerful and compelling than any other tool available till date. There is few latest technology to fulfill the cartoon animation needs.

Funny Animation

Animation is a very special media form. It allows the complete re-presentation of reality. Funny animation attracts attention of viewers to get into the purpose. Website, presentations, product demos, advertisements, public show must have some funny animation stuff to attract the reader or viewers. This is a very easy now with the help of computer, software and tools. Generating animation graphics and making it animated is also funny work. Animation may not be so powerful but widely used and appreciated. Funny animations are popular in computer games, Cartoon channels, blockbuster movies etc. Funny Animation is used to fill in the gaps when reality simply doesn't look real enough.

Funny Animation is the process of linking a series of slightly different funny cartoon drawings together to simulate a movement. There are normally 24 or less frames per second in moving film and it happens similar in animated GIFs you see on websites.

Techniques used for Funny Animations:

There are three different techniques types of cartoon animation: 1. Cel Animation cartoons are made on transparent sheets (celluloid) laid on top of each other to combine characters and backgrounds.
2. Stop Motion Animation is model or cartoons or puppet (or shadow) is shot a frame at a time, with tiny changes in positions.
3. Computer animation where computer is used for creating the shapes and colors of animated action, working from a series of mathematical codes, or can be drawn frame by frame cartoons.

Popular Usage of Funny Animation:

In User Interface design in software, web applications and websites, many funny animations are popularly used. The buttons, pop up stuff, comment box, help (like MS word help and search dog) are designed with animations that give a pleasure look at the animation. There are numerous funny animations are used in electronic advertisement on Internet and television media. Advertisers can make funny animation advertisement film without a human model. They can redirect the animation character to any extent. There are many cartoon animation films have been made in Hollywood film industry.

Making of Animations

Storyboards preparation is the first document work that conveys the list of task to be done sequentially. Making shapes body, faces, hands, legs, dress up and putting color are sequential steps. You can use some common shape, alphabets for making of face, flower, tree, house etc. Based on the distant of objects you have to draw the sizes of the objects or character. In computer you can repeat a partial drawing using mirror images effects. There are many effects, layer works can be designed for animating objects. Flip Book is a sample that can be used while making animation graphics in computer. You can draw frame by frame graphics and change in each frame like flip book sequential images. You will find a good animation of your drawing object.

Think of some funny sounds that match to your animation object movements or character movements. Funny sounds like laughs, claps, chains clanking, footsteps, doors creaking, whistle, wind, rain, thunder and lightening, barking dog etc. can be collected from libraries and incorporate in specific frames. To be a good funny animator, you need to think about how shapes can change and move with humorous way.

Doraemon

Doraemon (ドラえもん?) is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio (the pen name of Hiroshi Fujimoto) and Fujiko A. Fujio (the pen name of Motō Abiko) which later became an anime series and Asian franchise. The series is about a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy, Nobita Nobi (野比 のび太, Nobi Nobita?).

The series first appeared in December 1969, when it was published simultaneously in six different magazines. In total, 1,344 stories were created in the original series, which are published by Shogakukan under the Tentōmushi (てんとう虫?) manga brand, extending to forty-five volumes. The volumes are collected in the Takaoka Central Library in Toyama, Japan. Fujio was born in Toyama.

A majority of Doraemon episodes are comedies with moral lessons regarding values such as integrity, perseverance, courage, family and respect for elders. Several noteworthy environmental issues are often visited, including homeless animals, endangered species, deforestation, and pollution. Topics such as dinosaurs, the flat Earth theory, wormhole traveling, Gulliver's Travels, and the history of Japan are often covered.

Doraemon was awarded the Japan Cartoonists Association Award for excellence in 1973. Doraemon was awarded the first Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga in 1982,[5] and the first Osamu Tezuka Culture Award in 1997. In March 2008, Japan's Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation's first "anime ambassador."[6] Ministry spokesman explained the novel decision as an attempt to help people in other countries to understand Japanese anime better and to deepen their interest in Japanese culture."[7] The Foreign Ministry action confirms that Doraemon has come to be considered a Japanese cultural icon. In 2002, the anime character was acclaimed as an Asian Hero in a special feature survey conducted by Time Asia magazine.[8]

In December 1969, the Doraemon manga appeared simultaneously in six different children's monthly magazines. The magazines were titled by the year of children's studies, which included Yoiko (good children), Yōchien (nursery school), and Shogaku Ichinensei (first grade of primary school) to Shogaku Yonnensei (fourth grade of primary school). By 1973, the series began to appear in two more magazines, Shogaku Gonensei (fifth grade of primary school) and Shogaku Rokunensei (sixth grade of primary school). The stories featured in each of the magazines were different, meaning the author was originally creating more than six stories each month. In 1977, CoroCoro Comic was launched as a magazine of Doraemon. Original manga based on the Doraemon movies were also released in CoroCoro Comic. The stories which are preserved under the Tentōmushi brand are the stories found in these magazines.

Since the debut of Doraemon in 1969, the stories have been selectively collected into forty-five books published from 1974 to 1996, which had a circulation of over 80 million in 1992. In addition, Doraemon has appeared in a variety of manga series by Shōgakukan. In 2005, Shōgakukan published a series of five more manga volumes under the title Doraemon+ (Doraemon Plus), which were not found in the forty-five Tentōmushi pipi volumes. Many other series have since been produced, some not from official supplies.
Plot summary
The first appearance of Doraemon, who came via the time machine.

Doraemon is sent back in time by Nobita Nobi's great-great grandson Sewashi to improve Nobita's circumstances so that his descendants may enjoy a better future. In the original timeline, Nobita experienced nothing but misery and misfortune throughout his life. As a result of this, Nobita's failures in school and subsequently, his career, have left his family line beset with financial problems. In order to alter history and better the Nobi family's fortunes, Sewashi sent him a robot called Doraemon.

Doraemon has a pocket from which he produces many gadgets, medicines, and tools from the future. The pocket is called yojigen-pocket, or 4-dimensional pocket.

Although he can hear perfectly well, Doraemon has no ears: his robotic ears were eaten by a mouse, giving him a series-long phobia of the creatures.

The stories are formulaic, usually focused on the everyday struggles of fourth grader Nobita, the protagonist of the story. In a typical chapter, Nobita comes home crying about a problem he faces in school and/or the local neighborhood. After hearing him out, Doraemon always offers helpful advice to his problem(s), but that's never enough for Nobita, who is consistently looking for the "quick, easy" way out (which offers insight to the viewers as to why Nobita's life turned out the way it did). Finally, after Nobita's pleading and/or goading, Doraemon produces a futuristic gadget out of his aforementioned pouch to help Nobita fix his problem, enact revenge, or flaunt to his friends.

Nobita usually goes too far, despite Doraemon's best intentions and warnings, and gets into deeper trouble than before. Sometimes, Nobita's friends (usually Suneo or Jaian) steal the gadgets and end up misusing them. However, by the end of the story, there is usually retribution to the characters who end up misusing them, and a moral is taught.
Series finale rumors

There are three current and often quoted urban legends that started spreading in late 1980s of an ending to the Doraemon series.

* The first and the most optimistic ending was made public by Nobuo Sato several years ago. Doraemon's battery power ran out, and Nobita was given a choice between replacing the battery inside a frozen Doraemon, which would cause it to reset and lose all memory, or await a competent robotics technician who would be able to resurrect the cat-robot one day. Nobita swore that very day to work hard in school, graduate with honors, and become that robotics technician. He successfully resurrected Doraemon in the future as a robotics professor, became successful as an AI developer, and thus lived happily ever after, thus relieving his progeny of the financial burdens that caused Doraemon to be sent to his space-time in the first place. A dōjin manga for this ending was made by a "Tajima T Yasue" in 2005, and it sold 13,000 copies before Shogakukan halted its publication. Tajima apologized to Shogakukan in 2007 and paid an undisclosed amount of money for settlement.[9]

* The second, more pessimistic ending suggests that Nobita Nobi is suffering from autism and that all the characters (including Doraemon) are simply his delusion. The idea that Nobita was a sick and dying little boy who imagined the entire series on his sickbed to help him ease his pain and depression no doubt angered quite a lot of fans. Many Japanese fans staged a protest outside the headquarters of the publisher of the series after learning about this suggestion. The publisher had to issue a public statement that this is not true. (This ending actually correlates to the ending for the series St. Elsewhere, which ended in 1988.)

* The third ending suggests that Nobita fell and hit his head on a rock. He fell into a deep coma, and eventually into a semi-vegetative state. To raise money for an operation to save Nobita, Doraemon sold all the tools and devices in his four-dimensional pocket. However, the operation failed. Doraemon sold all his tools except for one used as a last resort. He used it to enable Nobita to go wherever he wanted, whichever time or era he wished to go. In the end, the very place Nobita wanted to go was heaven.

The plausibility of these issues was discussed here and it was concluded that there is no ending to Doraemon.[10]

There are three official endings to Doraemon that were made. Doraemon was discontinued in two media because readers were advancing in grades and an ending was believed to be needed. These two are not reprinted.

* In the March 1971 issue of the magazine Shogaku 4-nensei:[11] Due to the fact that visitors from the future were causing too much trouble, the government in the 22nd Century passed a bill to ban time-travelling altogether, meaning Doraemon would have to return to his time era. He leaves Nobita.

* In the March 1972 issue of the magazine Shogaku 4-nensei: Doraemon, for some reason, had to go back to the future but fakes a mechanical problem so that Nobita would let him go. Nobita believes him and promises to wait until Doraemon gets well. Realizing that Nobita can handle his departure, Doraemon tells the truth and Nobita accepts. Doraemon returns to the future.

The third ending was actually meant to be the official ending due to low TV ratings and the Fujiko Fujio duo being busy with other works, but Doraemon did not leave their minds and restarted in the next month's issue. In 1981, this episode was made into anime (called "Doraemon Comes Back"), and in 1998, this was released as an anime movie.

* In the March 1973 issue of the magazine Shogaku 4-nensei, Nobita again returns home after losing a fight against Gian. Doraemon then explains that he has to return. Nobita tries to have Doraemon stay but after talking it over with his parents, he accepts Doraemon's departure. They take a last walk in the park. After they split up, Nobita encounters Gian and gets into a fight again. After a long duel with Nobita trying to win at all costs so that Doraemon can leave without worries, Gian gave up (which gave Nobita the win) because no matter what, Nobita refuses to stay down. Doraemon finds Nobita passed out with a bloody mouth and takes him home. Sitting beside the sleeping Nobita, Doraemon returns to the future. This story was reprinted in the last chapter of the manga Book 6.

* The animated version is very similar, but lengthened. Nobita finds a box the shape of Doraemon in his drawer. The next day, which happens to be April Fool's Day, Nobita is jeered at by Suneo and Gian, the latter tricking him about Doraemon's return. He happily runs home and asked his mother whether Doraemon came back and finds out the truth. Nobita couldn't stand it and opens the box. Inside of it was a bottle of liquid. He hears Doraemon's voice explaining that the potion is called Uso 800 (Lies 800) it is used to make all untruths the drinker says true. Nobita uses it to play a few tricks on Gian and Suneo, like first taking cover then say that the weather sure is good, which becomes a lie and it started to rain heavily before he said it is raining heavily and the rain stopped. Gian and Suneo was scared away after a few tricks and when Nobita mentioned what is happening. Nobita was very happy at first but quickly loses interest in the absence of Doraemon. As he walks home, due to his earlier questioning if Doraemon returned or not, his mother asked him if he could find Doraemon, he unwittingly said, in great disappointment, the truth about Doraemon never coming back, just like what Doraemon told Nobita before his departure. Since the potion was still in effect, when he arrives his room he finds Doraemon there, and they have a happy reunion, but due to the effects of the potion, all his greets and joyful words have to be spoken in the opposite way like I am so unhappy that we can never be together again.. The extended ending from the animated series was eventually adapted to the first story of Book 7 in the manga series, with a few changes (i.e. Instead of hearing Doraemon's voice explaining the use of the potion, he finds a card inside the box describing the use of the potion).

When the Fujiko Fujio duo broke up in 1987, the very idea of an official ending to the series was never discussed. Since Fujiko F. died in 1996 before any decisions were reached, any "endings" of Doraemon are fan fiction. However, it is apparent from many episodes and movies where Nobita travels to the future that in the end he does marry Shizuka, leads a happy life and separates with Doraemon, although Nobita and his friends fondly remember him.[12]