Creating a hybrid 2d and 3d animation
Animation has fascinated humanity for more time anyone can remember; ever since the first flipbook showed people how images could be made to move, the race has always been on to make animation better and more expressive. It has always been two-dimensional animation though until very recently, when 3D animation performed on computers, began to supplant 2D. But does the arrival of 3D animation have to necessarily mean the end of 2D? How might one go about using two at the same time? With the right software and knowledge, it is possible to tastefully put 2D and 3D together in the same scenes and films. Begin by putting down on paper, drawings of how you wish to have your hybrid scene appear. You will need to plan the 3D elements of your film, the background, and plan them down to every detail of their appearance. You could also do well to write down details of all the 3-D components of the scene that will need to actually be animated. Creating an environment on 3-D software can take a great deal of time; modeling a tree, a rock and other component, placing them exactly where you want to see them, can end up taking days. You can find excellent tools for this in any 3D animation software, and also in Photoshop . Always remember that it is not your aim to just create smooth surfaces all over: all good 3-D animation software provides for texture programming. All the 3-D objects in your film that need to be animated, can be run through a 3-D rendering application. Take your camera angle exactly as you wish to see it in your film, and try not to keep the camera static. It is the motion that will allow you to show your audience the difference between the 2D elements of your film and the 3D ones. Rendering is the process by which a programmed graphic is actually made visible by translating the mathematical formulae used by the software into actually visible pictures. Your animation program can be used at this point to take up all the characters and backgrounds you created and to animate them. The rendering process achieves this. In the rendering process, each frame programmed is interpreted from computer models to visible pictures. When you open the 3D backgrounds you created in your animation program you can begin to paint in the 2D characters you have created with the help of the animating software, or by other means. If you have any camera angle changes or panning planned, you must keep track of how the background environment needs the change to the appropriate new background in each frame. You can do this on the frame by frame basis until your 2D character easily moves against a moving background.
December 17, 2010
Creating a hybrid 2d and 3d animation
December 14, 2010
Stop motion animation as a creative hobby
Stop motion animation as a creative hobby
It can be a particularly creative hobby to take up, to look towards stop motion animation. This kind of creativity is just right for the passionate artist of modest means. The only equipment you need to start out with are an inexpensive digital camera, a computer and software for under $100. The great thing about being creative on a budget is that the main contribution to the final product comes from not great equipment or anything, but from your own imagination and creativity: you need to think in unconventional ways to achieve the results you want. Picking two-dimensional stop motion animation to start with simplifies things and allows you many possibilities to work with. You can start preparing for your story by making drawings on paper, and erasing and drawing over, for the various stages in motion you wish to depict. If tracing over the same drawing over again seems like too much work, you can just do it on different sheets of paper and photograph each one. This can give a cleaner look, but it can be very difficult to ensure that the images are properly tracked without moving about: this could result in a jerky motion in the end. A better way to go about it might be the use of some sort of a surface that is easily erased for repeat use. A chalkboard or a white board could be good possibilities. All you have to do to make your character move is to erase the part of the character’s body that needs to move and draw over that, leaving the rest untouched. There are very expressive animation possibilities using cut-and-paste paper figures. The drawing you make can be cut at the joints, and moved easily to depict motion. You could make several drawings of the same object to show motion. If you have to animate the face, you could draw several standard expressions on different sheets and switch between them to bring out the appearance of speech. Three-dimensional animation opens up to you possibilities that are even greater. Use of plasticine or clay could make great 3D models, and malleable wire to fashion stick figures out of can be a good starting point. Wire can be the material of choice to work with; plasticine is often molded over wire figures for use as a skeleton too. If you have little action figures, these often have movable flexible limbs and bodies that can be used to articulate motion. There should be a degree of viewer motion in the final movie experience. This is achieved by using the camera in creative ways to animate the picture: you can pan and move the camera from side to side. Remember, your movie is called an animation not a static. As always, it is the thought behind the part that counts and not the technique itself. A sensitive story and artistic storytelling will always make any stop motion animation movie stand out.
December 3, 2010
Google map gps cell phone tracker
Google map gps cell phone tracker
Google has developed lot many free services for the customers. Google maps is one of the most useful services provided free of charge by google. In this you can get lot many features. These include directions for the driving. You can get the real traffic data for the route that you are traveling. There are other features also associated with these google maps for mobile phones. Can one use these google maps to track the cell phone? This is an interesting question. Let us try to find an answer to this question in this short article. A project was undertaken by nick fox for the development of software which can make it possible to track a GPS enabled phone on the google maps. The mobile used was Motorola i355 cell phone. The networks used were either sprint or the Nextel. This was the first project started for this type of work. This software works on all the java enabled GPS phones. Using this software you can track the gps cell phone on the google map. There are two different projects. The first one uses .NET and Microsoft SQL server. The second project uses PHP and MySQL. You use java for your phone in both these projects. The terms and conditions for the use of google maps allow you to track the GPS cell phone free of charge on the google maps. But you are not allowed to track the vehicles free of charge on the google maps. This part of the terms and conditions for the use of google maps should be remembered. http://www.websmithing.com/portal/Programming/tabid/55/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2/Google-Map-GPS-Cell-Phone-Tracker.aspx is the web page where you will get a detailed tutorial. Here you will know how all this works and how you can use this software. There is a video link also. In this you get all the explanations in a video. This google map gps cell phone tracker can be of lot of use for lot many people for different reasons. If you want to know where your kids are, you can track their locations now. If you want to know where your employees are you can track them down. This is going to be very useful software for many people. There are companies offering you devices based on google map gps cell phone tracker. This will help you to locate your children and other family members. This can send you alerts if the child exceeds the expected speed or the area. You can get real time data about the moments of your kids, family members or business clients. http://www.accutracking.com/ is one such web site. You get different products with different features all based on google map gps cell phone tracker software.
November 28, 2010
Free smartphone downloads
Free smartphone downloads
Smartphone is indeed a smart phone with many features and capabilities that makes it a cool gadget. Smartphone’s are compatible with much Smartphone software. These software are available for free download from the internet. One can download and install these software’s in the Smartphone and enjoy the applications they offer. Some software is freely downloadable while others have to be paid for. Some of the free downloads offered for Smartphone’s are as follows: Twikini is a freeware which offers a powerful and efficient way to use Twitter on the Smartphone. It updates your favorite feeds in the back ground and leverages the camera, media, touch device, keypad, graphics and storage device on the mobile. Smartphone Lighter is full screen light simulation. This can be downloaded and placed via Active Sync in a temporary folder in the Smartphone. It can be then opened and executed from the temporary folder. To stop the lighter, just press any key. NoniGPSPlot is also a freeware which allows the user to locate his or her position in relation with other GPS points, to see the journey one has traveled. One can trace back the starting point at the harbor after a boat trip or can trace the path during an excursion or field trip. Tracks and saved points can be exported to GoogleEarth and to GPX standard. The updated version of this freeware enables the user to download maps from the internet. Group SMS, as the name itself suggests, it allows the user to send SMS to a group of people at the same time. Some of the features offered by this freeware are category wise contact pickup, individual contact pickup, works with WM5 and WM6. Another free download is the Windows Mobile Monitor. This application runs silently and invisibly recording all text message and phone call activity on the phone. A desktop client application allows you to easily transfer the activity log to your computer. FeedMe is a lightweight and neat photo stream client which enables the user to find interesting feeds on the web which can also be subscribed by Discover Feed option. Another brilliant feature is this is that, it allows the user to subscribe to Flickr and Zoomr photo streams and view them by slideshows. SmartToolKit adds sweet functions as well as beautiful interface to the Smartphone. A new start menu, Clipboard functions with cut/copy/paste functions, automatic keypad lock with a screensaver and display of analog or digital clock when the keypad is locked are some of the features offered by this freeware. RadioOff is a little application which will turn off the cellular radio during certain times of the day to preserve power and extend the life of the battery. One can pre-set the time when the radio should be turned off and then turned back on.
November 18, 2010
Kindle_hacks
Kindle_hacks
Most of us make use of kindle to read books. It is true that Kindle serves as an excellent book reader, but there are loads of more facilities to it too and not using them is nothing but a loss on our part too. Kindle, the reader which is electronic in nature is high on extra facilities too it like the Global positioning system, it can used for playing music or for wireless connectivity. Amazon’s kindle is truly a useful and making optimum use of it would surely help us in many ways. Kindle hacking is another thing and that has even brought in more facilities to all its users. One of the latest such tip that has been going around will allow all the users to read their respective DRMed mobipocket books; but if you are aware of the system then you must know that a user is only supposed to read files of kindle format. Though a kindle format is just Mobi, the only difference lies in a different file extension and a separate identification numbers. So form the next time you use the Amazon’s kindle, you can easily read all encrypted mobibooks on your very own kindle. Hacking the Amazon’s kindle is not that tough according to experts and on hacking we all can make use of variety of facilities of the kindle. According to an expert, they hacked the kindle by making use of some features that were not revealed by Amazon. On the experts also made life easier for all of kindler’s users by creating a program that could make generation of PID of mobipocket from the kindle serial numbers, so you can read all the books that you had purchased previously. It is believed that the kindle is not a very protected and can be easily hacked. Though hacking is normally not allowed, so even if you do hack then make sure that stay clear of all the problems that may arise. Kindle hacking software’s are easily available on the internet and can be downloaded and used, to optimize the usage of Kindle. The director of Amazon though has stated that they have no such problem with Kindle hacking that takes place, so if you think that you would like optimize the performance of your Kindle make sure that you download the required software. Kindle is easily one of the greatest inventions of Amazon and it has taken the art of reading to a different standard all together, so if you are really looking to get a wireless reader for yourself make sure that you consider Amazon’s Kindler.
November 14, 2010
Smartphone statistics
Smartphone statistics
Smartphone users may find the following Smartphone statistics interesting. Before beginning let’s get a short introduction to Smartphones. Smartphones are high-end mobile phones. In fact, Smartphones may be so advanced that they perform like a mini hand held computer. You can add on applications to it to enhance performance, for additional entertainment such as games and movie viewing, for better connectivity or even for better data processing. Smartphones may cost a lot of money. But there are people who find that it is worth the cash. Some, of course find that it is more a symbol of status than anything else. Averages of 35% Smartphone users have an annual income of $100,000+. Smartphone statistics has found men to spend a lot more on their Smartphones than women. While a woman might spend $189, a man will spend$216. Who says that women love to shop? The above statistics proves that men are bigger spenders than women. But the men justify their spend thriftiness. They say they need Smartphones for their businesses. Again Smartphone statistics shows that 48% use Smartphones to aid in their business. Among that 48%, only about 23% has their companies paying their bills while the other 25% pay for the usage themselves. The rest of the 52% use Smartphones for their personal use. The average monthly plan falls to about $110. The year 2007 saw around 4.8% people using Smartphones which grew to 9.9% in 2008. There are more men than women using Smartphones. Around 12.2% men as against 7.8% women used Smartphones in 2008. This number of users has grown from 2007. In 2007, statistics show, that only around 3.4% women used Smartphones as opposed to 6.1% men. People in the age group of 25 to 34 years are the ones who use Smartphones the most – a whopping 29%. There are only 4.9% users who are 65 years and above. Smartphone users in the age group 18 to 24 years are only about 10.4%. The second major users of Smartphones are in the age group 35 to 44 years. The older the people, the less they seem to want to use Smartphones. People between the age group of 45 to 54 years see about 18.2% users. And there are only about 13% users in the age group of 55 to 64 years. The sales of Smartphones are increasing every year all around the world. A recent survey shows a 15% increase in Smartphone sales than the previous year. While worldwide Smartphone sales is about 12%. This percentage keeps increasing year by year. In Asia-Pacific, the sales of mobile phones dropped but there was a 2.3% increase in Smartphones. As the Smartphones statistics show, it is the era of Smartphones.