New multi-media hub in Melbourne

A new multi-media hub at the Victorian Arts Centre will offer students the chance to learn skills useful for jobs in game development, animation, film, music, web development and the performing arts.

Victorian Minister for the Arts Peter Batchelor says the facilities at the new Arts Centre Digital Learning Hub would ensure the centre moved with the times. “The Hub will enable students and young people to learn about sound recording, engineering and new digital frontiers that are impacting on the arts scene."

Mr Batchelor says the Arts Centre’s education team will use the new Hub "to guide participants through an amazing array of options including courses in animation, film techniques and the latest music and web technology".

“Most young people are tech-savvy. They own tools of modern technology, know the buttons to push and create their own content in ways other generations could never have imagined. What the Digital Learning Hub does is harness the enthusiasm and willingness of young minds to go further, to challenge technology and to create new and exciting projects.”

The new facilities include:

* Video production and editing equipment with green screen capability so that students can create digital video content for their projects
* A separate state-of-the-art recording studio with a world class vocal booth and a fully digital mixing system
* Video conferencing facilities which can link directly to over 1550 Victorian State schools.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/

Arena launches animation academy

kolkata: arena multimedia launched the second in its series of animation academies here on saturday to tap the burgeoning domestic and export market of animation content production for television and film. "from films to short television format and the new requirements of the web, two- and three-dimensional animation production for digital entertainment is emerging as a huge market in china, korea and india," said head of arena multimedia, sudhir mathur. quoting a recent study by andersom consulting which projected that the $550-million indian animation industry would grow at 30 per cent per annum in the next three years, he said the business was expected to reach $15 billion by 2002. "while the global digital animation industry is poised to grow from the current $25 billion to a whopping $70 billion by 2005, india would receive more than $2 billion in animation businesses," he observed. with western giants ilm and disney planning to set shop in india to produce animation films and movies, the field would be one of the fastest-growing it segments, he said, adding arena's mission was to create a pool of multimedia professionals. the animation academy, second after mumbai in a series of 20, would offer three- to seven-month courses costing between rs 30,000 and rs 60,000 on 3d and animation, audio-video editing and special effects.

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MIDDS ties up with American college for animation studies

NEW DELHI: Mumbai-based Meteor Institute of Digital Design Studies (Midds) has tied up with Expression College of Digital Arts in Emeryville, California, to offer a degree programme.

Midds, an animation and game design institute, is a division of Meteor Films.

Expression College of Digital Arts has its campus near Pixar Studios and has programmes in animation, visual effects, game design and audio design.

As part of the collaboration, students who pass out of the 17-month advanced diploma programme will be eligible to enter Expression College with part of the credits waived and will be able to complete their degree in approximately three semesters.

In effect, students will complete their diploma at Midds in India and rest of the curriculum at Expression college to get their degree.

In a period of two and half years, Midds has expanded to 10 centers across India.

Midds was established as an educational institution dedicated to the professional design disciplines of 3D, 2D design, animation, multimedia, and game development technology .

Source : http://www.indiantelevision.com/

Boom in animation - Courses become popular with jobs on offer

The animation training industry in the city has witnessed tremendous growth, with a spurt in the number of students enrolling for courses over the past few years.

Training institutes attest to the trend. At Arena Multimedia, the number of students has grown by 50 per cent since last year. Webel Animation Academy, the only state government-sponsored animation institute in the country, has also done well since opening doors in 2004.

“We started with 50 students in 2004. Now, we train 300 students every year. The growth in number is testimony to the tremendous interest in the animation industry,” says Srimati Mukherjee, the project head of Webel Animation Academy.

The students have become more focused about what they want to learn. It is no longer a case of trying out new avenues. “Those who come to us know exactly what skills they want to pick up and why. They are taking up the subject because they have keen interest in it,” says R. Krishnan, global head, Arena Multimedia.

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Using pictures in presentation

What about using graphic if your PowerPoint presentation? Does it make sense? I'm sure you heard something like "our graphics will make your presentation looks professional" or "make it vivid", but you still must understand why you use or do not use graphics in your presentation.

The first fact is that pictures are easier for visual perception than text, but pictures will not contain as much information as text will. So, use pictures to add some life to your presentation, to point on key concepts and ideas.

Second fact, having pictures in your presentation is a good way to differentiate between slides. People will remember more if they will have a visual image of what you are talking right now.

Third, in fact, if you what presentation to look professional then you don't need to full it with hundreds pictures. It wound be enough to add a company logo, sometime it is necessary to add more graphics, but... keep it simple. Remember, that people might need to access your presentation from the web and the presentation size should not be bigger that 60 minutes of high-quality video.

What about using graphic libraries? If you will use some free clipart, then you will not achieve the goal for your presentation to look like professional one. People used these clip arts thousand of times and will know where did you get these pictures from. The good idea is to purchase a package of ready to use presentation images or ask company designer to prepare several images for your presentation.

What about using animation, movies and so on in your presentation? Well, it's a good idea to put vivid video in your presentation, but remember that if may be hard to get this presentation online and keep all formats and files in a proper way.

The general question - should the presentation be animated in someway? For instance, PowerPoint allows to draw your slide step by step - first draw the title, then represent one by one some key phrases. This is great idea as people who will listen to you will carefully follow your ideas, but again, you will not be able to make sure that your presentation will be represented online correctly with all steps that you have planned.

The recommendation is simple - use graphics in your presentation. It's very good idea to make it look professional, but only graphics will not do job for you.

Images that work! I talk about charts and diagrams. People are willing to have a look at statistics. Statistics is what making people crazy about everything, so if you have some statistic, then add it to your presentation. Tell about your sales in past, future and planned. Show the numbers not just in text, but on chart. Name the chart accordingly - don't tell "The chart number ...", tell what this chart explains "The growth of sales during last two years was not what we were looking for".

So how does professional presentation look like? It may have some pictures, but author focuses on clear ideas supporting them with chars and diagrams. That is the key to successful presentation.

If you are interested in how to convert PPT to SWF, check Sam Miller new web-site.

Source : http://www.articleblotter.com/

Using Animation & Rich Media In Web Design

The use of special effects on web pages has literally exploded. Special effects are used either to draw potential client's attention to a web site or to show off technical expertise. However, many web site designers, graphic designers, and programmers, or HTML "newbie’s" often use special effects without considering how their target audience will react to them. Ultimately, using advanced technology can alienate the very customers designers are trying to attract because they want their web site to look "cool."

BEFORE you add any special effects to your web site, especially your home page, is your site easy to read, easy to navigate, easy to find, consistent/coherent in design, and quick to download? If the answer to all of these questions is yes, then adding special effects to your web site can be a good idea.

Special effects add to a web site's download time, and you don't want potential customers clicking off your site before viewing its content because you wanted "cool" effects on your web pages.

Some special effects require a plug-in. Here's a typical scenario. Let's say that some of your visitors do not have the plug-in required to hear the sound. Again, before they see the content of your site, they're probably going to see a pop-up asking them if they want to download the plug-in. Do you want your potential customers to see that pop-up right away? Or do you want them to see your products and/or services that they are searching for? If visiting your site means potential clients will have to download a plug-in first in order to view your site, products and/or services, they will probably continue to navigate your site. It means that you were thinking more of your corporate image than of your potential customers.

Some special effects, such as animation and music, might be cute and impressive at first. However, after the initial impact, it can become irritating. So irritating, in fact, that some people actually unplug the speakers to their computers.

To show design, technical, or programming talent, we recommend dividing your site into individual pages that showcase one particular talent per page. Doing this can greatly increase your pages' download speed, and your visitors will know what to expect when they go to a special effects page. An added bonus to this layout is that you can code (meta-tag, descriptive titles, etc.) and promote each talent page differently (i.e. emphasis on different keywords), possibly resulting in better, targeted traffic to your site.

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com/

Andy MacDonald owns and runs his own custom website design company called Swift Media UK which also incorporates intranet design, ecommerce development, affordable website hosting, and also logo design.

How animated and music in PowerPoint presentation attracts audience

PowerPoint presentations are used in classrooms, business presentations, seminars, and in almost all-large business gatherings. Having plain PowerPoint presentation without any visual images can prove to be quite a bore and a drab to the audience. So PowerPoint presenters usually add animation and music to a presentation to make their PowerPoint presentation more attractive and interesting to the audience.

Music as it is, is a relaxant for everyone. So why not add some background music to the PowerPoint presentation to make it livelier? Of course, it is of no use-adding disco or rock music to the presentation as it may only cause more stress and disturbance to the audience. Instead, adding some soothing music like the melodious tunes of classics relaxes the audience and also provides some entertainment to them.

Animation can be added in the form of graphic designs or graphic animations. These are found aplenty on the Internet, with some of them also being available for free. All one has to do is to download these graphics, and then use them in the PowerPoint presentation. Animation in PowerPoint can be considered the special effects that are applied to the shapes on the slides with the intention of enhancing the visual appeal of the presentation, to emphasize the topic of the presentation.

One thing to be kept in mind when using animations in the PowerPoint presentation is not to use too much of animation, as it will only distract the audience form the main theme of the presentation. Not only that, too big an animation will mean that it occupies more space in your PowerPoint presentation file, thus making it longer for the downloading of the file. Once the file takes too long to download, the audience may lose their patience in the middle of the PowerPoint presentation! With PowerPoint, presenters have access to rich animation features that if used intelligently, adds tremendous impact to even run-of-the-mill slides. Moreover, with the addition of motion paths, new trigger effects and the possibility of adding two animation behaviors to one object, PowerPoint now creates sophisticated animations that rival complex animation software.

Using motion path animation, one can describe the movement of an object along a standard path when making a presentation. This makes the presentation much clearer, and also adds much meaning to the presentation. Not only that if motion-path animations are combined with other animation options like scaling or rotating, the results are both wonderful and useful. This type of presentation using motion-path animation is very useful in the presentations of driving classes, wherein the anticipated actions of two vehicles can be described for the learners to learn. One can also shrink and enlarge animations as required to project the movement of the vehicle as it moves nearer and farther away in the slide.

Another form of animation that is very beneficial to PowerPoint is the use of trigger effects. This adds some impressive multimedia muscle wherein you can turn an object on a slide into an action button. As a button, what happens is that the object triggers an animation effect when clicked on. This effect is used when two objects are related in one way or the other. For example, if you want to show the effect of adding water to plants to help them grow, you could place images of a watering can and a flower on a slide. When the watering can is clicked on, the flower grows taller; thereby illustrating that watering the flower makes it grow! They are also best used for making quiz answers appear, where you display a question on a slide which when clicked on, the answer appears beside it on the slide.

So whatever the intention is of adding animation and music to the presentation, be it to have a little pizzazz in the presentation or for some soothing background music, you will easily find that the addition of music and animation greatly enhances your PowerPoint presentation. Just be creative, and you are sure to stumble on new ideas and techniques to add to your portfolio!

About Author: Thomson Chemmanoor is an powerpoint expert offering powerpoint templates at his website http://www.powerpointguys.com/

Source : http://www.articlealley.com/article_114282_11.html/

Kolkata, an emerging animation hub

KOLKATA: Kolkata is fast emerging as one of the major animation hubs of India, a leading animation and multimedia training company said here on Friday.

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