Cross Browser Animation

The fundamental idea behind animation has been around for a long time: when a group of images are presented quickly, the series of images seems to form a single moving picture. One of the first examples of this effect was the thaumatrope, a gizmo created by Paul Roget in 1828. A thaumatrope is a disk with a pole or string attached so the disk can be twirled. Each side of the disk contains an illustration, and twirling the disk merges the two illustrations, making it seem that there’s only one image. If the disk has a bird on one side and a cage on the other, twirling the disk gives the illusion that there’s just one image: a bird in a cage.

Animation on the web works in a similar way. In the Web’s early days animators could only use proprietary systems, like Shockwave, or animated GIF files. JavaScript expanded the animator’s repertoire to include rapid GIF swapping. Swapping GIFs with JavaScript makes for quicker downloads than proprietary systems and provides more flexibility than animated GIFs.

Dynamic HTML (DHTML) provides a new range of ways to animate a page. DHTML can animate both text and images and animations can move throughout the browser window, instead of being anchored in one spot. Unfortunately, DHTML can be tricky because of differences between browsers.

This article will cover the basics of cross-browser animation. You’ll learn how to animate text and images. Plus you’ll see how to move HTML elements around the screen. After you’ve finished reading this article, you should be able to add cross-browser compatible DHTML animations to your web pages.

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Animation, gaming to join BPO boom

Animation and gaming are seen as the next wave in India’s successful outsourcing story. However, there is a major change: this is a sector which has moved up from outsourcing to co-production, a move up the value chain from low-end, less creative work to higher creativity and advanced technologies, says Krayon Pictures director Namrata Sharma.

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Animation And Game Design Going To The Movies

Animation and game design have, for the most part, fallen into two categories in the past. You either worked on animation for children's movies or you focused on animation for video games. Today, however, many young animators are realizing that their opportunities are becoming much more diverse as the movie graphic novel and video gaming industries have begun to overlap.

Merging of Media
Today more and more video games are becoming movies. Successes in the last decade include Doom, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tomb Raider. All of these movies were based on popular video games that had been created by animation and gaming professionals. The movie directors discovered that, in order to maintain the look and feel of the games, they had to get to know these games inside and out. They often called on game design experts as consultants to help them achieve this. There are few people as loyal as gaming enthusiasts, so capturing the proper look and feel was essential to the success of these films.

Graphic novels, a writing genre known for its highly graphic illustrative style, have also spawned movies recently. The two most notable are Sin City and 300, both based on violent, action-packed graphic novels. In both instances, the movies were directed with actors but relied heavily on computer graphics, computer design and, in some instances, animation, to enhance particular scenes and enrich the details. The success of these two movies in turn created video games based on the movies (which were based on graphic novels)...are you seeing the pattern now? Anyone with animation and game design credentials these days can go into a wide range of fields, not just game design. When the genres overlap, so do job opportunities.

Where the Talent Lies - Animation and Game Design
Hollywood is also producing more animated movies that ever before for family consumption. Cars, A Bug's Life, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Happy Feet, and the list goes on. Disney Studios continue to produce the traditional "princess" movies, but a dozen other studios also produce quality animation.

While a generation ago animation was done using thousands of artist's sketches put together to create action, today's animated movies are created with computer animation, and individuals with Animation and Game Design degrees are hot properties. Studios know that those with game design experience have an understanding of the complexities of movement, from the way the wind ruffles your hair to how someone lands when they fall, that no one else can match. Gamers are tough customers. They expect realism and accuracy and they get it. This has translated into increasing attention to detail in animated films. The more sophisticated the audience becomes, the more these industries have to work at giving the public what it wants.

The Future of Animation and Game Design
With the growing overlap of so many genres of entertainment, graphic novels, movies and video games, it is obvious that the need for professionals with both animation and game design skills will only increase. Whether you want to work in Silicon Valley or Hollywood, a degree in some kind of animation and game design area will get your foot in the door.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

About the Author:
Andy West is a freelance writer for Virginia College. Virginia College offers a professional Animation and Game Design program. Please visit Virginia College at http://www.vc.edu/site/program.cfm?programID=63 .

Disney opens the vaults

Disney opens the vaults to go behind-the-scenes of the brand new Jungle Book DVD.

To Celebrate the 40th Anniversary Special Edition of The Jungle Book on DVD, Disney offered a rare opportunity to tour its hollowed vaults in Glendale, California.

Walt Disney gave birth to the modern animated feature as we know it with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Naysayers said no one would want to watch a feature-length cartoon, but then again, there had never before seen a cartoon quite like Snow White. Walt would go on to supervise an almost endless string of classics over the next 30 years that would include Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland and a host of others that would live on as timeless classics of the genre. Walt Disney’s final animated feature work as producer came with 1967’s The Jungle Book, a fitting swan song for one of the greatest figures in the history of animation.

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