Trends in Voice Casting

Karen Raugust talks with voice and casting directors who say that, despite fierce competition, there are opportunities for talented, fresh-voiced novices to break in.

Celebrity casting has been among the leading trends in the animation voiceover business for over a decade, and remains so today. At the same time, however, there are more opportunities for rank-and-file voiceover actors than ever before, due to the large amount of animation being made, the diversity of styles and content, and the greater number of platforms in which to work. And, while the field remains intensely competitive, there are opportunities for new actors to break in, if they are committed, persistent, hard-working and well-trained.

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How to make a winning PowerPoint presentation

Making a PowerPoint presentation can be considered an accessory to be used by one giving a speech. However, the making of a winning PowerPoint presentation needs a few important pointers to be kept in mind, to be implemented. First and foremost, it is always better to keep your PowerPoint slides as simple as possible. To do this, make it a point to aim for concise and summarized text and graphics in the slides. This is because they are easier for your audience to digest, and also for you to present. This way, you can be sure that your presentation is more memorable to the audience! If you do have to use clipart in your PowerPoint presentation, remember to manipulate and/or recolor it to suite the template you are using. By doing this, you give your clipart a new lease of life by keeping it with the look and feel of your presentation. For better effects, and dimension, you might also consider adding a shadow to the clipart.

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Music for Animation: The Golden Years

Mary Ann Skweres looks back over the rich history of music-writing for classic cartoons.

As a child, Daniel Goldmark experienced an earworm -- a tune that sticks in your head. He eventually identified the memorable piece as Mozart's Piano Sonata in C Major. As a music major in his early twenties, he had a similar experience with Schubert's Die Erlkonig. Around that time he came to the realization that his familiarity with these musical compositions came from hearing them in numerous cartoons, and that cartoons in fact had given him an eclectic introduction to various styles of music -- "classical, jazz, Tin Pan Alley, Hollywood film musicals, folk songs from America and around the world, Viennese opera and nineteenth-century American parlor songs, particularly the work of Stephen Foster." This epiphany set Goldmark, currently an Assistant Professor of Music History at Case Western Reserve University, on the path to write Tunes for 'Toons, a book that examines the music written for the Golden Age of Hollywood cartoons -- the period from the 1930s through the 1950s.

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A British Empire of Animation

Production House Aardman Has Become a Force in Worlds of Film, Advertising and New Media by Sticking to Its U.K. Quirkiness

Aardman Animations holds meetings in parking-lot trailers while wailing seagulls circle overhead. A picture in its boardroom proudly commemorates a visit from the queen, as if that quaint ceremony were the highlight of the company's 30 years in business. And the founders still do their own ironing.

Yet Aardman, the creative force behind such blockbusters as "Wallace and Gromit" and "Chicken Run," is a major global player not just in theaters but on the small screen, with TV programming, commercial production -- and now web and mobile film. The privately held company doesn't release sales, but it has a growing portfolio of cross-platform content and a successful licensing arm. At its Bristol headquarters in a banana-ripening warehouse about 90 minutes outside London, a collection of Academy Awards is housed in an Ikea cabinet at the back of a cramped staff canteen.

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