Appleseeds articles from May 2008

Appleseeds archives from May 2008

Animation explained (sort of).
May 1, 2008... What is animation? And how exactly does it work? These are great questions, and we'll answer them. But first, let's see where the word animation comes from... According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, the word animation comes...

Tokyo television can be good enough to eat: what if you turned on your TV and saw a cartoon about a round-faced, flying superhero with a head made of bread dough, called bean-paste-bread man?
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Suppose he had a band of sidekicks named White Bread Man, Melon Bread Kid, and Cheese the Dog? What if his enemy was Bacteria Man, a nasty germ who was determined to destroy him by shooting blue mold bullets from the...

Animating our world: Cartoons, movies, video games ... We live in an animated world where our favorite characters seem to come to life before our eyes. Come along on a journey through the history of animation, and discover how we got where we are today ...(Cover story)
May 1, 2008... Humans were animating drawings long before paper even existed. A 20,000-year-old cave painting in Spain shows a bull with eight legs. It looks like the artist was trying to show the bull in motion. Four thousand years ago, an Egyptian artist...

Make a wonder-ful turner.(Fun Stuff)
May 1, 2008... Thaumatropes are easy to make. Follow these steps to make your own "wonder turner." MAKE A WONDER-FUL TURNER YOU NEED: A copy machine Stiff paper or card stock Scissors Hole punch Glue String 1. Photocopy the two...

Walt Disney and the nine old men.(Biography)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] No doubt you have heard of Disney movies. But did you know that there was a man behind that name? Walter Elias Disney was born more than a hundred years ago (in 1901) in Chicago, Illinois. It's hard to believe, but...

Hayao Miyazaki: a man who likes to draw pictures.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Giant insects, a cat in a top hat, a castle on legs.... These are some of the fantastic things you'll find in the mysterious worlds of Hayao Miyazaki. Master animator and filmmaker, Miyazaki is one of the most...

Surprising uses of animation: from triceratops to the Mars Rovers.
May 1, 2008... Discover How Dinosaurs Moved No one has ever seen a live dinosaur. So how do scientists know how these animals moved? Answer: by building animated computer models. Before making an animation, scientists study all about the dinosaur,...

What a character!
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Computer games can be a ton of fun to play, especially when they have great animated characters. How do game developers create characters? Creating an animated character for a computer game involves several...

Jun Falkenstein. Animator: AppleSeeds' writer Chris Eboch recently had a chance to chat with a real, live animator. Read on to find out what Chris learned ...(Experts in Action)(Interview)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jun Falkenstein is a little unusual in the world of animation: She's a woman. Her career in animation began at Warner Brothers, working on the television show Tazmania. Jun has worked at many companies, including...

You, the animator.(Fun Stuff)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Are you ready to try your hand at animation? If your answer is yes, you might want to start with a flipbook. This is a fun way to create a simple animation. Flipbooks are small books with a picture on each page....

Special effects: YODA "many steps a character make".
May 1, 2008... If you have ever seen Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, you've seen some amazing special effects. Among those was a 6-second shot that took more than a week to make and involved five artists. If you're wondering how that is possible,...

Famous firsts.
May 1, 2008... The first animated film was a silent cartoon made in 1906. Only three minutes long, it was called Humorous Phase of Funny Faces (say that ten times) fast!). In the cartoon, a hand draws funny faces on chalkboard. Then the faces come to life...

Top 10 characters.
May 1, 2008... According to TV Guide magazine, these are the top ten cartoon characters of all time. How many of them do you know? YES NO 1. Bugs Bunny 2. Homer Simpson 3. Rocky and Bullwinkle ...