With the growing use of technology and many platforms to watch series and movies, the publicity of media has given way to consuming much more (and varied) visual content. Regarding this, both Japanese vs American animation pursue the goal of conveying information using visual stories, there are many differences between the way in which these two cultures approach the animation industry.
Thus, one of the main differences is the way in which both groups draw the characters. Japanese animation (also known as anime) is highly acquainted with showing many details on the characters’ features, for example, eyes with many highlights and clothing with different colors; as well as detailed eyelashes, hair, and accessories. In American culture, on the other hand, cartoons don’t have this much detail when it comes to colors, lining, and shadows.
This great difference gives way to another one: the visual feel of both animation styles. Whereas cartoons animated by Americans give a fictional feel to the story, the detailed features of the anime and their realistic human reactions make this type of animation much more relatable in a human way.
Nonetheless, American cartoons are quite famous for using motion to allow different ways to express emotion during a certain scene, a thing that anime characteristically lacks. In other words, Americans animate by using frame by frame; whereas in Japan shortcuts are used, known as scenes that can happen without much movement (or any movement at all) to express drama. This is the reason why American animators usually call the Japanese “lazy”.
Finally, other differences between the two styles are related to the theme and audience. When it comes to the theme, anime is normally focused on real-life experiences and human emotions based on them, whereas American cartoons tend to be more fictional and fantastic. Because of this, the targeted audience for both is also diverse: While American cartoons are typically designed for children, anime is made for children as well as teens and adults.
Even though there are many differences between both Japanese and American styles of animation, it’s undeniable that they have a unique way of visually expressing a plot and transmitting relatable emotions through characters.
With such an amazing roster of 2019 animated films, it’s hard to determine the best animation movies of this year making an impact.
Sequels to smash hits like The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Frozen 2, and Toy Story 4, all came out in 2019. There were also anticipated exciting original animated films, such as Spies in Disguise and Sonic the Hedgehog. The industry has also been putting out some exciting content such as Reign of the Supermen.
Here is a list of some of the animation movies that made an impact in 2019. How to Train Your Dragon can be ranked as the number one animation that made an impact, an original by DreamWorks who also happened to produce abominable, but wasn’t abominable adorable, and impressive.
Dream Works have been known since their first-ever release of Antz in 1984 and have continued blessing us with amazing films such as Penguins of Madagascar. 2019 was a good year for DreamWorks, delivering other Certified Fresh animations such as The Hidden World.
Other movies that hit the theatres this year were the anticipated Frozen 2, Lion King 2 not forgetting Alladin, star wars, Dumbo, Rise of Skywalkers, and Penguins all by Disney! Disney almost never disappoints, creating digital animals so authentic they’d be confused if it were real. It would be argued that no studio has more of an envious 2019 movie slate than Disney with beloved animated classics.
At least half of Disney’s movies out this year have hit everywhere and the studio is making millions out of them. Walt Disney animated studios continue to be not only kids’ favorite animation studios but adults’ as well.
I wouldn’t forget to mention Toy Story 4, Kitbull, and Smash and Grab on the list as some of the animated movies by Pixar that made an impact. Toy Story, for example, has been in the theatres since the 1980s and is still the top animated film of all time. Pixar is also about to deliver another animation next year soul which we all can’t wait for.
The Children’s Online Privacy Policy Act is here to remind content creators that the COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age. Enacted October 21, 1998.
What happened between YouTube and the US FTC (Federal Trade Commission)?
In April 2018, 20 child advocacy groups complained to the FTC that YouTube was violating children’s privacy laws. FTC filed a civil complaint against YouTube alleging that YouTube violated the 2013 amendment and YouTube owed it $42,530 per violation of this amendment and YouTube should be forever barred from marketing to children who are under the age of 13 years old. YouTube settled this civil complaint in 2019 forever changing the platform and creator and viewers’ experience on the platform as a part of the settlement YouTube agreed to pay a $170 Million fine and to stop providing kids content on the platform and a lot of other changes to the YouTube platform.
COPPA happened Now what?
Important Update for All Creators: Complying with COPPA
From January 1st, 2020, YouTube is enquiring all creators, regardless of their location and their target audience, to designate whether the videos they are making are for kids. Managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the COPPA Act specifies that, sites must require parental consent for the collection or use of any personal information of young website users. What must be included in a privacy policy, including the requirement that the policy itself be posted anywhere data is collected. When and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian. What responsibilities does the operator of a website legally hold with regard to children’s privacy and safety online, including restrictions on the types and methods of marketing targeting those under 13. The video platform is no longer allowed to show children-targeted ads. Creators of kid-friendly content will very likely notice a drop in revenue
COPPA was passed to address the rapid growth of online marketing techniques in the 1990s that were targeting children. Although COPPA does not specifically define how parental consent should be gained, the (FTC) has established guidelines to help Web site operators ensure compliance with the Act. The FTC has stipulated that parents may delete certain information but may not otherwise alter it. As of January first of 2020, thousands of YouTube channels will probably be gone. YouTube creators who fail to mark their content as for kids or not could be fined up to $7500 per violation and risk their channel being terminated. Chaos could occur as creators will be in a position of not knowing how to categorize their videos and YouTube will categorize them in this case.
YouTube creators are going to lose some privileges such as, they not being able to upload their stories on YouTube, their viewers not getting notifications when they hit that notification tab, and cannot save videos to watch later. Personalized ads will not appear on YouTube. Generally, as kids content creators, you might not be able to create content.
Frozen the movie is an all-time favorite for a lot of people, following through Elsa’s powerful story in search of queer identity. It was almost obvious that Frozen 2 would look better than the original film and the sequel didn’t disappoint pushing boundaries in Frozen 1 even further.
Team of Five
The original film was absolutely stunning but it gets better in the sequel with even more stunning water bodies, ice sculptures, and the major transformation that Elsa goes through giving us the opportunity to experience her powers in a more intense way. In Frozen 1 we saw more of Anna’s adventure story along with Kristoff, Olaf, and Skev which was hilarious and sweet and now we get to have a five some with Elsa included which makes the storyline even more interesting.
Supporting Characters and Backgrounds
The sequel goes deeper into Elsa and Anna’s background in new ways and brings out heavier themes in the narrative, and stronger consequences making it stronger generally than the original one. With old supporting casts such as Hans and the people of Weastletown, the film has introduced new characters such as Lieutenant Matthias who are just as iconic as the main characters but really don’t make any meaningful difference in the film except just helping to move the plot forward.
Elsa and Anna’s Strong Relations
Every character has a new wardrobe in the new movie but Elsa comes out as a whole new person. She goes ahead and does the unthinkable, letting her hair down and her outfits are just on point. However, it’s like some people never learn and some things never change. Elsa is still stubborn as ever and would rather take on all of her challenges by herself instead of asking her friends to help and sends Anna away, again. Although Anna eventually saves her sister, we’d have expected Elsa to know better than to send her selfless sister away.
Olaf
Olaf, on the other hand, is really doing the most at being hilarious in the second film like he always does. He is funny and heartwarming with great comedic relief as usual and this time his song is actually great!
Soundtrack and Kristoff Song
The movie’s soundtrack has always been great and gives the audience a great way to connect with the act. New songs have been featured and the old famous “Let it go” let go. However, the overall soundtrack in the sequel is amazing, everyone gets to shine, Kristoff finally has his own song and it’s everything you could dream of.
Conclusion
For a movie friend like Frozen, the audience expects to relate more with it every time it’s released leaving you craving for more. Frozen 2 didn’t exactly leave it at that as it has what would be termed as a quick ending. Things move so fast in the last few minutes which makes sense because it’s a kids’ movie and has to wrap up quickly but still, in my opinion, they’d have made more of the movie like in Frozen 1 in the last few moments making the narrative look less cheap.
UI, for its acronym “User Interface” is the view that allows a user to interact effectively with a system. In other words, it is the sum of an information architecture + visual elements + interaction patterns.
If you pay attention, you can see that, currently, most of the applications or web pages include some element of animation in their design. Product designers are responsible for the elements on the screen, but also for how they enter, leave, and behave. Therefore, we have that the UI animations are a functional tool that not only works based on giving life and movement to certain elements but also gives the user the opportunity to focus and orient, provide visual feedback, give hierarchy to the different components of the screen and influence the construction of the character of the brand.
UI is characterized by making a concept come true. It works together with the UX design, which relates to the way in which a user interacts with a product or service. Therefore, we have that the UI design focuses on the visual part. That is to say, if UX takes care that a product is useful for users, for example, UI will make it attractive, visual, and real.
Among the elements that stand out most within this area are typography, colors, and images; and their main objective is to instruct the user about the actions to be taken in relation to what is offered. This particularity is what makes it a critical component for the user to enjoy what he acquires.
Another important detail for a UI design to work properly is to not only focus on making a striking app or page, for example, but to create a design that is really usable and friendly. A correct level UI seeks to achieve a good appearance of something, yes, but it does not neglect functionality.
In summary, the main objective of a UI design is to improve user-device interaction on any website, cell phone, or device in general. In addition, it heeds the interrelationship between physical or hardware elements and logical or software elements, since everything that the user will have interaction with must be contemplated.
An HR professional Working at Infosys, Bengaluru, and a greenhorn in the animation field, got a spark to make a 90 minute animated film, that too in Sanskrit.
His first job after graduation was as a copywriter in an ad agency and there he did the scripting for India’s first children’s animated CD rom film Panchatantra.
“I always had an urge to make my own animation film. After watching Arjun— The Warrior Prince, I told my wife that I wish to make an animation film. She always supported and with her full motivation I chose Punyakoti, the Kannada folktale, because it is a popular South Indian folk story: It gives the message of leading a life of integrity against all disparity and living in harmony with nature. There was an anti-corruption movement also going on around 2013 and hence introducing such a theme into such a scenario seems relevant to me.”
Trailer:
Why choose the SANSKRIT language?
When it comes to the language it was totally an abrupt decision Ravi made after attending a workshop on basic Sanskrit conversation at his office and there he felt like he needed to do something in this language.
After that, he started thinking about why couldn’t he make his baby movie in the Sanskrit language as there were no animations had been made in such language.
How it all started???
Ravi shared the idea with his friend, AV Girish, an animator and he liked it and suggested that it’s just a concept now we need to expand it to a full-length animation film. Hence to make it a full-length film he impinged his own creative story of a village facing drought where our cow and tiger came into an encounter. Hence they completed their script and visited the rector of the Tamil film industry’s music world, Ilaiyaraaja. Ilaiyaraaja, for Ravi, was not just a musician, there is a strong personal bond between them. He showed almost all his earlier scripts for his review and suggestions but when he showed Punyakoti he was happy with the concept and agreed to do the music of the video free of cost.
His major concern during the start of the project was actually not the animation but to find a producer. Having an idea is easy but the most challenging part is execution. Ravi, who considers Steve Jobs as his role model says, “He just had this idea of iPad and went ahead. I too followed the same path.”
They approached more than 100 animators in this field and most of them felt that for a beginner like him, this was a bad idea and faced rejection everywhere. During this challenging phase where they were unable to find a producer got rejected by animators, Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education and former CFO of Infosys instructed them to opt for crowdfunding with Wishberry. Hence they started a target of 40 lakhs and with God’s grace they achieved it within the time duration.
Sanskrit connections
It all happened by chance. During the online crowdfunding process, someone made a comment that it would be better if we could approach Samskrita Bharati. After that, I contacted Samskrita Bharati and they invited me to give a talk to the students about our project. There We met Professor Leela, with an experience of about 35 years of experience in directing Sanskrit plays.
From dialogue supervision and delivery to selecting and finalizing the cast, the professor helped a lot. The characters for voice-overs are all a part of her Sanskrit drama troupe ranging between the age of 5 years (her granddaughter) to 80 years. Popular names from the Sanskrit theatre fraternity include Anupama Hosakere and Vidyashankar Hosakere, Narasimha Murthy, and Anand Raja Mani among others.
According to Professor Leela: Sanskrit is both ancient and modern at the same time. The beautiful visual appeal of the animation can advance the impact of Sanskrit to a large extent.
Some eminent names included in this success include actor and national awardee Revathi and Roger Narayan from Hollywood of U-Turn fame. The national awardee film editor Manoj Kannoth, Anwar Ali who is a famous contemporary poet from Kerala, has written the dialogues for all the characters.
With the amount raised through crowdfunding, Ravi and his team managed to finish the animatics with dubbed dialogues by June 2016. The technical team worked and interacted on Google Hangouts.
The team has not tied up with a particular studio.
They have tied up with a Pune-based collaborative platform Gamedoora to drive online collaboration and project management. The digital archiving and asset management of the movie is done by a Chennai startup—CineHive.
By September 2016 the team exhausted all the funds collected and from then on they have gone ahead with personal funding sourced from friends and family.
Lesson for Life:
He knows now how not to make an animation in 100 ways.
After the trailer went viral, there were some positive developments for the team.
Now some of the big banners have approached them to lend their support. Now they are hopeful that it materializes and can take Punyakoti a project close to our hearts to various film festivals and have a theatrical release too.
Despite the “realistic” innovation in design, which brought the rise of 3D animation, in recent times a much more traditional technique has become fashionable again: 2D animation. You just have to look at the billboard movies made through this process, not to mention series, ads, and video clips.
We define the projection and filming system in two dimensions as 2D cinematography. It is what, in the same way, we know as a conventional film which has 2 dimensions (height and width), is not filmed in a special format, and is also projected on a normal screen, which makes us see a flatter image.
2D animation consists of creating cartoons in two dimensions but giving them life, movement, and personality. The bases for this type of animation are the drawings made by hand. Therefore, one of the basic conditions to learn this technique is to have good knowledge as a cartoonist.
To understand a little what it means, we must know that dimensions define the space in which an object can exist. Imagine a very fine line that has only one dimension, for example, this is the length. If you add a second width dimension, you have a 2D or two-dimensional space. This can be done through many tools or software that allow you to draw characters and scenarios and, then, grant them the power of “acting”, in other words, giving them soul and character to make them act on the scene.
A 2D graph has two axes, usually called X and Y. Most of the drawings, photographs, paintings, and books of image format are two-dimensional. In this sense, 2D animations are smooth, although you can create the feeling of depth in some of the elements that use light and shadow, but only through the use of these resources and not by executing modeling techniques.
Classic animated films like “The Lion King, “Cinderella” and “Pinocchio” are examples of cinematography with 2D animation. Actually, the standard movies are 2D, what happens is that there is a deep impression since they are registered in the real world, but the image appears flat on the screen.
‘Punyakoti’ is a simple moving allegory: a hungry tiger comes across a cow called Punyakoti and decides to make her his feast for the day. Punyakoti convinces the hungry tiger that she will surely return to sacrifice herself as his grand feast, once she fed her young calf waiting at home for her. Being trustworthy, she returns to be the tiger’s meal –It seems like this story took us again to the classic stories we heard in our school days the Panchatantra stories. This story is derived from a popular Kannada folk song called Govina Haadu (The Cow’s Song), which is actually based on an episode in the Mahabharata (from the section of the Shanti Parva or “Chapter of Peace”).
PUNYAKOTI: Name of a Holy Cow
As per Indian Astrology, the meaning of this name Punyakoti is a person with an abundance of Confidence and Power. Here the astrological factor seems true through the success of the World’s First Ever Animation Film in Sanskrit by Mr. RAVI SHANKAR with a feather on its crown: National Award for the best animated film at the ANN Awards.
Let us hear what Punyakoti is and how it happens, directly from the creator—our beloved Mr. Ravi Shankar.
1. You are now famous as a National Award Winner for the best-animated film Punyakoti at the ANN awards. We would like to know about you personally, Can you share something about your personal and professional life?
Professional: I started my career as a copywriter and a scriptwriter. I worked for a publication company in their Multimedia department. However, after my MBA in HR, I shifted my career to process reengineering in HR and Marketing. I am an introvert. My creativity is inspiration-driven. I get inspiration rarely so my output is very low.
Personal: I live with my wife and two children in Bangalore.
2. What is meant by Punyakoti: how did you end up in such a name for your film?
Punyakoti is the name of the cow in a folksong in Karnataka. I drew inspiration from the folksong. So I picked it up from there.
3. As per my knowledge, you are an American banking professional, holding on to your hectic work cycle where did you get the spark of doing such a project and how did you manage the time?
The spark came during a bus ride to the office. Managing time was very difficult. I had to sacrifice many things in my personal life to make this happen. But I have a big whiteboard in my room, where I write down all my tasks and manage them one by one.
4. What were the hurdles you passed through from the start to the end of the project?
The biggest hurdle was finding the right talent who was trustworthy. As I worked with freelancers, many took advantage and never delivered. Many did not have the discipline to deliver on time. I had a lot of delays. I had to make hundreds of phone calls to get things done. Funding was an issue. I did not have a producer or an investor. So I struggled a lot on that front.
5. In spite of a lot many languages we use commonly for our communication purposes like English Hindi etc. you opted for Sanskrit. We all know that Sanskrit is a less spoken language, Is there any personal reason behind the selection what’s the thought process behind such a decision?
There was a Sanskrit teacher who told me there were no popular contemporary works in Sanskrit. So I thought it would be a good idea to make it in Sanskrit. Also, I thought if I made a movie in Sanskrit, no one would bother me and I would have no competition.
6. How did you do the scripting and voiceover of this project?
The original script was written in English. We then conceived the dialogues in Malayalam as it was close to Sanskrit. We then translated it into Sanskrit through Samskrita Bharati. Then we approach a Sanskrit scholar (SR Leela) who has done Sanskrit play to help her members deliver the dialogues.
7. You are coming from an entirely different field, what are the challenges you faced?
As I did not know animation, there was no one to guide me. I have done explainer video scripts. So I thought it would be that easy. I took advice from a lot of people and learned about the tools that are used. After two years I could edit the raw files and even draw to convey my ideas. Then it became easy.
8. Some funny moments you had during this journey?
Many people thought I was mad and wanted to just take the money from me. Behind my back, they will say that this movie will never get completed as I don’t know anything about the process. They will say it is easy to cheat Ravi. Now when I look back, it looks funny.
9. In a normal sense animated videos basically aimed at children, and most of the viewers will be our little champs. In such a scenario what made you do such a project? What was the inspiration behind doing such a complicated project?
There are many layers to the story. Some will appeal to children. Some will appeal to a grown-up audience. This is how stories are written all over the world.
10. Did you have any intuition about your project, that this is gonna hit the award screen?
I had an intuition that it was unique. but when the editor the musicians and the sound engineer saw the movie, they predicted that it could win awards as the story was very well told.
11. What is your opinion about the Indian Animation Industry? As per your experience is there anything we need to change in our current working strategy? Is the Indian Industry getting its recognition in the World Animation Industry?
It is a fledgling industry. It will take a few years for us to have the resources to compete globally. Good talent exists in pockets. We have world-class tools that are the same anywhere in the world. But time and money are also essential to make world-class animations. Making a good animation project has many parts including marketing. All of them have to come together. The live-action movie industry has matured over the years and all components are coming together very well. The same will happen in animation in a few years. But a few of us have to risk it.
12. Future plans: Any new inspirational project in your mastermind?
I have three scripts in the works. The next movie will be announced in November 2019
13. What are some of the tips and tricks you have to give to budding talents?
Don’t give up. Don’t stop learning. Don’t aim for perfection. Keep the company of good people. I wanted to complete this project in 2015, but it took three years more. I had fear and I became frustrated. But my friends and family helped me to cope. There are 100s of things we could have done better in Punyakoti. So there will always be another opportunity. So keep moving.
14. Lessons you learned from this?
There are hundreds of lessons. Some I have listed in the answer above.
15. As an award winner, what is your current feeling?
I feel lucky. I am a messenger through whom good work happens and not because of me.
16. A description of your team?
Anoop Sreedharan (Animatics), Ajesh (Storyboard), Prasad (Character), Shajeer (Painting), Shibu M(Layout), Deepak Divate (Animation) Krishna (Animation) were the core team. Girish AV (Creative Head) was the leader. He sacrificed a lot to make this movie happen. Without him, we would not have completed this project. All these team members were there from the beginning to the end. There were others who worked on certain portions of the movie. The good part of the team was they were directing me than I was directing them. I only shared the vision for each scene and the rest of it is their expertise.
17. Comparison between Ravi Shankar before Punyakoti and after a self-analysis?
I took the risk and I had a small success. If not for this project, I would never have met 100s of people in the daily course of my life. I am thankful to god.
It is increasingly common to see people discussing what is better, whether an animation video or a live-action one, especially after the iconic Disney company began to bring our favorite cartoon stories to real life. Nevertheless, despite being in similar audiovisual areas, both categories are very different. In the following paragraphs, you can read the pros and cons of each one to be able to choose the option that best fits you!
Pros:
Animation:
– First, we have the human factor. Animations do not require actors, so organization and transfer of people could be avoided, neither going through rigorous casting processes. This can represent a saving in time and money.
– Similarly, to make animated videos you do not need to find or build locations that are usually expensive. You don’t work on a set as such since the whole process is done digitally through computers and electronic devices.
– They are special to recreate situations or issues that are complicated to carry out in real life, especially those that are considered abstract or taboo. It allows the director to be creative and work based on subjectivity.
Live action:
– The main advantage of live-action videos is linked to the way they can connect with the audience. They can generate more real and humanizing feelings in the spectators because they can identify with the characters more easily as they are just people.
– Likewise, live-action videos are easier to make in some cases. If it is not a large production like the one required by the movies, a “homemade” or “amateur” style live-action video can be recorded in a couple of days.
– They transmit more information since the characters do not express themselves only through dialogues but, being people, they use body language, such as gestures and facial expressions.
Cons:
Animation:
– They don’t connect so easily with people.
– Its production is longer and requires more time.
Live action:
– If it is a complex production, it can be very expensive.
– Requires mandatory editing after recording the footage.
Both live-action videos and animation have incredible virtues so it all depends on your needs and requirements. You can analyze them individually, choose the one for you, and get the most out of it.
You can get professional character-based animation videos from Prayan Animation Studio. We are the best 2D animation studio in India because we have an experienced team that has handled thousands of projects and we deliver quality animation videos at an affordable price.
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