Computer Graphics Effect On Animation

Computer Graphics Effect On Animation The history of computer animation can be traced back many decades to such films as Peter Foldes 1971 film Metadata, or even a 1968 attempt by Soviets to animate a cat. It was in the 1980s, however, that the techniques became more widely used and the industry truly began to experience big changes in how things were done. The advent of this new technology meant that machines could do more of the work, much like with the use of robots in manufacturing. While this machinery is a godsend for productivity, it brings with it concern for peoples jobs and the survival of the traditional way of doing things. One animator by the name of Bill Kroyer brought these concerns to the forefront in 1988 with his own animated interpretation of the ongoing development of this threat. Bill Kroyers Technological Threat serves as an excellent metaphor for the advent of computer animation and how it affected the animation industry and validity of the fears it brought forth. From its infancy up until recent decades, traditional animation techniques were the only methods of animation available before the advent of more powerful computers. Much of it requires each frame to be hand-drawn or, in the case of stop motion, each character or object has to be sculpted and moved little by little for each frame that is captured. It is tedious work. These traditional techniques take a lot of time and patience to do successfully. Throughout the decades there have been attempts to minimize the work involved with animation, such as the introduction of cel animation which put characters and objects on clear celluloid which would then be animated on top of a background image. This meant that a background would only have to be made once, whereas beforehand it had to be redrawn completely with each passing frame. Another time-saving innovation came in the form of Walt Disneys multiplane camera system, which took cel animation even further by making the creation of depth mu ch easier by separating and moving each individual part of the scenery independently and at varying distances from the camera. Even with these advancements, however, the same traditional techniques were required to actually animate anything. Computers brought forth a drastic change in the playing field, essentially turning the art into a science. Soon one of the first instances of computer animation would come in 1960 when John Whitney developed his analog computer to make title sequences for movies and television, using surplus anti-air guidance hardware from World War II. While computers became widely used in animation during the 1980s, there were still quite a few instances of it in the preceding decades, starting with the aforementioned machine developed by Whitney. The computer technology of the time was rather limited and therefore usually only used for experiments. For instance, Peter Foldes used the first implementation of key frame software to create Metadata in 1971. While it entailed the use of a data tablet, which was surprisingly modern for the era, it was limited to two-dimensional animation and could only show simple line drawings of objects in a couple of colors. This film was merely experimental, however, and was followed 3 years later by Hunger in 1974, which was intentionally done in black and white line dr awings. Computers would quickly become powerful enough to render much more realistic imagery, as was exemplified by Loren Carpenters Vol Libre which he presented at SIGGRAPH in 1980, a computer graphics conference held annually. It used fractals to generate breathtaking mountainous scenery and instantly landed him a job at Lucasfilm. Of the animators that worked during the era that computer animation became more widespread, one particularly interesting perspective is that of Bill Kroyer. Bill got his start in animation in the mid-1970s, just before the computer revolution of the 1980s. He originally was denied a job at Disney, but would later be hired by them in 1977, during a time when Disney Animation, and the animation industry as a whole, was in the midst of a slump. He did not stay with Disney long, as he soon left to work with Steve Lisberger on Animalympics. The major milestone in Bills career, however, came in 1982 when they developed Tron which they teamed up with Disney to work on. As Kroyer himself put it, Tron was the beginning. It was the moment when computer graphics made its first contact with the animation industry-like the sperm and the egg. It was neat, because nobody had ever done it before. There were no experts around (Kroyer). It was the first time computer animation would be used so extensi vely on a feature film, and it became almost a prophecy of what would develop in the coming years. Jobs that used to take hundreds of people to do, such as painting backgrounds, can now be accomplished cheaply and quickly by using computers. While Kroyer enjoyed working with computers to animate, he longed for the illusion of hand-drawn cartoons and decided to start Kroyer Films with his wife in 1986 with the intention of combining traditional and computer animation. He became a pioneer in combining the two techniques. While Kroyer was skilled at animating, he was also knowledgeable about writing computer programs, and developed one with his wife that could use a plotter to draw out the computer animations on paper. Such use of computers for animating made many animators begin to fear it taking over and forcing them out of their careers. In response to these fears, Kroyer made Technological Threat in 1988. In it, a group of hand-drawn cartoon dogs are employees at a company and are threatened by their seemingly inevitable replacement by highly efficient robots, which are computer animated. This paranoia culminates into a struggle for survival that ultimately ends in the last remaining dog employee taking down his now-robotic boss with the help of one of the robots, which he proceeds to double-cross to eliminate the threat altogether, leaving him the only remaining employee, the top dog as it were. The film was essentially about traditional animators ultimately working in harmony with this new techn ology and ultimately being highly successful in their careers, perhaps more so than they would have previously. The dog protagonist, symbolic of traditional animators fearing the loss of their job, defies the odds and in the end triumphs, rising in rank to become the new boss. The robots represent the computers used to do computer animation, appearing innocent and diligently going about their work, but ultimately are no less susceptible to losing their jobs than the dogs are. Kroyers approach to animating goes against traditional animators fears by combining both methods and using them to their fullest potential. According to the theories of Paul Wells, this film would be considered developmental animation, as it maintains many traditional aspects of orthodox animated films but mixes two different styles of animation in a more modern approach. According to him, Developmental Animation operates as a mode of expression combining or selecting elements of both approaches, representing t he aesthetic and philosophical tension between the two apparent extremes (Wells, 35). There was no doubt a tension between the two approaches during the time this film came out. Kroyer goes on to explain that, despite this new and highly capable tool, the artistic vision of the animator is still crucial to a films success. Computers are merely another tool in the animators arsenal. Throughout the 1980s, computers went into widespread use, from businesses to residential homes. These machines revolutionized everybodys lives and had far reaching effects on many peoples jobs, not just those of animators. While computers have increased productivity almost everywhere, they have threatened to eliminate many jobs and force many to either learn to use the new technology or remain unemployed. It is truly a situation where we are made to keep up with changes in the workplace or else risk being left behind in a dust cloud of our own stubbornness. This was an especially trying time for many animators as computers had finally reached the point where they would be practical to use in animation. But unlike many jobs that were completely taken over by computers, animation allows for the coexistence of computers with traditional techniques. Understandably, one would think traditional animation to be doomed through the development of this amazing new technology. This could not be farther from the truth, however, as traditional animation remained strong through the 1980s and continues to grow. In fact, it has seen a sort of revival in recent years. In 2009, Disney released The Princess and the Frog, their first traditionally animated feature since they made Home on the Range in 2004. During the 1990s, the Disney Renaissance brought us multiple wildly successful films using traditional techniques, including such films as The Lion King and Mulan. Even with the massive success of Toy Story in 1995, Disney continued to make traditionally animated films on a yearly basis even after the end of the renaissance in 1999. While the renaissance did die out and Disney seemingly put traditional animation on the backburner after Home on the Range, they have shown us that it really is not dead after all with Princess and the Frog and ha s promised to release a traditionally animated film every 2 years from now on. Similarly, Hayao Miyazaki, a highly acclaimed animator from Japan, has built his career off of creating fantastical feature films primarily using traditional animation, and has won various prestigious awards for his creations. Since creating Princess Mononoke, he has begun to implement computer animation in some sequences of his films. Despite this, he retains traditional 2D cel animation as his primary medium of choice. Through all of this it is also important to note that traditional animation still continues to garner critical acclaim insofar as receiving awards and nominations for awards. The medium, while requiring a greater amount of labor and time, still produces many high quality films worthy of critical praise. For instance, Disneys recently released Princess and the Frog was nominated for a Golden Globe, and Miyazaki has been nominated for or won awards for a lot of his films. Bill Kroyer was also nominated for an Acedemy Award for Technological Threat. This just goes to show that the look of traditional animation is not seen as obsolete and can be beautifully done, as has been shown for countless decades. Another important aspect of these two techniques to consider is the overall cost of production for films that use either technique. There has been a growing misconception that computer animation is far more cost-effective overall than traditional animation. While this is true in some instances, in actuality it is subjective to the films being compared. One good comparison to make that disproves this fallacy is between two feature films released by Disney: Bolt and Mulan. Bolt was Disneys CGI major feature released a couple of years ago in 2008, while Mulan was their traditionally animated feature of 1998, which happened to come out towards the end of the Disney Renaissance. Both films have about an hour and a half of runtime. There is a staggering difference in production budgets, however. While Mulan carried a production budget of 90 million dollars, Bolt had an astonishingly large budget of 150 million, 60 million more than Mulan! This clearly shows that the cost of production is s ubjective to the film being worked on and can change in favor of either computers or traditional techniques. Despite the hype for computer animated features following the massive success of Toy Story in 1995, there have been CGI films that have been less than successful, such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001. This film, despite having ultra-realistic CGI and a budget of 137 million dollars, was a total flop, with revenues not even covering the production costs for the film. A films financial viability can depend on many factors, like the quality of what is being animated, and of course how it is marketed, but that is another issue entirely. In short, CGI-animated films can be cheaper than those made with traditional animation in some cases, but often can cost just as much if not more. The costs of each are comparable to each other, the only major difference is traditional techniques tend to take longer. Much like in any other industry, computers drastically changed the way animation can be done and people feared losing their jobs because of the changes brought forth by them. But, as is exemplified by Kroyers film Technological Threat, there is little need to fear the future. Today, traditional animation and computer animation coexist and are often even used in combination on some films. Traditional animation remains a prominent form of animation to this day, and continues to grow with new animators joining the ranks. Computer graphics is not meant as a replacement for the old fashioned hand-drawn and stop motion styles, but rather another tool in their box of tricks. Just because one owns a drill does not make a screwdriver obsolete. They each have important purposes as well as advantages and disadvantages. After all, a tool is only as good as the person trained to use it.

Capital Punishment †Fair and Balanced Essay

Capital punishment is a difficult issue to address and has been the subject of highly controversial debates over the decades. The United States Supreme Court decided in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was a form of cruel and unusual punishment. However, just three years later in 1975, the Supreme Court reversed their decision, and executions resumed under state regulation. The death penalty is considered the harshest from of punishment enforced today. The most common method used to implement this task is lethal injection; although, the electric chair is still used in some states. The large debate over the death penalty comes from liberal fanatics who use deception and falsehoods to further their cause. Supporters of the death penalty consider capital punishment the only way for true justice to be executed for the severest of crimes. Supporters also claim criminals that commit such harsh crimes, including murder and rape, deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Preventing future crimes and deterring criminals from committing such harsh acts also play key roles in support of the death penalty. Concrete proof of deterrence alone is not a valid reason for capital punishment, nor is it the underlying principle in use by astute death penalty advocates. Criminals ought to be punished for their crimes committed and not merely to deter others. That said however, the death penalty unquestionably â€Å"deters† the murderer who is executed. Strictly speaking, this is a form of incapacitation; similar to the way a robber put in prison is prevented from robbing on the streets. Vicious murderers must be eliminated to prevent them from murdering again, either in prison, or in society if they should get out. Both as a deterrent and as a form of permanent incapacitation, the death penalty helps to prevent future crime. The argument against capital punishment relies on myth, propaganda, and misplaced emotion. Many people against the death sentence claim that the justice system is discriminatory. This statement is blatantly false. African-Americans and other minorities are not impacted unfairly by the justice system. The fact of the matter is the majority of those executed  since 1976 have been Caucasian males. If the death penalty is truly discriminatory, then it is biased against white murderers and not blacks, because figures show that African-Americans make up a majority of those convicted of murder. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, blacks committed 51.5% of murders between 1976 and 1999, while whites committed 46.5%. The latest of hate crime laws are likely to only exacerbate the hypocrisy. A â€Å"hate crimes† frame of mind translates into tougher sentences for interracial crimes. Since Caucasians are killed by African-Americans 2.6 times more often then the other wa y around, more killers of Caucasians will be predisposed to receiving the death penalty.Finances are also argued frequently on the topic of capital punishment. â€Å"It costs more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for life. A 1993 California study argues that each death penalty case costs at least $1.25 million more than a regular murder case and a sentence of life without the possibility of parole† (Deathpenalty.org). This statement deserves no response, because the figures are not perfect, and are dubious at best. Nevermind the fact that justice should not be up for sale. Serving justice is not about saving money, and should not be treated as if it were an item being contracted, trying to get the â€Å"lowest bid.†Retribution is an additional reason for capital punishment, which some opponents of capital punishment confuse with vengeance. As a sound principle of natural law and common sense, the punishment should fit the crime. For example, if someone had been convicted of the assassination of the president, and the judge had sentenced him or her to only five years in prison, the nation would have been pr operly outraged. Having a fit punishment for the crime committed has been around since the beginning of civilization. Hammurabi’s Code of Law, developed long before the birth of Christ, claims retribution as, â€Å"an eye for an eye, life for a life†. Retribution makes capital punishment justifiable because it is an injustice to tolerate such unimaginable horror.If one commits a crime, he or she should be ready to accept the consequences. Murder is a crime that involves the loss of innocent life, and that act needs to be rightly punished. Murderers should not receive an overextended welcome in a prison. Those who commit these serious offenses do not belong in society. Realistically there is no solid argument against the death penalty. If society were to take capital  punishment away, the public would not have an effective justice system and crimes against innocent people would continue. Opponents of the death sentence need to accept the fact that capital punishment is fair and just. Using lies and deceit will only go so far. The people of this country are smart enough to realize the difference between fact and fiction, and the truth is capital punishment works.

Research Choose

Service organization and with reference to published case studies and any other relevant articles (such as from magazines, newspapers, and industrial reports), critically analyse the failures of service performance that were committed. Using the service quality gap model, identify the possible reason or reasons leading to such failures and give recommendations on how these failures can be minimised. You are also require to evaluate the usefulness of the service quality gap model as a tool in helping managers to effectively deliver value to their customers in comparison with other frameworks learnt in class.Question 2: Value Chain Process Select ONE (1) company from the manufacturing industry andusing the value chain analysis, critically analyse the salient aactivity or activities that help the chosen companies to achieve competitive advantage in creating and delivering customer value. Then analyse how the aactivity or activities that are responsible in providing the companies with co mpetitive advantage in creating and delivering customer value can affect and are dependent on other activities within the value chain.Support your answer with reference to case studies, articles and information of the chosen companies’ operation and strategic practice. Your answer should also be supported by diagrams of value chain that can effectively illustrate the specific activities of the chosen companies. Avoid using a generic value chain diagram. requirement The assignment must adhere to standard academic documentation standards. (Failure to do so will result in loss of marks in the Format, Citations and References criterion. ) * You are to write the citations and references following the Harvard System. You are required to use Times New Roman as the font type and 12 pts as the font size. * Vertical/line spacing should be 1. 5line spacing

Excel workbook Essay example

Excel workbook Essay example Excel workbook Essay example Tom Hopkins Akin 12/8/13 The Twinkie Failure, and How to Fix it What’s the problem? My article, ‘Hostess Twinkie Defense is a Management Failure’, spoke about the problems with Hostess’ approach to staying relevant and why their collapse was completely the managers fault. By discussing primitive cost-cutting techniques, the failure to adapt, and the managers’ inability to take blame, this article sheds a light on the primary influencers of the failure. The main problem made was the firm’s inability to adapt to the changing tastes of the market and their ineptitude of successfully marketing their products. Why did the Problem occur? This problem occurred for many reasons, as virtually no major problem has one cause. That being said, the main causes of this failure have to do with not being able to adapt to the market and act accordingly to the changes. By sitting back and only attempting to cut back on costs and work with a small margin of error the company left themselves very vulnerable to market shifts. The article compares Hostess’ problem to Sears’, which went through a similar problem -23 straight quarters of declining sales (Hartung)- of an inability to adapt. What is my Remedy? After reading through this article and looking at other examples found online I have developed some ideas and have come up with a remedy of my own to fix Hostess’ problems, and prevent them from coming back. As I have learned in all of my classes with Akin is that you need to know your customer base and be able to keep up with their ever-changing needs. I would devote more money to market research and hold more focus groups so that I could

Fetal Tissue essays

Fetal Tissue essays Fetal tissue research is a controversial issue in the United States. Both sides of the argument have found its way into the political arena; where it has recently become a campaign issue for the up coming presidential election. Fetal tissue research was banned during the 1980s, but thankfully in the early 1990s research for this potentially life saving research was reinstated. The argument for continued fetal tissue research is a strong one. Fetal tissue is from a human embryo in the very early stages of development. This tissue is so useful because the tissue at this stage of human development can form any tissue in the human body. These particular tissues are very useful to scientist trying to cure many neurological diseases and neurological conditions such as spaniel cord injures. Fetal tissue can also form cell for every structure in the human body. This can be used to grow organs for transplant patations, bone a connective tissue for arthritis suffers, and to replace nerve tissue through out the human body. Fetal tissue can be grown out side the human body; furthermore, at the stage of development fetal tissue is harvested no development has accrued beyond a cluster of cells; therefore, no cognatative ability is present. Although, fetal tissue can be harvested from aborted fetuses the future of fetal tissue research is through laboratory grow n fetal tissue. The issue of fetal tissue research raises many ethical questions in the United States. Many people believe no unborn human should be sacrificed no matter how promising fetal tissue research may seem to be. Unborn children deserve the same rights as any other citizen of this country. To the scientists involved on this highly immoral research, these tissues are just that, tissue, what they are forgetting is those cells have the ability to grow into a living breathing human being. Also, no fully developed human organ has ever been grown using ...

'In the appellate court of last resort a balance must be struck Essay

'In the appellate court of last resort a balance must be struck between the need on one side for the legal certainty resulting - Essay Example It has generally been observed that the pragmatic value of precedent gains prominence, whereas its justice seeking aspect tends to be overlooked. As such, precedent is the intersection between law and justice.2 In England and Australia, the highest courts tend to regard the decisions of their lower but superior courts as being highly persuasive. For instance, the highest court of Australia, namely the High Court of Australia accords considerable importance to the rulings made by the Supreme Courts of the various states. Precedent in its narrow sense, or the doctrine of stare decisis, denotes that the courts of appeal, in the normal course, consider themselves bound by their own rulings. 3 An important illustration of this is provided by the stance of the House of Lords till the year 1966. Prior to that year, their Lordships had considered their previous decisions to be sacrosanct, and had stated that they would not overrule them. This has changed, and the highest courts of Australia and the UK have now adopted the view that they would decide contrary to their previous rulings, provided there was a very strong reason for such departure. 4 Despite the promotion of certainty and consistency by the doctrine of precedent, it does suffer from some drawbacks. ... Even if the statements made in previous cases are clear, there could be confusion as to whether that statement had been a component of the ratio decidendi of that case.5 This makes it difficult to decide whether it had been binding or was just obiter dicta. Another major issue is the following. In Australia, appellate cases are usually heard by three judges in the Supreme Courts of the states. The corresponding number of judges is five in the High Court. It has been frequently observed that these judges will generally provide individual judgements. The result is several sets of legal reasons. Moreover, it is common for each judge to express opinions that differ from the other judges hearing the case. Such differences could have a critical impact upon subsequent cases. Consequently, it becomes very difficult to identify what is binding.6 Although it seems that the doctrine of precedent could hinder change and development in the law, this is only partially true. The development and cha nge in law is a continuous process, which is on the whole unspectacular. Precedent is not interpreted in a mechanical manner, and the extant law tends to be subjected to a continuous process of analysis and reinterpretation. Past events are reinterpreted by each generation, and this changes history. Similarly, the extant law undergoes continuous reinterpretation and is comprehended afresh.7 Thus, whenever, a superior court judge examines a disputed legal point and there is a reporting of the decision taken by the judge, a certain amount of change transpires in the totality of the common law. In Davis v Johnson,8 the substantive issues considered related to the degree of discretion bestowed upon county courts by section 1 of the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial

New Employment Relationship vs. the Manual Investment Approach Essay

New Employment Relationship vs. the Manual Investment Approach - Essay Example The new relationship that was now formed is one that employers give their employees challenging tasks, fixed salaries and opportunities to increase their expertise so that they can be benefit their businesses (Losey, Meisinger, & Ulrich 45). Therefore, this obligates employees to pay the employer with job performance, and this somehow undermines the employee commitment to the organization. This new relationship between employers and employees has changed from the loyal one that existed before globalization and increased competition, to one that based on economic exchanges. The authors urge organizations to uphold the mutual investment relationship so as to gain competitive advantage because workers will be committed to attaining the organizational goals. They argue that many organizations today are focused on achieving high profits and are not considering the welfare of their employees. I believe that organizations should take care of the needs of their employers and offer them job s ecurity. This will be a motivation for the workers to work hard and achieve the goals set by the organization because they are comfortable. Organizations need to invest in their employees because they are the ones who make the organization make profits and if everyone in the organization is catered for it will thrive. Research shows that the human resource department should take the responsibility of catering for the needs of their employees. Motivation of employees is key to success of any organization. Rewarding and giving employees benefits goes a long way in creating commitment to the job and this increases efficiency operations (Losey, Meisinger, & Ulrich 50). Job security and satisfaction are vital for any employee because it makes them comfortable in the job environment and they are able to undertake their duties efficiently (KnowWPC). Employers need to invest in their workers by offering benefits and training to improve their skills, so that efficacy in business operations c an be attained. This mutual investment employment relationship has been supported by other professionals in human resource as they see employee job security and skill advancement as vital in ensuring business success (S.R. de Silva 6). Chapter8: Life after Outsourcing: Lessons Learned and the Role of Human Resources as a Strategic Business Partner (Mirian M. Graddick-Weir) In the recent past, human resource management activities outsourcing has grown tremendously and more in the manufacturing and service industries. Outsourcing is in the payroll, benefits, recruiting and training sections of most organizations. The major reason for companies to outsource is because they have limited internal investment in the area of concern. Outsourcing is done in the light of ensuring business operations go on smoothly without interruptions because of lack of efficient resources to carry out assigned tasks (Losey, Meisinger, & Ulrich 71). However, it is evident that most organizations use outsourc ing to make use of external experts who will see that efficacy in operations is achieved. Emerging and already established organizations are continuously outsourcing various human resource activities from providers outside the business. Outsourcing is beneficial to the organization for various reasons, the