IMBRAT’Z MULTIMEDIA

Author: Spengs

The San Diego Comicon has been pretty good, so far.  Entertainment News International has promotional clips for both Transformers Animated and The Spectacular Spider-Man.  Both look exceptionally good, to me.

Transformers Animated has me hyped the most.  The animation for the show is being done by Mook Studios, better known for their work on Swat Kats and Eureka Seven.  As you can see in the clip, the animation is extremely fluid and pleasing.  The promotional image posted above has a few new faces on it, namely the Decepticons.  From left to right you can see: Starscream, Blackarachnia, Blitzwing (with an awesome Colonal Klink motif going), Lugnutz and Megatron.  For those not in the know, the Autobots featured from left to right are: Ratchet, Prowl, Optimus Prime, Bulkhead and Bumblebee.

Spectacular Spider-Man looks mighty fine, too.  The show’s head writer is Greg Weisman, better known as the creator of Disney’s Gargoyles, one of the most outstanding animated programs ever conceived, so I have high hopes for this series.  And as you can tell by the clip, there will be villains-a-plenty in this show.

I’d say that right now is a very good time to be a Transformers and Spider-Man fan.

© Tim Lasiuta

Comic strip and book creators do not just fade away. They move on, and often never realize just how much we appreciate their work. This is your chance.
Viewed from my corner of the collecting field, illustrated mediums have got the short end of the stick. Whether it’s comic books, comic strips, or the graphic novel, story telling has become a lost art, and the practishoners, under appreciated.

That statement is not entirely true though, select creators have been singled out for acclaim, but they have had to stray out of the ‘juvenile’ formats. To keep work loads up, an out of work comic book artist was ‘in advertising’, or an ‘illustrator’. Respected creators like Jerry Robinson, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Frank Miller, Frank Brunner, Creig Flessel, and even Harvey Pekar turned to storyboards, and advertising to practise their craft.

Jerry Robinson made his mark in comic books in the early 1940’s on Batman with Kane and Finger, but left an indelible mark with his Creators and Writers Syndicate. Recently, he has been honored with entry into the Comic Book Hall of Fame. Morton Walker, has been prolific in cartooning since the late 1940’s, and his leadership role in the National Cartoonists Society has led to his legacy, the museum he has nurtured for over a decade now will open in the Empire State Building in 2007. Not only has he been behind Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, and Boners Ark, but he has written screenplays, and published over 50 books. Neal Adams has turned Continuity Associates into an international success story. Lew Sayre Schwartz ghosted Bob Kane during the 1950’s, and turned to film production, earning numerous Emmy nominations over the years. The prolific Will Eisner, who started his career in the 1930’s taught, produced work for the army, and mentored many students until his death in 2005.

Sheer talent is not enough. Drive is not enough. Timing is not enough. The term ’starving’ artist is more than accurate at times, yet it is what drives us creative types to produce. Pay us $200 a page, we’ll get by on fewer pages. Pay us $75, we’ll work just as hard, but produce twice as much. Appreciate us, and we’ll work like dogs and make sure you’re satisfied.

Back to the point of this piece. Writing, drawing, coloring, lettering, selling (our work) is WORK. Doing columns like this is WORK. Sometimes the ideas flow. Sometimes not. What makes it easier is the little things like fan letters. Having recently written many to comic strip artists, and writers, the most common comment I get and am told is that they are glad that people remember, and that fans make them like their work was important. The late Tom Gill told me that he was always surprised that people remembered.

How do you find these folks?

Glad you asked. Often you can find their addresses through their own websites, or companies like DC and Marvel. They do forward mail. If you want to get hold of comic strip artists, write to the syndicates. They will get their mail. Look for email addresses on the strips. If you have an idea of where they live, check 411.com, that works too.

As another way to help out the artist and writers is buy their work. Look for it at the various bookstores, online at their websites, or check out ACTOR. ACTOR supports those men and women who have produced the art we have seen for years and are not now financially stable.

Some email addresses that will help are:

www.creators.com

www.kingfeatures.com

www.unitedsyndicate.com

www.dccomics.com

www.marvel.com

www.darkhorse.com

www.ncs.com

www.ACTOR.org

www.accomics.com

These are only a few….search away. The men and women who make us laugh, cry, and shake our head in wonder will appreciate your words.

I remain,

A Fan of the genre.

Tim Lasiuta

3 Questions a Small Business Owner
Should Ask Themselves When Considering Multimedia
By: Patricia Schmal and Mark J. Jaklovsky,
Polar Design (www.polardesign.com)

Multimedia is known to be an effective tool for educating and entertaining. It’s no wonder that many businesses large or small want to use it for a variety of reasons: employee training, sales presentations, to educate consumers, communication, etc. An article on INC.com stated that, "A survey conducted by Business Research Group found [small businesses] that were developing multimedia applications most often used them for presentations." (Mangeldorf, 1997) Presentations are usually used for product launches or as a complimentary sales tool. As a small business there are certain situations where using multimedia is appropriate and others where it’s not.

The first question you should ask yourself is, "Can my business benefit from multimedia?" There are a variety of factors that can influence the benefits of multimedia. First, think about your audience. Are you marketing to a young group of consumers? A 1997 article discussing how "The exposure of American children to TVs, videos and computers has accustomed them to multi-sensory stimulation in the development of their learning capabilities," illustrates that multi mediums are the best way to help them learn (Golden, 1997). Therefore, multimedia would be a good way to target a young audience. Also, marketing to a broad range of people can influence the benefits of multimedia. If your market consists of various levels of education, multimedia presentations can help get your message across because it uses more than one sense. For instance, those who perhaps are not very literate could understand the message you are trying to communicate by listening to voiceovers.

A second factor that influences the benefits of multimedia is the type of product/service your business offers. A business that provides videography/photography services would benefit from multimedia in a couple of different ways. They could use this to display much of their work, especially if they provide digital photography services. A second example that can help you understand whether your product/service will benefit from multimedia is to compare a business selling an LCD TV to a business selling a new ball point pen. If you are an internet retailer selling a new brand of pens the same idea will reach the consumer regardless and more cost effectively by using static text and images. Also, it’s highly unlikely a consumer is willing to invest their time into watching such an interactive and elaborate presentation on ball point pens. Then again, if you are a business selling an LCD TV, a consumer will be willing to invest their time in educating themselves on such a high-ticket item. Not only could a multimedia presentation benefit the business online by providing the consumer with a 3D view of the TV, but when a consumer visits the retailer to purchase it they could view the multimedia presentation on the same LCD TV they are considering. In this case multimedia offers several benefits.

Quality is another factor that influences the benefits of multimedia. In relation to the videography/photography service example you can understand how quality may benefit a small business like this. It is important for a photographer to establish a sophisticated and professional image. High-quality multimedia can provide this to a small business such as a photographer. Vice versa, a small business that is looking to target the consumer with a small pocket may benefit from a lower-quality multimedia presentation where as a high-quality presentation may intimidate the customer.

While quality can also influence the benefits of multimedia it also has an influence in costs, as do many other factors. There is a direct relationship between quality and costs. Other issues influencing costs are: length of multimedia, voiceover & sound production, 3D vs. 2D animation, and production speed. Each of these factors can influence costs based on your specific production needs.

The second question that you should ask yourself, as with any investment: "Will the benefits of multimedia exceed the costs?" In this context, the "benefits" can refer to increased conversion of sales leads to customers, while the costs include design, programming, and hosting. In some ways cutting costs can lead to greater return. For example, a small architecture firm would benefit from 3D animation where in they could display a new or current project. A small business which doesn’t have many resources that larger corporations do could outsource this 3D design for a multimedia presentation. Therefore, the business would benefit but costs would be lower. . In this example cutting costs can lead to a greater return. However, in other situations where the benefit really depends on quality, cutting costs can have the opposite effect. If the firm were to rely on lower quality design or 2D design clients may not feel as confident in their investment because 2D doesn’t give them the perspective that 3D can. Therefore, a client may have trouble picturing what the actual structure will be like. As a result, a client may resort to a firm that provides this type of design. Not only would this result in a lower return on investment but also possibly lost revenue. After reviewing the costs and benefits of choosing multimedia one should ask, "Based on our expected benefit, how much are we really ready to invest into the cost of multimedia?" Does the company have enough working capital to support employment of multimedia? If you don’t have the cash flow, how will you finance your investment? Be aware, the last thing you want to do is invest a good deal of money into a mediocre multimedia presentation.

Due to the costs of multimedia it is vital for you, a small business owner to consider your goals and objectives to determine whether or not to utilize multimedia. By asking yourself a few questions and assessing your goals and objectives, you can feel confident in your investment.

Resources
Golden, B., (1997, October) A glimpse of possibilities. Techniques, 19. Retrieved August 5, 2004, from Infotrac Web: Gen’l Refrence Ctr Gold.

Mangelsdorf, M.E. (1994, November) In the Vanguard: Putting Multimedia to Work. INC Magazine. Retrieved January 17, 2004, from http://www.pf.inc.com/magazine/19941101/3199.html

In 3D game animation, the character model that is applied to a bone structure is called a skin. The skin should be one combined object with no overlapping parts. You can think of the skin as a glove that is placed over a hand. The glove doesn’t move when it is off the hand, but when the fingers are moved underneath, the glove moves and bends along with the fingers. If there are any holes in the glove, they get stretched open as the fingers move. The same works for a skin over a bone structure.

Skinning a character
Character models typically are created one part at a time, but to make a model into a skin, you need to combine all parts into a single object. If the model consists of any groups, you should dissolve these groups. Objects still can be attached to the skin, but all parts of the skin that move with the bones need to be able to bend and flex.

After a skin is attached to a skeleton, the second part of skinning is to make sure that the skin deforms well when the bones are moved. Each bone has an influence volume that defines the portions of the skin that moves with the bone. If these influence volumes are incorrect, then the skin can deform unrealistically when the bone is moved.

For example, if the influence volume for the upper arm includes part of the side of the character, then rotating the upper arm pulls the character’s side out as the arm is raised, causing a funny-looking bump. To control these deformations, you can precisely control the influence volume. Attaching a skin to a skeleton

After a bone structure is created, it can be attached to the character skin that has already been created.

Some software programs make this a separate step, and others simply require that the bones be positioned within the skin.

Follow these steps to attach a skin to a bone structure in Maya:

1. Choose File –> Open Scene, and open the IK enabled.mb file.

This file is the same file that was saved at the end of the preceding example. Be sure to move the bones back into place before attaching the skin.

2. Select the character model, press and hold the Shift key, and select the pelvis bone. Then choose the Skin –> Bind Skin –> Smooth Bind menu command.

The skin is now attached to the bone structure, so moving any of the bones moves the character model with the bone.

3. Select the ankle joint with the IK chain attached, and move the ankle forward in the Front view. Then select and rotate one of the arms about its upper arm joint.

With the skin binding in place, the character model moves along with the bone movements.

4. Select the File –> Save Scene As menu command, and save the file. Close the file when you are finished.

Setting a bone’s influence
Surrounding each bone is an influence volume (called an envelope in several animation packages) that you can control. The skin that is within this volume moves along with the underlying bone, and the skin that is included in overlapping influence volumes are the areas of the skin where the bending is most extreme, such as at the elbow.

The influence volume is initially set to surround each bone, and the closer the bone matches the skin for each body part, the more accurate the influence volumes are. If any portion of the skin isn’t included within any influence area, then that portion of the skin is left behind when its bones are moved.

Influence volumes can be altered using controls to increase their radius on either end of the bone.

Another way to control which skin parts deform with the underlying bone is to paint the skin vertices using a paint brush. Select a bone and then paint the weight. Different colors depict the skin vertices’ influence. It is important to have a gradual change between skin influences so that the skin moves realistically.

Adding deformations to create muscle bulges
Another aspect of working with the skin object is that you can define deformations based on bone positions. This provides a way to make muscles bulge. For example, deforming the bicep muscle to bulge when the angle between upper and lower arm bones is shortened is a realistic deformation that you’d expect from a realistic character.