Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun (a medium with multiple content forms) or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, or interactivity content forms.
Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices, but can also be part of a live performance. Multimedia (as an adjective) also describes electronic media devices used to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is distinguished from mixed media in fine art; by including audio, for example, it has a broader scope. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia. Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application.
Animation which derived its name from the Latin word 'anima' meaning soul, can be defined as the art of breathing life to a character. A blend of entertainment industry and technology, it is concerned with design, drawing, layout and production of graphically rich and attractive multimedia clips. In other words animation is making of movies, games or cartoons by moving the drawings or models of animals or people with the help of computers or other electronic means. Time and space play a critical role in animation
The term "multimedia" was coined by singer and artist Bob Goldstein (later 'Bobb Goldsteinn') to promote the July 1966 opening of his "LightWorks at L'Oursin" show at Southampton, Long Island. Goldstein was perhaps aware of a British artist named Dick Higgins, who had two years previously discussed a new approach to art-making he called "intermedia."
On August 10, 1966, Richard Albarino of Variety borrowed the terminology, reporting: “Brainchild of songscribe-comic Bob (‘Washington Square’) Goldstein, the ‘Lightworks’ is the latest multi-media music-cum-visuals to debut as discothèque fare.” Two years later, in 1968, the term “multimedia” was re-appropriated to describe the work of a political consultant, David Sawyer, the husband of Iris Sawyer—one of Goldstein’s producers at L’Oursin.
In the 1993 first edition of McGraw-Hill’s Multimedia: Making It Work, Tay Vaughan declared “Multimedia is any combination of text, graphic art, sound, animation, and video that is delivered by computer. When you allow the user – the viewer of the project – to control what and when these elements are delivered, it is interactive multimedia. When you provide a structure of linked elements through which the user can navigate, interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia.”
The German language society, Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache, decided to recognize the word's significance and ubiquitousness in the 1990s by awarding it the title of 'Word of the Year' in 1995. The institute summed up its rationale by stating "[Multimedia] has become a central word in the wonderful new media world"
In common usage, the term multimedia refers to an electronically delivered combination of media including video, still images, audio, text in such a way that can be accessed interactively. Much of the content on the web today falls within this definition as understood by millions. Some computers which were marketed in the 1990s were called "multimedia" computers because they incorporated a CD-ROM drive, which allowed for the delivery of several hundred megabytes of video, picture, and audio data. That era saw also a boost in the production of educational multimedia application CD-ROMs.
Animation is a field that could be pursued by those who posses excellent creativity and drawing skills.
Animators are the talented artists who create characters for a variety of projects like movies, television, advertisements and so on. An animators task is to read the script carefully, study the storyboard and try to get into the character. In other words he needs to know and understand the character. Job opportunities are on the rise for an animator and they are in great demand, as it a growing industry and has become a popular feature in movies and advertising.
Creating an idea, developing it into a story script and giving technical assistance to it, are the procedures in making an animation. Besides the most commonly used animations , i.e two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D), there is also puppet animation,
clay animation , sand animation, vegetable animation etc. Both 2D and 3D animation can be created digitally. Two-dimensional images are shallow in appearance, while three-dimensional images have a feel of depth to them, thus making them look more real.
Cel or 2Danimation : Also known as classical animation, 2 dimensional animation deals more with drawing and framing and is the base of 3D animation. 2D animators work mostly on paper, creating frames to define a sequence that are then moved at varying speeds to create the illusion of motion. The process involves creating large number of drawings, and scanning them into the computer and importing them into the software that helps in setting the timing and layers for the scanned sequence of images. Toonz Harlequin, Adobe Flash, CelAction, Anime Studio, Toon Boom Animation, Animaker are some of the software's used for creating 2D animation characters
character design, 3D animators deal with modeling, rendering, texturing and
Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices, but can also be part of a live performance. Multimedia (as an adjective) also describes electronic media devices used to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is distinguished from mixed media in fine art; by including audio, for example, it has a broader scope. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia. Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application.
Every one knows Donald Duck, Tom and Jerry and Stuart little that always delight and entertain us. Do you know how these characters were born and how it is possible to create wonders with the art of drawing. And the answer is 'animation'- one of the fastest growing growin industry in Multi media and Animation are among the major hunted jobs of the 21st century. Multimedia alias multiple media as the name suggests is an enormous field that uses more than one medium of communication. It is an art that merges text, images, graphics, animation, audio and video to create virtual magic. Animation is only a component of multimedia.
The art of animation started with the cavemen who used to draw pictures on the rock surfaces. Though animation was formally demonstrated in 1828 by a Frenchman, Paul Roget, the first animated film 'Humorous phases of funny faces' by J. Stuart Blackton was made in 1906 by drawing comical faces on a blackboard, photographing them, and then erasing it to draw another stage of the facial expression. It was in 1914, that the first cartoon named 'Gertie, the Dinosaur' by Winsor McCay, consisting of 10,000 drawings, was shown as a film in the theaters. In the early twenties, traditional techniquestechniques were developed and more sophisticated cartoons were produced. It was during this time that Warner Bros and WaltDisney Studio came to exist.Computer Animation, started during seventies and eighties, had a greater impact and with the passage of time, more and more advanced techniques were developed.
Animation which derived its name from the Latin word 'anima' meaning soul, can be defined as the art of breathing life to a character. A blend of entertainment industry and technology, it is concerned with design, drawing, layout and production of graphically rich and attractive multimedia clips. In other words animation is making of movies, games or cartoons by moving the drawings or models of animals or people with the help of computers or other electronic means. Time and space play a critical role in animation
The term "multimedia" was coined by singer and artist Bob Goldstein (later 'Bobb Goldsteinn') to promote the July 1966 opening of his "LightWorks at L'Oursin" show at Southampton, Long Island. Goldstein was perhaps aware of a British artist named Dick Higgins, who had two years previously discussed a new approach to art-making he called "intermedia."
On August 10, 1966, Richard Albarino of Variety borrowed the terminology, reporting: “Brainchild of songscribe-comic Bob (‘Washington Square’) Goldstein, the ‘Lightworks’ is the latest multi-media music-cum-visuals to debut as discothèque fare.” Two years later, in 1968, the term “multimedia” was re-appropriated to describe the work of a political consultant, David Sawyer, the husband of Iris Sawyer—one of Goldstein’s producers at L’Oursin.
In the intervening forty years, the word has taken on different meanings. In the late 1970s the term was used to describe presentations consisting of multi-projector slide shows timed to an audio track. However, by the 1990s 'multimedia' took on its current meaning.
In the 1993 first edition of McGraw-Hill’s Multimedia: Making It Work, Tay Vaughan declared “Multimedia is any combination of text, graphic art, sound, animation, and video that is delivered by computer. When you allow the user – the viewer of the project – to control what and when these elements are delivered, it is interactive multimedia. When you provide a structure of linked elements through which the user can navigate, interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia.”
The German language society, Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache, decided to recognize the word's significance and ubiquitousness in the 1990s by awarding it the title of 'Word of the Year' in 1995. The institute summed up its rationale by stating "[Multimedia] has become a central word in the wonderful new media world"
In common usage, the term multimedia refers to an electronically delivered combination of media including video, still images, audio, text in such a way that can be accessed interactively. Much of the content on the web today falls within this definition as understood by millions. Some computers which were marketed in the 1990s were called "multimedia" computers because they incorporated a CD-ROM drive, which allowed for the delivery of several hundred megabytes of video, picture, and audio data. That era saw also a boost in the production of educational multimedia application CD-ROMs.
Animation is a field that could be pursued by those who posses excellent creativity and drawing skills.
Animators are the talented artists who create characters for a variety of projects like movies, television, advertisements and so on. An animators task is to read the script carefully, study the storyboard and try to get into the character. In other words he needs to know and understand the character. Job opportunities are on the rise for an animator and they are in great demand, as it a growing industry and has become a popular feature in movies and advertising.
Creating an idea, developing it into a story script and giving technical assistance to it, are the procedures in making an animation. Besides the most commonly used animations , i.e two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D), there is also puppet animation,
clay animation , sand animation, vegetable animation etc. Both 2D and 3D animation can be created digitally. Two-dimensional images are shallow in appearance, while three-dimensional images have a feel of depth to them, thus making them look more real.
Cel or 2Danimation : Also known as classical animation, 2 dimensional animation deals more with drawing and framing and is the base of 3D animation. 2D animators work mostly on paper, creating frames to define a sequence that are then moved at varying speeds to create the illusion of motion. The process involves creating large number of drawings, and scanning them into the computer and importing them into the software that helps in setting the timing and layers for the scanned sequence of images. Toonz Harlequin, Adobe Flash, CelAction, Anime Studio, Toon Boom Animation, Animaker are some of the software's used for creating 2D animation characters
Computer generated Imagery or 3D animation: 3D or three-dimensional animation, which has more depth and is more realistic, are a series of images/ objects created using computers or any other digital media. In addition to the skills in drawing, composition and
character design, 3D animators deal with modeling, rendering, texturing and
lighting. The texture, lighting and colour of the 3D objects are modified using software programmes and virtual cameras are used to focus, resize, zoom and illuminate the figures. This digital animation has the power to create effects not possible with Classical animation. Film, advertising, video and gaming are the fast growing fields for 3D animation. This technique makes extensive use of animation software programmes like 3ds Max (Autodesk), Softimage|XSI (Avid), MAYA (Autodesk) etc.
It could also find in the other areas like advertising, web graphics to create websites and all.
Job Prospects & Career OptionsA strong portfolio of work is an essential part of landing a job in Computer Animation and becoming an animator. Numerous job opportunities are available in India as well as abroad in the exciting field of animation. It opens the door to film industries such as Hollywood, which is the world of special effects and imagery for films. Specialized computer knowledge and skills are essential for various jobs in the field of animation.
It is a booming industry with wide job openings and one can work on full length animation movies or any other related fields like television, advertising industry etc. An Animated feature film, which offers considerable employment prospects, is a combined talented effort of a wide variety of artists. A typical animation film requires around 500 animators. Some of the jobs offered in the industry are :
• Content developer
• Modeler - Modeler is the one who makes the models for animation. They should have a solid understanding of anatomy, form and volume.
• Story Broad Artist - Those with strong drawing skills could be hired as storyboard artists who can visualize a sequence of events from frame to frame.
• Character animator- They brings characters to life and generally has knowledge of traditional animators, stop-motion animation as well as claymation
• Background artist- The background artist is the person who specialises to paint the background of the characters and sets the background for the project.
• Layout artist- layout artist is just like a cinematographer of that animation project as they are decides the lighting and camera angles and he is sketching the background design for the animation.
• 2D animator - They involves the creation of a high volume of separate drawings that define a sequence.
• In-between animator- In between animator one can learn all the basics of animation and it is the beginning position of an animator.
• Scanner operator-The scanner operator does the scanning of the clean up artist’s
drawings.
• Compositing artist - Compositing consists of layering individual frames of animation on top of one another to create final images. These images are then strung together to create complete shots or mini animated movies.
• Special effects artist - They integrate live-action footage with Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) or other elements (such as model work)
• Audio & video specialist
• Visualiser
• Texture artist - They applies a surface to the 3D modeled character, object or environment.
• Rigging artist - A rigging artist takes the modeled, textured 3D character or object and sets it up with a skeletal system or joints (if required). Without this step, the 3D model would not be able to animate, talk or move fluidly and correctly.
• Clean-up artist- The clean up artist checks the accuracy and consistency of the designs and drawings. To be a good clean up artist, he should have good draft-man skill with the knowledge of density, width, volume and mass.
• Lighting artist - They create variations of shade, colour intensity and shadows
Digital ink and paint artist- It is the duty of a digital ink and paint artist to give colours to each frame.
Compositor- It is the compositor brings together all the different characters and backgrounds in to single frame.
• Editor • Key frame animator- Key frame animator draws the pictures of a movement’s beginning and end.
• Rendering artist - They take all the data in a scene such as models, textures, animation, lighting, etc and output the correct combination in the form of individual frames of animation.
• 3D animator - They takes the sculpted, textured and rigged 3D model and breathes life into it. This is done by putting in order the key frames such that they appear to be in motion.
• Image Editor - They assembles various visual and audio components of the film into a coherent and effective whole
Website designing, CD-Rom production, graphics designing and three-dimensional product modeling are some other fields where animators can gain employment. Though entertainment through film and television is the main area of application in this profession, animation is also needed in other areas like business, sales, engineering, education and advertising. It has chances in fashion designing and interior designing and even in medical, legal and insurance companies for their presentations and models. The gaming industry that includes video and mobile games are looking forward for good animators. Some animation institutions appoint students for teaching assistance, so they can take ir career in to teaching profession also.Animators could even find jobs at print media and publishing firms. Free lance work is another option for animators, particularly those specializing in web animation.
India has over 300 animation studios employing over 12,000 animation professionals. Besides this, Indian companies are creating a number of animated films and cartoons for US and European studios. There fore the chances for good creative animators never ends.
Nature of Work :
Creating an animation consists of idea development, pre-production, production and post-production. The characters are created in idea development. In pre-production, the ideas are converted into layouts. Scriptwriting, storyboarding, character development, backgrounds, layout designing, animatics and voice comes under per-production. The actual result of the story can be visualised in the production stage which is a blend of animation, in-betweening or tweening (i.e the creation of intermediate frames between two main images to give the appearance that the first image flows smoothly into the second one), scanning, compositing (i.e combining images from different sources to create a finished frame of animation), background preparation and colouring. Final sound recordings, colour editing, testing and special sound effects are all added at the post-production stage. Post production stage activities includes editing, special effects (SFX), colour correction, compositing, voice and music editing and rendering. Rendering is the final touches to an animation scene, in which the data is converted to the raster image or animation
Remuneration:-The good salary is the most attractive part of this profession. With in years these professionals can earn six-digit salary. As a junior animator or trainee one could get between Rs.10000- 15000 per month. A three to five year experienced animator will get 25000 to 40000. And a well-experienced animator who has a good portfolio of excellent animation work could easily get 50000- 60000 per month.
