Moving Backgrounds Enhance Your Videoblog, DVD, Website and More!

Computer generated animation, stock video footage and moving backgrounds are part of a rapidly growing industry! Whether as backgrounds for live action or interaction, the computer enables authors and producers to make their products more exciting, interesting and marketable than ever before. You-Tube is a great place to find examples of computer graphics and animation as intros, backgrounds, or transitions.

It is becoming increasingly popular with seasoned professional film and commercial makers as well as the amateurs and do-it-yourself videographers and videobloggers to use moving backgrounds and computer animation in their projects. Vision and creativity are the keys to success with computer animation, as they are with the older forms of entertainment. Schools and training facilities are springing up all over the world to help the prospective video makers to perfect their craft. This rapidly growing industry is evolving as it goes along, with new ideas and techniques being developed almost every day.

In the "information age" it is important to present the information or entertainment in the most exciting and innovative way possible. Whether you're selling an old brand of shoes or the newest software, advertising is the key... and computer animation, moving backgrounds and stock videos are all part of the key. Whether the project is destined to sell a million items, entertain a million viewers or just entertain your friends and family, technology is there to make it happen. Hardware and software are available in both commercial and shareware types so your vacation clips can be as professional and polished as the latest big screen production. Not too many years ago, special effects and moving backgrounds were something that was only found in big budget motion pictures and some television programming.

Today, moving backgrounds are everywhere - from reality TV shows, game shows and almost every single commercial - they all use some form of moving background or computer animation. Now it's right at your fingertips too. Anyone can create impressive, exciting new projects as easily as moving a mouse! Moving backgrounds, computer animation and stock video is available for everyone to try and for some people it will be the open doorway to the future. All the possibilities that you can imagine are at your fingertips, just waiting for you to reach out and give them a try! With the hardware and software available to consumers today, you can produce professional quality video productions - commercials, documentaries, videoblogs, dvd's and more - right from the comfort of your own desk!

Computer technologies have come a long way and the only thing holding them back is human imagination. Stock videos, computer animation and moving backgrounds are the latest thing in the creative arts and are widely being adopted by consumers in every area of multimedia - from website flash animations to You-Tube intro and transitional video. You can quickly and easily add a professional touch to your next video project with the thousands of moving backgrounds, stock videos and computer animations available on the internet for little or no cost. Jus do a search on 'moving backgrounds' to get started with computer animation in your next project!

Author Info:

Denard Springle is a Web Application Developer and Amateur Videographer who produces and promotes his free and low cost computer animation and moving backgrounds on his website at http://www.dvdmenubacks.com/. You can also preview the latest moving backgrounds he's authored on Blip.tv at http://dvdmenubacks.blip.tv.

Tips on Pencil Portrait Drawing - The Photograph

The first challenge you will face with any portrait commission is acquiring a suitable subject photograph from your customer. This subject could be a person, a pet, or a building. Now is the time and place in the pencil portrait commission process to be assertive. You should always insist on certain minimum requirements regarding the quality of the photograph. Otherwise, you are certain to fail in your pencil portrait drawing effort.

Naturally, the better the quality of the photograph the better chance you have of producing an excellent portrait. Although most customers understand this, you would be astounded to see how many awful pictures I have received. There are many reasons for this. For example, some customers only have a picture taken with a throw-away camera or have only an old fuzzy wedding picture of their parents. This will not do, unless there is a clear understanding with your customer prior to starting the drawing.

From experience, I can tell you that if the photograph is bad, i.e., insufficiently resolved, you are doomed to failure and you will not be able to produce a good likeness. Consequently, you will have an unhappy customer who often questions your skills instead of the quality of their picture. To avoid such situations, here are a few guidelines.

* If your customer has a digital photograph, insist on .jpg format and a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch).

* When the picture is still to be taken, insist on the use of a 5 mega-pixel digital camera or higher and make sure your customer sends you the unaltered version (no cropping or resizing) of the photo.

* If the customer only has a paper photo (often an old one) ask them, if possible, to scan it into their computer and email it to you first. This will give you the opportunity to judge the quality of the photo before they snail mail you the original. Here again, you must insist on an acceptably high resolution.

Here are a few more suggestions you may want to convey to your customer:

* For paper photographs, insist on a minimum head size of 2.5 to 3.5 inches, measured from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin. Smaller sizes are much harder to work with.

* Tell your customer to avoid posed subjects with unnaturally large smiles. In fact, casual unsmiling poses often make for more convincing portraits.

* If the picture is still to be taken, advise your customer not to use the flash. The flash tends to do away with the natural shadows which are very important in a pencil portrait drawing. Also, lighting coming from the side from one light source is a nice bonus.

* If possible, have your customer send you several photos of the subject, including some close-ups. This will give you a much better idea of the unique qualities and personality of the subject. It also will reveal many of the small details that are often crucial in achieving a good likeness of the subject.

* For group portraits, insist not only on a group photo but also on separate photos of each of the subjects. This will allow you to produce a more pleasing montage or collage of the group.

* If all else fails and if possible, take the subject photographs yourself.

Of course, in practice, we often may have to settle with less. And you actually can often do with less. However, what you cannot do without is acceptably high resolution. From experience, I can tell you that there is no way around this. A fuzzy photograph will not do unless your customer wants a fuzzy image on purpose and is only interested in the artistic qualities of the rendering and not in a good likeness.

Author Info:

Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter. Samples of Remi's pencil portraits and other articles can be found at Remi's Pencil Portraits

African Tribal Art Becoming Popular

African tribal art, so very unique and exciting, is becoming more and more popular and is regarded by art lovers all over the world as one of the most sought after collectibles or gifts. It can be used to tell a story. Collectors of African tribal art know that there are African masks and figures with cotton or woven fibers mostly made out of wood. The creation and usage for ceremonial or ritual purposes was widespread in Africa. For collectors it is the spiritual and the aesthetic aspect that makes the art, for us especially the masks and figures so interesting. We believe in the miracle in African tribal art. African art, African tribal masks, African masks, African spears all make for an interesting collection. In addition, an ever-growing demand for rapidly disappearing original African tribal art makes it a sound investment. It is considered amongst the finest creations in the art world. Many antique stores offer authentic collectors pieces and unique African art. Because it is hand-made, no two items will be exactly the same. It can be a truly unique and rewarding addition to your home.

The origin of the immense spectrum is found in all objects: masks, headdresses, statues and figures, fetish, dolls, architectural objects, weapons, vessels and musical instruments they all originate from different sources. The family of this charismatic ethnologist specialized in African tribal art already at the beginning of the last century. There are far more masks than the types from the former colonies which are ever so popular in Europe. The underlining idea of this project is that what we call art in general is an epiphany of mankind and human life as a whole, as such it can indeed be regarded as an effective and enlightening shortcut bringing us back upstream to contemplate the forces of the dark, primeval roots of mankind, our roots. The art tells how each tribe embeds the religion and culture of the African tribes people.

Creating your own collection can be very challenging. Unlike European painting or sculpture, style does not greatly change over the years. Once you get started researching African tribal art, you will come to the realization that there is not one single word to describe this genre of artwork. If your African tribal art has spiritual meaning, be sure to know something about its religious significance and how it is possibly used in a ceremony. European artists in search of new means of expression discovered them in this type of art, altering the course of twentieth century painting and sculpture.

Author Info:

A fine selection of authentic African tribal art, African Masks. Antique African statues. Ancient African artifacts and Tribal art. Pottery and Tribal figurines.

http://www.worldwidestore.com/ASegyptU4.htm

How to Draw Cars

I don't think there is one person out there that with a car interest who hasn't had great ideas for a car design. It's like we have it in our head and we can almost see the whole designed car in front of us, yet once we try to apply this car to a sheet of paper, it more often than not ends up in the trash.

With this article, I want to try to help you on how to draw cars the right way. First let's start with what you need: one pencil, one eraser, a sheet of paper, some kind of picture or real car to use as reference and one ice cold beer, or ok let's skip the beer!

Once you got all the above mentioned things, it's time to start...it's time to once for all get that great design of yours into that paper!

Take a good look on that reference picture you got...try to just focus on the car itself (although that can be very hard if there is a babe in there, if there is, get another reference picture). Once you have stared at the car long enough, try to put some easy touch pencil lines on your paper, make these lines represent the general shape of the car. Lots of people think that the best way to draw a car is to simply start at the corner and work your way through, this is wrong! It's like building a house from one corner and just work from there...no you need a good foundation for the whole house and then you apply step by step. The same goes for how to draw a car. These are the steps I usually take and would advise you to do as well:

1. General shape of the car, just a few lines that covers the whole body. Don't try to add fancy mirrors and wheels etc...this you do later!

2. Add shapes that will represent the wheels. This is where you separate the pros with the babies, pros don't give up on their shapes until they are perfect. Babies draw the wheels and after one or two tries, they will move on the next step (thinking that the wheels will somehow magically get better by themselves). I will tell you that the wheels are the hardest part of the whole car drawing and if you don't get them right, it will not matter if the rest of the car looks good.

3. Get more details like the windows, doors, headlights etc.

4. Now add more details, starting adding the small stuff like air-intake, mirrors, door-handles etc.

5. If it all looks good, then go back to those wheels of yours again and look at them and spend some more time on perfecting them.

6. Now you should have a car on that sheet of paper. If you don't you probably took that ice cold beer that I told you not to take. If you can see a car and it looks good...then start adding shadows. The best way to add correct shadows when you draw a car is to imagine that the light is coming from somewhere on your paper and then make a little mark there...then start adding darker shadows from wherever that mark cannot "reach".

7. Now you're pretty much done huh...well not really, go back to those wheels, ask someone for their honest opinion, what they think of the wheels. If it's all good then you can be very proud of your new fantastic car drawing.

If you are still reading, you have either mastered the skill "How to draw a car", or you have to much time on your hands and if you do, chances are you will become a great artist if you just use that time wisely, it's not about talent, it's about patience and hard work!

Author Info:

Lukas Niklasson is the associated editor to the website How to draw cars, a website dedicated to car drawings. Lukas himself submit new drawings very often, and since year 2008, hundreds of visitors has submitted theirs. Check it out!

Getting the Film Look From Video

Getting the film look from video has always been considered the "Holy Grail" for video directors.

The fact of the matter is that film will never look exactly like video and vice-versa (although new cameras and systems such as the RED are getting extremely close). They are two completely different things. 90% of making your video look like film happens before it comes into the camera.

However there are a couple of items to bear in mind when trying for the Holy Grail, 4 in fact.

The four items are:

1. Frame your shot well

2. Light your shot well

3. Use shallow depth of field

4. Shoot at 24FPS (or as near as you can).

If you can do these 4 things for every shot then you will have video that looks infinitely better than 99% of the stuff that appears on Youtube.

For a really interesting demonstration and discussion about 'film look from video' (or, more accurately, what is it that you have to do to make a film look like video), listen to the directors commentary of Cloverfield with Matt Reeves. He had the opposite problem in that he had professional cameramen who had to 'un-learn' what they knew to make the footage they shot look like it was amateur video

Frame Your Shot well

Well framed shots use what's know as 'The Rule of Thirds'. The theory is that if you split your frame into three both horizontally and vertically the action should occur where the lines meet.Putting the action at the intersection of the 'rule of third' lines creates a more interesting framing than putting it in the centre.

This applies to amateurs shooting video - if you're Spielberg shooting 'Saving Private Ryan' you can have as much extraneous movement as you want - even if it does make your audience sick

The other secret with framing is to make sure you only show the absolute minimum you have to in order to tell the story. Frame things as tight as you can. Don't have extraneous movement of the camera.

Light your shot well.

Lighting makes more difference to a movie than almost anything else (Actually sound makes a big difference as well), so make sure you use light properly. Look at Youtube and find a well shot film. Chances are the good shots are all lit in the same way. The subject is well illuminated and the scene looks like you would expect it to be in a film. This is through the use of creative lighting techniques (know as '3 point lighting') to isolate the subject, light the subject and provide a mood. A lot of this can be altered in post production, but there is no substitute for actually having good quality footage to start with.

Use Shallow Depth of field

One of the key differences between film and video is the use of focus. A shot which has the subject in sharp focus and the background blurred is automatically assumed to be more 'filmic' than one where everything is in focus (although this is not always the case as 'Citizen Kane' is a movie that has almost all the movie in ultra sharp focus at all points). This is known as depth of field.

Video cameras generally have a deeper depth of field (i.e more things in focus) because of a technical matter to do with the size of the chip that actually records the image. In a 35MM camera the effective area is larger than on a video CCD and therefore depth of field is more easily achieved.

If you want your image to have good depth of field there are ways to cheat this in video. One is simple, cheap and easy. The other is simple, expensive and complicated.

Quick, cheap and easy: Move your camera back and away from your subject, zoom the lens in and focus on the subject. This changes the framing and thereby gives the effect of blurring the background. It doesn't always work well, and it's not for every situation, but when it works it's very effective.

This has two effects:

1) It changes the composition of the photograph so that the picture may show something in the foreground that isn't there in the previous shot.
2) It appears to show that the background (and foreground object) are less sharp and more blurry than the subject of the photo. This is the shallow depth of field. In reality the depth of field is the same (all things being equal) it's just that it appears to be out of focus because of the way the perspective has changed.

Quick, expensive and complicated.
Use a 35MM adaptor. A 35MM adaptor is something put on front of your camera to fool it into thinking it is film rather than video. These adaptors are expensive, sometimes unwieldy and often produce upside-down images that need to be flipped in your editor.

Don't go thinking that a 35MM adaptor is not for your cheap video camera. They can be bought (or rented) for quite a few consumer camera's now.

Now's here the kicker. The rig attached to a cheap video camera costs well over the price of the camera itself. Some are cheaper, others are more expensive, but they are all extra bits that you need to carry around to get your picture looking 'filmic'. Oh, and they also reduce the actual amount of light reaching the camera's ccd chip so you'l need more light on your scene.

With a rig like this you can get good, shallow depth of field by using 35mm lenses in place of the 'not so excellent' one attached to your camcorder.

Use 24fps

Film is a medium which exposes an image to your eye 24 times per second. Your brain fills in the gaps and makes smooth motion of what you see.

For UK based folks have you ever wondered why news footage from the US looks 'different' to news footage from here? One reason is the different colour system they use (PAL vs NTSC), but another is the different frame rates

Video - being electronic based - is constrained quite a lot by the frequency at which the circuits are being used. This means that UK based video's take 25 frames per second (FPS) and US based video's take 29.97 frames per second (don't ask!).

The resulting image is very much different. Movement is sharp and 'strobe like' and your brain interprets it differently.

However there are cameras on the market now that have a 24 frame-per-second ability. These are the ones that need to be used for getting the film look from video. Actually UK users can stick with 25fps because the 4% difference is almost unnoticeable.

And make sure, if at all possible, that you capture this non-interlaced. Basically the general rule is 'if you can capture it non-interlaced (or progressive) it will make your footage look better.

Summary

Note that at no point have I talked about manipulating your footage in an editor, nor have I talked about esoteric items such dynamic range and colour spaces. These are all technical items that deal with how the image is processed when it comes out of your camera. All I've covered so far is how to focus on key items to get the film look from video.

It doesn't matter what you do with your footage once it hits the editing table (whether you use free editing software or converters from one format to another) it will still look like video if it is badly framed, badly lit and has deep focus.

Author Info:

Gary Comerford runs the Free video editing website at http://www.free-video-editing.com/ez

The site has links to and reviews of Linux, Mac and PC software devoted to video editing, special effects, video conversion and DVD creation, as well as tutorials and other editing related items. It's also the place to find out all about the tools mentioned in this article.

Why not subscribe to the ezine http://www.free-video-editing.com/eza to be kept up to date in this fast moving area of software?

Vector Art - What Are the Different Formats?

There are several different file formats used by different vector applications to store vector images. These include.

SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics - which is very common and universal format which is often used as a go between between applications and their proprietary formats.

CGM - Computer Graphics Metafile - is a file format for 2D vector graphics. All graphical elements can be specified in a textual source file that can be compiled into a binary file or one of two text representations. CGM provides a means of graphics data interchange for computer representation of 2D graphical information independent from any particular application, system, platform, or device.

PDF - Used by Adobe acrobat reader also stores information in a vector format.

EPS - Encapsulated PostScript is used by Adobe illustrator, however illustrator uses a different file extension, AI.

Recent versions of the AI file format, including the PDF-based formats and recent EPS formats, are based on a native format called PGF that is unrelated to both EPS and PDF. PDF compatibility is achieved not by extending the PDF format, but by embedding a complete copy of the native PGF data within the PDF file. The same kind of "dual path" approach is also used when recent versions of Illustrator are saving EPS-compatible files.

Adobe Illustrator is not the only program that can edit .ai files. Both Inkscape (a GPL licensed program) and CorelDRAW (another Proprietary program) can natively edit this file format.

The SWF Adobe's file format, is also a vector-based container to store animation.

Vector Image Applications

Vector graphics editors typically allow rotation, movement, mirroring, stretching, skewing, affine transformations, changing of z-order and combination of primitives into more complex objects.To create Vector Images images you will need an application such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, Coral Draw, or the free open-source alternative Inkscape.

Author Info:

The author of this article has a site which offers: Free Vector Art and Free Vector Clip Art Downloads

Learning how to sketch people

Learning how to sketch people is easier than you think. You can learn to become much better at sketching people quite quickly. One of the secrets of sketching is that any object can be broken down into its smaller parts.

It's not the person that's hard to sketch, it's the likeness of the person that's hard to get. Sketching a random person who doesn't look like anybody is pretty easy, but getting your sketch to really look like the person you want it to, is a bit harder. If the person's eyes are too close together, or if the mouth is too large, the sketch will not look like the right person. You're going to have to measure proportions to get it just right.

It has a lot to do with learning to see people differently, and analyzing them to figure out how to sketch them. You don't need lessons, you just need to imitate what you see. Learning to sketch is mostly about learning to understand how your visual system works.

One of the most convenient ways to learn to sketch people is by looking at other sketches online, and trying to imitate them. You can even try tracing them. But it can be annoying when you have put in a lot of effort into becoming a better artist and it hasn't helped much. If you’re only concerned with sketching "well" you may feel so inadequate that you won’t do it at all (this happened to me). Sketch anybody and everybody, and don't give up even if 90% of your sketches come out all wrong. Practice makes perfect - you'll get there eventually.

Some books about learning to sketch people:
How to draw people
How to draw faces
Draw real people
How to Draw People: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners with 10 Projects (How to Draw)
How to Draw People (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs
(I haven't read these, so I don't know if they're any good. Do some research first.)

Some sites about learning to sketch people:

http://www.learn-to-draw.com/drawing-people/
http://tearain.tripod.com/hp/draw/draw.html
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/how-to-draw-people.htm
http://www.dragoart.com/

How to Promote Your Drawings

7 ways to make money online with your illustrations. If you are a talented artist, you might find it difficult to promote and sell your work online and offline. So here is a list of 7 of the easiest ways you can use to help you sell your artwork online and earn a decent living doing what you love most!

1- Micro stock photography agencies.

This is the first thing that I have tried when I wanted to make a little money on the net with my cartoons. And it works! Most agencies will give you around 0.25$ to 10$ each time someone is downloading one of your images! So, imagine if you manage to get 500 downloads a month!

This method is probably the easiest one to start with. But to make decent money, you need to create several images to submit. If you can upload 100 images or more, then you should really consider this option!

2- Offering your services.

If you are designing cartoon characters for example, you can always submit your portfolio to agencies that are providing character creation to their clients. Most of them are looking for freelancer and will generally give you a 50 to 70% commission.

3- Sell your artwork on Ebay.

Selling your work on Ebay is a good and easy way to get noticed. But to become a "super seller", you will need to work really hard to build a crowd of faithful visitors that will purchase your artwork. Still, Ebay remains a good solution for someone who wants to make money by selling products online.

4- Creating Ecards.

Some online agencies are always looking for new talents to design their Ecards. Why not submit your work to these specialize website and start designing some cool Electronic greeting cards?

5- Get noticed on Youtube

If you are good at drawing, with not offer some drawing lessons on Youtube? Once people are watching your videos and start learning to draw, you can put a link back to your site! This free traffic will then be pre-sold to your artwork and they will become potential customers!

6- Sell products with your images on Cafepress.

Cafepress is a great and easy way to make money by selling any kind of products with your design on them! You can easily open a basic shop (it's free!) and start creating any kind of design that you can apply to dozen and dozen of different articles!

7- Build you own website!

I save the obvious one for last! Building a website is easy! Building a website with good traffic is not! I have been lucky enough to find the perfect solution to build and promote a successful website to promote my work!

I hope that you too will have the opportunity to promote your artwork online and make a decent living out of it!

Author Info:

You want to know more about how I succeed online?
http://www.how-to-draw-funny-cartoons.com

Martin Berube