Character Reference

There are many budding animators and aspiring cartoonists out in the world. These people have different ideas about the characters that inhabit their minds. This includes any person who desires to animate anime characters. While there are many devices that can help you to draw your animated characters you will still need to know how to draw anime characters which will capture the imaginations of your audience.

In order to get good results when you are learning how to draw anime you should have a number of sheets of paper handy. You will also need different types of pencils – which are in a varying state of sharpness – on hand. The final items that you will need when you are practicing how to draw anime are a good eraser and some anime reference material.

Once you have gathered all of these items you need to understand that the reference material and any guidelines that you have found are merely the beginnings in your adventure into drawing anime. The first that you will need to do when you are learning how to draw anime is to think of one image that you want to draw.

Once you have this figure captured clearly in your mind you will need to start drawing a rough sketch. The first step in your learning how to draw anime figures is to draw the outline of the body. At this stage don't worry about defining the figure characteristics. One you have gotten the body shape outline you can start getting the head, arms and legs drawn and attached to the body.

These areas too should be roughly drawn so that you can figure out the exact shape that you want the figure to take. Once you have this shape chosen you will need to slowly create the right body form. Once you are satisfied with this form – just the outline shape – you will need to erase the extra unwanted lines from the anime body.

This step in your how to draw anime learning completed, you will need to shape the arms and the legs so that they resemble the final version of your drawing. As with the body you will need to erase any lines that are not part of the needed anime figure.

Once the outlines to the body and appendages have been neatened, you can start the process of making the figure look more "lifelike". This is accomplished by adding the various features which distinguish a 3 dimensional figure from a 2 dimensional one. After you are satisfied with how the body looks you can start the process of getting the head and the neck into an anime style look and shape.

The final aspect that you will need to learn when you are learning how to draw anime is that of the features. These features are necessary as they are the hallmark of any anime figure. With all of these tools at your disposal you are ready to take on the world of anime.

Coded character set, also known as character set refers to a group or set of characters used by an encoding system. It refers to the mapping from a group of integers to a group of characters. The mapping is generally bijective (i.e. 1:1). There are many standard coded character sets used by programmers in every software application development enterprise. The most widely used is ASCII, with Unicode becoming more common nowadays.
A coded character set generally includes digits, letters, control codes, punctuation and various typographic and mathematical symbols and other characters. Each character in the set is denoted by a unique character code, also called as "code position". For example, the character "A" is denoted by the character code 65. Let us learn more about ASCII and Unicode character set.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange):
It is a coding standard used for interchanging information. It has definition for 128 characters of which 94 are printable characters 33 are obsolete, non-printing characters that affect text processing. The rapid spread of computer technology throughout the world resulted in development of variations of ASCII, mostly classed as "ASCII extensions".
Unicode:
From a simple offshore software development company to industry leaders like IBM, HP and Microsoft, every enterprise is well-versed with the term Unicode. It is a computer industry standard that provides a unique number for every character, no matter what the language, platform or program is. It is always required by modern programming standards such as JavaScript, XML, CORBA, WML etc. most operating systems and almost all modern browsers support Unicode.
When you outsource software development to a software development company, always make sure that it incorporates Unicode into its applications. Software development services in India take much care about this aspect. It incorporates Unicode into its multi-tiered applications, thereby reducing costs in development of software. Unicode also helps companies to target a single software product across multiple platforms, languages and countries without the need of any re-engineering.

When building almost anything, you need resources like blueprints, 3D models, textures and 3D tutorials. These resources can be found separately on many websites online. But wouldn't it be nice to rely on one site for all these needs? It sure would save you a lot of time and aggravation! Well you're in luck because they do exist! These websites offer resources for people interested in 3D modeling, Animations, Graphics and Designs of any kind. Here are a few examples of the topics I've found in each category on one website in particular.

Tutorials - By definition, a tutorial is a computer assisted instruction, usually divided into sections, on how to use a certain piece of software or another type of process such as design, building, or cooking to name a few

- Animation
- Basics
- Character set up
- Effects
- Lighting
- Materials
- Modeling
- Rendering

Blueprints - A blueprint is usually a paper based production of a technical drawing documenting an architecture or engineering design but they can also be based online as well

- Helicopters
- Modern Aircraft
- Old Era Aircraft
- Cars
- Ships
- Sports Cars
- Tracked Vehicles

Models - A model represents the way in which a construction is built

- Bathrooms
- Casino
- Furniture
- Kitchen Equipment
- Movie Art
- Structures
- Doors

Textures - The feel or look of a surface or a fabric

- Brick
- Buildings
- Nature
- Roads
- Fabric

With all these different facets available on one website you wouldn't need to go anywhere else, you could spend your time more efficiently and allow yourself to find whatever you wanted without opening a bunch of different windows/tabs. Obviously since these websites offer all the options above, it would also make it easier if they had a search engine right on the site, and they do!

These search engines will most likely allow you to search within whatever category you want. For example, if your searching for a blueprint of a Shelby Mustang then you simply enter Shelby Mustang into the search engine on the site, select blueprints, press submit and your results will show up. This is entirely too easy! Most of these sites offer so many different subcategories within the categories that you literally wouldn't have to go anywhere else for anything else. And thats exactly what these sites were designed for!

If you would like to find the sites that are "one stop shops" please visit the following sites:

Auto Desk
Blueprints
Sketch up
Wikipedia
Surrland

Good luck in your search and your project as well!

One facet of a well devised website is its colour scheme. Colour selection is vital in creating the look that the site's owner wants to portray. If the look of the site does not meet the users expectations, then they will leave and most likely never go back to the site. This is time and again the reason why a web site is not doing as well as it should be.

Knowing about colour conception may make life a whole lot easier when deciding on a colour scheme for a site. Knowing which colours may irritate and which could calm is important in giving the user the right impression and experience of the site. Why would you crave to anger a user when you thirst for them to buy from your web-site?

Colour contrast and antithesis is another technique to be aware of. It can be used to point users attention to desired pages of regions within the site.

Below is a list of the most notorious, colours and their emotional connotations.

Green is associated with the environment, peace and jealousy. It is also a very relaxing colour and is gratifying to use for a calming effect.

The colour white conjures up senses of purity, simplicity, emptiness and innocence. If used as the major colour in a web site, it creates a clean and simple feel.

Blue is a colour is greater commonly associated with corporate web-sites as it is a strong colour that is associated with confidence, coldness, depression, water and peace.

The colour red is a very evocative colour and it conjures up images of hell, treasure, fire and warning. It is expediently the better colour to use to lure attention.

White could be used to create contrast by being used as a background colour. The spaces of white in between components of a web page are referred to as negative space. White is linked to cleanliness, peace and light.

Black is a strong colour and is associated with sexiness, intensity and elegance. It is a very popular colour on photography web sites, as black creates heightened contrast with colours within photographs.

Grey can be connected to respect, humility, decay and boredom. It is used a lot to create shiny gradients in web design to give a slick, present-day feel to a web site.

Orange is strongly related to spirituality and healing. It is the colour that symbolises Buddhism and it has a healing punch about it. It is a bold colour that is not as bright as yellow yet not a deep as red.

Brown, especially the lighter shades may be very calming. Beige is also a accepted colour in website design as it gives an earthy and relaxed feel. It may also intimate tradition, poverty and mother earth.

Grey may be linked to elegance, innovation and the future. The lighter side is similar to white in that it is a glorious colour to use on the background of a web-site to create a anticipation of space and modernism.

The psychology of colour can play a massive role in creating a successful web-site. To subliminally create an expectation amongst the end user can be a powerful sales tool. Choosing colours without thought could inadvertently put users off the site. Creating colour combinations that guidebook users to an end goal can generate more sales and make the whole user experience stress free.

My daily routine when I was a young kid at school was to go home and watch the cartoons before it was time for supper. This was usually Popeye, Yogi Bear, Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner or Top Cat. I would laugh myself silly, and it was the perfect way to relax after a double lesson of math. My favorite animation character then was Top Cat. Inspired by the Sergeant Bilko TV series with Phil Silvers, TC ran his alley and gang of alley cats with cunning and style. I knew I would never be as cool as him.

I have retained a fondness for the animation character heroes of my youth, and love to watch the replays. Cartoons, on TV and in movies, are still my favorite things to watch. I'm sure I'm not alone in this, and I think adults gain as much enjoyment from Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles as children do. In fact, adults probably appreciate them more, because the best story involving an animation character works on two levels. There is the story which appeals to the kids and there are the inside adult jokes going on too.

The animation character has evolved over the years, from the first monochrome squiggles to the computer produced images we see today. The Walt Disney Studio made the major contribution in the early years, creating the iconic animation character of Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck. Walt Disney had a flair for knowing what the audience wanted and he wasn't afraid to try new things. The movie industry was skeptical when Disney released the first full-length feature film for the animation character, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was a success and the studio went from strength to strength, ending up with an empire of production companies and nine theme parks.

There is a huge industry surrounding the animation character, with merchandise and DVD's. Just as there are rows upon rows of action figures of Buzz Lightyear in the film of Toy Story, so there are real figures of Buzz Lightyear in the shops. The Disney theme parks give fans the chance to see their favorite animation character up close and personal. Children are thrilled when Mickey Mouse walks right up to them and says hello.

The biggest television animated hit of recent times is of course, The Simpson's. This dysfunctional family has captured the imagination of fans around the world. Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart and baby Maggie are well thought out examples of an animation character, appealing to adults and children alike. The kids like the antics of Bart and can sympathize with Lisa. There are lots of cultural references in the programme for the adults to enjoy, and guests queue up to be immortalized as an animation character. They include Paul McCartney, Sonic Youth and The Who.

After a long day at work I was looking forward to a nice drink in peace. I opened the door and heard Fred's voice booming. All hope for a nice quiet drink was gone. Fred had apparently heard yet another incorrect reference to Japanese people writing Chinese characters and he was going off like the 4th of July, expressing his annoyance at people who were unaware of how different the characters were.

"When I write English," he asked, "What alphabet do I use?"

Somebody foolishly tried to answer, not understanding that all Fred's questions were rhetorical unless Fred wanted information about a train schedule or what time some place opened. Ignoring the poor fool who tried to answer, Fred continue, "I use the modern English alphabet. It may be a Latin-based alphabet, but it certainly is not what the Romans used. You can call it the Roman alphabet or the Latin alphabet or whatever you like, but it has changed."

I was not sure exactly where Fred was going with this, but I thought I knew where he was going. "The Japanese characters are the same. Although the characters, named after the Han dynasty, were once Chinese, they are not any more. In the years since Japanese writing embraced characters and added two Japanese syllaburies, times have changed. The Japanese government instituted character reform after World War II. And let's not forget China. Chinese writing has certainly not stood still in the hundreds of years since Japan first started to borrow Chinese characters. This is Japanese writing now and they are Japanese characters. They may have originated in China and they may have been Chinese in the past, but they are not any more. They are Japanese characters!"

Fred tended to repeat himself when he got worked up. I wonder if it was time to ask Fred if he had any problems with the word Chinese. After Fred slammed his glass down on the bar, I knew he had finished. So, I asked him if he had any problems with the word Chinese. He responded immediately with a loud "No!" He then continued, "Chinese is a perfectly good word, but it does not apply to things Japanese. Take a look at ramen. The Japanese call ramen Chinese noodles. They definitely were Chinese characters once, but they are very Japanese now. I don't know why Japanese love to preface things with Chinese when they are no longer Chinese. It just doesn't make sense."

And as usual, Fred was right. What once were Chinese characters are now Japanese characters.

As a child did you ever dream of getting a letter from your favorite holiday character? Ever dream of getting a personalized letter from Santa, congratulating you on being a good child all through the year and promising a special gift for Christmas? For sure all of us have gone through it, be it Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy or even the Great Pumpkin! Any child would be fascinated and excited to receive a letter from their favorite character. Now with the character letter business, you can fulfill a child's dream and expand his/her imagination!

Character letter business is a personalized venture where you would be writing letters to children (or maybe even to a few adults) on behalf of their favorite character. The letter writing doesn't have to be restricted to a given holiday season, you can continue it all year around. Children love getting a letter or a postcard in the mail, just imagine the amount of joy it would bring when they receive a personalized letter from their favorite character for the holiday season, for their birthday or for whatever the occasion maybe. The letters are keepsake treasures for them.

All you need to start off in this business is some creativity and a big dose of imagination. If you are a child at heart, love children and love the holiday seasons and the magical wonder it brings, this business is for you. You would need to market your services to the parents, grand-parents, aunts, uncles or anyone who has a special child in their life. When you receive the information and fun facts about the child, you can incorporate it to the letter. For example their favorite color, favorite snack, the pets name, favorite game, etc. To formulate more excitement, you can even add fun trinkets to your letters. Maybe some easy holiday recipes, fun craft projects or even holiday stories.

The character letter business is fun and exciting! You are getting paid for doing something that you love. There are many advantages in this venture. You would be working from the comfort of your own home, which provides you with more time to spend with your family. It provides you with more flexibility. In addition you can have the satisfaction of your achievements and owning your own business.

Before starting off you should decide which characters you would bring into play for your venture. Would you be only using holiday characters like Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, and The Nice Witch? Would you be using year round characters such as The Tooth Fairy, or a special Friendship character? Or would you rather create your own characters? The choice is up to you. Depending on the time and energy you can commit to the business, decide the number of characters that you would use. It is always better to start off with a few characters and add new ones as your business gets more established.

The basic equipment required for this business is a reliable computer and a printer. Depending on the characters that you have selected for your business, you can select the stationary that would be required. And then select the best trinkets that you can include with these character letters.

Even though you are starting off with a small home business, it is very important to have a business plan. A business plan should be considered as a map for your business. As your business grows and expands you can refer to it to manage your growth and change. Deciding on a name and licensing your business is the next step. Once everything is sorted out, you should market your business. Having a solid marketing strategy is the key to a flourishing business. With your best effort and lots of imagination, you can make your business successful.