September, 2008

general — No Comments
30
Sep 08

Getting Discounted Travel Tickets

Since the dawn of the World Wide Web, travel has been changed. Since the creation of websites such as Expedia and Hotwire, traveling rates have become extremely competitive. Competition naturally lowers the cost for the consumer, and this is where we are at today. Purchasing airline tickets directly from the airline itself has become less and less of a reality. These discount travel sites have become huge influences on the cost of these tickets, and doing so by simply giving you comparisons and more information than the airline wants you to know.

There are several tips that can help you purchase discount tickets, some of which you may know and some you may not. But knowing all of the facts and little interworking of the airline industry can be vital to your success of finding cheap tickets.

The first step is getting familiar with the workings for sites I mentioned earlier. Expedia and Hotwire are two large web-based pools of information that can display rates from numerous airlines at once. Simply logging on at certain times of the day or week can have a large impact on the price of the ticket. Most sites tend to release new discount ticket prices on Wednesdays. Logging on Wednesday morning is a very good idea to try to strike gold early.

The season in which you travel also plays a big role in prices. For instance flying to a warm climate in the winter will almost always be more expensive than flying there in the summer. Beyond this, studies have shown that big discount times are from mid-January to the end of February, April through Map, and mid-September to mid-December.

Purchasing your tickets at least 21 days in advance will also keep the cost lower. Prices for any airline increase usually within 14-20 days of departure. In case you plan to travel during the holidays, there is huge potential to save large amounts of money if you travel on the day of the holiday and not before or after. Studies have shown there is a good chance that planes do not fill on holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.

If and when you do purchase a discount ticket, it is a great idea to sign up for the airlines rewards program. Most rewards programs will give you credits or points for every mile flown. When you purchase the ticket at a discounted rate, you are in essence receiving miles you didn’t pay for which makes the rewards program all that more useful!

If you really want to bump up your rewards programs, enroll for a credit card that offers rewards on air travel such an American Expresses Blue Card, purchase the discounted ticket with that credit card, then enroll for rewards points with the airline! It’s a win-win combination.

Traveling doesn’t have to be expensive. With a little searching and a little thinking outside of the box with the help of rewards programs and credit cards that offers points for these purchases, you can knock down the cost big time.

general — No Comments
20
Sep 08

Animation Is Now For Anyone, And Any Budget

Animation is a beloved and wonderful art form. Millions enjoy animated shorts, TV series, and full length movies. Animation also takes many forms. You have Stop Motion, Traditional Hand Drawn cell, Japanese and Japanese influenced Anime, 3d CGI, and more.

Even though many have loved and enjoyed watching animation over the years, creating animation has always been out of the reach of the majority. Think about traditional hand drawn or stop motion animation for a bit. Even with a large animating team and the proper audio and video equipment, a 30 minute show could take weeks, or even months to produce. One second of film would take 30 different hand drawn or repositioned frames!

Rumor has it that even the crude Short animated film, The Spirit of Christmas, that became South Park took creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone over a month to complete using construction paper.

Now, think about 3d animation. Not only did you need the artistic skills of traditional animation, but also the skills to model in 3d using complex software systems, and the powerful, expensive computer hardware to create the characters, 3d world, and the animation itself.

By now you may be wondering if the title of the article is wrong, and what I meant to write was animation is not for everyone and needs a tremendous budget. Stick with me for a bit more.

There are many reasons to get into animation. The creation of art, telling great stories, or even just creating shows for your own entertainment or kids to enjoy. Some of you may even be able to turn your animation into your work. And now, thanks to advances in software and computer power, animation is available in one form or another to anyone with a computer.

There are great software titles available now that can create just about any form of animation you like. From mimicking 2D cell animation to 3D CGI, there is a platform that can turn you into an animator. Other good news is that the price of some of these platforms is dropping to all time lows as ease of use is rising like never before.

Software for 2D animation, such as Anime Studio or Toon Boom, start at around $50 for lite versions, and go up to around $300 for full featured version used by many professional studios.

Software for 3D animation used to be very cost prohibitive. Industry standard programs like Auto Desk 3ds Max can run up to $4000! but, in the 3D world, there are now cost effective ways to create animation. Poser is a 3D character Creation tool and animator that runs around $200. Iclone by Reallusion gives user’s the ability to create custom characters, sets, animations, and lip sync, building full featured movies and runs under $200. With Iclone, you also do not need any specific 3D modeling knowledge, just your imagination and some great stories to tell.

All these programs can be found by running a web search on the titles.

You may still be thinking that these are a bit pricey, especially if you are not sure whether animation is something you want to create on a regular basis. Well, I have good news on this front as well. How about Free?

There are several programs, in both 2D and 3D, that create movies and shorts almost up to the standards of the above programs. You can bu up and running, creating terrific animations with the equipment you already have, in no time and with no additional expense. If you decide animation is for you, you can then upgrade to more complex systems.

After creating your animated masterpieces, how do you get it out to the world to enjoy, or for a potential future partner or employer to see? The computer, or in this case, the Internet is here to help yet again. With the rise of Youtube.com, Viddler.com, Ustream.com, and so many more sites that are started almost daily, you can put your creations up on the Internet for all to see for no extra cost over your Internet connection fees!

So, have I got your attention? Are you ready to animate the stories in your head? Well, there is a lot to talk about in the animated world, so I will have to break this topic up.

In future articles, I will be touching on 2D software, 3D software, storytelling, animated scene and camera work, how to write killer animated movies, how to create storyboards for your masterpiece, how to render your work for best results, and more!

Animation is extremely rewarding. I look forward to see what you create!

My next article will cover all the options for traditional styled cell and stop motion animation on the computer.

See you then.

general — No Comments
10
Sep 08

Soothing the Hyperactive Child

One of the greatest contributors to hyperactivity in children is the absence of connection to parents at a heart-to-heart level. If you have a child that has challenges with being attentive or hyper active, most likely you’ve allowed them to be cared for by a screen of some sort instead of by you or a loving caregiver. Although children are drawn to the video games and computers these replacements for us as parents only put them into sensory overload. What they truly desire is to connect with you at the heart. They want to know about you and that you know about them, understand them and of course love them through all their challenges.

Storytelling may sound like a strange antidote to hyperactivity but it is a powerful cure for what your overstimulated child may be suffering from – disconnection to you and your heart.

One of my greatest joys as a father has been centered around bedtime. The first few years however were a bit harrowing, tip toeing out of Sophie’s bedroom, making the disastrous mistake of placing my foot on that one squeaky spot on the floor. “Daddy! Where are you going?” This was after cuddling with her for nearly thirty minutes, checking her breathing, thinking it sounded like that deep, “I’m in beta sleep now, it’s safe to leave” type of breathing!

But alas we made it through that challenging stretch and when Sophie was about four years old, Cynthia and I began taking turns telling her stories at bedtime. Jammies were on, teeth were brushed and she anxiously waited on her bed for this weekly entertainment.

We didn’t start from scratch. Sophie helped us a little with some creative words. We asked her to give us three words that we would magically weave into the story, the more random they were the better. I don’t take credit for this style of storytelling. It was given to Cynthia from a fellow home schooling mother and inspired by the Waldorf approach to education. It’s a great way to involve a young child in the creative process and it made for some very unusual, sometimes very funny and occasionally somewhat scary stories.

When our second daughter was around three years old we began to include her into the process and asked her for three words as well. Being over five years apart in age made for very diverse words and a total of six random words was about my limit as far as memory was concerned. On some nights when the creativity was waning I had to cheat and write them down! Now if you have three or four fairly young children you may want them to contribute one or two words each.

Sometimes I really missed the mark. I would watch the girls as I grasped for a thread or struggled to find some humor, their faces blank, especially as Sophie grew older and more discerning. Other times however I felt like Hemingway, or Mark Twain, the words just pouring from my mind, my daughters’ eyes riveted to mine. On several occasions I was so impressed by my stories that I could barely finish them because of my tears.

There were stories of death, stories of courage, and stories of reckless abandonment that had my girls giggling till they were kicking their legs. There were words like lipstick, semi-truck and fairy all in the same story. There were times when it took me nearly ten minutes to begin my story and times when I began with great authority in only 30 seconds.

Those fifteen to thirty minutes with my girls were precious times. They fueled my creativity and allowed me to connect with them from the heart. Although reading to our children can be a wonderful time as well, telling a story, whether it be fictional or something from our past bonds us together like an epoxy glue made from love. Story time honors our Spirit by allowing It to flow into the hearts of others.

What greater time than now to tell your children a story. Whether they’re two or eighteen there is a story within you that they will connect with. There is a story about a special Christmas you experienced, a story about a time you really struggled or there’s a story that you’ll create from three simple words when combined together brings to their mind a glorious vision of sugarplums or fairies or angels!

Whether story time is at bedtime, midday, or around the campfire, it matters not. Stories, face to face, heart to heart, is a powerful antidote to the disease of disconnection. In this day of texting, video games and computers, where children are disconnecting from another human being, stories more than ever, are crying out to be told.

Tell your stories – your children will become calmer, more attentive and more creative as will you! You will begin a foundation of love and connection that will serve them and you for the rest of your life. The intensity of video games and computers will NEVER replace a mother’s or father’s love and involvement in their child’s life.

Want your child to thrive? Give yourself to them, find the time to give your love and attention and your creativity through stories and you’ll be amazed at the connection you will begin to feel and the change in their behavior you’ll begin to see.