2014

2014 (MMXIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter E) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2014th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 14th year of the 3rd millennium, the 14th year of the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2010s decade.

2014 was designated as:

Events

January

February

Animation Mentor

Coordinates: 37°50′47.8″N 122°17′34.13″W / 37.846611°N 122.2928139°W / 37.846611; -122.2928139

Animation Mentor is an online animation school that teaches students character animation skills. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, the school offers a 6 core animation courses in addition to Creatures and Maya Workshops where students are taught by “mentors,” experienced animators who are professionals working in the animation industry. Animation Mentor is a distance learning school at which animation professionals teach character animation to students in over 105 countries.

History

The school was founded in 2005 by three working animators: Bobby Beck, who is the CEO and president of the school, Shawn Kelly, who is a working animator at Industrial Light & Magic, and Carlos Baena, who is a working animator. The school opened on March 27, 2005, with 350 students and 5 employees.

Academics

Animation Mentor is an online learning institution and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The program includes live Q&A sessions with mentors from the animation industry, and mentors provide audio-visual critiques of weekly assignments. Graduates of the program receive a Certificate of Completion in Character Animation and create a demo reel.

Character animation

Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated characters to life. The role of a Character Animator is analogous to that of a film or stage actor, and character animators are often said to be "actors with a pencil" (or a mouse). Character animators breathe life in their characters, creating the illusion of thought, emotion and personality. Character animation is often distinguished from creature animation, which involves bringing photo-realistic animals and creatures to life.

Origins

Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) is often considered the first example of true character animation. Later, Otto Messmer imbued Felix the Cat with an instantly recognizable personality during the 1920s.

In the 1930s, Walt Disney made character animation a particular focus of his animation studio, best showcased in productions such as Three Little Pigs, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Dumbo. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the "first full length animated and musical feature" in Technicolor. Disney animators such as Bill Tytla, Ub Iwerks, Grim Natwick, Fred Moore, Ward Kimball, Les Clark, John Sibley, Marc Davis, Wolfgang Reitherman, Hal King, Hamilton Luske, Norm Ferguson, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Milt Kahl, Joe Ranft, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston all became masters of the technique.

Best

Best or The Best may refer to:

Geography

People

Companies and organizations

Food and drink

Medicine

Games

Acronyms

Animation

Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and change by means of the rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon. Animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation.

Animation can be recorded with either analogue media, a flip book, motion picture film, video tape, digital media, including formats with animated GIF, Flash animation and digital video. To display animation, a digital camera, computer, or projector are used along with new technologies that are produced.

Animation creation methods include the traditional animation creation method and those involving stop motion animation of two and three-dimensional objects, paper cutouts, puppets and clay figures. Images are displayed in a rapid succession, usually 24, 25, 30, or 60 frames per second.

History

Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion into a still drawing can be found in paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are often depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.