Types of Animation

Here are some types of animation.

Hand-drawn animation: Click.
- This is the common method used in old cartoons such as Loony Tunes and Tom and Jerry, plus the legendary Micky Mouse from Disney, you can clearly see from the clip that this has been hand drawn.

Cut-out animation: Click.
- South Park is a famous show which uses cut-out animation to give it such a unique image. It's quirky approach to the show is which has made it such a hit, and it is the perfect example to showcase this style of animation.

Model animation: Click.
- Clay animation is a method used by making plasticine models and then modifying them for each frame to make it run smoothly, it takes a lot of preparation, effort and talent to pull this off well. Wallace and Gromit from Aardman studios is a classic example of clay-mation (a common term to describe the method).

Computer animation: Click.
- Computer generated imagery is widely used today but it has only been used to its full extent for around 15 years, A Bug's Life and Toy Story are examples of some of the earliest films to use CGI at it's best, the whole feature film using the method.

Rotoscoping: Click.
- Rotoscoping is a method where an artists traces over live action, frame by frame. A good example of the method is used in the music video "Take on Me" by A-Ha.

The History of Animation

This is the historic evolution of animation, ranging from the Magic Lantern invented in the 19th century, all the way to CGI which was first used in 1973, but came to the forefront of the movie industry when it was used in the 1993 classic Jurassic Park, using CGI to create the dinosaurs, while in 1995, the first fully computer-generated feature film was created from Disney's Pixar studio's, which came into the shape of children's favourite Toy Story. Here are a list of animation methods and a link to an example.

The Magic Lantern - Link
A Thaumatrope - Link
A Zoetrope - Link
The Praxinoscope - Link
A Flip Book - Link
Stop Motion - Link
CGI - Link

Graphical Layout

Above: iGoogle
Below: BBC

I am going to look at two websites that allow you to play around with the layout of the page, for example the BBC website.

So obviously I am going to use BBC as one example and the other website I am going to use is iGoogle.

BBC
The BBC home page allows you to move around various widgets that are available on the site, you can click on the widget and move it into another section, you can click on edit and check different options, for example you change the News from just the UK to Worldwide news. You can also remove a widget or expand/minimise it.

Go to site

iGoogle
iGoogle works in a strikingly similar way to the BBC homepage. The format is identical in the form of being able to move a widget, edit a widget, change the widgets settings and being able to maximise/minimise the widget. iGoogle is also a community and you can share widgets.

Go to site

Comparison
The only difference between these two websites are the fact that iGoogle has share options while the BBC website has a much better appearance. I would personally choose the BBC website over the iGoogle site but in terms of relevance iGoogle is superior because of it's community aspect.

Text Formatting

Above: Tumblr
Below: Blogger

I am going to compare two websites that allow you to use text formatting.

The sites I am going to compare are Blogger and Tumblr, both Blogging websites that are very similar in terms of what you can do.

Blogger
Blogger is a blogging site that is used by everyone worldwide. It is easily accessible and contains features such as making the text Bold, Italics, choosing a different font, the size of the text, the
colour of the text, create hyperlinks, change the justification, use numbering/bullet points, quotations, while also having the ability to spell-check, import photos and videos and the option to remove any formatting.

Go to site

Tumblr
Like Blogger, Tumblr is a fellow blogging site that is multi-cultural, which has several features such as making text Bold, Italics, Strike-through, bullet points/numbering, outdent/indent, inserting images, link/unlink and spell-check.

Go to site

Comparison
I think that Blogger has more options available at the current time but there isn't a large advantage, Tumblr could very easily add these few features, while Tumblr has 2 features that Blogger doesn't (Strike-through) and indent/outdent. It is a close call but Blogger just wins.