animation

EMERYVILLE, Calif. -- It's early April, and there's just over two months before Pixar's newest film, "Monsters University," hits theaters. For years, the filmmakers at this hit factory have been working like crazy, taking what was once a mere idea for a prequel to 2001's "Monsters, Inc." through every step on the way to the silver screen.

Thirty-two miles away, some of the "MU" team is still toiling away, mixing the film's sound at Skywalker Ranch, but here at the studio's headquarters, inside the Steve Jobs Building, it'… Read more

Polygon's Russ Frushtick joins me in the studio today to talk about the lighter side of our recent trip to Los Angeles. Best of all, he'll help answer the most-asked question of last week: "What was the best food you had at E3?"

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Enter CNET's "From Old School to Tech Cool" contest.

- What do you think of the new "Anchorman 2" trailer?

- Follow Russ on Twitter.

- Listen to Russ' podcast, The Besties.

- Watch Human Angle on Polygon.… Read more

Comic-Con is just a month away and Mel Hoppe definitely plans to be there. In fact, July is a busy month for the self-described cosplayer, gamer, and geek. Almost immediately after the big show in San Diego, she'll be heading up to Kintoki-Con, the Asian media and culture convention in Sacramento, Calif., where she'll be hanging out in the "Artist's Alley" under her alias, WindoftheStars.

That's because Hoppe isn't just a dedicated cosplayer, she also makes and sells her own costumes from her home base in northern Nevada. I came across the work of WindoftheStars on Google+ a few months ago and was blown away by the beauty, realism, and range of her creations (fortunately, she doesn't go as far as this real-life anime girl).

I reached out to Hoppe to learn a little more about how she got into her craft. She told me a story I'm sure many readers of Crave can relate to. It all started with a Commodore 128 and a joystick at a young age.… Read more

When Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion ... was it because of the GIFs? In our media-saturated Internet landscape, the 5-second animated GIF may be the most essential entertainment currency. If a picture can paint a thousand words, the animated GIF can tell 10,000 stories in 10 frames or less. (Isn't Vine (for Android or iOS) mostly just video-based animated GIFs?)

Newbies who want to dip their toes in the GIF-creation waters no longer need fancy image-editing software like Adobe Photoshop--a freeware app called GifCam lets anyone easily produce animated GIFs from on-screen activity, i.e. streaming videos, … Read more

In this age of cheap, ubiquitous mobile phone and tablet games, you can't help but wonder what Nintendo would make if the company were ever to enter the space. That future seems unlikely considering Nintendo's investment in Wii U and 3DS hardware, but that doesn't mean there isn't software that could be brilliant in the mobile space. In fact, there's a fantastic mobile game Nintendo has right now -- it's just that it lives on the Nintendo 3DS.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the latest in a franchise extending back to 2002 on the … Read more

PixAnimator is an application that allows you to create basic animations using a predesigned animation loop and one of your own photographs. The end result is an entertaining and creative presentation of a normally plain image.

Even beginners should have no problem getting started with PixAnimator. It quickly downloads and there is no complicated setup required to begin using it. The app opens to a main menu where the user is required to choose an animation. About 20 animations are provided for free, but there are also hundreds of additional animations that are available for a fee. Once you choose … Read more

Despite its dated design, Toki LineTest HD for Mac easily creates early drafts of professional animators' work, and has all of the functions likely needed by these users.

The program offers a free trial version with a 60-frame limit. The full program costs $69.90. The download completed quickly over a high-speed connection. The installation folder contained readme, instructions, and license files in several languages, which was a nice feature. It was unclear if technical support was available, but the program started up without any problems. The instructions were a particularly useful feature since the main menu is not intuitive. … Read more

The inside of a vacuum cleaner is no place to be. Luckily, most of us will never have to endure such a place. The detritus we create in daily living, however, is another story. Not only do we want dust, dirt, and pet hair to be subjected to the internal whirlwind of a vacuum cleaner, we want it to stay there. At least until it's time to empty the bin.

Emptying the bin may be the last step in the journey for particulate matter, but other side of the story is just beginning. The bagless technology that Dyson uses … Read more

Your Android phone or tablet can be a great educational tool for your kids, with the right software. Softdiv's Animals Spelling Game For Kids is a super-easy game designed to help kids just learning how to spell with simple, familiar words. And what better source than animal names, which tend to be short and easy to spell but exotic enough to both challenge young learners and keep them interested.

Animals Spelling Game's main page has three buttons: Play Game, Top Score, and Exit. We started a game. Our first puzzle presented three letters; D, G, and O, above … Read more