Over one hundred years ago, German psychiatrist Dr Alois Alzheimer reported a neurodegenerative dementia that we know now as Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of neurodegenerative dementia among elderly. In general, Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed in people over the age of 65 but there are also those who are affected at much earlier age. The latest estimate of the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease worldwide shows that approximately 27 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease. An estimated 5 million Americans have AD and as the elderly population continues to grow, the prevalence could increase by three fold by 2050. The earliest symptom of Alzheimer’s disease is loss of short term memory. During the course of the disease patients experience confusion, aggressive behavior, hallucination, mood swings, language deficit and lastly the loss of long term memory. The most common risk factors for Alzheimer’s are age, genetics, gender, education, head injury, environmental influences, oxidative stress, and infection. The clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is based on a combination clinical laboratory testing, physical and neurological examination, and neuroimaging techniques. To date, there more than 500 clinical trials investigating the therapeutical and pharmacological treatment options for Alzheimer’s patients. As there is no effective cure available for this disease, the preventive measures such as mental and physical exercise, and healthy diet are highly recommended.

Animatrick art directory is a new directory and we need your help to build it up. please visit the following link, select a category and enter a link to your website.

http://animatrick.com/ima/directory/

Thank you.

I found this small animation project that we did in Paul Driessen’s animation class in Kassel-Germany (1993-1994). I convert it to SWF file. It looks funny.

The Art of Art Moving

Shipment of the artworks is a tricky and challenging task which usually needs a tremendous amount of expertise and careful efforts.
Whether transporting a single painting, organizing a traveling exhibition, or packing, moving, installing, or storing an art collection, we search for appropriate, cost effective, and well managed shipping services.
Speaking of shipment reminds us of theft and damages which both have tremendous effect on evaluating Art-Moving companies. Although theft is a big risk of shipping Art works, the possibility of damage during shipment is more likely. For this reason, when it comes to shipping your valuable artwork, take advantage of best services available.
Here are some important features to consider:
1. The size of vehicle should fit your shipment.
2. Avoid transfer and extra handling.
3. Consider Security.
4. Use air ride suspension.
5. Make sure there is full range temperature control.
6. Easy loading and unloading
7. Shipment monitoring.
Some companies even go an extra mile and work with customers to develop, design and construct crating and other structures that meet their specific needs to ensure maintenance of the artwork in the original condition, no matter how long the journey.

So a reliable moving company keeps your artwork safe and everything they do is built upon one central fact: the fine art of shipping art.

Gil Alkabetz

Gil Alkabetz was born in Beer-Sheva, Israel (1957). He studied at the Bazalel academy of Art and design in Jerusalem from 1979-1983 and was employed as an animator by Frame by Frame. From 1985-1995 he worked as an independent illustrator and animator and taught animation and illustration at the Vizo Academy of Design in Haifa (1987-1994).

he has also worked as an independent filmmaker for the Film Bilder studio in Stuttgart.

Alkabetz

Lately, I have been thinking about finding possible solutions to our
impossible problems, problems which emerge from everywhere, everyday. I
asked myself: what does it keep us from brilliant solutions? Where are
the great new ideas? Is there a place where we could share our thoughts
to achieve vital solutions for our problems? Obviously it exists: Blog.

But sharing the ideas and supporting it is not a Simple task.
First, you can’t share your ideas anonymously because readers need creditability of the Author. Furthermore the negative consequences of your publishing are not avoidable.
I can’t support the idea that the blogs are not trusted. Nowadays readers are so smart and can easily distinguish fresh ideas from boring routines and this leads the Blogger to practice Blogging
more and more in an ethical way.
Blogs should be great places for innovative and creative thinking. There are people with different experiences who can transform difficult concepts into unique solutions. One of these completely different social Medias is thoughts.com. It fosters a culture that supports creative thinking and highlights the weaknesses to correct them. It has bloggers who make great contributions to new ideas and innovative solutions.
Thoughts.com is an honest social Media which promotes good ideas and when the good ideas are exposed your thinking will grow and evolve.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Aleksandr Petrov
Petrov was born in the village of Prechistoye (Yaroslavl Oblast) and lives in Yaroslavl.

He studied art at VGIK (state institute of cinema and TV). He was a disciple of Yuriy Norshteyn at the Advanced School for screenwriters and directors (Moscow).

After making his first films in Russia, in Canada he adapted the novel The Old Man and the Sea, resulting in a 20-minute animated short — the first large-format animated film ever made. Technically impressive, the film is made entirely in pastel oil paintings on glass, a technique mastered by only a handful of animators in the world. By using his fingertips instead of a paintbrush on different glass sheets positioned on multiple levels, each covered with slow-drying oil paints, he was able to add depth to his paintings. After photographing each frame painted on the glass sheets, which was four times larger than the usual A4-sized canvas, he had to slightly modify the painting for the next frame and so on. It took Aleksandr Petrov over two years, from March 1997 through April 1999, to paint each of the 29,000+ frames. For the shooting of the frames a special adapted motion-control camera system was built, probably the most precise computerized animation stand ever made. On this an IMAX camera was mounted, and a video-assist camera was then attached to the IMAX camera. The film was highly acclaimed, receiving the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

After this, Aleksandr Petrov has maintained a close relationship with Pascal Blais Studio in Canada, which helped fund The Old Man and the Sea, where he works on commercials.

He returned to Yaroslavl in Russia to work on his latest film, My Love, which was finished in spring 2006 after three years’ work and had its premiere at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival on August 27, where it won the Audience Prize and the Special International Jury Prize. On March 17, 2007, My Love will be theatrically released at the Cinema Angelika in Shibuya, (Japan) by Studio Ghibli, as the first release of the “Ghibli Museum Library” (theatrical and DVD releases of Western animated films in Japan).

Artistic style

Petrov’s style from the late 1980s onward can be characterized as a type of Romantic realism. People, animals and landscapes are painted and animated in a very realistic fashion, but there are many sections in his films where Petrov attempts to depict a character’s inner thoughts and dreams. In The Old Man and the Sea, for example, the fisherman dreams that he and the marlin are brothers swimming through the sea and the sky. In My Love, the main character’s illness is represented by showing him being buried beneath freshly-fallen snow on a dark night.

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http://www.lookoftheyear.com

Max Fleisher- Koko

The relationship between live-action and animation and their mutual influence has existed over a century. From the early Silents which joyously exploited the creative possibilities of the new medium, the cinema; through the golden Age of Hollywood cartoons, which often took wicked delight in biting the hand that fed them- Hollywood itself, by spoofing genres and movie-stars; from animation in live-action feature films to filmmakers who have moved from cartoons to movies, such as Tim Burton.

One of the pioneers in integrating animation and live-action was Max Fleisher.

The invention of Rotoscope was his big contribution to animation film industry which made the animation more realistic.