This thesis is about the cultural bargain; the balancing relationship between author monopoly and user affect desires, as applying to the ambiguity of characters. Character culture is a hybrid of the characters that are created and sold by authors with artistic and legal concerns, and the character-affect-relationship of the audience users of those characters. This study examines the law and industry practices in the United States and Canada as it relates to character and the limited scope of the law in defining just what exactly a character is. Also, I examine the major issues in the cultural bargain between the ownership of characters of authors, and the appropriation of characters by audiences, through the dominate arguments for both authors and audiences and the issue of privileged accessibility to characters. By "appropriate", I am referring to any act of an audience member, utilizing a character they do not own, in new ways, that the original author of the character did not give permission for, or approve. Finally, I present my analysis of how the cultural bargain may experience a balance between both authors and audience, by defining characters using the audience affect interpretation as criteria.

This thesis describes two new techniques for enhancing the rendering quality of cartoon characters in toon-shading applications. The proposed methods can be used to improve the output quality of current cel shaders. The first technique which uses 2D image-based algorithms, enhances the silhouettes of the input geometry and reduces the computer generated artefacts. The silhouettes are found by using the Sobel filter and reconstructed by Bezier curve fitting. The intensity of the reconstructed silhouettes is then modified to create a stylised appearance. In the second technique, a new hair model based on billboarded particles is introduced. This method is found to be particularly useful for generating toon-like specular highlights for hair, which are important in cartoon animations. The whole rendering framework is implemented in C++ using the OpenGL API. OpenGL extensions and GPU programming are used to take the advantage of the functionalities of currently available graphics hardware. The programming of graphics hardware is done using Cg, a high level shader language.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 34).

A group of war orphans entered my life in 2007 when I was in Liberia working as the sound recordist for a documentary crew. I spent five months with them at their home, a rural Liberian orphanage named Rainbow Town. The boys at the orphanage often told me stories. During free time, we sat under the canopy outside their dorm and talked. The stories, which ranged from horrific accounts of war to playful tales of spiders and goats, fascinated me. With each story the boys narrated, a new illustration formed in my imagination. By the time I left Liberia, I had a pocketbook full of magical characters and events (See Appendix A). The boys' stories, which blend nonfiction with fantasy and folklore, are the inspiration for my 3D animation short, Dolo: Journey of the Lost Tapes. In this paper, I tell the stories behind the creation of the animation, share personal production experiences, and discuss the theoretical and historical influences that shaped my work. I conclude by discussing Dolo's significance and the work that I plan to do on the piece in the future.

O presente trabalho investiga a forma como as infâncias e as masculinidades são apresentadas no desenho animado Bob Esponja Calça Quadrada a partir da análise da interação de linguagens visuais e sonoras. A fim de realizar um estudo detalhado e atento foram selecionados seis episódios da série para, partindo deles, investigar e discutir os temas propostos. Como aporte teórico referente aos estudos de mídia e aos desenhos animados foram empregados os textos de FUSARI, FERRÉS, FISCHER, PILLAR. Relativos às questões das infâncias foram utilizados os textos de ARIÈS, CORAZZA, POSTMAN, KUHLMANN. Para aprofundar as discussões em relação às masculinidades e às relações de gênero foram importantes os textos de CONNELL, LOURO, FELIPE. E os textos dos estudiosos da semiótica discursiva e do sincretismo: BARROS, FLOCH, GREIMAS, LANDOWSKI, OLIVEIRA e FANTINATTI, MÉDOLA, TEIXEIRA, nortearam a análise semiótica. Essa pesquisa revelou a contemporaneidade de Bob Esponja tanto em relação ao apagamento das fronteiras entre a infância e a vida adulta, quanto em relação à representação não estereotipada dos gêneros masculino e feminino. / The present work investigates how childhood and masculinity are presented in the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants from the analysis of the interaction of audio and visual languages. In order to conduct a detailed and careful study were selected six episodes for the series for, based on them, investigate and discuss the themes. As theoretical support referring to media and cartoons studies were used texts FUSARI, FERRÉS, FISCHER, PILLAR. On the issues of childhood were used texts of ARIÉS, CORAZZA, POSTMAN, KUHLMANN. To deepen the discussion about masculinity and gender relations were important the texts of CONNELL, LOURO, FELIPE. And to guide the semiotic analysis were used texts referring to semiotic and discursive syncretism: BARROS, FLOCH, GREIMAS, LANDOWSKI, OLIVEIRA and FANTINATTI, MÉDOLA, TEIXEIRA. This research revealed the contemporaneity of SpongeBob both on the erasure of boundaries between childhood and adulthood, as in relation to nonstereotypical representation of male and female.

O presente trabalho investiga a forma como as infâncias e as masculinidades são apresentadas no desenho animado Bob Esponja Calça Quadrada a partir da análise da interação de linguagens visuais e sonoras. A fim de realizar um estudo detalhado e atento foram selecionados seis episódios da série para, partindo deles, investigar e discutir os temas propostos. Como aporte teórico referente aos estudos de mídia e aos desenhos animados foram empregados os textos de FUSARI, FERRÉS, FISCHER, PILLAR. Relativos às questões das infâncias foram utilizados os textos de ARIÈS, CORAZZA, POSTMAN, KUHLMANN. Para aprofundar as discussões em relação às masculinidades e às relações de gênero foram importantes os textos de CONNELL, LOURO, FELIPE. E os textos dos estudiosos da semiótica discursiva e do sincretismo: BARROS, FLOCH, GREIMAS, LANDOWSKI, OLIVEIRA e FANTINATTI, MÉDOLA, TEIXEIRA, nortearam a análise semiótica. Essa pesquisa revelou a contemporaneidade de Bob Esponja tanto em relação ao apagamento das fronteiras entre a infância e a vida adulta, quanto em relação à representação não estereotipada dos gêneros masculino e feminino. / The present work investigates how childhood and masculinity are presented in the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants from the analysis of the interaction of audio and visual languages. In order to conduct a detailed and careful study were selected six episodes for the series for, based on them, investigate and discuss the themes. As theoretical support referring to media and cartoons studies were used texts FUSARI, FERRÉS, FISCHER, PILLAR. On the issues of childhood were used texts of ARIÉS, CORAZZA, POSTMAN, KUHLMANN. To deepen the discussion about masculinity and gender relations were important the texts of CONNELL, LOURO, FELIPE. And to guide the semiotic analysis were used texts referring to semiotic and discursive syncretism: BARROS, FLOCH, GREIMAS, LANDOWSKI, OLIVEIRA and FANTINATTI, MÉDOLA, TEIXEIRA. This research revealed the contemporaneity of SpongeBob both on the erasure of boundaries between childhood and adulthood, as in relation to nonstereotypical representation of male and female.

[pt] Vivemos numa época em que a experiência da criança é profundamente marcada pelo freqüente contato com as imagens televisivas que influenciam os modos como ela se relaciona com a cultura e elabora novas formas de acessar a informação e construir conhecimento. Esse foi o contexto que originou meu interesse por investigar que sentidos a criança produz sobre a TV, mais especificamente sobre desenhos animados. O estudo foi fundamentado teórica e metodologicamente na Teoria da Recepção na linha dos Estudos Culturais Latino-Americanos, cujo eixo é o conceito de cultura entendido enquanto mediação da produção de sentidos da criança. Em coerência com a orientação teórico- metodológica, que percebe a recepção como fruto das interações sociais, foram eleitos como procedimentos da coleta de dados oficinas e entrevistas em grupo. Os sujeitos da pesquisa, crianças na faixa etária dos nove/dez anos, foram encarados como receptores ativos, produtores de sentido na sua relação com a TV. A investigação foi realizada em duas escolas da zona sul do Rio de Janeiro - uma da rede pública e outra da rede particular. Os dados interpretados a partir dos conceitos de macromediação e micromediação (Gómez, 2001) levaram à constatação de que diferentes mediações correspondem a diferentes preferências e modos de recepção televisiva. Tal achado aponta para a necessidade de que a escola reveja sua postura em relação a TV, constituindo-se como mediadora de processos de formação crítica da televidência. / [en] We live in a time when the child s experience is deeply marked by the frequent contact with the image and, through it, he or she establishes new relations with the culture and elaborates new forms to access the information and to build knowledge. This research had as objective to investigate the context of the child s relationship with TV, especially with cartoons. We chose the theoretical- methodological orientation of the Theory of the Reception in the line of the Latin-American Cultural Studies, which has as central idea the concept of culture as a mediation of the child s production of meanings, facing the child as active subject and a producer of senses. Coherently with the defined methodology, in which the Reception arises from social interaction, the chosen procedures to collect data was workshops and group interwiews. The research took place in two schools in the south area of Rio de Janeiro: one public and another private and held to 9 to 10 years old children. The data collected were studied through macromediação e micromediação concepts (GOMEZ, 2001). We verified that the two groups of children, having differentiated accesses to the television products, produced different meanings from the same product and made different choices from the cartoons. The meanings were built from the different mediations that appeared in each group and the dialogue among the children was a valuable element of production of meanings on what they saw on TV. Such fact shows the perspective that moments as that can be useful in a process of critical formation of the televidência (GOMEZ, 2001) and schools can make good use of it to educate its students.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-06-16Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:58:59Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 gruda_mpp_me_assis.pdf: 741050 bytes, checksum: 2c4c9e7a078c7baa8e463304f18ad9c6 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Neste trabalho fazemos uma análise do humor politicamente incorreto e escrachado do desenho animado estadunidense South Park tendo como norte: (1) que embora a comicidade na contemporaneidade esteja neutralizada e abrandada pelo humorismo light e politicamente correto, o discurso humorístico propagado por nosso corpus de estudo pode estar em sintonia com as características mais essenciais e inerentes a este gênero da linguagem (crítica, acidez, sarcasmo, caricatural, escatológico, grotesco); (2) e que quando o texto Southparkiano (episódios compostos por narrativas, diálogos e imagens) inverte os discursos hegemônicos possibilitaria reflexões acerca destes, atentando para que tanto esses discursos contra-hegemônicos, quanto os discursos hegemônicos, são infalíveis, não sendo estritamente corretos e/ou verdadeiros. / In this work we do an analysis of politically incorrect humor of the American South Park cartoon with a north: (1) although the comic discourse in contemporary is neutralized and softened by the light humor and the politically correct, the humorous discourse propagated by the corpus of our study can be in keeping with the essential features and inherent to this genre language (critic, acidity, sarcasm, caricature, scatological, grotesque); (2) and that when the South Park’s text (episodes composed narratives, dialogues and images) reverses the hegemonic discourses it could enable reflections about them, paying attention to these counter-hegemonic discourses and hegemonic discourses are both infallible, not strictly correct and/or true at all.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / O conceito de infÃncia à construÃdo socialmente e envolve diversos sujeitos sociais e polÃticos, entre eles a academia e, obviamente, as crianÃas. Diversos pesquisadores apontam que houve (e/ou hÃ) modificaÃÃes sobre o conceito de infÃncia depois do acesso e/ou da presenÃa/participaÃÃo das crianÃas nas esferas pÃblicas midiÃticas. Nosso problema surge de uma âinvisibilidadeâ dos saberes das crianÃas, atà mesmo sobre o que significa ser crianÃa. Isso porque muitas vezes os agenciamentos sÃo compreendidos como elementos adultizados, mera expressÃo do âdesaparecimento ou apagamento da infÃnciaâ, jà que âcoloca uma vozâ na crianÃa, em vez de dialogar com ela. Esta dissertaÃÃo caminha em outro sentido, o de valorizar as suas vozes. Desse modo, definimos a pergunta central desta pesquisa: quais os sentidos que um grupo de crianÃas do campo produz sobre o conceito de infÃncia e, desse modo, sobre si mesmas e sobre seus agenciamentos, numa relaÃÃo mediada pelo desenho animado? Para respondÃ-la optamos pela realizaÃÃo de uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa, pautada na metodologia da pesquisa-intervenÃÃo. ConstruÃmos os dados especialmente por meio de seis oficinas, duas das quais com a assistÃncia aos desenhos Ben-10 e Zica e os CamaleÃes, e o recurso à observaÃÃo participante. Nosso corpus se compÃe, assim, das transcriÃÃes do vÃdeo-registro das oficinas, das anotaÃÃes do diÃrio de campo, do relato de nossas experiÃncias e das produÃÃes artÃsticas das crianÃas nas oficinas do Assentamento Recreio, explorados metodologicamente por meio de uma anÃlise interpretativa. ConcluÃmos, com base nos sentidos produzidos pelos co-pesquisadores, que, no Recreio, algumas linhas molares que constituem a infÃncia envolvem a felicidade, a brincadeira e a diversÃo; outras linhas moleculares da infÃncia sÃo indicadas com a educaÃÃo no assentamento, a unidade campesina e o orgulho da luta; e linhas de fuga da infÃncia se desterritorializam com a ancestralidade e com uma relaÃÃo prÃxima com a natureza. Desses modos de ser crianÃa hà aproximaÃÃo com Benjamin apenas nas linhas molares de diversÃo e brincadeira; jà com Zica, nas moleculares da educaÃÃo e da luta. Todavia, as crianÃas campesinas, ao produzirem seus prÃprios desenhos, expandem os territÃrios da infÃncia com a criaÃÃo de uma personagem negra e de um personagem vaqueiro que vive cotidianamente em contato com o gado. Ademais, as crianÃas apontam se divertirem mais quando assistem a episÃdios criados por elas mesmas ou por seus pares. / The concept of childhood is a social construction and it is related to several social and politic subjects, among them are the academia and, obviously, the children. Different scholars point out that there were, and there are, many changes in the concept of childhood since the access and the presence/participation of children in media public spheres. Our mainly problem emerges from an invisibility of knowledge produced by children, even about what it means to be a child. Thus, the agencies usually are understood as adultification, simple expression of âthe disappearance or effacement of childhoodâ, because it âputs a voiceâ on the children, instead of talking to them. This dissertation, on the other hand, aims to value children's voice. Hence our central question is: which knowledge, mediated by cartoons, a group of peasant children produce about themselves and about childhood? To answer it, we chose to investigate with a qualitative nature research, guided by intervention-research methodology. We produced our data especially in six workshops, among which we watched Ben-10 and Zica e os CamaleÃes â âZica and the Chameleonsâ â, and the participant observation method. Our corpus is the transcription of the workshops, our notes in our camp diary, some account of our experiences and the artistic productions by children from Recreio Settlement. Furthermore, we adopted interpretative analysis. Based on senses produced by children, we concluded that some molar lines of childhood are happiness, playing and fun; other molecular lines of childhood are the education in settlement, peasant unit and pride fighting; and escape lines of childhood are point out as a close relationship with nature and as an ancestry. There is an approaching to Benjamin with respect to fun and playing. There is an approaching to Zica concerned with education and fight. However, when the children constructed their own cartoons, they created a black character and a cowboy â from northwest of Brazil â who takes care of the cattle. Moreover, children show to enjoy more watching their own episodes, created by themselves or by their peers.

Submitted by Margareth Ferreira Pinto (margarethfpinto@hotmail.com) on 2016-04-06T16:46:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Vagner.pdf: 7648438 bytes, checksum: d45148c39f4467d3c113babd48597e21 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by cleuza maria medina dos santos (cleuzamai@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-04-15T16:56:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Vagner.pdf: 7648438 bytes, checksum: d45148c39f4467d3c113babd48597e21 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-15T16:56:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vagner.pdf: 7648438 bytes, checksum: d45148c39f4467d3c113babd48597e21 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Esta pesquisa objetivou compreender em que sentido e de que forma o Humor Gráfico potencializa processos de Educação Ambiental. Teve como objeto de pesquisa a 1ª Mostra Internacional de Humor sobre Educação Ambiental, exposição realizada durante o V CPEASUL - Colóquio de Pesquisadores em Educação Ambiental da Região Sul do Brasil e do IV EDEA - Encontro e Diálogos com a Educação Ambiental, promovidos pelo Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação Ambiental da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, em 2012. A Mostra reuniu 142 cartuns de 142 cartunistas de 38 países. Os desenhos que integraram a exposição foram analisados e categorizados com o propósito de investigar as temáticas ambientais e as relações locais e globais apresentadas em cada trabalho. Também foram realizadas entrevistas com pesquisadores e educadores ambientais que interagiram com os cartuns, durante a Mostra, em processo complementar à produção dos dados da pesquisa. O corpus gerado, a partir da transcrição das entrevistas, possibilitou a análise e a identificação de possibilidades e limitações do Humor Gráfico em processos de Educação Ambiental. Os dados empíricos foram sistematizados e discutidos à luz de teóricos como Félix Guattari, Eduardo Galeano, Ariel Dorfman, Karl Marx, Paulo Freire, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Lucie Sauvé, David Harvey, Michèle Sato, entre outros. A investigação possibilitou a emergência de questões relacionadas ao fato de como o Humor Gráfico e a Educação Ambiental estão inseridos nos debates sociais e ambientais da atualidade. Um dos principais resultados da pesquisa aponta para a potência do Humor Gráfico, como disparador do diálogo em processos que perturbam, desacomodam e desafiam a inteligência do leitor. / This research aimed at understanding in what sense and how Graphic Humor potentializes processes in Environmental Education. Its object was the First International Show of Humor on Environmental Education, which was carried out during the V Colóquio de Pesquisadores em Educação Ambiental da Região Sul do Brasil (V CPEASUL) and the IV Encontro e Diálogos com a Educação Ambiental (IV EDEA), two events organized by the Post-graduate Program in Environmental Education at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, located in Rio Grande, RS, Brazil, in 2012. This exposition comprised 142 cartoons made by 142 cartoonists from 38 countries. All drawings were analyzed and categorized so that environmental themes as well as local and global relations of every work could be investigated. Interviews were also made with researchers and environmental educators that interacted with the cartoons during the Show, as a complement to yield research data. After the interviews were transcribed, the whole corpus enabled the analysis and the identification of possibilities and limitations of Graphic Humor in Environmental Education processes in the school context. Empirical data were systematized and discussed in the light of scholars such as Félix Guattari, Eduardo Galeano, Ariel Dorfman, Karl Marx, Paulo Freire, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Lucie Sauvé, David Harvey and Michèle Sato, among others. This investigation enabled the emergence of issues related to the insertion of Graphic Humor and Environmental Education in current social and environmental debates. One of the main results of this study points out the potential of Graphic Humor as a dialogue trigger in processes that disturb, disarrange and challenge readers’ intelligence.