Animationsserien sind ein fester Bestandteil der deutschen Fernsehlandschaft und sollen vor allem Kinder als Zielgruppe ansprechen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich zum einen die Frage, welche Wirkungen und Funktionen von Animationsserien auf und während der Sozialisation zu erwarten sind. Zum anderen möchte diese Arbeit aber auch die Seite der Produzierenden von Animationsserien näher beleuchten, die gerade in der Trias „Produktion, Distribution, Rezeption“ eine zentrale Rolle einnehmen und an wesentlichen Entscheidungsprozessen beteiligt sind. Mit Hilfe von qualitativen ExpertInneninterviews sollten verschiedene Fragen beantwortet werden: Welche subjektiven Wirkungs- und Funktionsannahmen besitzen ProduzentInnen von Animationsserien und welchen Einfluss haben diese auf die Gestaltung der Serie? Und wie werden individuelle künstlerisch-ästhetische Vorstellungen mit den Anforderungen des Marktes „Animationsfilm“ in Einklang gebracht?

Morphable guidelines are a 3D structure that helps users achieve better face warping on 2D portrait images. Faces can be difficult to warp accurately because the rotation of the head affects the shape of the facial features. I bypass the problem by utilizing the popular Loomis ‘ball and plane’ head drawing guideline as a proxy structure. The resulting ‘morphable guidelines’ consist of a simple 3D head model that can be reshaped by the user and aligned to their input image. The vertices of the model go on to act as deformation points for a 2D image deformation algorithm. Thus, the user can seamlessly transform the face proportions in the 2D image by transforming the proportions of the morphable guidelines. This system can be used for both retouching and caricature warping purposes, as it is well-suited for both subtle and extreme modifications. This system is advantageous over previous work in face warping because our morphable guidelines can be used on a wide range of head orientations and do not require the generation of a full 3D model. / Graduate / 0984 / syugao@gmail.com

Animated agent technology has been rapidly developed to provide ubiquitously psychological and functional benefits for fulfilling communicative goals. However, the character motions of most character-centered models based on pre-stored movement, finite state machine and scripted conditional logic are generally restrictive. The major drawback lies in the lack of maturity of integrating the elements between personality, emotion and behaviour. To bridge the gap between cognitive and behavioural elements, we examine the connections between human personality, emotion, movement and cartoon modeling for the agent design. Human personality and emotional behaviour are the essences in the recognition of a believable synthetic character. Personality and emotion come from the storylines and result in characters’ motions. Cartoon animations successfully engage the audience and create emotional connections with the spectators. However, even a sophisticated animator often faces some difficulties while performing a very laborious task to simulate an emotion- and personality-rich character. This thesis focuses on exploring effective techniques to extract personality and emotion features for a high-level control of character movements. A hierarchical fuzzy rule-based system was constructed, in which personality and emotion were mapped into the body’s movement zones of a character. This facilitates agent designers to control the personality and emotion of a dynamic synthetic character. The system was then applied to a Narrative Intelligent system and extended to an Ambient Intelligent environment. An innovative storyboard-structured storytelling method was devised by using story scripts and action descriptions in a form similar to the content description of storyboards to predict specific personality and emotion. As software or device agents evolve into the Ambient Intelligence, new concepts for effective agent presentations and delegating control are necessary to minimise the human’s tasks and interventions in the complex and dynamic environment. A novel customizable personalised agent framework was developed by utilising the spirit of cartoon animation to match each user’s profile in the form of a cartoon reciprocal agent. As a result, users could explicitly modify personality and emotion values to change the psychology traits of the agent, which would affect their appearance and behaviour through body posture expression. An evaluation of the system was conducted to verify the effectiveness and the applicability in both Narrative and Ambient intelligent agent frameworks. The significance of this research is that applying higher cognitive factors to animated characters can lead to a better animation design tool and reduce strenuous animation production efforts in agent designs. It will also enable animated characters to embody more adaptive, flexible and stylised performance.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of English, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

[pt] O letramento em língua portuguesa nas séries inciais do ensino fundamental é objeto de reflexão de inúmeros pesquisadores, especialmente pelo lugar basilar que a escrita e a leitura ocupam no processo de escolarização. Contudo, na perspectiva de uma leitura que ultrapassa os limites do texto escrito, estendendo-se à uma leitura do mundo, o letramento em história, simultâneo ao letramento em língua portuguesa, apresenta-se igualmente fundamental no processo de construção de sujeitos solidários e cidadãos, conscientes de seus lugares no mundo. Nesse sentido, buscou-se desenvolver metodologia ancorada no uso de desenhos animados nas séries iniciais para o letramento em Língua Portuguesa e em História. Os desenhos animados são linguagens imagéticas familiares e recorrentes para parte considerável dos educandos de todo o ensino fundamental. Os materiais (desenhos animados e materiais de apoio) foram produzidos em DVD e também estão disponíveis no site YouTube (Canal Animações Revolução), com ampla e total liberdade aos espectadores para significá-los e resignificá-los. Os desenhos animados possuem três matrizes temáticas: as Histórias e Culturas Afro-Brasileiras, as Histórias e Culturas da África e as Histórias e Culturas dos Povos Indígenas Brasileiros, todas presentes na Lei 11645/2008. Os contatos dos educandos, em seus primeiros anos de escolarização, com temáticas da História numa perspectiva crítica constituem estratégias eficientes no processo de formação de consciências históricas plurais. / [en] Literacy in Portuguese in inciais grades of elementary school is numerous researchers reflection object, especially the fundamental place that writing and reading occupy in the schooling process. However, in view of a reading that goes beyond the written text boundaries, extending to a reading of the world, literacy in history, simultaneously to literacy in Portuguese also presents fundamental in the construction of solidary subjects and citizens process , aware of their places in the world. In this sense, we sought to develop methodology anchored in the use of cartoons in the early grades for literacy in English Language and History. The cartoons are familiar and recurring imagistic language to considerable part of students of all elementary school. The materials (cartoons and supporting materials) were produced on DVD and also estãodisponíveis on YouTube (Channel Animations Revolution), with wide and full freedom to viewers to signify them and significance to them. The cartoons have three thematic matrices: Histories and Cultures Afro-Brazilian, Histories and Cultures of Africa and the Histories and Cultures of Indigenous Peoples Brazilians, all present in Law 11645/2008. contacts the students in their first years of schooling, with themes of history in a critical perspective are efficient strategies in the process of forming plurals historical consciousness.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine queer aspects of the animated television show Steven Universe (2013-present), created by Rebecca Sugar and produced by Cartoon Network. Situating Steven Universe in the context of Cartoon Network and children’s animation in general, and drawing on queer theory, as well as feminist cultural studies and kinship studies, the thesis aims to contribute to understanding of non-normative family representation in children’s entertainment. Through a close reading of the material, the thesis explores how Steven Universe queers the notion of family. It focuses on the show’s depiction of kinship, temporality and reproduction, and examines how each of these aspects subverts reproduces different modes of normativity. In Steven Universe, the family of the main character, Steven, is depicted as socially unintelligible, and as a mixture of biological and chosen kinship, highlighting the importance of both. It places great emphasis on being accepted by one’s family and community, and I discuss how this message can be both empowering and undermining. Steven’s family mostly inhabits queer time and does not give in to chrononormative structures. However, I also explore and critically evaluate parts of the series in which queer temporality is provisionally replaced by chrononormativity and striving for maturity. Finally, Steven Universe queers reproduction, by defamiliarizing the notion of (hetero)sexual reproduction and providing other alternatives for reproduction and motherhood. In general, the depiction of family on Steven Universe is characterized by transgressing multiple dichotomies and by having a complex relationship to different modes of normativity, by both resisting them and engaging in them.

The present study investigated whether the teaching of L2 vocabulary with still cartoon pictures and animated cartoon pictures would result in a significant difference in second language learners' receptive and productive knowledge of the target words. Also, the effect of test type (receptive vs. productive) on participants' retention of the target words was examined. Finally, the study tried to find out whether the semantic category of vocabulary words influences the rate of successful vocabulary retention across picture types. For the purpose, a group of 17 ESL students from a Midwestern University participated in both treatments with still and animated pictures, followed by vocabulary tests. The results showed that over 80% of the target words were successfully retrieved on the receptive knowledge tests vs. only about 40% successful retrieval on the productive knowledge tests. Yet, the results did not reveal significant differences in vocabulary gain due to picture type as both treatments showed similar success rate of retention of the target words, especially in view of receptive knowledge. Also, neither of the two types of pictures was effective in facilitating productive knowledge of the target words. In addition, the study found that some semantic categories of vocabulary words may be easier to recall than others.

Submitted by Gentil Jeorgina (jeorgina@icict.fiocruz.br) on 2013-03-20T22:20:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 BRUNO CAMARINHA DOMINGUEZ.doc: 4480000 bytes, checksum: d5d030e94d40e525697f23a0b6ac38fd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-03-20T22:20:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BRUNO CAMARINHA DOMINGUEZ.doc: 4480000 bytes, checksum: d5d030e94d40e525697f23a0b6ac38fd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Entre dezembro de 2007 e abril de 2008, a febre amarela praticamente dominou o noticiário nacional, ocupando posição de destaque — em notas e reportagens, mas também em editoriais e charges. Em meio à atualização dos números de casos suspeitos e de mortes de macacos, as publicações alardearam a ocorrência de uma epidemia de febre amarela e a volta do seu tipo urbano ao país, não registrado desde 1942. De forma geral, havia segundo os jornais uma ameaça pública, uma “epidemia”. Entendemos que os discursos midiáticos têm papel fundamental na reprodução, manutenção ou transformação das representações sociais na atualidade. Pertencente ao universo midiático, a charge também é vista como modo de produção e ressignificação de sentidos que interfere na produção e compreensão dos fatos, processos e relações. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho objetiva analisar de que forma as charges publicadas na imprensa nacional construíram discursivamente o episódio da febre amarela e descrever os modos de mostrar das charges sobre febre amarela e suas condições de produção. / From December 2007 to April 2008, yellow fever practically dominated brazilian national news, occupying a prominent position - in notes and reports, but also in editorials and cartoons. In the midst of updating the number of suspected cases and deaths of monkeys, publications touted the occurrence of an epidemic of yellow fever and the return of its urban kind to the country, not seen since 1942. Overall, according to the newspapers, there was a public threat, an "epidemic". We understand that the media discourse play a fundamental role in reproduction, maintenance or transformation of social representations today. Belonging to the media universe, the cartoon is also seen as a mode of production and reframe the way that interferes with the production and comprehension of facts, processes and relationships. Accordingly, this paper aims to examine how the cartoons published in the national press discursively constructed the episode yellow fever and describe the way cartoons show the yellow fever and their production conditions.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a cultura visual presente em Israel e na Palestina durante as décadas de 1970 e 1980, através da singular interação entre o universo das imagens e a luta política da Palestina. O estudo parte da preocupação em compreender territórios e alcances da visualidade palestina, especialmente em decorrência da ruptura ocasionada a partir de 1948 – ano de criação do Estado de Israel, conhecido Nakba - e seus diversos desdobramentos. Visando aprofundar a compreensão das reverberações visuais na experiência política de artistas (e) palestinos/as, serão exploradas imagens de apelo cotidiano e de grande alcance, em especial charges e ilustrações, produzidas pelo artista palestino Abed Abdi entre os anos de 1972 e 1982: as primeiras, publicadas no jornal Al-Ittihad (1972-1981), e as segundas produzidas para a revista literária Al-Jadid (1980-1982). O recorte temporal escolhido ambienta um momento de uma rica produção do artista, devido suas posições ideológicas de esquerda, a filiação ao Partido Comunista de Israel e os estudos formais realizados em Dresden, elementos fundamentais da biografia de Abdi. Sua produção crítica e marcadamente política proporcionam retratos de um cenário complexo das relações entre Israel, Palestina, outros países do Oriente Médio e do restante do mundo no período. Assim, no entremeio da história e arte, visualidade e política, são abordadas temáticas como a construção identitária e historiográfica do Nakba, as produções artísticas do Nakba, a construção da Nação, a inserção do Comunismo, a natureza dos periódicos, a presença de uma intelectualidade palestina, entre outros. O problema, enfim, consiste na hipótese de uma centralidade do visual no processo de afirmação, discussão, enfrentamento e expressão das causas palestinas no século XX. Nesse cenário, as imagens produzidas por Abed Abdi durante as décadas de 1970 e 1980 encontram relevância ao fornecer um repertório visual que discute a Palestina em termos políticos, não apenas em suas relações com Israel e com um Mundo Árabe, mas a partir de seus próprios termos. / This work aims to analyze the visual culture presented in Israel and Palestine during the 1970s and 1980s, through the unique interaction between the images spectrum and the political struggle in Palestine. The study is concerned to understand territories and the scope of Palestinian visuality, especially due to the disruption caused since 1948 - the birthdate of the State of Israel, known as Nakba - and its various developments. To deepen the understanding of visual reverberations in the political experience of artists (and) Palestinians, it will be explored images of everyday appeal and far-reaching, specifically cartoons and illustrations produced by the Palestinian artist Abed Abdi between the years 1972 and 1982: the first ones published in the Al-Ittihad newspaper (1972-1981), and the second ones produced for the literary magazine Al-Jadid (1980-1982). The time frame chosen is set in a moment of a rich production of the artist, also due to his leftist ideological position, filiation to the Communist Party of Israel and the formal studies taken in Dresden, underlying elements to Abdi´s biography. His critical production, markedly political, provides pictures of a complex scenario of relations between Israel, Palestine, other Middle Eastern countries and the rest of the world in the period. Therefore, in between history and art, visuality and politics, it is addressed themes such as identity and historiographical construction of the Nakba, the artistic productions of the Nakba, the construction of the Nation, the insertion of Communism, the nature of the journals, the presence of Palestinian intellectuals, among others. The problem, finally, consists in the hypothesis of the centrality of the visual in the processes of afirmation, discussion, confrontation and expression of the Palestinian causes in the twentieth century. In this scenario, the images produced by Abed Abdi during the 1970s and 1980s are relevant because they provide a visual repertoire in discussing Palestine politically, not only in its relations with Israel and an Arab World, but from their own terms.

In this research, the method of qualitative comparison of discursive, enunciative and imagetic elements is applied in order to verify how the representations of masculinity and femininity are constructed by Printed Media in Curvas Perigosas cartoons from Claudia Magazine. This investigation is based on theoretical presuppositions of Gender and Cultural Studies (SCOTT, 1995; BOURDIEU, 2006; BUTLER, 2008), Multimodality (KRESS e VAN LEEUWEN, 1996) and Theory of Enunciation by Kerbrat Orecchioni (1980). This way, the social representations in discourse are analyzed, focusing on the evaluations made by Maitena, the main character. Two aspects are considered in textual analysis: stereotypes maintenances and manifestations of sexualities. In the evaluation of subjectivities, it is taking into consideration the cartoon s audience that consists of middle-class women and men, who live in urban areas (GOLDEMBERG, 2004). Moreover, it is evaluated gender relations influenced by social processes, taking for granted that the cultural paradigms of gender are reference in our everyday life, shaping our discourses and behaviors. As the textual genres of humor are not largely investigated on the current literature and the differences of terminology can cause misunderstandings, it is proposed that a clear and precise definition of cartoon as a discursive, a humor and a multimodal genre can be relevant. The study of this textual genre has its didactic implications, because it can help teachers and students to be engaged in a process of a new knowledge construction as well as to be aware of the existing inequalities, which are inculcated in their minds and are considered as natural in order to prescribe the behavior of women and men. Since we live in a world full of visual devices and technologies of representation, we should turn possible critical and reflexive experiences that make everyone understand how discourse influences thoughts, feelings and actions. Furthermore, they can reflect upon their identities and socio-cultural contexts. / Utiliza-se, nesta pesquisa, o método de comparação qualitativa de elementos discursivos, enunciativos e imagéticos para se verificar como as representações das feminilidades e das masculinidades são veiculadas pela mídia impressa nos cartuns Curvas Perigosas, na revista Cláudia. Os pressupostos teóricos utilizados para sustentar esta pesquisa associam algumas teorias de gênero (SCOTT, 1995; BOURDIEU, 2006; BUTLER, 2008) à multimodalidade (KRESS e VAN LEEUWEN, 1996) e à enunciação da subjetividade na linguagem com a teoria de Kerbrat-Orecchioni (1980). Dessa forma, analisam-se as representações sociais na linguagem, considerando-se as avaliações feitas pela enunciadora/Maitena cujas temáticas, neste trabalho, são construídas pela manutenção de estereótipos e manifestações de sexualidade. Essa subjetividade é avaliada, a partir do contexto de recepção desses cartuns por mulheres e homens das camadas médias urbanas (GOLDEMBERG, 2004), bem como se avaliam as relações de gênero subordinadas aos processos sociais, considerando-se que os paradigmas culturais de gênero são referenciais que estruturam toda a vida dos indivíduos, determinando seus discursos e suas condutas. Assim, por não haver clareza na literatura existente em relação aos gêneros discursivos humorísticos, e por existirem muitas dificuldades terminológicas e imprecisões lexicais, propõe-se uma definição clara e objetiva do gênero discursivo/humorístico/multimodal cartum, a qual, devido às suas implicações didáticas, pode auxiliar professores/as e alunos/as a participarem da construção de novos conhecimentos bem como a resistirem às desigualdades existentes as quais sempre foram incutidas e tornadas naturais a fim de conformar as condutas de mulheres e homens. Para tanto, já que se vive em um mundo dominado por dispositivos visuais e tecnologias da representação, deve-se possibilitar experiências reflexivas críticas que permitam a todos terem a compreensão de como os discursos influem em seus pensamentos e sentimentos, em suas ações, bem como refletir sobre suas identidades e contextos sócio-históricos.