animation

I know that many people do like to shoot things. For some, this is not just pleasure, but necessity.

However, some question why they insist on putting films of these shootings out in public. Who wants to see you singing in the bath with your rubber duck? And who wants to see Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons shooting an elephant and posing proudly over its dead body?

The video--which is neither for the squeamish nor the peckish--shows Parsons gunning down an elephant on safari in Zimbabwe. He says that it and other elephants were endangering the sorghum crop.

So, one … Read more

The Global Pet Expo just wrapped up in Orlando, Fla., and some 800 pet product makers were on hand showing off more than 3,000 new gadgets for our furry friends.

CBS News correspondent and "Early Show" resident veterinarian Dr. Debbye Turner Bell scoured the entire floor of the expo, seeking the coolest pet products coming out on the market, and brought many to the show yesterday.

Among them: a high-tech pooper scooper, a doggie treadmill, a finger-painting paint set for pooches, spill-proof bowls, and a microwavable cat cake!

This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com. … Read more

Whether you're one of the 10 million who bought a Kinect or one of those who mock its existence, there's no denying that Microsoft's Xbox 360 motion control device is doing more than letting players tickle digital tigers.

Using the camera and motion recognition built into the accessory, the techies at Triangle Productions are using a hacked Kinect to make a motion capture--or "mo-cap"--movie. They're utilizing the professional animation programs Maya and MotionBuilder, open-source programming software OpenNI, and a Kinect tool called Brekel, to capture their own actions, which characters then mimic in "Under the HUD," a new animated Web series.

In the process, they've probably saved themselves from spending sleepless nights animating frames while creating what looks to my eyes to be high production value--at what's most likely a fraction of the cost.

While the Web series hasn't aired yet (the creators are aiming for an early-May release), the sneak-peek video below details the production process, as well as the mo-cap capabilities of Kinect.… Read more

editor's notebook This week, New Yorkers are enjoying even more than their usual outsized share of art, with something in the neighborhood of 10 different fine-art marketplaces happening simultaneously in the city. And artsy YouTube rival Vimeo is taking advantage of the situation to burnish its brand, promote some of the artists who use its site, and spice up people's elevator rides.

In concert with the art- and tech-minded PR firm Culture Shock Marketing, Vimeo is serving up "Projection," a program of short films--including some dazzling digital animations--as part of Volta N.Y. The international art … Read more

We've seen our fair share of ridiculous software--especially when it comes to desktop enhancements--but we're pretty sure that Audi Screenmate takes the cake. We can't imagine that even the most die-hard Audi fan would find anything useful about this program.

Audi Screenmate consists of a small animated graphic with some shooting lines and fog; every few seconds "A4" becomes visible through the haze. This is a reference to the Audi A4 sedan. This graphic is visible on your desktop but also stays on top when you're using other programs. Clicking on the graphic takes … Read more

Rovio Mobile has been progressively flinging hints about an Angry Birds animated series.

The Rovio YouTube channel offered gamers a glimpse into the lives of their favorite bitter birdies early last year with an official cinematic trailer. Several more videos popped up showing the feisty avians encountering a mighty eagle and celebrating the holidays. The videos are far from amateur, and resemble what could be an animated Angry Birds show (take a peek at the cinematic trailer below for a sense of what a series might look like).

But now, official word on the matter. In an interview with British … Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Google's Eric Schmidt steps down as CEO

A new Logitech mouse is designed to work on your couch

Verizon files an appeal against the FCC's Net neutrality rules

HP replaces four board members with five new ones

Google is getting ready to compete with Groupon with Google Offers

A German software program could set an expiration date for your online photos

Angry Birds is being developed into an animated series

The 2011 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition is released with all sorts of useless gaming facts

Desktop weather displays aren't as old as talking about the weather, but it sometimes seems that way. There's no shortage of online weather and forecast data to pull from, so they all do the job pretty well. What's left boils down to a combination of features and appearance, mostly appearance. That's certainly the case with MobilityFlow's Animated Weather Free, a desktop widget for Windows XP, Vista, and 7. It stands out by virtue of its realistic animated weather effects, which add a nice touch to current condition displays and forecasts as well as the quick … Read more

In case a name and phone number on Fido's dog tag aren't enough to bring him home from his wanderings, a new tag from online pet community PetHub includes a Fido-centric URL that is scannable by smartphone.

One side of the laser-etched tag displays a human-readable Web link to information on your pet. The other shows a two-dimensional QR bar code that can be scanned by any iPhone or Android phone with the free code-scanning software NeoReader installed.

When scanned, the code automatically navigates a browser to PetHub to display an animal's information.

By default, PetHub shows … Read more