New to Muvizu? We understand you may have some questions!

We’ve created ‘Ask a Mogul’ to help you pick the brains of the Moguls - our most imaginative and experienced animators - who continually stretch the possibilities of Muvizu with their videos.

Selecting the best user question, we put it to an individual Mogul to offer their unique, in-depth insight. This month, we’ve opened the floor to riunguireripat, who asks:

“How do you make the characters sit on a chair for example, to drive a car, ride a bike etc.?”

We asked Ziggy72 (who’s currently knee-deep building sets for his Muvizu film about serial killer Ted Bundy) to take some time out and tackle this conundrum for new Muvizu users. Ziggy72 (AKA Ron) is one of our more advanced users, viewing the software as an animation tool to generate footage he can then develop by integrating with an editing program like Sony Vegas.

So, over to Ron...

Sitting down – it’s a basic feature of Muvizu characters but can cause problems for the beginner. Characters always begin in their default standing pose when created but can be set to always be sitting by right-clicking on them and selecting Prepare > Actions. At the bottom of the Actions window, there is a drop-down box for Initial State – change this to Sit and the character will stay seated until told otherwise (by another Action).

But what if you want a character to walk into a room, and then sit down?

First, right-click on him and select Direct > Movement. Don’t concern yourself with the boxes that appear (for the moment anyway) and hit the red Record button. A large white directional circle appears at their feet – you can either click on the arrows in the circle to make the character take steps in that direction (looks a bit odd for more than a step or two) or just double left-click on the spot you want him to walk to. Once he gets there, use the arrows to align him up with your chair, then stop recording.

(in this example you can see 2 movements are recorded – one is him walking to the chair, the second is the ‘turn 180 degree’ arrow move).

Now that he’s poised above the chair, we right-click on him and select Direct > Actions. Using the arrow buttons at the top of the Actions window, go to page 3 and you’ll find the Sit action. Press the red Record button, press the Sit action and stop recording.

Now, open the Timeline window and you’ll see your movement blocks and your Sit action block for your character. Move the character to get him lined up with the chair, then move the movement and action blocks in the Timeline to get the timing right. You usually don’t have to be too accurate with your timing when directing the characters – you can always reorganise or change when actions will happen later on. It’s fine to have the situation as you see it here – you just drag him over to the chair, so when he sits down he’ll line-up okay.

The process works the other way too – with a character who starts sitting, you use the Stand action on them, then Direct the movement to make them walk away.

Also, there are a special set of Sitting actions in Muvizu just for bikes – go to Prepare > Actions and click on an action – from the list that appears, there is an option for “Biker”. These are poses designed to fit a motorbike – to get the character and bike to line up properly, you would use a non-visible object (like a ground plane) under the character to lift them to the correct height, like I had to do here :

It’s always a good idea to set your character’s initial state to Sit first, and build around that, to make sure your seat (whatever it is) is at the right scale/height to match up with the character when they do actually sit down.

Hope this helps ‘riunguireripat’.

Ziggy72 AKA Ron

Hello Muvizuers,

Big day today here at Digimania Towers.

As you’ll have no doubt seen from our homepage this is the day Muvizu:Play+ climbs out of the phone box with its pants on over its trousers!

We’re finding it hard to put into words how happy we are to be able to satisfy those amongst you who have asked for the ability to download unlimited HD versions of your animations.

While the regular flavour of Muvizu:Play is still available and users can still choose to output their watermark-free animations on a pay-as-you-go basis, we’ve seen a growing number of requests for a licensed version of the software.

As a premium version of the system we know you already love, Muvizu:Play+ is a logical next step for any dedicated storyteller or more commercially-minded user. There are, of course, also going to be some exciting new features. For starters, you can now import FBX props. In Muvizu:Play, you can currently only import in an ASE format. Play+ has added FBX import functionality so you can do even more with commonly-used applications like Blender and Maya.

Whatever your character’s desire – be it a gun, a wig or a handbag – their wish is now your command - and Play+’s unlimited HD watermark-free rendering opens the door for you to create commercial animations and increase your prospects of monetising your videos.

We’ve had lots of requests for characters to hold things. In this Play+ version, we’ve activated a first ‘light’ version of this and look forward to seeing how people apply this to their stories and what new assets they create and import.

If you’d like to chat about the possibilities with us and other users, hop on over to the Muvizu forums.

Ready to jump in there right now? After you download Muvizu:Play or your existing copy has updated at next run, a unique licence key to activate Play+ can be purchased via the Licence Manager menu in the app (accessed by clicking on the pink question mark in the top right hand corner of Muvizu:Play).

Go for it.

Halloween Joke! Incoming!!!!!

What do you call a ghost's mother and father?
Transparents.

We liked that one.

Anyway, as some of you may have seen in the forum we’ve kicked off a wee easy-to-enter Halloween themed competition – mostly for fun but there’s also a spooky goody bag in it for the short with the most likes.

We’d been chatting here in the office about the genius of animations like ‘Dumb Ways to Die’, the classic stickmen deaths and the sweet but slightly worrying Bunny Suicides.

All of these demonstrate well that by limiting the options you have you can actually increase your chances of stumbling on a really clever or impactful story.

So we invite you to import two very simple stickmen characters to a plain Muvizu set. You should then tell a fifteen to twenty second long, Halloween inspired story, adding only props, lighting, sounds and effects…. no backdrop. In the spirit of the season, at the end at least one of your characters should suffer a fatality. But how does it happen? How does he/she meet their sticky end?

The short with the most Muvizu thumbs up at noon on 30th of October 2013 (GMT) will win that Muvizu goody bag with a few added creepy, ghoulish treats thrown in too.

Fangs for listening.

Hello Muvizuers,

Big day today here at Digimania Towers.

As you’ll have no doubt seen from our homepage this is the day Muvizu:Play+ climbs out of the phone box with its pants on over its trousers!

We’re finding it hard to put into words how happy we are to be able to satisfy those amongst you who have asked for the ability to download unlimited HD versions of your animations.

While the regular flavour of Muvizu:Play is still available and users can still choose to output their watermark-free animations on a pay-as-you-go basis, we’ve seen a growing number of requests for a licensed version of the software.

As a premium version of the system we know you already love, Muvizu:Play+ is a logical next step for any dedicated storyteller or more commercially-minded user. There are, of course, also going to be some exciting new features. For starters, you can now import FBX props. In Muvizu:Play, you can currently only import in an ASE format. Play+ has added FBX import functionality so you can do even more with commonly-used applications like Blender and Maya.

Whatever your character’s desire – be it a gun, a wig or a handbag – their wish is now your command - and Play+’s unlimited HD watermark-free rendering opens the door for you to create commercial animations and increase your prospects of monetising your videos.

We’ve had lots of requests for characters to hold things. In this Play+ version, we’ve activated a first ‘light’ version of this and look forward to seeing how people apply this to their stories and what new assets they create and import.

If you’d like to chat about the possibilities with us and other users, hop on over to the Muvizu forums.

Ready to jump in there right now? After you download Muvizu:Play or your existing copy has updated at next run, a unique licence key to activate Play+ can be purchased via the Licence Manager menu in the app (accessed by clicking on the pink question mark in the top right hand corner of Muvizu:Play).

Go for it.

Halloween Joke! Incoming!!!!!

What do you call a ghost's mother and father?
Transparents.

We liked that one.

Anyway, as some of you may have seen in the forum we’ve kicked off a wee easy-to-enter Halloween themed competition – mostly for fun but there’s also a spooky goody bag in it for the short with the most likes.

We’d been chatting here in the office about the genius of animations like ‘Dumb Ways to Die’, the classic stickmen deaths and the sweet but slightly worrying Bunny Suicides.

All of these demonstrate well that by limiting the options you have you can actually increase your chances of stumbling on a really clever or impactful story.

So we invite you to import two very simple stickmen characters to a plain Muvizu set. You should then tell a fifteen to twenty second long, Halloween inspired story, adding only props, lighting, sounds and effects…. no backdrop. In the spirit of the season, at the end at least one of your characters should suffer a fatality. But how does it happen? How does he/she meet their sticky end?

The short with the most Muvizu thumbs up at noon on 30th of October 2013 (GMT) will win that Muvizu goody bag with a few added creepy, ghoulish treats thrown in too.

Fangs for listening.

Ok relax everyone, we’ve now passed the 70 days to go mark and we’ve just managed to get an email through to Santa with a link to our wiki so he’s now fully briefed on Play+, and on the technical ins and outs of real-time animation, lip sync and even flying effects. And breathe…

Thanks for all your encouraging messages about Play+, we’re really looking forward to seeing what those of you who do opt for the licence upgrade create with the new features.

We thought it might just be useful in response to a few questions on the forum to clarify again here the procedure of upgrading and a little about the rights.

Muvizu:Play is free software. Anyone may download and install it free-of-charge.

There are two main reasons you might choose to purchase a Muvizu:Play+ licence.

1. You love the software and want to be able to do even more with it.
2. You want to have the freedom to remove the watermark and use your creations commercially.

If you do intend to use Muvizu:Play in your business, to sell services or training, to distribute materials you've created using Muvizu:Play or to use the software in any way to generate revenue (directly or indirectly) then we class this as ‘commercial use.’ The most cost effective way to produce content like this is to upgrade to Muvizu:Play+ by purchasing a licence.

If you are new to Muvizu then you’ll need to download the latest version of Muvizu:Play first. Once that’s running or if you’re an existing Muvizuer, look for the large white question mark that blushes when you hover over it (top right on page) then click on ‘Licence manager’. Here you’ll be able to work through the simple upgrade process.

The licence you buy will give you rights in perpetuity (forever! – yes we had to Google it too) for all content you produce using this version of Muvizu:Play+.

In future, we predict there will be the usual ongoing bug fixes and tweaks within this licence and when we have something new and exciting to offer to build on Play+ there will be a paid upgrade path at that point to access any added features.

So, if you’ve not already opted for Play+ you might want to consider a strongly worded letter to the big man in red. -;8)

PS. Those of you with Xboxes may also be happy to hear that thanks to our game engine roots, that with this round of bug fixes to Muvizu:Play the guys turned on the power to use your Xbox controller to work with Muvizu. Game-tastic or what? Give it a go. Here’s our Neil showing a very excited Kim how it works.

We’ve always known Muvizu has a huge amount of educational potential and have heard from many of you that use it to teach or learn and just how effective it can be. Here’s a fantastic example of that power in action courtesy of Professor Christina De Coursey who lectures at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and has used Muvizu around the world.

The University of Pune, based in Maharashtra, India, set out to harness the power of animation software and to deliver through Christina a fully-focused, well-rounded course to teach Business English.

Objectives

In addition to assisting with language skills, the course provided a marketable business skill with each student’s short animation giving them a physical portfolio piece. Students would also gain from the experience of interacting with a native English-speaker.

With students required to attend each of the 20 sessions, progressing in animation skills and writing a reflective diary at the end of each session, the end product was a 2/3 minute English language animation of a business meeting – scripted by the student.

What was the class like?

Many of the students walked or cycled up to an hour in from the fields to the university. If their father was ill, they would miss class because they were the ones who would have to do the farm work that day. They loved the course, benefiting hugely and becoming even more proficient than Christina expected. “Many had never touched a computer before in their lives. They are smart, driven, determined kids, who are determined to make it and will grasp anything they are offered, using every opportunity purposefully.”

As a lab class, the students largely worked alone with Muvizu. These solo sessions were supplemented by brief lectures, handouts, video clips and individual assistance was there if needed!

Within the confines of a friendly, task-oriented class, the students were encouraged to collaborate on projects – helping with specific tasks and the voice-recording of the script.

Questions were encouraged, with the use of a personal diary being key to the process. Students were quizzed – asking “What would you tell a friend about animation? How does it differ from your ideas before you started?”

As Muvizu’s primary interface is in English the need for oral communication offers an ongoing opportunity for learners to practice lexicon grammar entailing more than learning programme-related vocabulary, and offering opportunities to practice phonology, gain fluency and to integrate new vocabulary into known syntax patterns.

By allowing students to make their own way around the animation software and establish relationships with the researchers, their secondary language skills were truly tested – both by the demands of the Muvizu interface and the necessity of establishing a strong relationship with the course assistants.

The final session ended with a screening of stills and video clips from the student animations and a big celebration of their successes.

It's great to hear we are not the only ones excited by the possibilities for animation in education.

Are you using Muvizu to educate? Share your story with us.

The Muvizu testing team have been working hard for months on the Muvizu wiki which is bursting at the seams with step-by-step guidance, advice and tips and tricks. The team have been seeding the pages with some useful Muvizu knowledge and we want to shout out to you all that it’s now over to you to build on what they’ve kicked off and to add your own tips!

That’s right; traditionally users are the ones who build the wiki pages and have the ability to give assistance and instruction or to steal some – much like our friendly forums, only with a bit more structure! The Wiki speaks a language we all understand here (Muvizuese) and we as a team want our community of new and old users to be able to get the help they need quickly and if possible, without having to always wait for a reply from the team or on the Forum. It’s less tedious and people who are confused about a glitch, an error, or want to pursue general Muvizu information should be able to browse the wiki and find what they are looking for quickly.

Gain kudos and share your area of expertise and your own techniques and shortcuts; a few paragraphs, a few pages or even just a few lines – it’s all about the sharing! UV maps, how tos, links, JPGs and GIFs can all be shared across the wiki to help others in writing, here’s a great example.

The wiki was created for the users to help other users from a user’s point of view... bit of a tongue twister there!

MrDrWho13 was quick off the mark and became the first of the Muvizu community to chip in – thanks for that - we really hope to see more of you hanging around over there soon!

Muvizu have been rocking out on stage... well at least our characters have!

Our Muvizu superstars were jamming with guitarist, songwriter and singer Steve Hackett in London’s Royal Albert Hall and in Liverpool on his recent solo band tour. Steve was originally in Genesis with Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins in the 70s and helped popularise the “tapping” and “sweep picking” guitar techniques. Muvizu forum user ‘IanHolmes’ created a fantastic Muvizu version of Peter’s band to accompany them on the big screens during performances of the popular Genesis song “The Return of the Giant Hogweed”.

Ian Holmes tells us: “When “Hogweed” came into the band’s set it inspired me to play with Muvizu as a backdrop. The plants, Steve and Lee at the start and the royal gardens - all were created with the Muvizu application. They went down a storm from reading the reviews. In fact, by the end I’d made up characters for everyone in the band and they also appeared during the bows - Steve’s character got the biggest cheer of the night! Steve doesn’t move around too much in person – but the character is a proper full-on rock star which the audience loved. I was even getting requests from the band just before the show and it’s a testament to the ”just direct” approach that I was able to do this as well as coping with the normal chaos of a two-truck load- in, reprogram and running the tour.”

Of course we aren’t going to leave you in the dark; here are the performances from London’s famous Royal Albert Hall:

and Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall:

Big thanks to Ian Holmes, Steve Hackett and to the band for using Muvizu as part of a large-scale entertainment production!

Emily, one of Muvizu’s talented art team has flagged and critiqued a mind-blowing video for us this week. It’s called ‘The Box’.

Using projection techniques onto rectangular shaped surfaces moved around by a robotic arm; the digital optical illusion has definitely frazzled the edges of our brains. Here’s what Emily says about it.

“I’ve been interested in the possibilities of projection mapping for some time. Most of the videos I’ve seen before use this technology in a very specific way. Usually a video is projected on pre-calculated static objects; very often architecturally interesting buildings. While this is impressive, and can create astonishing optical illusions, it is often technology for technology’s sake.

When I first saw The Box – I knew it was something entirely different. For one, the objects - and the maps - are constantly moving. The maps were pre-calculated but the action was shot completely live, and choreographed to perfection. Secondly, the creators of this video have made something sublime; it’s a video that fuses visual experimentation with immersive beauty.

Also – it was made using Maya! Just like the characters and objects in Muvizu.

It ends with a quote by Arthur C Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I think that’s what I like most about this video. It leaves you with a genuine sense of awe.”

Season's greetings Muvizuers!

We’ve really enjoyed how you’ve all been warming up for next week’s big event with some fun digital directing. This year’s competition is as inclusive as we can possibly make it! ‘Easy as pie’ if you’d prefer it that way and are just starting out with Muvizu or offering you the chance to use all of your skills and ramp up the Muvizu magic if you’re feeling more ambitious. We’ve had a whole bunch of exciting entries in to our Gallery which is great.

What creative and imaginative minds you all have! Here are a few that have caught our eye:

Percensus chose to use our audio for the Fresh Prints gag and delivered a clever and funny Will Smith animation which we all really enjoyed.

Snoopylino’s first ever Muvizu creation demonstrates well how experimenting with your own audio and being creative with our end board sections can have really fun results.

While one of our more experienced users Fazz68 has gone extra-terrestrial with some ‘unidentified’ flying objects, and we don’t mean Santa’s sleigh! We love the dogs with their alien brains and laser guns Fazz.

Watch the video here for some inspiration.

Remember the prizes are allocated via a draw so don’t be put off - be inspired and use the template as a great jumping off point for your future as an animating genius. ;0)

Thank you all for using Muvizu to create some Christmas magic - keep sharing!

Merry Christmas when it arrives!

Muvizu HQ is going to be closed over Christmas, as the reason our animation software can do such amazing things is because Santa's elves help us out around the office during Christmas off-season and the big fat man in the red suit needs them back for a wee while. This means that Muvizu.com Gallery submissions will be unapproved and support e-mails will be unanswered for a wee while. Normal service will resume shortly after the New Year!

We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year, and give us plenty of Gallery video submissions to moderate when we get back! If you're looking for video inspiration, remember our Christmas Crackers competition page has plenty of pre-recorded audio for you to work with, and uploading a competition entry to our Gallery before December 25th 2013 will put your name in the draw to win a top prize of a Muvizu:Play+ upgrade (worth £150) or one of three cuddly toys based on our infamous "Blob" characters! For an EVEN EASIER way to be in with a chance of winning a cuddly Blob, simply Like and Share this post on the Muvizu 3D FaceBook Page! Easy!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - see you in 2014!

Digimania’s Product Director Barry highlights a fantastic progression reel video breaking down the stages involved in traditional animation. Coming from an art/design and 3D gaming background Barry can definitely relate to the frustratingly, repetitive creative process behind the creation of any polished animation.

After he shone the spotlight on the fascinating video he added some of his thoughts on how difficult it is to create only one scene for a feature-length animation.

“If you've ever wondered what goes into making an animated feature film then this video does a decent job of explaining 1% of the effort. It shows the artistic progression of one shot from Disney's "Tangled". This four minute clip shows the efforts of dozens of artists and programmers. There's probably a few PhDs thrown in too.”

We hate to imagine the stress levels at Disney. Great find Barry!

Quick congratulations too to our Christmas Cracker competition winners whose stress levels should have been a good bit lower thanks to Muvizu bringing their festive felicitations to life – Artpen wins a Play+ licence and Simonheffer, Kenhub and Percensus will soon be the proud owners of blob mascots.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to create an entry we were so impressed by the variety of talented talking dogs and your creativity with assets, canned laughter and timing when telling the jokes.

Kevin, one of Digimania’s animators joins us on the Muvizu blog to discuss an interesting speculation about Mocap animating - Mocap animation is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It’s been used in movies such as Lord of the Rings, Avatar and Rise of the Planet of the Apes and is used in a lot of games as well. Rather than good ‘old fashioned’ makeup and costumes, Mocap animation produces true to life characters and makes them more realistic by capturing actual human motion.

Here’s Kevin – Hi! I’ve been working in the animation industry for around 10 years now and have many wonderful stories to tell.......for example there was that one time when my old boss went into his gun cupboard and... actually most of my stories might not be appropriate for this blog coming to think of it.

One thing that has come up ever since I started working in companies and still comes up all the time is the "mocap will steal our jobs" discussion. The very first time I heard this was literally in my first week as a junior 3d dogsbody. One of the lead animators told me...."don’t get into animation, mocap will take all our jobs in the next few years". I was young at the time and didn’t take any notice and I’m glad that I didn’t... because he was wrong... well, half wrong.

It won’t happen for 2 reasons...

Reason 1 - The main reason I believe it won’t happen is that I believe there will ALWAYS be an appetite for non-real animation which has a more charming feel and takes you more effectively into fantasy than mocap will ever be able to do.

Reason 2 - Mocap isn’t magic. I’ve worked on a handful of mocap projects myself and it brings a whole new set of challenges and needs as much care and attention to make look good as key frame animation does. As a result we need animators to process, clean up and sometimes completely replace sections. Mocap can be amazing and we see it every day in Hollywood blockbusters, games, adverts, TV and we don’t even notice because of how far mocap has come and just how good the artists that use it are.

BUT whether the project is key frame or mocap it still needs animators and our jobs are safe for a while yet. Phew.

Today we welcome guest blogger Nava Levy from an exciting new non-profit social venture dedicated to self education. We’re delighted to share Nava and the LerGO team’s plans to harness the power of Muvizu in the education space and also to hear about their current Indiegogo campaign.

Here’s Nava…

What if kids no longer needed to complement public education with costly private lessons? What if we could provide them instead with free access to animated & interactive online lessons? Allowing kids to use these lessons to self-learn all school subjects enjoyably and at their own pace.

We believe that today this is possible. Cloud technology and simple yet powerful animation software like Muvizu enable everyone - teachers, students and parents - to create powerful animated lessons.

I'm Nava Levy, I'm an expert on cloud and other technologies, a volunteer tutor for disadvantaged kids and a mother of three. I founded LerGO, a new nonprofit education venture, because I believe the time is right for technology to step-up and improve and democratize education.

LerGO will help address this challenge, through its cloud platform, which will leverage the goodwill of the community, and like Wikipedia, will enable contributors to easily create animated and interactive lessons. A cute animated character will guide the students through the lesson step-by-step. Here are example lessons we created with Muvizu that illustrate this - lesson in Biology and lesson in Geometry. Once LerGO's platform is ready we will be able to add interactivity to the quiz and to send a lesson report to teachers and parents after each lesson (what the student did, which questions were correct and which were wrong and the recommended next lesson).

We want LerGO to make an impact on kids everywhere, so we are building LerGO as a multilingual platform from day one. Here is an example of an English Grammar Lesson we created with Muvizu in Hebrew, and we are in the process of creating similar lessons in Russian and Arabic too.

To help fund the development of LerGO's platform, we have just launched an Indiegogo campaign! LerGO isn't just about offering high quality online lessons, and it's not just about providing an alternative to private lessons. LerGO is about giving the community tools to take education to the next level; it's about reducing the social gap and helping to make the world a better place. LerGO is about helping our kids’ dreams come true and we need your help to support it.

To learn more about LerGO please watch this 3-minute video.

Click here for more details on our campaign, the awesome perks we’ve created for you and for other ways you can help.

Together we can make it happen!

We have a talented team of animators here at Digimania. Here’s one of them, the super creative Martyn on how John Cleese helps him avoid getting ‘bogged down’ creatively.

I first saw this video a couple of years ago. There is a vast amount of scientific research on the topic of creativity and many other videos exploring the subject available if you should be so inclined, like myself, to watch videos on creativity rather than to go ahead and just do something creative! But that is the thing with ‘being creative’. When it is put in those terms it becomes a difficult, mercurial and elusive activity. I quickly find myself seeking ‘inspiration’ when really I’m just watching other people’s efforts. I would however urge you to watch this.

The video is quite old now but it remains one of the most refreshing views on what can be a somewhat abstract concept and is one of the few pieces I’ve watched or read on the subject that has really stayed with me. John Cleese’s effortless delivery peppered with humour really makes this hugely enjoyable, and it is exactly that sense of playfulness that allows the crux of the matter to be apparent. Being creative is all about playing and having fun.

So often, I for one, become bogged down by imaginary problems like ability, comparisons with others and many of the other barriers to creativity described by Mr Cleese. The analysis he offers in terms of open and closed ‘modes’ makes a lot of sense to me and being mindful of this even when I’m at work and have a deadline pressures bearing down has helped me a lot.

How you use the different modes or sides of the brain or however you want to think of it. Being aware of how you are approaching a task and employing the correct mode at the right stage of development has huge benefits for any job whether it is producing a piece of animation or writing an essay.

Hopefully you will find it as useful as I have.

Pixar has blown our minds... yet again!

There was a lovely theory doing the rounds recently on the web that Andy’s mum in Toy Story may actually be Jessie’s previous owner ‘Emily’. We get really excited here at Muvizu Towers when we read about secret back stories and some of the hidden detail work in the movies. Our Marketing Manager was lucky enough to tour the studios and hear first hand from one of their incredible pipeline supremos about the boy scout badges on Russell from Up’s uniform!

Anyway, back to Toy Story - after connecting up the fact that the hat with the string edging that has been floating around since the first movie, with the facts that 1) Jessie belonged to Emily back in the 60s 2) we don’t know Emily’s surname and 3) we don’t know Andy’s Mum’s first name – well, the world’s hidden ‘Inspector Gadgets’ went completely into overdrive!

Here’s the Huffington Post's take on it!

We couldn’t believe ourselves that we hadn’t ever noticed the connection. Pixar do have a history of subtly connecting up their movies; we remember in Monsters Inc ‘Boo’ had finding Nemo and Toy Story toys in her bedroom, and then there’s the pizza planet truck that manages to make it into pretty much EVERY Pixar movie.

There have been a multitude of theories around the Pixar movies – connections left, right and centre. Even letters and numbers that manage to make re-appearances like the classic A113 – most of them are listed over at www.pixartheory.com

A few months back we asked those of you using Muvizu as a tool for education to get in touch and share your stories with us. We were delighted to hear back from Sooper Troopers Animation, a Sheffield based group enabling people aged 16 years and over with a disability to explore and learn about all aspects of animation.

We asked the group to tell us a little more about their recent production 'Donut Girls'.

Students Michael and Heather, created the imaginative short comedy about three women who escape a diet bootcamp in a bid to recover their stolen donut maker.

Michael and Heather had created some short experimental pieces with Muvizu and empowered by how easy they found it to work with, felt confident enough to tackle the larger, more complex story of the 'Donut Girls'.

The five and half minute story sprang from writing random words on bits of paper, placing them on the floor and shuffling them around a bit. As they did this, ideas for scenes, characters and the humorous plot jumped out.

Once they were happy with the story, scenes were storyboarded and a voiceover script produced. For voiceover they used a desktop booth with Yeti Microphone and Audacity audio editing software.

Heather voiced Nora delivering such lines as "I can't survive on one lettuce leaf a day", and Michael voiced the Dance Off Girls plus game show host ‘Swift Corniche’ who was named after his Father's caravan.

Michael especially enjoyed voicing the Dance Off Girls as he got to pitch shift his voice in Audacity with bizarre results. The other characters were voiced by Sooper Trooper staff, which added a great sense of collaboration to the whole production.

Donut Girls has several locations and both Michael and Heather were fascinated by the fact they could work independently on different scenes and edit them all together at the end of the animation process.
This is how they managed to complete ‘Donut Girls’ in just six Tuesday workshops. With the voices recorded, Micheal and Heather split the tasks for character design, scene creation and animation. One of Heather's favourite moments is the street chase scene built by Micheal and featuring Johan Tusselhoff, who is chased by a rather unfit Donut Girl designed by Heather. (If you have watched it you’ll know why!).

Heather shouts “Get him, get him!” every time she watches it! The Sooper Troopers love that with Muvizu they can upload their animations straight to YouTube and show their family and friends. Micheal has played 'Donut Girls' to friends who he says, "howled with laughter". Which is of course, exactly the response they were looking for.

Michael and Heather also used sound effects from www.freesound.org and their final edit was produced in Lightworks with help from staff.

Overall they tell us it was a wonderful collaboration for students and staff alike. Using Muvizu kept the fun levels up from concept to completion, allowed them to be really spontaneous and left them all with a very real sense of achievement. Michael and Heather enjoyed working together so much they’re keen to team up once more and have already started working on another short about a family holiday into space – bring it on guys!

We so agree with Shrek – especially when it comes to ideas! And here’s it is. Your chance to get it all out.

It’s competition time again here at Muvizu and we’re looking for all you budding animators to come at us with some more awesomeness, and if we’re impressed you may just win yourself a great prize!

The competition
This year the world is celebrating 20 years since the birth of one of the greatest animation studios in history, DreamWorks. In honour of this we are asking Muvizuers to create and submit Muvizu re-creations of their favourite scene from any of DreamWorks Animation’s long list of animated feature films. To jog your memory have a browse through the many options here.

Let’s keep the scope wide open to allow your creative juices to flow (flood even!). So, be true to Dreamworks vision or add your own creative twists or embellishments! There’s no limit on entries - you can even submit some wild and wacky clips – yes, we know you can do those! We’re letting this one run for a whole 3 months, so no excuses, get in there new Muvizuers - and those of you with busy schedules have loads of time to polish and show off your work. Post your entries to our gallery and then add a link over on our forum for your chance to win.

The prize
We have the complete DreamWorks Animation collection on DVD to give away to the Muvizuer who shines the most. Including no less than 10 films this prize is a great tool for those looking to learn from some of the most talented animators in the world.

The rules

1. The promoter is Digimania Ltd, The Lighthouse, 70 Mitchell Street, Glasgow, G1 3LX UK (the "Promoter").
2. This competition will commence on 23rd July 2014 and the closing date is noon on the 26th of September 2014 – NB.
3. No purchase of Muvizu:Play+ is required for entry – though it’s worth bearing in mind it will make your Muvizu experience even better! ;)
4. There is one copy of DreamWorks Animation: Ultimate Collection as a prize for the best entry judged by the Muvizu.
5. All entrants must upload their video to the Muvizu site Gallery or post it in theDreamWorks Competition thread in the forum before the closing date in order to be in the running.
6. The winner will be notified via email by Friday 3rd October 2014 and will also be announced on the Muvizu Forum page. If the winner does not claim the prize within 14 days of notification, the prize will be deemed to have been forfeited and the Promoter may dispose of such prize without any liability to the winner.
7. The prize is non-transferable & no cash alternative will be awarded in lieu of the prize.
8. In the event of any dispute regarding the rules, conduct or the results of the competition the Promoter's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Entries that do not comply in full with these rules will be disqualified. The Promoter reserves the right to disqualify any entrant for any reason whatsoever in its sole discretion
9. If for any reason the prize is unavailable the Promoter reserves the right, at its absolute discretion, to substitute a similar prize of equivalent value.
10. The Promoter reserves the right to alter, amend, suspend or terminate this competition without prior notice in the event that circumstances make this unavoidable.
11. All entrants' personal data will only be held for the purpose of the competition and will not be used for any other purposes whatsoever without their prior permission.
12. Entry into this competition shall be deemed to be a full and unconditional acceptance of these terms and conditions.
13. The prize and or the competition is not offered in conjunction with any other offers.
14. The Promoter will not accept any responsibility whatsoever for any loss, expense or liability arising from the winner's use of the prize.
15. These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom and Great Britain.
16. All enquires relating to this competition should be made to Digimania Ltd, The Lighthouse, 70 Mitchell St, Glasgow, G1 3LX, UK or via the Muvizu forums.