Walt Disney epitomized the American dream like few others. Sure, he wasn’t perfect. He was a ruthless businessman, long rumored to be anti-semitic and otherwise racist, and was a ringleader for Hollywood’s anti-communist witch hunt in the 40s. But he rose up from humble beginnings; his childhood was anything but stable as his family moved throughout the midwest as his father pursued work. His string of early failures made it seem like success would never come. As the Disney company took off, he never sat on his laurels, always pursuing another way to extend the Walt Disney brand. If entertainment is America’s greatest export to the world, Walt Disney was the most famous supplier of this commodity. Quite simply, there is no denying the impact Disney had on the world and he has to be ranked as one of the greatest Americans of the 20th century, in terms of world influence, at least.
Without further ado, here are ten facts you probably didn’t know about Walt Disney and the Walt Disney Company.
1) Oswald the Rabbit, Disney’s first successful cartoon, was traded for sportscaster Al Michaels in 2006.
In 1927, Walt Disney was struggling. But then he hit it big with a character named Oswald the Rabbit. He sold the rights of the character to Universal and it became Disney’s biggest success at that time, rivaling contemporary cartoons Krazy Kat and Felix the Cat. In 1928, Disney went to negotiate a better contract for the rabbit and his animators, but Universal had other plans. They wanted Disney to take a twenty percent cut. Negotiations fell through and Oswald the Rabbit, since his rights were actually owned by Universal, became property of Universal.
Fast-forward 79 years: NBC (owned by Universal) had just acquired the rights to broadcast the huge property of Sunday Night Football and they needed someone to call the games. They looked to hire Al Michaels, who was under contract at ESPN (owned by ABC, which was owned by Disney) . So Disney and Universal made a deal. Universal would get Al Michaels and Disney would receive the nearly 80 year old cartoon, Oswald the Rabbit.
2) Contrary to popular myth, Walt Disney WAS NOT cryogenically frozen when he died.
An urban legend states that upon his passing, Walt Disney’s frozen corpse was stashed underneath thePirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. This is simply not true. Walt Disney passed away on December 15th, 1966. Two days later, and consistent with his wishes, he was cremated. A burial plot with a garden, presumably containing his ashes, with his name on it is at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
The first known experiment with human cryogenic freezing didn’t happen until January 1967, a month after Disney’s death. Several sources have claimed that the urban myth arose from a couple of Disney animators who said that Disney froze himself as a joke. His daughter, Diane, clearly stated in 1972 that, “There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that my father, Walt Disney, wished to be frozen. I doubt my father had ever heard of cryonics.”
3) Mickey Mouse’s original name was Mortimer Mouse, but Walt’s wife thought the name sounded “pompous.”
While riding back on a train from an unsuccessful business meeting (rarely an uncommon occurrence at that time for Walt) with his wife Lily in 1928, he began sketching a cartoon mouse. He called the sketch “Mortimer Mouse.” He showed it to Lily, who said the name Mortimer was too pompous and suggested the cuter name of Mickey. Mickey Mouse would become Walt Disney’s defining character.
Mortimer Mouse actually would make appearances in later Disney cartoons, first in the the 1936 cartoon “Mickey’s Rival,” where he plays Mickey’s rival for Minnie. He’s rude, selfish, and sexist. In other words, the exact opposite of Mickey. He also looked more like a rat than a mouse, with his longer snout, whiskers, and two protruding front teeth. Oddly, he talked in a Brooklyn accent. He would appear again in “Mickey’s Rival Returns,” 64 years later in 2000.
4) Neither Mickey Mouse nor the famed “Walt Disney” signature were actually ever drawn by Walt Disney himself.
While Walt did sketch the original plans for the Mickey Mouse’s character, the final design for Mickey we’ve all come to know and love was actually done by the famed Disney animator and Dutchman Ub Iwerks. In addition, the famed signature is what is known as a “stylized version” of Disney’s. As can be seen on legal documents, Disney’s own signature was not nearly as exciting or intricate. In fact, rumor had it that Walt couldn’t even reproduce the famed signature.
5) Walt Disney’s last written words were apparently “Kurt Russell”
As Walt Disney laid on his deathbed, suffering from lung cancer, in 1966, the story goes (later confirmed by Kurt Russell) that he scribbled on a piece of paper the name “Kurt Russell.” He died never writing another word. Many have speculated what this could have meant, including the famous actor himself, Kurt Russell who in a 2007 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live said, “It’s true. I don’t know what to make of that. I was taken into his office one time after he died and I was shown that.” Russell was a child actor at the time for Disney, having just signed a ten year contract with the studio.
However, Jim Korkis of MousePlanet.com argues that “Kurt Russell” was not the last written thing / last words of Disney, merely one of the last things he wrote and states that no one actually knows what the very last thing was, despite what Russell himself says and was told. The very paper with Russell’s name on it supposedly still lies on Disney’s office desk (see fact number 10), along with many other papers that Disney had written on (hence why there is some contention over whether “Kurt Russell” was really the last thing or merely something he wrote then intended to come back to later.)
6) When Walt Disney revealed to the world his plans to make an animated feature length adaptation of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” many film insiders thought it was going to destroy the company. They dubbed the film “Disney’s Folly.”
A reimagining of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had been something Walt had wanted to do since he was a 15 year old newsboy in Kansas City and he saw a silent film version of the fairy tale starring Marguerite Clark.
There were many factors that went into the popular prediction that this film would be a failure. This was the Walt Disney Company’s first feature-length film, not to mention the first full length animated film ever in color. The film’s working budget went over $2 million ($32M today), which was nearly 400% over the original budget. In addition, images of the Wicked Witch and the Enchanted Forest were thought to be too frightening for younger audiences.
On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered at the Carthay Theater in Los Angeles. It went on to gross (adjusted for inflation based on the Guiness World Records numbers) about $1.6 billion. “Disney’s Folly” indeed.
7) Walt Disney was a founding member of the “Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals,” created to defend the film industry against communist infiltration.
In 1944, the MPA was formed to protect Hollywood from “communist” influences. Besides Disney, John Wayne, Cecil B. DeMille, Ginger Rogers, Gary Cooper, and Ronald Reagan were involved in this organization. In 1947, Disney testified in front of HUAC (House UnAmerican Activities Committee, which has to be one of the most ironically named committees in U.S. history) that former animators of his were actually Communist sympathizers. In addition, Disney was anti-union and claimed the 1941 strike by the Screen Cartoonists Guild was a ploy by Communists to gain influence in Hollywood.
8) In 1938, Walt Disney hosted Nazi propagandist and filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl at his studio and gave her a tour.
In 1938, only a month after Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Nazi campaign to round up all the Jews, Leni Riefenstahl arrived in the United States. She was there to meet with studio executives and gain an American audience for her film on the 1936 Berlin Games, Olympia. The film showcased German athletes in varying stages of preparation and achievement. It was meant to perpetuate the Aryan agenda- that German athletes were fitter and more inclined to athletic success than the rest of the world’s athletes.
Despite the hesitation of other studio executives, Walt Disney took her in and gave her a tour of Disney Studios. In exchange, she offered him a private showing of Olympia. Disney refused due to the fear that others would find out that he had hosted her. When Leni arrived back to Germany, she praised Disney to her government for giving her an audience.
9) Walt Disney debuted the first Audio-Animatronics at the 1964 World’s Fair
The 1964 World’s Fair, located in Flushing Meadows, New York, introduced many types of pre-Space Age technology, including such things as IBM computers. But few of these things received as much attention as Disney’s Audio-Animatronics- moving robots that had words – or had pre-recorded audio – coming out of their mouths.
Two exhibits at the World’s Fair best illustrated this technology – Abraham Lincoln in “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” and “It’s Small World” – a slow moving boat ride featuring international unity and a very annoying theme song. President Lincoln would eventually become a member of today’s Disney World attraction “Hall of Presidents.”
10) Walt’s apartment, where he often worked, is still above the firehouse on Main Street in Disneyland.
A small, but fully-functional, one-bedroom that Walt used often as a work space and a place to watch his dream come to life still exists above the firehouse on Main Street in Disneyland. Walt loved the little apartment because it allowed him to watch the people enjoy his park. There were no pictures of him or his family in there, save for one picture from the National Geographic. To this day, the apartment is still there even with the same papers he was last working on lying on his desk- everything left mostly as it was as a sort of shrine, though some of the original furniture has been replaced.
Rad More : http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/05/walt-disney-facts/
A Disney animated Marvel film almost seemed to good to be true. But when Disney acquired Marvel Comics back in 2009, a collaboration of the two forces was inevitable. The two would announce Big Hero 6 as their first collaborative project. But the film wouldn’t be a direct adaption of the comic book of the same name, instead the title would serve as an inspiration for the film, which would have the same characters but a new story and a new setting. Directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (Bolt), Big Hero 6 features the voices of Maya Rudolph, James Cromwell, Damon Wayans Jr., T.J. Miller, Alan Tudyk, Jamie Chung, Genesis Rodriguez, Daniel Henney, with Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada and Scott Adsit as Baymax.
We were invited to visit Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, CA a few weeks back to learn about the film and watch about 30 minutes worth of footage, both finished and unfinished. While we saw some of the latter, what we saw was very promising and had that magic Disney touch we all know and love. So out of this studio visit we have 100 things you may not know about the film. This includes all sorts of facts like trips to Carnegie Mellon to research soft robotics, new softwares developed to help enhance the visual effects of the film, how many times the story needed to be changed, how the robots in the film can have real world applications but also have that Disney magic touch.
But do you know how many animators have worked on the film? How many Microbots can be seen in once scene? What kind of object was the inspiration for Baymax’s face? How Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Head John Lassesseter helped during the writing process? How many storyboards is in one sequence, and how many of those boards are tossed if one sequence is taken out. You can find out about all of this and more after the jump.
Basics
1 – While the film shares the same name with it’s Marvel Comic series inspiration, the story and the world it is set in is entirely different. Big Hero 6 tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a technology genius who specializes in robotics. Set in the near future of the hi-tech fictional city of San Fransokyo (a hybrid of San Fransisco and Tokyo) that blends eastern and western cultures. Here’s an early example of what they wanted you to see.
As you can see the city is full of bright neon lights and has a lot of moving ads, which would represent the Tokyo aspect of San Fransokyo. There are also lanterns, Japanese characters written on some of the buildings. The San Fransisco part of the film is represented by the hills, trolleys, and the Golden Gate-esque bridge in the distance.
2 – At it’s core, Big Hero 6 is a story about a young man and his robot, who helps him recover from a devastating loss and help him become whole again. Through the eyes of this young man we see this process is filled with tears, surprises, thrills, and lots of laughter.
3 – Big Hero 6 is Disney Animation Studios’ first full fledged superhero movie. Pixar has The Incredibles, and Marvel has their library of films. While the film shares the same title with a Marvel Comics’ series, the comic book is only the inspiration, the characters, plot, city, are entirely original creations. It has that Disney stamp on it.
4- An average Disney film has up to 2 to 3 lead characters and 3 to 4 supporting characters. Big Hero 6 has 15 main characters. There is the team of 6 characters.
Hiro
Our young hero of the film who possesses high intelligence. The devastating loss of his brother Tadashi nearly crushes him, until Baymax, Tadshi’s healthcare robot invention, helps him become whole again.
Baymax
Is a nurse bot, a personal healthcare companion, who is programed with over 10,000 medical procedures. Baymax isn’t the most nimble of characters, as his huge size doesn’t allow him to fit through tight spots or run fast. He also doesn’t have acute situational awareness or the capacity to be stealth as he needs to let out air – which causes a lot of noise depending on how much air is expelled.
Wasbi
A precision and control freak.
Honey Lemon
A sweet and bubbily chemistry genius, who just might be the happiest person on earth.
GoGo Tomago
The mechanical engineer of the group, who spends all of her free time doing anything to get her adrenaline pumping.
Fred
A comic book fan boy who really isn’t a student but a major science enthusiast and the school mascot.
Aunt Cass
The quirky and fun loving aunt who takes care of the Hiro and Tadashi.
5 – The characters’ personalities had to reflect what their suits and powers would be. So since Wasbi is a precision and control freak, the writers would give him plasma blades.
6 – There are up to 85 different animators working on this film.
Story
7 – It takes about four to five years to fully develop the script for an animated film like Big Hero 6, because the story is constantly changing. But the storyboarding allows for a quick version of the film to be laid out, this way they can see if the story can work out, and then they could make any necessary changes to the film itself.
8 – 2/3 of those four or five years are actually spent on crafting the story. Animated films at Disney resembles the TV writing process where it is very collaborative, and the story departement works together by throwing out ideas until it sticks.
9 – While Big Hero 6 does have the Marvel brand attached to it, Don Hall actually pitched the story about a genius kid and his healthcare robot.
10 – Some of most simple sounding questions are actually the biggest ones the storyboard team has to ask like: What happens in the beginning? What happens in the middle? When is this going to end? But they also ask what is this movie going to be about? That question isn’t necessarily focused on plot, but they are trying to figure out what they want to say with the themes, characters, etc. The more answers and ideas they come up with, the more storyboards they pin it to the board, then it really starts to take shape.
11 – Lasseter will come in once in a while, and provide some help since he is going into it with fresh eyes and hasn’t been locked in a room for months on end trying to figure the story out.
12 – The story trust, other directors from previous or upcoming Disney films, will help out in the storyboarding process.
13 – As a writer going from pitch to outline to script is a very exciting time, especially in the final stage of the script process where they finally get to dig in to who the characters are, how they work with each other, etc.
14 – Actors will be brought in for a table read, a sort of radioplay, where they will hear the script being played out for the first time. This helps the writers, directors, story trust, and Lasseter to figure out what is working and what isn’t working. According to the writers, this process reveals that they found out what isn’t working more than what is working, but that will give them the opportunity to go back to rewrite the script. At this point, they are already a year into the film. The collaborative efforts allows the writers and directors to discover how these characters will interact with each other on screen.
15 – The movie is divided into 20 different sequences where it is then handed out to different storyboard artists who must make sure that everything is still making sense.
16 – Once they have the movie, they start to do screenings, from inhouse studio screenings to early press screenings, these screenings are doing to gauge the audiences’ reaction to the film, and find out once more what is and what isn’t working. There are about eight screenings in total before the film is actually released. The first screenings are always the worst ones of the bunch.
17 – A sequence can be up to 1,000 drawings. If a 9 minute portion of the film doesn’t work as the writers would have hoped, up to 30,000 boards can end up in the garbage, and the team will have to work on a blank board again. Conceptual things will remain.
18 – Nothing is being animated until they figure out the story. This doesn’t mean the story has to be completed, it means they have to figure out what is working for them.
19 – For John Lasseter, story is king, and nothing is more important to get right in a film than story.
20 – Big Hero 6 was initially a struggle to begin with because of characters like Fred and his Kaiju supersuit, Microbots, and even the fictional San Fransokyo. This is the kind of story that can easily turn from one that the audience can relate to, to one that the audience doesn’t relate to at all. The connection was the most important thing about this film.
21 – Big Hero 6 is actually following a new story trend at Disney, where the theme focuses on family and relationships. While Frozen had a family tied by blood, Big Hero 6 will have a unconventional one where Hiro builds a new family with the friends he meets in the film. All of whom have some sort of personal connection to his brother, Tadashi.
22 – Lasseter stresses to the writers that that you don’t know how a movie starts until it ends. So he wants the writers to work backwards, from the end to the beginning.
23 – Part of Big Hero 6‘s research entailed the team traveling to San Fransisco and Tokyo to understand the cities infrastructure, architecture, and cultural differences.
24 – Tokyo’s research trip included taking notes on the city’s skyscrapers. The team had to study the building’s density, layering, ratios. But what struck them the most is the degree of architecture, the way some tiles are fitted, even the sidewalks. Even utility poles takes on a certain esthetic.
25 – For the character’s costumes, the research trip included a study on Japan’s fashion from traditional kimonos to more contemporary kimonos. The teams also went on trips to the malls to study some of the details of other fashion that would help inspire the characters’ costumes.
26 – San Fransisco’s research trip was trying to understand the light and the atmosphere. Basically how light reflects, refracts, cast shadows, etc.
27 – The team also studied the San Fransisco’s homes, most of which had a Victorian and Queen Ann designs, which would be an inspiration for Hiro’s house.
28 – These research trips would help shape the look and feel of San Fransokyo. So there will be many iconic landmarks from San Fransisco, but also specific architecture that can only be found in Japan.
29 – Baymax was never in the original comic books, instead his character was a creation based on a research trip to Carnigie Mellon, where they learned about soft robotics.
30 – The story of a boy and his robot would always be the core of Big Hero 6‘s story. And during a research trip to Carnegie Mellon, directors Don Hall and Chris Williams were introduced to the applications of soft robotics. The development of this real world technology would be used in the medical field, which is why Baymax is a healthcare robot instead of Giantor or a gundam.
31 – The design of Japanese rice cookers also helped create the look and feel of Baymax.
32 – The writers were even involved in the research process. They met with chemists, doctors, police officers, and other experts to make sure the film is authentic as possible.
Visual Effects
33- The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when it comes to effects are water, fire, smoke, rain, snow. Environmental elements that play into both animation and live-action, and over at Disney, they work on both. Remember the Frozen snow technology? That was developed over at Disney Animation Studios after much research on everything about snow
34 – One of the most exciting things that the visual effects team works on is how they use the effects as extension of characters. Like how snow is an extension of who Elsa is. Capturing that emotion is always a huge challenge that the visual effects team has to face.
35 – The effects can also be an extension of the surrounding environment. Sometimes these environments need to be created from scratch in order to get tone right.
36 – These effects can be characters themselves. Effects can have personality, much like how the paper airplanes in Paperman had personality.
37 – The filmmaking process for an animated feature is a huge collaborative process. Since everyone working on Big Hero 6 are contained to the studio lot, it leads to happy collaboration about an idea and an extension of an idea. Everyone is a part of this filmmaking process, ideas are constantly bouncing off different departments, which will ultimately result in what you see or may not see on film.
38 – The effects must do something more than look cool, they must convey emotion – just like in Frozen – and they must tell a story. Sometimes effect shots like a lake are there to support the environment, but often for things like a lantern, effect shots are there to sell an emotional beat.
39 – Animators and effects artists are often working together to make sure each and every shot goes over smoothly.
40 – Challenges of the creative aspects of Big Hero 6, when the director wants something that looks very different, the first thing that the visual effects artists do when they are handed an idea of want kind of effect they want you to see, they go through the motion of things you have seen before. Once they have exhausted those, they get to the blank slate, and then that’s where the real work begins. It takes a lot of time for these visual effects artists to eliminate things that you have seen before.
41 – A lot of times they have these ideas, its just a matter of executing them. So for Big Hero 6, there are two major ones. The one we got to see was the MicroBots.
42 – Creating complex environments was a top priority for the visual effects team, which would be the basis for the world that is San Fransokyo. They leveraged off an idea to do a light simulation engine, a ray tracer that allows for unlimited complexity. Meaning they are not limited by memory on the machine they are rendering on anymore. So that was a breakthrough idea. Now they are using that technology on Big Hero 6. It will help simulate reality, and is an integral part that would help integrate the tone of the film.
43 – Effects create many different data sets that need different technology, so for a water surface, it is rendered the same way the top of a car would be surfaced or a pier would be surfaced, its a hard surface. That is the Hyperion technology at play. To render the bubbles used in the film, the visual effects team used a technique called “Instancing.” For that, the team is actually animating bubbles, and copying them to certain points in the scene.
44 – The amount of how complex these animated films are becoming has drastically changed. For instance, there was a team of 16 during the production of Tangled. It has since grown, with Big Hero 6 now being a team of 40. Effects designer are working with the directors and art directors to figure out the look of the effects. There is also a layout and animation lesion directly input inside the various departments to make sure they are working cohesively, and the to make sure the visual would be seen through.
Baymax
45 -Research for Baymax’s look included looking at robots, soft robotics, Asamo, babies, and what the team landed on was penguins. The penguins’ unique way of moving which was very limited would be the base of inspiration for Baymax’s movements. A penguin’s blank face which actually said alot about their emotion would also be the basis of inspiration for Baymax’s emotion.
46 – Because penguins don’t move the arms/wings too much, it made even more sense to base a Baymax’s movements on a penguins’ movements, because a robot doesn’t swing their arms as much as a human does. These robots just needed the essential movements.
47 – Baymax didn’t always have his current balloon like shape. Different versions of the character actually had a tighter stomach with a more athletic build. But to maintain his balloon shape, they had to make him more inflated. So the team settled on the Baymax you see now.
48 – One of the cool things about Baymax is everything is based on the context of the movements. Just a little head tilt will reveal a great deal of curiosity. Even moving a head tilt six frames earlier might help improve the tone of the scene.
49 – Animators would have to track each of Baymax’s movements over the course of the film in order to get his behaviors right. For example, Baymax will have to turn, then look, then walk. He cannot overlap any of those things because he has to go through a certain protocol. But since he is a learning robot, those behaviors become shorter and shorter. This makes the audience more active participants in the film then they actually believe.
Microbots
50- Had a base idea that it would be a robot, but they needed more research to make them look cool. The team met with different robot specialists and read various research papers on robotic technology.
51 – The key was to make sure that what the Microbots did in the film, would be true to the real world. Meaning it had real applications. For them, if you just make stuff up, the audience will refuse to believe that it’s true.
52 – The robots needed to connect and operate together. Think of the Microbots as ants. Ants have a cooperative nature, so the visual effects team used that idea as the basis of how the Microbots would operate. The effects team wanted to capture that little eerie feeling of ants working together for their Microbots.
53 – As you will see in the film, these Microbots will have the ability to create structures, and these structures will need to have integrity. So the team studied architecture, design, and form. The team wanted to make the audience felt as though the Microbots are operating off a certain code that makes them want to form structures of a certain type.
54 – To make sure that these robots would be able to cooperate they way they wanted to, the team decided on electromagnetism. They would make sure to use that idea into the design of the Microbots.
55 – The Microbots have a simplistic design, but each side of it allows it to rotate around, and connect to other Microbots to construct.
56 – The Microbots maneuvering is a pretty interesting sight to see. For instance, if they were laid out in a row, and they wanted to move, the first row of Microbots would be pasted to the back row, and so on and so forth. These Microbots are actually helping each other.
57 – In an average shot, there can be up to 20 million Microbots. This large number allows themselves to almost reconfigure anything.
58 – So from a storytelling point, if the Microbots wanted to show their aggressive nature, they might form a claw to throw the car. But in order to keep the Mircobots’ grounded nature, the visual effects team had the Microbots always forming devices to be able to accomplish their task. So instead of forming a hand or claw, they formed a catapult to throw a car.
59 – Since the Microbots are stolen property, there are two different styles we see. When we see Hiro use it, its almost free flowing, but when Yokai uses it, there is a circuit board feel to it.
60 – With the Microbots having a stohastic nature to it, it is constantly sampling. So if they aren’t doing the right thing, they will readjust. So for the catapult, the microbos would sometimes sacrifice their own integrity to get the job done. The Stohacto nature was intentional, the visual effects artist made sure they added a smooth movement and a stutter moment. This would speak to the nature of how the Microbots would move, they would configure, reconfigure, and evaluate. But it would always reflect the idea of what they were trying to figure out or device they were trying to build.
61 – Test shots were used to prove that they had what the directors would be interested in.
62 – How do the Microbots come to be? Well they are storyboarded first, they they are sent to the layout department, where everything is roughblocked, then it is sent over to character animation where it the idea of what the microbots would be is expanded upon, then effects takes over, where they fully visualize the microbots, where they are finalized by lighting and other departments.
Giving The Heroes The Effects
63- As aformentioned, the effects are an extension of the character, and since our protagonists have superhero personas, they need to have certain effects that reflect their superhero nature. So Hiro works together with his friends to figure out what their interests are, and how he could utilize that and turn it into a super power.
64 – Hiro and Baymax have the power of flight, so the effects department took what they see from the real world and integrate that into the character’s super suits. So the department would look at various smoke trails left behind by jets, and how certain engine exhausts worked. Turbines give off certain heat patterns that are caused by the fuel hitting the heat wave, which reignites and causes diamond shaped patterns to appear.
65 – But the research would help them define the size and shapes of their characters. So the smoke trails would help us tell where Hiro and Baymax are coming from and where they are going. So the team would also dedicate their time figuring out the flight path, and how they could design the proper smoke trail for Hiro and Baymax.
67 – Gogo can best be described as a character who loves speed. The team looked at inspirations like lights on car wheels and fire dancers. To get what they wanted visually, the team played around with long exposure photography, which is why you see that visual light trail.
68 – Fred is a guy in a suit, or a Kaiju enthusiast. He likes to shoot fire, which Hiro had to create in a way that would be cool and interesting. Fred’s fire power would be one of the first tests using the Hyperion technology. It shows the light simulation the best, and is one of most visually sophisticated effects, this includes the fire, lighting, and smoke effects.
69 – Wasbi loves lasers and plasma beams, so Hiro worked on creating electromagnetic blades. Once again, long exposure photography was used in this. In order to create some of Wasbi’s effects, the team had to work closely with animation.
70 – Honey Lemon loves color, brightness, and happiness. So she has different colored chemical bombs where she can grab from her purse. The team looked at some of the coolest chemical reactions. Sometimes effects artists are constrained by trying to create an effect that is grounded in reality, and they would need a simulator to do that. But for Honey Lemon, they were free to do what they wanted. Because they were able to have that freedom and integrate simulated effects, they were able to make Honey Lemon’s effects look like a lot of fun but also be somewhat grounded as well.
Production and Character Design
71 – The production design team even had to work on the smallest details of the city, so when John Lassesster asked the team to create a new world, he also instructed them to take note of the surroundings and the scope of reality. So they needed to be familiar with all the intricacies of the designs in San Fransisco and Tokyo so they can achieve the look and feel of each respective city. Against the backdrop, the production team wanted to make sure that the characters were a great foil to the complexity and richness.
72 – Finding Baymax’s face may sound surprising at first. While Baymax has no mouth, he will be able to express emotion using head tilts and eye blinks. To find the right kind of eyes that will be able to get the right emotion, the team decided to use the bells, found on Hall’s trip to Tokyo, that had an interesting shape. The bells had these two circles that were connected by one line, and the designers sound something spiritual and unique about it.
73 – At Disney, the teams are constantly inspiring each other, so the design of Baymax constantly changed. Baymax’s character designs did include a mouth at first, but Lassesster loved the idea of not having a mouth. The team also decided that Baymax would feel more robotic without a mouth.
74 – Hiro needed to be very appealing and very relatable, so some of the visual effects artists looked back to the thing they did during their own childhood like pull their backpacks up to their necks. Other relatable things include hoodies and baggy clothes.
75 – The visual effects team also looked what they did during their everyday lives when they were kids. Those kinds of personal touches. Would help shape each of our hero’s mannerism.
76 – Once a character has been realized, the visual effects artists must successfully transfer 2D designs into a 3D CGI world. So the effects team would need to draw up as many facial expressions as possible at many different angles to get the the right perspective of the character. 3/4 views, side views, front views. But the biggest concern for the visual effects artists was not to lose the simple style of the model sheets. Every expression had to be true to the character.
77 – These model sheets would serve as a guideline for the animators, so they could understand what the characters would look like when they are happy without going off model/concept. It is also used to keep things in perspective and keep the characters as appealing as possible.
78 – Color is very important to the characters attitude and personality, so making each of them unique would help define each of the characters. For example, Fred is unpredictable and goofy, and is really into Japanese pop culture, which is why his costume isn’t as coordinated as his other characters. Whereas Honey Lemon is happy and has a warm color pallet. She is represented by more yellow and pastel colors. Gogo’s tough and extreme colors, so her costume has a leather texture to it. Wasbi’s costume was inspired by a Japanese samuari, but since his attitude changed during the course of the years, they visual effects artists had to change that too.
79 – For the superhero suits, they believed that the more simplified the costumes are the more iconic it is. So for Fred’s is inspired by a Kaiju, which has very bright colors. For Honey Lemon, the team wanted to make sure that her skills were represented properly. So she has a happy color pallet which was complimented with those feminine skills, which is why she has the kind of costume of high heels a purse with a bunny charm on it. Gogo’s yellow would portray speed.
80 – Baymax’s costume would be based on famous mechas and robots, and they would use colors that has never been seen before. For Hiro, the purple costume would be used as complimentary colors to Baymax’s suit to reinforce the thought that the two were a team.
Animation
81 – A character’s control rig can range anywhere from 100 to 200 controls. Animators will touch all of them to understand the full range of movements for each of the characters.
82 – These character models have to be sculpted from scratch. So one pose must be multiplied by 24 to fit one frame per second, which then must be multiplied enough times to fit a 90 minute movie.
83 – The six heroes’ street form (non superhero form) has a particular art direction, their own model sheet, styles of emotion, and their own rig. But their super forms has their own specific layering, and it is the animators’ job to maintain that consistency all the time.
84 – Disney had to develop new software in order to cope with some of the demands of the film. Benson would allow the animators to blend in between body types. So they could get infinite numbers of body types, skin tones, hair styles, clothing styles. There are up to 700 different kinds of background characters that can be seen in the film. These characters had to do a variety of things like walk, talk, drive text, etc. There is an estimated 632,124 different animation cycles for different characters, which will be added to fill the background.
85 – For the animators, Baymax was a lesson in boiling things down to their essence. They would need to keep things simple in their design in terms of the animation style. This would allow the audience to engage and interact with Baymax in ways they wouldn’t with the other characters in the film.
86 – To communicate ideas that might improve the shot, animators would receive certain scenes and draw over them pointing out where things can be improved. This can range from the logistics of movement to facial expressions to certain situations. The idea of this kind of drawing is just all about communicating in a quick and easy way. In the end it is all about plusing, adding and refining ideas.
87 – Animators will sometimes have to relinquish some really cool characters or effects to the betterment of the the film. So something like the aforementioned Rocket Cat sounded cool at first, but had to be ditched because it didn’t fit into the final cut of the film. But animators are always willing to let it go, because if it doesn’t service the story, it doesn’t need to be in there. Sometimes a whole sequence can be tossed.
Misc
88 – The film has some Japanese animation inspiration which ranges from hardcore animes like Akira to emotionally heartfelt one’s like Miyazaki’s Totoro.
89 – Big Hero 6 was a huge dream for some of the writers who consider themselves huge comic book fans. Many referenced Chris Claremont’s X-Men series as their go to read when they were kids.
90 – Among the biggest problems of this film was giving each of the characters a proper introduction. So a lot of first acts ended up in the garbage.
91 – Among some of the ideas that were left on the floor was Rocket Cat. Rocket Cat was actually Hiro’s pet cat named Mochi, who had rocketboots strapped to his paws. The domestic marketing team actually fell in love with this. Even some of the marketing teams in Japan wanted to see more of Rocket Cat.
92 – There are 7 action sequences in this film, which is 4 more than the 2 -3 that is generally since in a typical Disney Animation film.
93 – To understand how these characters were going to be defined, animators were given a test where they had to animated how characters walked into a cafe. So Hiro is a bit more sloppier, kicks the chair. Whereas Baymax is a little bit more delicate, Honey is more energetic, Gogo has dead stare and comes with a Clint Eastwood-esque entrance. All these motions would help contrast each of these characters
Spoilers
94 – Hiro’s early high school graduation leads him to lead a somewhat aimless life full of illegal back alley bot fighting – don’t worry it’s not as bad as it sounds, think Real Steel on a much smaller scale. So his brother, Tadashi, helps him get his life back on track by enrolling him in San Fransoyko Institute Of Technology (SFT). While Hiro dismisses the idea of taking classes in a “nerd school,” he warms up to the idea after he meets Tadashi’s friends.
95 – In hopes of getting enrolled, Hiro has to show off his latest invention to impress the school board at the SFT showcase. Nervous beyond compare, Tadashi calms him down, and tells him that he’s got this. So after a mic feedback mishap, Hiro breezes through his presentation by showing off an unassuming MircoBot. Microbots are tiny chain-like robots when linked together could create anything the user, who controls it with a nerualtransmitter, wishes. The applications for the technology are limitless, and what would normally take a number of people months or years complete, and be done by just one person. Mircobots’ programming allows for construction and transportation. Attendees, including Aunt Cass and Tadashi’s friends, are overly impressed with Hiro’s latest invention.
96 – So thanks in part to his brother’s guidance, Hiro is accepted into the school. But that’s when trouble starts to brew when there is a fire at the school, and his brother goes straight into the fire to try to see if he could help, but he never makes it out. Unable to cope with the loss, Hiro secludes himself into the bedroom shared with his brother. Hiro then meet’s Baymax, an invention of his brother’s. Baymax is an inflatable healthcare robot who activates itself at any sign of distress. Since Baymax is also a learning robot, he doesn’t have a filter, but he means well. For example, after he scans Hiro, Baymax tells him that he is going through puberty, and that can expect to grow hair in the face, armpits, and before he can tell him where else, Hiro abruptly cuts him off. Hiro is unable to deactivate Baymax until he says he is satisfied with his care.
97 – It was thought that Hiro’s Microbot invention was destroyed in the fire, but when one comes back to his house, Baymax discovers that it is trying to find it’s master. This would lead the two on a quest across San Fransokyo to find where this Microbot wants to go. Both Hiro and Baymax end up at an abandoned warehouse where we learn that a villain Yokai has been mass producing Hiro’s invention, and is now using it for nefarious purposes. The two try to stay hidden long enough to find out what Yokai’s next plan is, but as soon discovered, and nearly killed.
98 – Unable to convince the police that a crime has been committed, Hiro and Baymax retreat home. Defeated, Hiro almost gives up, but Baymax’s programming consoles him to improve his health. As a result gives Hiro the drive he needs to find out why Yokai is using his invention. Which also gives him the inspiration to give Baymax a heroic upgrade. And just as we’ve seen in Iron Man, Hiro goes through a course of trial and error when creating Baymax’s super suit. We see him forge armor, to which Baymax is hesitant to wear because “it may undermine” his “nonthreatening” design, to which Hiro retorts, “That’s kinda the idea, buddy.” After this process is complete, Hiro downloads karate skills into Baymax’s programming. The relationship between the two almost mirrors the relationship that John Connor and the Terminator share in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
99 – Hiro then creates super suits for his friends, some of which are ready to answer the call, while others are hesitant, but all of them are there for their friend.
100 – Unsatisfied with his Baymax’s first super suit, Hiro then upgrade’s Baymax’s armor, which can be used in conjunction with his own. Baymax is still confused as to how this coincides with his healthcare programming, Baymax learns that Hiro is actually healing “on the inside.” During a test flight, Hiro has a couple of near death experiences, but upon scanning Baymax tells him that the treatment is working. And after their success, Baymax starts to show that he understands expressions and idioms that any other robot would take seriously.
Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, and produced by Roy Conli, Big Hero 6 features the voice talents of Maya Rudolph, James Cromwell, Damon Wayans Jr., T.J. Miller, Alan Tudyk, Jamie Chung, Genesis Rodriguez, Daniel Henney, with Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada and Scott Adsit as Baymax. It opens in theaters and 3D on November 7.
Read More : http://www.movieviral.com/2014/09/03/big-hero-6-100-things/5/
Officially known as the Democratic Republic of Nepal, the country is bordered by some of the biggest developing countries of the world. The country is home to several peaks and diverse heritage of linguistics. Having been a monarchy for most part of its history it is now a federal multi party republic system. Now let us know some interesting facts about Nepal
Interesting Facts About Nepal
#1: Weighted Significance of Hinduism
Lord Shiva is considered the guardian deity of the country. Hindus from all over the world come and visit the Pashupathinath temple of Lord Shiva.
The Mithila kingdom of King Janaka from the greatest epic of all times The Ramayana lies in Nepal. This kingdom is believed to be the birthplace of Lady Sita Devi who is the wife of Lord Shri Ramachandra.
#2: Buddhism
Lumbini in the Kapilavastu district which is the birth place of Siddhartha Gautama who gave birth to the Buddhist tradition is a UNESCO heritage site and one of the most famous tourist and pilgrimage site in Nepal.
#3: Festivals and Ceremonies
The cultural differences among the Hindus and the Muslims are not much here as the two cultures intertwine. Buddha was born a Hindu and is said to be a descendant of the Sage Gautama. Hindu festivals make up most of the national festivals.
Many Buddhists celebrate Machendrajatra festival which is primarily a Hindu festival and is of the Shaiva siddha. Important Gurus are called Thirthaguru Nemuni after Ne Muni who is said to have established Nepal.
#4: Landlocked Sovereignty
The Republic of China and the Republic of India are the countries that share borders with Nepal. The Indian states of Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal are the ones lying on the borders. The Siliguri corridor of India separates the country from sharing a border with Bangladesh.
#5: The Flag’s Significance
The only non quadrilateral flag is that of Nepal. They flag is made of two triangles. The triangles are said to represent Hinduism and Buddhism. They also represent the Himalayan Mountains.
#6: Mountains and their local names
A larger part of Nepal is surrounded by mountains, there are some very interesting facts about Nepal related to mountains, here are they-
The World’s highest peak Mt. Everest lies in the Nepal – Tibet border in the section of Mahalangur. It is called the Sagarmatha, which means Goddess of the Sky, by the Nepalis.
The Annapurna region has secured a place among the top ten most wonderful trekking places.
The Country is home to eight of the peaks that are highest in the world which include Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu and Kanchenjunga.
#7: Common Practices
People fold their hands and bring their palms together and bow their forehead as a form of greeting. When doing so they say Namaste. This phrase means ‘I salute the God in You’.
It is offensive to use your feet to touch anything.
#8: Heritage
Nepal boasts of having the most World Heritage sites with as many as seven of them being in the Kathmandu valley.
#9: Rich in Languages
Nepali is the official language of Nepal. It has its roots in the Devanagari script and the language of Sanskrit. Additionally Awadhi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tamang, Tharu, and Urdu are some of the other most commonly spoken languages. The country is also having four sign languages.
#10: Water Power
Another interesting fact about Nepal is that the country comes second only after Brazil when it comes to water resources. Hence the country generates a lot of its electricity in the form of hydroelectric power.
Mungkin konsep sepeda boxiest adalah yang paling aerodinamis, tapi bagian paling menarik dari desain aneh Yuji Fujimura tidak ada hubungannya dengan penampilan. Ini adalah sepeda listrik yg memiliki docking station untuk laptop, yang dibebankan oleh baterai di sepeda ketika Anda naik. Tentu, itu mungkin tidak nyaman dan Anda akan dirobohkan dalam waktu sebentar oleh sedikit hembusan angin.
2. Incredible Folding Backback Bicycle
bertualang untuk bersepeda gunung ? – tapi perjalanan ke sana kadang-kadang mengambil alih daerah yang penggemar harus dinegosiasikan dengan berjalan kaki, dan sepeda yang paling tidak mudah untuk dibawa. Tas sepeda lipat Bergmönch menghilangkan masalah itu. Tidak hanya kecil dan ringan,sepeda ini juga mampu melipat dirinya sendiri dalam waktu kurang dari dua menit dalam konfigurasi yg nyaman.
3. Solar Powered Electric Bike
Dirancang oleh Miroslav Miljevic, sepeda listrik ini memiliki atap yang baik untuk melindungi pembalap dari matahari dan hujan dan juga untuk mengumpulkan energi surya.Sepeda Ini dibuat untuk orang-orang yang tidak merasa sampai dengan tuntutan fisik bersepeda, tapi masih ingin mendapatkan sisa manfaat.
4. Collapsible Bike Concept
Portabilitas adalah kunci ketika datang ke sepeda masa depan, dan desainer konsep menemukan cara-cara kreatif luar biasa untuk membuat sepeda cahaya dan dilipat. Desain oleh Blair ini tidak hanya Harry terurai menjadi paket kecil, tetapi juga menyediakan ruang penyimpanan dalam bentuk tas diposisikan antara roda. Terburu-buru juga menetapkan untuk meningkatkan sikap pengendara, mengatakan “Saya memutuskan masalah-masalah ini dengan memindahkan posisi pedal di belakang pengendara dan bergerak beberapa tekanan berat badan mereka di bagian depan tulang pinggul, menggunakan bagian depan yang luas dari kursi dan ke lengan mereka dengan mendukung menonjol dari menangani.
5. BMW Concept Bikes
tidak mengherankan bahwa beberapa konsep sepedayg keren merupakan rancangan oleh para pembuat mobil BMW. Tidak jelas apa konsep-konsep ini diciptakan, tetapi dengan bentuk berwarna-warni sepeda motor-esque dan proporsi, mereka memberikan beberapa inspirasi untuk membawa desain sepeda pas ke abad ke-21.
6. Bizarre Di-Cycle
Dirancang untuk membawa pengendara di atas tanah maupun air, konsep sepeda aneh ini dirancang khusus untuk kota Helmond di Belanda dan Dibuat oleh GBO Desain, yang Di-Siklus jauh oleh bulkier dari sepeda tradisional – yang tampaknya membatasi penerapannya,tetapi tidak menawarkan solusi menarik untuk perjalanan amfibi.
7. Minimalist Theft-Proof Computer-Aided Bicycle
Dengan roda spokeless dirancang untuk menghilangkan hambatan angin, ban yang tidak bisa dibuka, tidak ada rantai terlihat dan bingkai minimalis, sepeda ini adalah keberangkatan yang pasti dari desain lama sekolah. Merupakan gagasan Olimpiade Chris Boardman pengendara sepeda, sepeda ini memiliki baterai bertenaga surya yang membantu pengendara sampai bukit-bukit dan bahkan memiliki perangkat sidik jari-membaca yang hanya memungkinkan pemiliknya untuk bersepeda. Komputer kecil di setang menghitung jumlah kalori yang terbakar berdasarkan berapa kali pedal berputar. Ini jelas merupakan suatu sepeda masa depan: Boardman memperkirakan bahwa tidak akan tersedia untuk setidaknya dua dekade.
8. Nulla: Ultramodern Spokeless Bike
Nulla berarti “tidak” dalam bahasa Italia, dan meskipun sepeda ini lebih dekat ke “apa-apa” daripada kebanyakan, masih jauh dari sesuatu. Seperti pencurian sepeda-bukti minimalis oleh Chris Boardman, yang nulla tidak memiliki hub atau drive rantai mungkin untuk melihat sleekest, namun yang paling futuristik.
9. Honda U3-X: If Unicycles and Segways Mated
Honda U3-X adalah seperti Segway bagi orang-orang yang malas dan memungkinkan si pengguna untuk mengontrolnya hanya dengan bersandar tubuh mereka sedikit. Tentang seukuran tape retro, orang-U3 X adalah baterai bertenaga dan pergi hanya 4mph. Namun mengingat bahwa hal itu adalah sebuah perangkat mobilitas terkecil di dunia, sepeda ini mungkin bisa menginspirasi konsep-konsep lain yang sedikit lebih berguna di dunia nyata.
10. Grasshopper: Folding Electric Bike
Tentu saja, beberapa desainer berani mengambil sepeda lipat ke tingkat berikutnya dengan membuat mereka bertenaga listrik. Tapi tak satu pun sudah cukup sejauh David Gonçalves, yang tidak hanya desain Belalang membawa Anda ke sana kemari, tetapi juga bisa menjadi latihan sepeda stasioner dan bahkan menghasilkan dan menyimpan energi Anda yg dihasilkan saat mengayuh.
Google is an unconventional company with a huge stake in our online lives. It is a source of fascination for many, including us, but what really happens in the Googleplex? And what cool factoids and stats exist from the company’s relatively short past?
Here we bring you 10 fun facts about Google to quench our own thirst for Google knowledge as well as hopefully offer you a distracting diversion from your daily life.
1. The First Google Doodle
Google’s famous homepage “Doodles” (the changing Google logo graphics) are well known and enjoyed by millions around the world as a way to mark an event or anniversary. But did you know that the very first Google Doodle was designed as a kind of “out of office” message?
In 1998 Brin and Page took the weekend off to go the Burning Man festival in Nevada. The Burning Man doodle (shown above), was designed by the Google guys and added to the homepage to let their users know they were out of office and couldn’t fix technical issues like a server crash.
2. Interesting Figures from the Google IPO
While the initial price for Google’s stock at its Initial Public Offering in August 2004 is an interesting stat in itself, there’s more to the story. The opening price for Google’s stock was $85 per share. At the time of writing, the stock price was $483 but has soared as high as $600 in the past year, making GOOG a rather nice investment for many.
A bonus factoid from Google’s IPO process is the value Google stated it hoped to raise on its S-1 form — as much as $2,718,281,828. It may just look like a string of numbers to non-mathletes, but 2,718,281,828 is actually the first ten digits of the mathematical constant ““e”,” showing that even as their company was planning to go public, the Google guys could still geek out with a bit of numerical humor.
3. The First Google Storage Was Made From LEGO
As proud hosts to Google back when it was still a research project, and known as “BackRub,” here Stanford now showcases the original Google storage from way back in 1996. It’s made up of a whopping 40 GB (less than a modern iPod) and it’s made from, as fans of the building bricks will be delighted to see, LEGO. It even hash funny mini-figures on the top.
Legend has it that the reason for the LEGO construction was that the Google guys needed an easily expandable, and cheap way to house 10 4 GB hard drives, and LEGO fit the bill. Whether the primary colors of the bricks used were the hues that went on to inspire the Google logo’s design is up for debate, but we’d guess it wasn’t just a coincidence.
4. Google’s First Ever Tweet
Google’s first ever Twitter post was as satisfyingly geeky as you could hope for. The message, sent in February 2009, reads “I’m 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010.”
For anyone not fluent in binary, here’s a hint — it’s a well known phrase from the company’s homepage. Got it? Yep, it reads: “I’m feeling lucky.”
5. Google Rents Goats
This one isn’t actually one of Google’s infamous April Fools’ Day jokes: Google rents out goats. Yes you read that right. It rents goats from a company called California Grazing to help cut down the amount of weeds and brush at Google HQ.
The operation of 200 goats (plus herder and a border collie) is kind to the environment, and as Google puts it: “A lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.”
6. Google’s Impact on Language
While you’d think the news that the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English Dictionary adding “google” as a verb to their lexicons in 2006 would thrill the search engine, Google was actually none too pleased with the development.
“We’d like to make clear that you should please only use ‘Google’ when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services,” the company wrote in a blog post at the time.
The rationale behind the semantic displeasure was that Google had “a brand to protect,” and feared Google would “slip from trademarked status into common usage.” Now, four years later, we have to say Google was fighting a losing battle — just ‘google it.’
However, we’ve found some other Google-themed linguistic delights for you — a Google staffer is commonly referred to as a “Googler,” while a new team member joins as a “Noogler.” Nooglers also used to wear a colorful hat with a spinner on top. According to a former employee, those hats are now pretty scarce in some offices, instead: “Every Noogler gets a yellow smiley balloon and a nameplate.”
7. Google Is Dog-Friendly
Google is a super dog-friendly company. It proudly names “company dogs,” like Yoshka(described as a “free-range Leonberger”) pictured above. Yoshka accompanies Urs Holzle, senior VP operations and Google Fellow to the Googleplex. Less senior staff are also allowed to bring their dogs to the office.
According to Google’s “Dog Policy”, one indiscretion too many on the Google carpets, or aggressive behavior, means Lassie will have to stay at home in the future. Strong bladdered and friendly canines are more than welcome across the campus.
Unfortunately, cats are not quite as welcome. Here’s an excerpt taken directly from Google’s Code of Conduct: “Google’s affection for our canine friends is an integral facet of our corporate culture. We like cats, but we’re a dog company, so as a general rule we feel cats visiting our offices would be fairly stressed out.”
8. Google’s First Ever “Company Snack” Was Swedish Fish
Back in February, 1999, the chewy candy known as “Swedish Fish” became the first ever company snack (not counting beverages) that was ordered into the Google office.
Although a relatively small event, it has led to big things. Google is infamous in the industry for treating its employees to not just free drinks and snacks on tap, but full-on gourmet meals, three times a day at a plethora of on-site cafes and eateries, as well as regular BBQs during the summer.
Brin and Page have been quoted in the past as saying no Googler should have to go more than 100 feet for food, leading to snack-filled “microkitchens” that are liberally dotted around the Google offices.
In fact, the free food is said to be so tempting that Googlers risk the “Google 15,” similar to the “Freshman 15,” where they pile on weight soon after joining the company. Good thing they also have a Google gym.
Backing this up, here’s a stat from Google — “Bay Area Googlers consumed approximately 5,500 pounds of handmade chocolates from the snack bins in the microkitchens in 2007.” Wow.
9. The Google Logo Was Not Centered Until 2001
Google’s famously sparse homepage is considered a classic design in the online world. The Google logo, however, wasn’t actually centered on the page until March 31, 2001. As early users will remember, the homepage had a bias to the left-hand side, and even earlier — back in 1998 — Google sported a Yahoo-style exclamation mark.
10. Google Has a Company Dinosaur
By all accounts, there are many wondrous sights to be seen at the Googleplex, but one of the most arresting is surely the gigantic T-Rex skeleton — nicknamed “Stan” after a “real” dino found nearby — that looms menacingly at Googlers in Mountain View.
Joining Stan in the unique campus decorations is a scale replica of the SpaceShipOne, enormous Android-themed models, pink flamingos, a large LEGO man, Google-colored phone boxes and grown-up size ball pits. One thing seems for sure — just like the company itself — life at the Googleplex must be far from dull.
Read More : http://mashable.com/2010/06/19/10-google-facts/
(Disney)This past weekend was owned by Big Hero 6, the first Marvel-inspired, Disney Animation Studios feature to hit theaters thus far. The movie delighted audiences of all ages to the tune of $56 million and the biggest reason for its success is the film’s highly-squeezable hero, Baymax. The blimpy, soft-spoken robot begins the story as a personal healthcare assistant and ends it fully weaponized, morphing into a rocket-fueled superhero thanks to his newest buddy, Hiro Hamada. Baymax is one of the best movie robots since WALL-E, and therefore deserves to be celebrated. These are the top 10 coolest things about him:
10. He Comes With His Own Docking Station
Baymax can be stored compactly and out of the way as he deflates into his own personal docking station about the size of a toolbox. He’s a practically-built piece of artificial intelligence. 9. He Can Diagnose Any Health Problem
Baymax was designed by Hiro’s older brother, Tadashi, to “heal the sick and injured” as a personal healthcare assistant robot. So his diagnosis capabilities are seemingly endless. He’s equipped with a happy face diagnostic scale, defibrillators in his hands, and an admirable bedside manner. He’ll tell you, “There, there, it will be alright” if you are his “patient” and he won’t leave you alone until you’re well again.
8
. He Loves Animals
Baymax is a protector of all life forms and that includes Mochi, Aunt Cass’ Calico housecat. He likes cuddling up with the little furball and ensuring his safety.
7. His Soothing Robot Voice and Face Not only does Baymax heal the sick, he does it with a relaxing voice that patients of all ages would find comforting. Voiced by Scott Adsit, Baymax will follow instructions to a tee, but he’s not immune to the occasional robot misunderstanding. He’s also simply designed so he’s incredibly easy to love, like Hello Kitty.
6. Baymax Gets “Drunk” When His Battery is Low
One of the funniest scenes in Big Hero 6 is when Hiro has to sneak Baymax back into Aunt Cass’ house. The robot’s battery is low and Hiro gets a taste of Baymax the drunkard as the big guy deflates and has trouble walking and talking.
5. He Can Repair Himself
As a robot, Baymax feels no pain, obviously, so he carries some of the same qualities as his other movie robot ancestors. Like The Terminator, Baymax can fix himself if need be. All he needs is some Scotch Tape.
4. He’s Not Fast
The most hilarious thing about Baymax may be his dainty little footsteps. Equipped with a fat body and tiny legs, the inflatable hero readily admits, “I am not fast.” But that doesn’t stop him from heading out into the world.
3. He’s Highly Huggable
Baymax’s “non-threatening huggable design” makes you want to squeeze the ever-living life out of him. He’s the Pillsbury Dough Boy, the Michelin Man, and a giant teddy bear all rolled into one. Fred even compares him to a “warm marshmallow.”
2. He Makes a Pretty Sweet Superhero
After he gets “upgrades” compliments of Hiro, Baymax becomes a rocket-fueled fighting machine who can soar above the city of San Fransokyo and take out any enemy. Hiro gives Baymax a carbon fiber suit of armor to protect his soft underbelly and creates an Iron Man-like power fist for him that can be launched at evil targets.
1. Baymax is Tadashi
Hiro realizes halfway through Big Hero 6 that his brother, Tadashi, never intended Baymax to be used as a weapon of vengeance. Tadashi wanted to help a lot of people and Baymax was how he would do it. The robot carries Tadashi’s selfless personality and calming demeanor and through him, Hiro can still keep a little piece of his brother always.
We all have a sense of smell, and we all use it constantly, Want to learn a few truly amazing and interesting facts about nose? Then just keep reading. The human nose uses millions of cells to detect approximately 10,000 odours, far less than many animals, but important for maintaining a good quality of life. The sense of smell affects the ability to taste as well as the proper functioning of a human’s immune system.
#1: Exclusive “Smellprint”
No two people smell possessions the same way for the reason that each of us has scent blind spots, meaning exact odors we can’t pick up on. That’s why if a room spray smells similar to cupcakes to you and like creamed corn to your friend? You’re both correct.
#2: Smell Feelings
You can also be able to smell happiness and s*xual arousal, as long as the individual you are smelling is a close romantic partner.
#3: Women have stronger senses of smell than men
So it’s not surprising that women know the milk’s gone bad long before the men can judge it. This interesting facts about nose is my personal favorite!
#4: Good smells make you more contented
Smelling a fragrance you recognize as enjoyable helps you in having good mood. So if you like vanilla, maintaining a little scented oil on your desk can help you out to lift you up when you’re down. The similar goes for citrus, jasmine, or any other scent which makes you feel pleased.
#5: There are less scents than you imagine
Some researchers theorize that there are only seven odors: musky, fetid, strong, camphoraceous (like mothballs), airy (like dry cleaning fluid), flowery, and minty.
#6: Pregnant women’s weird food craving may be due to their senses of smell
As your nose is oversensitive when you’re enceinte, you build up an abnormal sense of taste, leading to strange cravings like pickles and ice cream.
#7: You really smell with your brain
Not your nose, as you may suppose.
#8: Scents can prompt memories
Unlike visual or other sensorial memory types, Most of your scent memories however, come from the first decade of your life,
#9: Men’s nose can smell women’s ovulation
This interesting facts about nose is quite fascinating! Together sexes can smell whether other people have main histocompatability complexes (MHCs) dissimilar from their own. This is attractive because mating with somebody whose MHC is not too like your be the owner of creates offspring with hardier immune systems.
#10: Process
Human have 350 useful olfactory receptor genes. Mice have 1,300. Two small odor-detecting patches made up of approximately 6 million cells and positioned high in the nasal passage give humans the capability to smell. The air surge in the nose follows a convoluted pattern as composite as blood flowing all the way through the heart. Your nose is preeminent to detect odors late in the day and two people smelling somewhat such as a flower will report diverse impersonation. Each person has a distinctive odor identity.
Indonesia, officially known as Republic of Indonesia is a country located in the Southeast Asia comprising of 17,508 islands. It is the 4th most populous country in the world, it is surrounded by Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Let us know some interesting facts about Indonesia
#1: Largest Archipelago and its Islands
Indonesia is the largest Archipelago in the world. There are 17,000 islands, out of which 6000 are inhabited by people. New Guinea, Borneo (also known as Kalimantan), and Sumatra island are on the list of the top ten largest Islands in the world. With a population of almost 250 million, Java is the most populous Island in the world.
#2: Former Wonder
The Borobudur temple is located in Indonesia. It is the world’s largest Buddhist temple and was earlier one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
#3: Invasion
Marco Polo was the first European to reach Indonesia. He had travelled in search of spices which were valuable commodities in his country.
The Dutch kept Indonesia colonized for almost 350 years, owing to the fact that many old Indonesians speak Dutch fluently. Many Indonesian words have been derived from Dutch.
#4: The Equator
The equator passes through Sumatra, making it a very popular tourist destination. The climate is hence equatorial with temperatures ranging 20-34 degree Celsius. The line cuts across islands Sumatra, Sulwesiand and Kalimantan along with a few other small Islands in the middle of the country.
#5: The Ring of Fire
There are some interesting facts about Indonesia related to the ring of fire, here they are:
Indonesia is a part of ‘The Ring of Fire’, the volcano group.
About 75% of the volcanoes of the Ring of Fire are in Indonesia.
The Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, which is the world’s most powerful volcanic eruption. It affected the global climate to such an extent that it was called ‘year without summer’.
#5: Rich Bio-diversity
Indonesia boasts of having the second highest level of Biodiversity. The longest snake ever found was in here of length 10 meters in 1912. The Mudskipper fish which can walk, hop, climb on trees and breathe on land is found here. The Rafflesia Arnoldi, otherwise called the Corps flower with a height of 5ft and a width of 4ft making it the largest flower blooms here and weighs around 7 kilos. The Komodo Island houses the Komodo dragon, which is a kind of a lizard and can grow up to 3 meters long. This is the only country to house dragons.
#6: The People
There are around 300 ethnic groups. 583 languages and their dialects are spoken across the country. The formal language of the country is Bahasa Indonesia.
#7: Taste Buds
Rice is the staple food of the country and a meal without rice is not considered as a meal itself. Indonesians also prefer spicy foods. The very common ingredients of Indonesian cooking include coconut milk, fish and chicken along with spices (especially chilli).
#8: Sporting
Badminton along with soccer is the two popular games. These games suffer hugely from illegal gambling.
#9: History
There are some interesting facts about Indonesia related to the history of Indonesia: The capital, Jakarta was formerly known as Batavia when Dutch had colonized the country. Life has been around for about two million years ago here. This is from the evidence of fossils found in Surakarta and Sangiran of the Java Man, ‘Homo Erectus’.
#10: Time Zones
The country is so expansive in its area covered that it has three time zones. It is one of the countries that have not been fully explored or mapped.
United States, officially known as United States of America (USA) is a federal republic which consists of a federal district and 50 states. United States is 3rd most populous country in the world. let us know some interesting facts about Unites States
#1: National Facts
The National bird of the United States is The Bald Eagle.
Rose is the national flower.
The capital of the nation is Washington, District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.).
The national mottos are E Pluribus Unum which translates to Out of Many, one and In God We trust.
Stars and Stripes forever is the National March.
#2: Poor Americans
Americans classified as ‘Low Income’ holders or living in poverty make up 48% of the population.
46 million people of the United States live on food stamps. On the whole, there is one child out of every four children live in food stamps.
Cleveland, Ohio’s 52% children live in poverty.
#3: Independence Day – July 4th or 2nd
There are some interesting facts about United States related to the Independence day, here they are:
The Declaration of Independence was actually written by Thomas Jefferson on July 2nd. The congress was the then ruling party and took its time for 2 days to accept the declaration.
Jefferson drafted the declaration on his laptop. In those days, a laptop was a writing desk that fit on one’s lap.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both died on July 4th, 1826, a few hours apart.
#4: State Division
The United States is divided into 50 states. The states are all in different shapes and sizes.
With just 1,545 square miles, Rhodes Island is the smallest state of the United States.
Alaska happens to be the largest state with 663,268 square miles. It also has the longest US coastline stretching for 6,640 miles.
#5: Mountain Ranges & their Climatic Effect
The mountain ranges of the US run in north – south direction, influencing much of the climatic conditions.
The hot and dry climate of Arizona and Nevada can be attributed to being on the leeward side of the mountains.
#6: Hot & Cold
Prospect Creek, Alaska, recorded the lowest temperature ever in the United States on the 23rd of January in 1971. It was recorded as -80 degree Fahrenheit.
Death Valley in California recorded the highest temperature on July 10th, 1913.
#7: Honolulu, Hawaii
The Iolani palace had belonged to the Monarch King KalaKaua and Queen Lili’uokalani until 1893, when they were overthrown. The palace is the only one in the United States to be used by a monarch.
The palace served as the Capitol building till 1959, until Hawai became a state. Now, the palace is a museum.
#8: Indebted America
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York approximates 167,000 Americans have more than $200,000 student loan.
Even if Bill Gates gave up every single penny of his fortune, he would have taken care of only 15 days’ deficit of America.
The national debt is 22 times as much as it was during Jimmy carter’s time.
#9: Cartoons & Movies
Hollywood, America is considered to be the movie capital of the world. Cinema has grown multi fold from its early days.
Walt Disney was a ruthless business man, and was rumored to be anti Semitic and otherwise racist.
Mickey Mouse’s original name, Mortimer mouse was thought pompous by Walt Disney’s wife. She had suggested the name Mickey as she thought it was cuter.
#10: Official Language
The most interesting fact about United States is that there is no official language in the country. Although English is the most common language used in United States, but there is no official language of the country.
wahyuramgoblog.wordpress.com 