Journal articles on the topic '2D character design'

Jakarta is often, if not regularly, being hit by a natural disaster in a form of floods. Floods have affected not only human but also domestic animals like cats, chickens, and pigeons, especially in Kampung Pulo. There are not many films out there that show the struggles and sufferings of animals during floods which is why author and team decided to make an animated film about it titled “Hanyut”; how are their conditions; how can they survive the events. In the scope of the film preproduction, author decided to focus on character design which is designing the cat family characters in the 2D animation film “Hanyut”. The designs will be limited on character designs for the cat family that consists of the mother cat and her two kittens. Although anthropomorphic, these cat characters can not talk and walk on 4 feet (quadrupedal), but have similar personalities and emotions as human beings. Moreover, the research design will be limited on the drawing style, basic shapes, body proportions, as well as hair and eye colors that will be used on the characters. Data collection for this qualitative research was done by literature reviews, on-site observations, observations on animation films, and surveys about the characters’ appearances to be used during the character designing process. By doing this research, the writer wants to create the cat family corresponding to the story plot and can attract people’s sympathy with the characters’ characterizations.

An enhanced character registration method is proposed in this paper to assist the auto coloring for 2D animation characters. After skeletons are extracted, the skeleton of the character in a target frame is relocated based on a stable branch in a reference frame. Subsequently the characters among a sequence are automatically matched and registered. Occlusion are then detected and located in certain components segmented from the character. Two different approaches are applied to color regions in components without and with occlusion respectively. The approach has been tested for coloring a practical animation sequence and achieved high coloring accuracy, showing its applicability in commercial animation production.

We reformulate the mathematical model for the 2D sedimentation in an estuary as a coupled nonlinear differential system. Combining the mass-conservation character of the discontinuous Galerkin method and the jump-capturing property of Lesaint-Raviart upwind technique, we design an upwind discontinuous Galerkin finite element method, which obeys the local mass conservation and possesses good stability. Our theoretical analysis shows that there exists a unique solution to the numerical procedure and the discrete solution permits O(hk+Δt) convergence rate. Numerical experiments are conducted to verify our theoretical findings. This may provide a theoretical principle for better understanding of the mechanism and morphological characters of sedimentation at estuaries.

<p><span>Animation and virtual reality movie-making technologies are still witnessing significant progress to this day. Building and stimulating virtual characters inside these applications is a goal. Build a 3D face via using some special tools inside the virtual world is the most important part of identifying a 3D animation. Keen Tools Face Builder add-on for Blender. Interested in creating a 3D face of a famous figure, artist or the general public by adopting several 2D images added to the virtual blinder software environment. The main problem facing these tools is that they deal with high-resolution and sharpness pictures because some images that contain blurring, the result is to build a 3D face model that contains design distortions and non- clearly. in this proposed paper, build a data set for 2D pictures of a specific character (actor), at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. These images were caught by the camera, different in sharpness and blurring (four types of blurry). Using the “Laplacian Filter algorithm” and OpenCV library with Python language, to isolate blurry from sharpness 2D images. Sharpness images used to build a 3D face model that gave real and similar results to the character in the pictures. </span></p>

Animated movie “Jack The Chicken” tells story about a chicken named Jack that bored and ungrateful with anything that are given by his master. This animation tells the audiences about being grateful for everything they’ve got. This animation video has three minutes duration with simple character design. This animated movie setting and scenes are largely supported by its background and backsound because it has no dialogues. This movie was made with 2D technique where most of the creation processes were done digitally. These digital processes were done to make the works easier and shorten the duration of the works. Manual work progress also had been done especially on early stages of creation e.g. idea developing and character design.

Physical paper puppets are inanimate objects, but when we’re speaking in terms of the production of traditional paper cut out animation, they become the actors and the souls that drive the movie. When shooting and animating traditional paper cut out animation, the puppets are laid flat on a surface so they can only move in limited directions compared to conventional 2D or 3D animation. As we know, each character in animated movie has its own personality and unique to each other. The challenge lays in bringing out the characteristics and personality of the character through the limited medium of paper puppet. In this qualitative research, puppet movements will be applied to quadruped cat characters in a public service announcement titled “Spay & Neuter”. The puppet along with the visual design, segmentations, and joints were done in previous research. Qualitative observations and audio-visual materials are used to collect the data for references. Literature review will study the characteristics of cats, body language, behaviour, and principles of animation especially timing and exaggeration. Observation is conducted by studying the movements of real cats from online videos and direct observations and also studying how other animators animate cat characters in animated films. In the exploration stage, paper puppets will be animated according to the movement design while experimenting with the timing and frame rate of the stop motion to achieve the final results.

Trash is actually not a new problem on the planet. However, the handling is still less effective in various places around the world. But at least how humans try to reduce the minimum amount of waste. It is the human hand that actually creates the waste itself.The serial animation "Akura-Popo Trash episode" wears the human hand-character design as a picture of the amount of chaos perpetrated by them. 2D computer animation techniques are applied to add artistic value and provide media variations of messengers to the general public Keywords: trash, 2D animation, environmentAbstrak Sampah sebenarnya bukan masalah baru di planet ini. Akan tetapi penanganannya masih kurang efektif di berbagai tempat di seluruh penjuru dunia. Namun setidaknya bagaimana manusia berusaha mengurangi seminimal mungkin jumlah sampah. Ulah tangan manusialah yang sesungguhnya menciptakan sampah itu sendiri.Animasi serial “Akura-Popo episode Sampah” memakai desain karakter tangan manusia sebagai gambaran banyaknya kekacauan yang dilakukan oleh mereka. Teknik animasi komputer 2D diterapkan untuk menambahkan nilai seni dan memberikan variasi media penyampai pesan kepada khalayak umum Kata kunci: sampah, animasi 2D, lingkungan

Multi-bolt composite joints are widely used in the primary structures because of their advantages of high reliability, load carrying capability, and maintainability. Load distribution analyses, as the precondition of strength analysis and design of multi-bolt composite joints, have attracted extensive attention over decades. The conventional 2D FEM, new 2D FEM and 3D FEM were established to analyze the load distribution of a typical single-lap three-bolt composite joint. The effect of friction on the load distribution results of 3D FEM was investigated. Furthermore, the load distribution of the joint was examined by using a theoretical spring model and load distribution experiments. Based on the investigation of experimental and numerical results, the load distribution character of single-lap three-bolt composite joint was obtained, and the suitability of different FE models was verified.

The development of digital technologies leads to a variety of pictorial arts. With the advent of computer technology and communication technologies, areas such as computer graphics, computer and digital design, and phenomena such as digital art have emerged. The article analyzes these concepts, which provided an opportunity for further study. Based on the analysis of Internet resources on digital art, the following main trends are identified: virtual art, 3D printing, open source software, art of artificial intelligence, a combination of 2D animation and modern technologies, 3D painting, UX / UI design, game design, concept art and character design. Examples of reflection these tendencies in modern art are given. Given the selected trends, it is shown how they affect the content of training in computer graphics and digital design for students of the educational program "Digital Design" (list of compulsory and optional educational components, the content of educational practice). It is noted that to successfully work with computer graphics, students need to master traditional knowledge of pictorial arts (the concept of composition, color, perspective, proportions, shadows) and the ability to use them to create digital products using computer programs (2D graphic editors and 3D graphics) and digital technology (graphics tablet, personal and personal computer, projection equipment, camera, devices for VR and AR reality, scanner and printer, including 3D scanner and 3D printer).

Purpose This paper aims to automatically derive a 2D parametric model of the main characteristic lines of a car from images, blueprints or hand-made sketches of its side view. Then this model can be used for the further computer-aided design manipulation starting from images of the side view of a car. Design/methodology/approach The method combines different image edge detection techniques and edge removal processes with optimization techniques according to local and global constraints specific of the single curves to automatically construct a precise parametric model of the main character lines of a car from images. First, process the car image to compute the most important curves and then warp a car template model to match its feature points and curves with the ones detected in the image. Findings The paper provides method to construct parametric model from an image using maximum cover ratio to the edge points obtained by state-of-the-art edge detection algorithms. A feature points’ organization mechanism produces quadric curves to express feature curves of a product. Research limitations/implications The robustness of the presented method depends on the completeness of edge detection results and the accuracy of some key points’ registration result, so if the image is not good, the result cannot be trusted. Only side-view is considered in this paper. Additional limits in the process regard the side view verification: pictures of the front or rear view can be wrongly classified as lateral ones when they contain round lights. Practical implications This program enables designers to convert the image to geometric parametric model directly. Originality/value The method is applicable to shaded pictures, sketches and blue prints of the side view of a car. It can process a database of car images in a batch mode or a specific picture on user demand. The method classifies the cars to different categories: SUV/Wagon/Hatchback, sedan, city and coupe. The authors obtain good results for every category.

Abstrak Objective. Rangkaian gerak animasi diwujudkan kedalam karakter-karakter animasi yang biasa dijumpai dalam bentuk apapun. Seorang animator harus memahami prinsip-prinsip dasar dan teknik-teknik tertentu dalam proses animasi sehingga karakter animasi yang dihasilkan memiliki kualitas gerak yang indah dan menarik. Penelitian ini membahas tentang salah satu metode atau prinsip animasi straight ahead action untuk menciptakan gerakan animasi hewan yang detail dan halus. Gerakan yang telah ditentukan untuk karakter hewan antara lain gerakan melompat, berlari, dan gerakan kepala dengan menggunakan karakter hewan kelinci. Materials and Methods. Metode straight ahead action digunakan untuk membuat dan menciptakan gerakan animasi dengan cara menggambar satu per satu (frame by frame) dari awal sampai akhir adegan oleh seorang animator. Perancangan animasi terdiri dari tiga tahap mulai dari pra produksi, produksi, dan pasca produksi, serta menggunakan aplikasi Adobe Animate CC 2018 untuk pembuatan objek animasi 2D. Results. Penelitian ini berhasil menerapkan gerakan animasi hewan dengan gerakan melompat, berlari dan menggerakkan kepala dengan menggunakan prinsip animasi straight ahead action dengan hasil animasi yang detail dan halus. Conclusion. Penelitian ini menghasilkan video animasi karakter hewan berbasis animasi 2D dengan kualitas gerakan animasi yang detail dan halus karena menerapkan prinsip animasi straight ahead action untuk seluruh proses animating-nya. Abstrak Objective. Animated movements are manifested into animated characters that are usually found in any form. An animator must understand the basic principles and certain techniques in the animating process so that the animated characters produce beautiful and interesting motion qualities. This research discusses the implementation of the principle of straight ahead action animation to create detailed and smooth animation movements. Materials and Methods. The straight ahead action method is used to make animated movements by drawing one by one (frame by frame) from the beginning to the end of the scene by an animator. The discussion of the method is carried out by implementing the movements of animals running, jumping, and moving the head, also using Adobe Animate CC 2018 for creating 2D animated objects. The design of animation consists of three stages starting from pre-production, production, and post-production. Results. This research succeeded in applying animal animation with jumping, running and moving the head using the principle of straight ahead action animation with detailed and smooth animation results. Conclusion. This research produces an animated video character of 2D-based animal animation with a detailed and smooth motion animation quality because it applies the principle of straight ahead action animation for the entire animating process.

Antagonists of the AT1receptor (AT1R) are beneficial molecules that can prevent the peptide hormone angiotensin II from binding and activating the specific receptor causing hypertension in pathological states. This review article summarizes the multifaced applications of solid and liquid state high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in antihypertensive commercial drugs that act as AT1R antagonists. The 3D architecture of these compounds is explored through 2D NOESY spectroscopy and their interactions with micelles and lipid bilayers are described using solid state 13CP/MAS, 31P and 2H static solid state NMR spectroscopy. Due to their hydrophobic character, AT1R antagonists do not exert their optimum profile on the AT1R. Therefore, various vehicles are explored so as to effectively deliver these molecules to the site of action and to enhance their pharmaceutical efficacy. Cyclodextrins and polymers comprise successful examples of effective drug delivery vehicles, widely used for the delivery of hydrophobic drugs to the active site of the receptor. High resolution NMR spectroscopy provides valuable information on the physical-chemical forces that govern these drug:vehicle interactions, knowledge required to get a deeper understanding on the stability of the formed complexes and therefore the appropriateness and usefulness of the drug delivery system. In addition, it provides valuable information on the rational design towards the synthesis of more stable and efficient drug formulations.

In this paper, we describe a ground penetrating radar (GPR) system called the wide angle reflection and refraction (WARR) machine, outline the design and discuss the implementation challenges. WARR and the closely related common-mid-point (CMP) GPR soundings have been standard survey methods to measure velocity since GPR first existed. Earliest efforts demonstrated the variation in ice sheet velocity versus depth. Although GPR multi-offset soundings are valuable survey methods, they have seen little adoption since many systems are not bistatic. In addition, surveys most often use a single transmitter with a single receiver deployed sequentially at varying antenna separations, making data acquisition slow. Modern instrumentation with recent advances in GPR timing and control technology has enabled deployment of systems with multiple concurrent sampling receivers. This development has resulted in the ability to continuously acquire multi-offset WARR data at the same rate as two dimensional (2D) common offset reflection surveys in the past. The concomitant issues of survey design plus organizing the WARR data storage, documentation and analysis present numerous challenges. The extraction of velocity information from the large volumes of GPR WARR/CMP data demands automated analysis techniques. We have explored the use of normal move out (NMO) stacking at creating enhanced zero offset section from multi-offset data. Furthermore, we investigated the use of semblance analysis at estimating move-out velocities in order to apply in the NMO stack. These traditional seismic processing steps have proven to be less effective with GPR. These conclusions point to the differences in data character between seismic and GPR. Results of in-field deployment are used to illustrate advances to date and point the way to further advancements.

To understand the stressed characteristic of fault rupture zone under high hydraulic pressure, based on the F3 fault of Guanshan tunnel the software 2D-FLAC is adopted to found the fluid-solid coupling numerical model of ground water seepage and evolution in the process of tunnel structure in fault rupture zone under high hydraulic pressure and analyze the mechanical character of tunnel structure in three schemes of whole block, free discharge and limit discharge. The result shows that in the whole block condition, the partial seepage of ground water happened and the lining thickness should be more than 60cm; Regardless of water pressure, the rock is damaged at a large range, and the minimum safety factor of the lining structure meet the tunnel design standard; In the limit discharge condition, the grouting reinforced ring makes the effect of limiting drainage and keeping the tunnel’s stability in the construction. The tunnel drainage gets smaller with the increase of grouting ring’s thickness and the decrease of grouting ring’s penetration parameter; setting the drainage system can decrease the hydraulic pressure at the back of lining as well as grouting and water blocking.

The paper presents the results of a computational study on the aerodynamics and the performance of a small-scale Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) for distributed micro-generation. The complexity of VAWT aerodynamics, which are inherently unsteady and three-dimensional, makes high-fidelity flow models extremely demanding in terms of computational cost, limiting the analysis to mainly 2D or 2.5D Computational Fluid-Dynamics (CFD) approaches. This paper discusses how a proper setting of the computational model opens the way for carrying out fully 3D unsteady CFD simulations of a VAWT. Key aspects of the flow model and of the numerical solution are discussed, in view of limiting the computational cost while maintaining the reliability of the predictions. A set of operating conditions is considered, in terms of tip-speed-ratio (TSR), covering both peak efficiency condition as well as off-design operation. The fidelity of the numerical predictions is assessed via a systematic comparison with the experimental benchmark data available for this turbine, consisting of both performance and wake measurements carried out in the large-scale wind tunnel of the Politecnico di Milano. The analysis of the flow field on the equatorial plane allows highlighting its time-dependent evolution, with the aim of identifying both the periodic flow structures and the onset of dynamic stall. The full three-dimensional character of the computations allows investigating the aerodynamics of the struts and the evolution of the trailing vorticity at the tip of the blades, eventually resulting in periodic large-scale vortices.

This paper is devoted to the problem of asynchronousH∞estimation for a class of two-dimensional (2D) nonhomogeneous Markovian jump systems with nonlocal sensor nonlinearity, where the nonlocal measurement nonlinearity is governed by a stochastic variable satisfying the Bernoulli distribution. The asynchronous estimation means that the switching of candidate filters may have a lag to the switching of system modes, and the varying character of transition probabilities is considered to reside in a convex polytope. The jumping process of the error system is modeled as a two-component Markov chain with extended varying transition probabilities. A stochastic parameter-dependent approach is provided for the design ofH∞filter such that, for randomly occurring nonlocal sensor nonlinearity, the corresponding error system is mean-square asymptotically stable and has a prescribedH∞performance index. Finally, a numerical example is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed estimation method.

Using drones and augmented reality paradigm, new forms of interactive algorithms has been created and proposed.We start with a first person view interaction where the drone mimics the movement of one person’s head wearing aHMD so that movements of the head can be mapped to actions by the drones. We then provide two novel AR/VRapplications of drones to create something similar to third person view in 2D and 3D. To get started, our firstidea is to control a drone using head movements. The second application which we implemented is to provide animplementation where tangible platforms are used by the drone to react to the movements of the character. Finallyour third implementaton if to create and AR world using real outdoor scenery and asking a drone to mimic a thirdperson view combining the real scenery with a synthetic actor so that based on the synthetic actor movement thedrone changes its behavior correctly in the real-word trying to provide a synchronized view of the real and syntheticword. There are three novel ideas providing a new form of interactions which will improve with drones functionalityin future. Our implementation shows the feasibility of our idea as discussed in the paper.

Rational design of the micro-nanomorphology is highly desired for metal hydroxides to achieve overall high-performance electrodes for supercapacitor and energy storage applications. Here, in the current study, we have succeeded in controlling the morphology of Sn/Co nanolayered structures to obtain plate and nanofibrous morphologies. Additionally, the plate nanostructures could be transformed to obtain plate-nanofibrous morphologies. In this trend, dual anions such as cyanate and nitrate are applied to intercalate among the nanolayers of cobalt-tin and act as building blocks or pillars, producing a series of nanolayered structures. By repulsion forces among the intercalated anions, the nanolayers of Sn/Co are curled and converted to nanofibers. This conversion was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. In addition, the intercalation reactions and nanolayered structures were indicated by X-ray diffraction, thermal analyses and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The electrochemical supercapacitive behavior of the different nanostructures of Sn/Co HDS and Sn/Co LDH, such as plate, Plate-nanofiber and nanofibrous morphology has been investigated in three assembly electrode system. The results suggested that the nanofiber morphology of Sn/Co LDH exhibited better specific capacitance performance than the other two morphologies. The enhanced specific capacitance (658 Fg−1) and excellent cyclic stability (89%) of the nanofibers of the Sn/Co LDH could be attributed to the synergistic effects between the electric double layer capacitive character of the tin and the pseudocapacitance nature of the cobalt.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a local Newton basis functions collocation method for solving the 2D nonlinear coupled Burgers’ equations. It needs less computer storage and flops than the usual global radial basis functions collocation method and also stabilizes the numerical solutions of the convection-dominated equations by using the Newton basis functions. Design/methodology/approach A meshless method based on spatial trial space spanned by the local Newton basis functions in the “native” Hilbert space of the reproducing kernel is presented. With the selected local sub-clusters of domain nodes, an approximation function is introduced as a sum of weighted local Newton basis functions. Then the collocation approach is used to determine weights. The method leads to a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) for the time-dependent partial differential equations (PDEs). Findings The method is successfully used for solving the 2D nonlinear coupled Burgers’ equations for reasonably high values of Reynolds number (Re). It is a well-known issue in the analysis of the convection-diffusion problems that the solution becomes oscillatory when the problem becomes convection-dominated if the standard methods are followed without special treatments. In the proposed method, the authors do not detect any instability near the front, hence no technique is needed. The numerical results show that the proposed method is efficient, accurate and stable for flow with reasonably high values of Re. Originality/value The authors used more stable basis functions than the standard basis of translated kernels for representing of kernel-based approximants for the numerical solution of partial differential equations (PDEs). The local character of the method, having a well-structured implementation including enforcing the Dirichlet and Neuman boundary conditions, and producing accurate and stable results for flow with reasonably high values of Re for the numerical solution of the 2D nonlinear coupled Burgers’ equations without any special technique are the main values of the paper.

The problem of thermal modeling of modern three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuit (IC) systems in packages (SiPs) is discussed. An effective quasi-3D (Q3D) approach of thermal design is proposed taking into account the specific character of 3D IC stacked multilayer constructions. The fully-3D heat transfer equation for global multilayer construction is reduced to the set of coupled two-dimensional (2D) equations for separate construction layers. As a result, computational difficulties, processor time, and RAM volume are significantly reduced, while accuracy can be provided. A software tool, Overheat-3D-IC, was developed on the base of the generalized Q3D package numerical model. For the first time, the global 3D thermal performances across the modern integrated circuit/through-silicon via/ball grid array (IC-TSV-BGA) and multi-chip (MC)-embedded printed circuit board (PCB) packages were simulated. A ten times decrease of central processing unit (CPU) time was achieved as compared with the 3D solutions obtained by commercial universal 3D simulators, while saving the sufficient accuracy. The simulation error of maximal temperature TMAX determination for different types of packages was not more than 10–20%.

Summary Fundamental understanding of the flow inside progressing-cavity pumps (PCPs) represents an important step in the optimization of the efficiency of these pumps, which are largely used in artificial-lift processes in the petroleum industry. The computation of the flow inside a PCP is extremely complex because of the transient character of the flow, the moving boundaries, and the difference in length scale of the channel height between the stator and rotor. This complexity makes the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as an engineering tool almost impossible. This work presents an asymptotic model to describe the single-phase flow inside PCPs using lubrication theory. The model was developed for Newtonian fluid, and lubrication theory was used to reduce the 3D Navier-Stokes equations in cylindrical coordinates to a 2D Poisson's equation for the pressure field at each timestep, which is solved numerically by a second-order finite-difference method. The predictions are close to the experimental data and the results obtained by solving the complete 3D, transient Navier-Stokes equations with moving boundaries, available in the literature. Although the accuracy is similar to the complete 3D model, the computing time of the presented model is orders of magnitude smaller. The model was used to study the effect of geometry, fluid properties, and operating parameters in the pump-performance curves and can be used in the design of new pumping processes.

Olomouc, nowadays a city with 100,000 inhabitants, has always been considered as one of the most prominent Czech cities. It is a social and economical centre, which history started just about the 11th century. The present appearance of the city has its roots in the 18th century, when the city was almost razed to the ground after the Thirty years’ war and a great fire in 1709. After that, the city was rebuilt to a baroque military fortress against Prussia army. At the beginning of the 20th century the majority of the fortress was demolished. Character of the town is dominated by the large number of churches, burgher’s houses and other architecturally significant buildings, like a Holy Trinity Column, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Aim of this project was to state the most suitable methods of visualization of spatial-temporal change in historical build-up area from the tourist’s point of view, and to design and evaluate possibilities of spatial data acquisition. There are many methods of 2D and 3D visualization which are suitable for depiction of historical and contemporary situation. In the article four approaches are discussed comparison of historical and recent pictures or photos, overlaying historical maps over the orthophoto, enhanced visualization of historical map in large scale using the third dimension and photorealistic 3D models of the same area in different ages. All mentioned methods were geolocalizated using the Google Earth environment and multimedia features were added to enhance the impression of perception. Possibilities of visualization, which were outlined above, were realized on a case study of the Olomouc city. As a source of historical data were used rapport plans of the bastion fortress from the 17th century. The accuracy of historical maps was confirmed by cartometric methods with use of the MapAnalyst software. Registration of the spatial-temporal changes information has a great potential in urban planning or realization of reconstruction and particularly in the propagation of the region and increasing the knowledge of citizens about the history of Olomouc.

Despite the popularity of three-dimensional (3D) animation techniques, the style of 2D cel animation is seeing increased use in games and interactive applications. However, conventional 3D toon shading frequently requires manual editing to clean up undesired shadows or add stylistic details based on art direction. This editing is impractical for the frame-by-frame editing in cartoon feature film post-production. For interactive stylised media and games, post-production is unavailable due to real-time constraints, so art-direction must be preserved automatically. For these reasons, artists often resort to mesh and texture edits to mitigate undesired shadows typical of toon shaders. Such edits allow real-time rendering but are limited in resolution, animation quality and lack detail control for stylised shadow design. In our framework, artists build a “shading rig,” a collection of these edits, that allows artists to animate toon shading. Artists pre-animate the shading rig under changing lighting, to dynamically preserve artistic intent in a live application, without manual intervention. We show our method preserves continuous motion and shape interpolation, with fewer keyframes than previous work. Our shading shape interpolation is computationally cheaper than state-of-the-art image interpolation techniques. We achieve these improvements while preserving vector quality rendering, without resorting either to high texture resolution or mesh density.

With increasing research interest in the field of flexible electronics and wearable devices, intensive efforts have been paid to the development of novel inorganic-organic hybrid materials. As a newly developed two-dimensional (2D) material family, MXenes present many advantages compared with other 2D analogs, especially the variable surface terminal groups, thus the infinite possibility for the regulation of surface physicochemical properties. However, there is still less attention paid to the interfacial compatibility of the MXene-organic hybrids. To this end, this review will briefly summarize the recent progress on MXene-organic hybrids, offers a deeper understanding of the interaction and collaborative mechanism between the MXenes and organic component. After the discussion of the structure and surface characters of MXenes, strategies towards MXene-organic hybrids are introduced based on the interfacial interactions. Based on different application scenarios, the advantages of MXene-organic hybrids in constructing flexible devices are then discussed. The challenges and outlook on MXene-organic hybrids are also presented.

With increasing research interest in the field of flexible electronics and wearable devices, intensive efforts have been paid to the development of novel inorganic-organic hybrid materials. As a newly developed two-dimensional (2D) material family, MXenes present many advantages compared with other 2D analogs, especially the variable surface terminal groups, thus the infinite possibility for the regulation of surface physicochemical properties. However, there is still less attention paid to the interfacial compatibility of the MXene-organic hybrids. To this end, this review will briefly summarize the recent progress on MXene-organic hybrids, offers a deeper understanding of the interaction and collaborative mechanism between the MXenes and organic component. After the discussion of the structure and surface characters of MXenes, strategies towards MXene-organic hybrids are introduced based on the interfacial interactions. Based on different application scenarios, the advantages of MXene-organic hybrids in constructing flexible devices are then discussed. The challenges and outlook on MXene-organic hybrids are also presented.

Abstract: The high cases of disease spread during the rainy season must be overcome quickly and in various ways. A lot of socialization has been carried out, but it has not been spread evenly. Therefore, the design of this animation helps to spread information quickly and easily. Design is the activity of compiling the manufacture of a product from the initial idea to the final product. This animation design uses 3 stages, namely pre-production, production, and post-production. Pre-production is done by collecting and analyzing data, creating concepts, scripts, and storyboards, designing characters, properties, and environments. Meanwhile, the production is conducted through layout, animation, dubbing & sound effects, and compositing. Finally, post-production is conducted through editing, rendering, and publishing. The results of this animation design are animations that describe the symptoms of disease and disease prevention efforts during the rainy season. This animation has a duration of about 3 minutes in an mp4 format. This animation was published on the youtube channel. Keywords: monsoon disease, design, animation Abstrak: Tingginya kasus penyebaran penyakit saat musim hujan harus dapat diatasi dengan cepat dan berbagai cara. Sudah banyak sosialisasi yang dijalankan, tetapi belum tersebar secara merata. Oleh karena itu perancangan animasi ini membantu menyebarkan informasi dengan cepat dan mudah. Perancangan adalah kegiatan menyusun pembuatan suatu produk mulai dari ide awal hingga hasil akhir produk. Perancangan animasi ini menggunakan 3 tahap, yaitu pra produksi, produksi dan pasca produksi. Pra produksi dilakukan dengan pengumpulan dan analisis data, pembuatan konsep, script dan storyboard, desain karakter, properti dan environment. Sedangkan produksi yaitu layout, animating, dubbing & sound effect, dan compositing. Terakhir yaitu pasca produksi, tahap pasca produksi yaitu editing, rendering dan publishing. Hasil dari perancangan animasi ini yaitu animasi yang menggambarkan gejala penyakit dan upaya pencegahan penyakit saat musim hujan. Animasi ini memiliki durasi sekitar 3 menit dalam sebuah format mp4. Animasi ini dipublikasikan melalui kanal youtube. Kata kunci: penyakit musim hujan, perancangan, animasi

Abstract This research presented a novel method using 3D simulation methods to design customized garments for physically disabled people with scoliosis (PDPS). The proposed method is based on the virtual human model created from 3D scanning, permitting to simulate the consumer’s morphological shape with atypical physical deformations. Next, customized 2D and 3D virtual garment prototyping tools will be used to create products through interactions. The proposed 3D garment design method is based on the concept of knowledge-based design, using the design knowledge and process already applied to normal body shapes successfully. The characters of the PDPS and the relationship between human body and garment are considered in the prototyping process. As a visualized collaborative design process, the communication between designer and consumer is ensured, permitting to adapt the finished product to disabled people afflicted with severe scoliosis.

Hot forging die bear periodic thermal load and mechanical load during service, and bad work environment makes the service life of dies generally short. Hot forging die damages mainly appear in temperature fluctuation zone, and gradient composite materials cladding process can be used to do surface treatment on homogeneous hot forging die. This process can greatly decrease the peak value of temperature and stress and prolong the service life of hot forging die. FE model of hot forging process under mechanical press was build based on Deform-2D, temperature and stress field of homogeneous hot forging die and FGM surface cladding hot forging die under mechanical press were compared. Then the characters of thermomechanical load based on FGM surface cladding hot forging die were described, which provided foundation for design and manufacture of FGM hot forging die.

The creation of believable behaviors for Non-Player Characters (NPCs) is key to improve the players’ experience while playing a game. To achieve this objective, we need to design NPCs that appear to be controlled by a human player. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical reinforcement learning framework for believable bots (HRLB⌃2). This novel approach has been designed so it can overcome two main challenges currently faced in the creation of human-like NPCs. The first difficulty is exploring domains with high-dimensional state–action spaces, while satisfying constraints imposed by traits that characterize human-like behavior. The second problem is generating behavior diversity, by also adapting to the opponent’s playing style. We evaluated the effectiveness of our framework in the domain of the 2D fighting game named Street Fighter IV. The results of our tests demonstrate that our bot behaves in a human-like manner.

Pipe height in cylindrical neutron moderator is an important factor to flow pattern, temperature distribution and even the neutron characters. In this paper, the steady-state thermal analysis of cold neutron moderator is carrying out with different heights, conjugated heat transfer method and one-way coupled with a neutron transfer software. The different pipe heights, which is the jet-to-surface distances (H/D = 0.5~6), were compared using a 2D moderator model. The results show that vortex size and velocity gradient from container wall to vortex center vary with H/D, the center of recirculation zone nearly remain constant, and heat transfer effect is weakened on the target bottom surface. With H/D increasing, the velocity at bottom target surface is progressively decreased, and cooling effect is poor, leading to the rise in temperature. The optimal range cooling performance is (H/D) = 0.5~1 at Re = 1.7 × 105, and the enhancement of beam power further strengthens the thermal deposition difference between container and liquid hydrogen. The results can be applied to moderator component design and optimization in the future spallation neutron source.

The development of hardware increasing rapidly has made game developers take advantage of a variety of new resources that can improve their games. Epic games is a mature game developer who managed to make thousands game and delivered to the hands of gamers . A game engine called Unreal Engine is a big secret behind the success of Epic Games . The game engine is free if you just want to learn or just want to create a personal project and the game is not to be in comercial purposes . It is unfortunate that many students don’t even know of the existence of unreal engine , most of them make use of simpler game engine like game maker , rpg maker , fps creator , and so on. Though unreal engine is superior in any aspect other than the game engine , be it graphics , tools , mechanisms of development , flexible in export-import assets , etc . Based on this information , the author had the idea to make a first person shooter game using the unreal engine as the engine game. Before doing the develpment process, the next step is studying the literature of unreal engine and other supporting software such as 3d studio max to create 3D assets , adobe flash to create the menus , adobe photoshop to create a 2D texture and speedtree assets to create the foliage elements . The next thing is to go into the design phase of scenarios , maps, missions , characters and items that will be placed in the game. The next stage is the development and testing phase to test the game that has finished .The results of the design of this game is the realization of a first person shooter game application using unreal engine with features that can support the player 's interest in playing the game . It’s also introducing unreal engine to students who are interested in designing games.

Abstract The development of information technology today is often associated with the importance of technology science in various aspects of life. One of them is in the field of education. The importance of education has certainly become something that must be taken in order to create qualified and knowledgeable human resources. Indragiri Islamic University was established to provide opportunities for people who wish to continue their education after graduating from high school. Now the task of UNISI is to invite the public to join this University, various activities are carried out starting with the installation of Pamphlets and Baleho, as well as PMB and Public Relations activities, in order to convince the community how important education is, and in Indragiri Hilir now there is a university that can be used a place for colleging. Therefore this study aims to design a multimedia system for promotional activities. To support these activities by creating a new system by making a promotional advertisement based on 2-dimensional animation with motion graphics that can make the public more familiar with UNISI in the form of Audio Visual and understand what are the advantages as well as the quality and quantity of the UNISI. The methods used are making animated characters that are manually designed and scanned to be made into digital images or called 2D hybrid animation, as well as making interesting motion graphics. So that people can digest and understand what are the faculties and departments in Unisi and know that this university has been established. -Acknowledge and be accredited, so that there will be no more doubts and the community will have the opportunity to continue their higher education education. Abstrak Semakin berkembangnya teknologi informasi sekarang ini sering dikaitkan dengan pentingnya ilmu teknologi didalam berbagai aspek kehidupan. Salah satunya dibidang pendidikan. Pentingnya pendidikan tentu sudah menjadi sesuatu yang harus ditempuh agar terciptanya SDM yang berkualitas dan berilmu pengetahuan. Universitas Islam Indragiri didirikan untuk memberikan kesempatan masyarakat yang ingin melanjutkan pendidikan setelah lulus dari sekolah menengah atas. Sekarang tugas dari UNISI adalah mengajak masyarakat untuk bergabung ke-Universitas ini, berbagai kegiatan dilakukan dimulai dengan pemasangan Pamflet dan Baleho, serta kegiatan PMB serta HUMAS, agar dapat meyakinkan Masyarakat betapa pentingnya pendidikan, serta di-Indragiri Hilir sekarang ada sebuah Universitas yang dapat dijadikan tempat untuk melanjutkan keperguruan tinggi. Oleh karena itu penelitian ini bertujuan untuk merancang sistem multimedia untuk kegiatan promosi. Untuk mendukung kegiatan tersebut dengan membuat sistem yang baru dengan membuat sebuah iklan promosi berbasis animasi 2 dimensi dengan motion grapich yang dapat membuat masyarakat lebih mengenal UNISI dalam bentuk Audio Visual dan memahami apa saja keunggulan serta kualitas dan kuantitas dari UNISI tersebut. Adapun Methode yang digunakan adalah pembuatan Karakter animasi yang dirancang secara manual dan di-scan untuk dijadikan gambar digital atau disebut 2D hybrid Animation, serta pembuatan motion grapich yang menarik. Sehingga masyarakat dapat mencerna dan memahami Apa saja Fakultas dan Jurusan yang ada di-Unisi serta mengetahui bahwa Universitas ini sudah di-Akui dan Terakreditas, agar tidak adalagi keraguan dan masyarakat dapat kesempatan untuk melanjutkan Pendidikan ke perguruan Tinggi.

Research in art creation is an effort to preserve traditional arts, especially wayang kulit in the form of character development of the Hanoman character in the Ramayana story through animated 2D media which aims to introduce traditional skills among the younger generation in Surakarta. This research method of art creation uses a qualitative descriptive approach through data sources, including Ramayana puppet shows, literature studies, and competent speakers in the field of puppetry and animation. The stages of analysis from various sources of results from information from both literature reviews and interviews were carried out using an interactive model, where each component of the research includes the stages of data collection, data reduction, presentation and conclusion drawing. Test the validity of the data using data triangulation techniques, namely triangulation of data sources and triangulation of theories. The locations of designing 2D animated Hanoman characters go through several processes, namely: the Envisioning Phase, the Planning Phase, the Design/Design Stage, the Stabilizing Phase, and the Deploying Phase. The Hanoman character in the Ramayana wayang story collaborates with 2D animation technology as an alternative to introducing wayang characters and educational media that are suitable for the younger generation segmentation.

Indonesian Animation can attract and hold the attention of young viewers, but only if undertaken in a specific manner. For example the short duration of the movie ensures viewers remain engaged and absorb the messaging. This movie animation was designed to attract young viewers with aspirations to cultivate freshwater lobster. The development of this short ovie required three stages: pre-production; production; and post-production. The movie followed the characteristics of lobster and their cultivation via the experiences of the central character, Lobi, who successfully cultivates the lobster. Keywords: plan, animation, cultivation, freshwater lobster

Game controllers have been planned and improved throughout the years to be as easy to understand as could reasonably be expected. A game controller is a gadget utilized with games or theatre setups to give contribution to a computer game, commonly to control an item or character in the game. Information gadgets that have been named game controllers incorporate consoles, mice, gamepads, joysticks, and so on. A few controllers are intended to be purposely best for one sort of game, for example, guiding wheels for driving games, move cushions for moving games, and light firearms for firing games. The aim here is to create a virtual environment, where the user is appealed by various gesture controls in a gaming application. A Gesture is an action that has to be seen or felt by someone else (here a PC) and has to convey some piece of information. Now obviously, to create a virtual gaming environment, we need to create a real-time gaming application first. We’ll be designing our 2D and 3D gaming applications through Unity 3D video game engine. The data used in this project is primarily from the Ego Hands dataset. After an input has been taken, and the consequent action has been performed, we’ll use this activity for future development of the model by using Tensor-Flow. The input will be taken through the webcam of the PC which will be accessed and combined to the gaming application and hands dataset by WebGL. WebGL is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins.

<p><em>Game is one of the entertainment that is loved by a wide variety of backgrounds ranging from children to adults. According to App Annie one type of game that is much in demand to play is a adventure game genre. Selected as entertainment because the game is able to reduce the fatigue of someone from the daily routine and spend a leisure time. The amount of smartphones user, especially android-based smartphones in daily activities cause android-based game are currently popular in the community. From these situation, author tries to make an adventure game genre based on Android. This game can be used as an option to eliminate fatigue or just fill emptiness in spare time by playing games, and also to encourage the establishment of local game developers, which is still smal compared with the foreign game developers. Design of game is made from a storyboard and then designed the depiction of the character, background and obstacles using Adobe Illustrator CS 6. The completed game depictions of supporting element then applied to Unity Game Engine and built using C# programming language. The result of this research have produced a game called “The Adventure of Hanuman” in 2D display Android-based. This game is played by one person and has three levels of obstacle. This game is adventure game genre. </em></p><p><em>Keywords : Android, Game 2D, Adventure, Unity</em></p>

The Animation Study Program is part of the Art and Design degree from the Faculty of Letters State University of Malan. It is designed to offer guidance to professional beginners in the animation world and applied media, allowing graduates to apply for roles such as a 2D/3D Animator,Character Designer, beginner Developer in Animation Industry, Game Designer/Multimedia, beginner Developer of Game Industry, Game Asset Designer. The graduates from Animation program study gain particular expertise in 3D animation games and using Indonesian local culture. The course also emphasizes education-based animation games in global context and insteal entrepreneurship for the graduates. The goal of this study is to analyze the curriculum and graduate achievement in the animation game study program. This research used a qualitative study case with a descriptive approach. Documentation and interviews were used to collect data. The analysis of data used a descriptive approach. Results of the study show that the curriculum used in Animation Game program is designed based on the graduates in diploma D1, D2, D3, and D4. They are in D1 (Asset Game Operator), D2 (Young Asset Game Designer), D3 (Young Game Designer), and D4 (Senior Game Designer). Meanwhile, the animation field is divided into D1 (Asset Animation Operator), D2 (2D/3D Young Animator), D3 (2D/3D Senior Animator), and D4 (2D/3D Lead Animator). Keywords: Curriculum, Graduates Outcome, Animation Game

This paper introduces a new design for individually controlled magnetic artificial cilia for use in fluid devices and specifically intended to improve the mixing in DNA microarray experiments. The design has been implemented using a low-cost prototype that can be fabricated using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and off-the-shelf parts and achieves large cilium deflections (59% of the cilium length). The device's performance is measured via a series of mixing experiments using different actuation patterns inspired by the blinking vortex theory. The experimental results, quantified using the relative standard deviation of the color when mixing two colored inks, show that exploiting the individual control leads to faster mixing (38% reduction in mixing time) than when operating the device in a simultaneous-actuation mode with the same average cilium beat frequency. Furthermore, the experimental results show an optimal beating pattern that minimizes the mixing time. The existence and character of this optimum is predicted by simulations using a blinking-vortex approach for 2D ideal flow, suggesting that the blinking-vortex model can be used to predict the effect of parameter variation on the experimental system.

Purpose This paper aims to theoretically and numerically investigate the steady two-dimensional (2D) Hiemenz flow with heat transfer of Reiner-Rivlin fluid over a linearly stretching/shrinking sheet. Design/methodology/approach The Navier–Stokes equations are transformed into self-similar equations using appropriate similarity transformations and then solved numerically by using shooting technique. A simple but effective mathematical analysis has been used to prove the existence of a solution for stretching case (λ> 0). Moreover, an attempt has been laid to carry the asymptotic solution behavior for large stretching. The obtained asymptotic solutions are compared with direct numerical solutions, and the comparison is quite remarkable. Findings It is observed that the self-similar equations exhibit dual solutions within the range [λc, −1] of shrinking parameter λ, where λc is the turning point from where the dual solutions bifurcate. Unique solution is found for all stretching case (λ > 0). It is noticed that the effects of cross-viscous parameter L and shrinking parameter λ on velocity and thermal fields show opposite character in the dual solution branches. Thus, a linear temporal stability analysis is performed to determine the basic feasible solution. The stability analysis is based on the sign of the smallest eigenvalue, where positive or negative sign leading to a stable or unstable solution. The stability analysis reveals that the first solution is stable that describes the main flow. Increase in cross-viscous parameter L resulting in a significant increment in skin friction coefficient, local Nusselt number and dual solutions domain. Originality/value This work’s originality is to examine the combined effects of cross-viscous parameter and stretching/shrinking parameter on skin friction coefficient, local Nusselt number, velocity and temperature profiles of Hiemenz flow over a stretching/shrinking sheet. Although many studies on viscous fluid and nanofluid have been investigated in this field, there are still limited discoveries on non-Newtonian fluids. The obtained results can be used as a benchmark for future studies of higher-grade non-Newtonian flows with several physical aspects. All the generated results are claimed to be novel and have not been published elsewhere.

AbstractThe visual representation of human-like entities in virtual worlds is becoming a very important aspect as virtual reality becomes more and more “social”. The visual representation of a character’s resemblance to a real person and the emotional response to it, as well as the expectations raised, have been a topic of discussion for several decades and have been debated by scientists from different disciplines. But as with any new technology, the findings may need to be reevaluated and adapted to new modalities. In this context, we make two contributions which may have implications for how avatars should be represented in social virtual reality applications. First, we determine how default and customized characters of current social virtual reality platforms appear in terms of human likeness, eeriness, and likability, and whether there is a clear resemblance to a given person. It can be concluded that the investigated platforms vary strongly in their representation of avatars. Common to all is that a clear resemblance does not exist. Second, we show that the uncanny valley effect is also present in head-mounted displays, but—compared to 2D monitors—even more pronounced.

Fig. 1: "Xiao Ming (little Ming) and xiao meng (little sprout/cutie)", satirical take on a popular Chinese textbook character. Shared online Introduction: Cuteness, Online Vernaculars, and Digital FolkloreThis short essay presents some preliminary materials for a discussion of the social circulation of contemporary Chinese vernacular terms among digital media users. In particular, I present the word meng (萌, literally "sprout", recently adopted as a slang term for "cute") as a case in point for a contextual analysis of elements of digital folklore in their transcultural flows, local appropriations, and social practices of signification. One among many other neologisms that enter Mandarin Chinese from seemingly nowhere and gain a widespread popularity in everyday online and offline linguistic practices, meng belongs to a specific genealogy of Japanese animation fansubbing communities, and owes its rapid popularisation to its adaptation to local contexts in different syntactic forms. The resulting inclusion of meng in the changing repertoire of wangluo liuxing ciyu ("words popular on the Internet")—the online vernacular common among Chinese Internet users which is often the target of semantic or structural analyses—is in fact just the last step of processes of networked production and social signification happening across digital media and online platforms.As an anthropologist of media use, I aim to advance the thesis that, in the context of widespread access to digital media, vernacular terms popularised across online platforms and making their way into everyday linguistic interactions are not necessarily the epiphenomena of subcultural formations, nor can they be simply seen as imported aesthetics, or understood through semantic analyses. Rather, “words popular on the Internet” must be understood as part of a local digital folklore, the open repertoire of vernacular content resulting from the daily interaction of users and digital technologies (Lialina & Espenschied 9) in a complex and situated media ecology (Fuller). I argue that the difference between these two approaches is the same passing between a classical structural understanding of signification proposed by Lévi-Strauss and the counter-Copernican revolution proposed by Latour’s quasi-objects proliferating in collectives of actors. Are incredibly pervasive terms like meng actually devoid of meaning, floating signifiers enabling the very possibility of signification? Or are they rather more useful when understood as both signifiers and signifieds, quasi-objects tracing networks and leading to collectives of other hybrids and practices?The materials and observations presented in this essay are part of the data collected for my PhD research on Chinese digital folklore, a study grounded on both ethnographic and archaeological methods. The ethnographic part of my project consists of in-depth interviews, small talk and participant observation of users on several Chinese online platforms such as AcFun, Baidu Tieba, Douban, Sina Weibo and WeChat (Hine). The archaeological part, on the other hand, focuses on the sampling of user-generated content from individual feeds and histories of these online platforms, an approach closer to the user-focused Internet archaeology of Nicholson than to the media archaeology of Parikka. My choice of discussing the term meng as an example is motivated by its pervasiveness in everyday interactions in China, and is supported by my informants identifying it as one of the most popular vernacular terms originating in online interaction. Moreover, as a rather new term jostling its way through the crowded semantic spectrum of cuteness, meng is a good example of the minor aesthetic concepts identified by Ngai as pivotal for judgments of taste in contemporary consumer societies (812). If, as in the words of one of my informants, meng "just means 'cute'," why did it end up on Coca-Cola bottle labels which were then featured in humorous self-portraits with perplexed cats? Fig. 2: "Meng zhu" (Cute leader, play on word on homophone “alliance leader”) special edition Coca-Cola bottle with cat, uploaded on Douban image gallery. Screenshot by the author Cuteness after JapanContemporary Japan is often portrayed as the land of cuteness. Academic explanations of the Japanese fascination with the cute, neotenic and miniaturised abound, tackling the topic from the origins of cute aesthetics in Japanese folkloric characters (Occhi) and their reappearance in commercial phenomena such as Pokémon (Allison), to the role of cuteness as gender performance and normativity (Burdelski & Mitsuhashi) and the "spectacle of kawaii" (Yano 681) as a trans-national strategy of cultural soft power (683). Although the export and localisation of Japanese cultural products across and beyond Asia has been widely documented (Iwabuchi), the discussion has often remained at the level of specific products (comics, TV series, games). Less frequently explored are the repertoires of recontextualised samples, snippets and terms that local audiences piece together after the localisation and consumption of these transnational cultural products. In light of this, is it the case that "the very aesthetic and sensibility that seems to dwell in the playful, the girlish, the infantilized, and the inevitably sexualized" are inevitably adopted after the "widespread distribution and consumption of Japanese cute goods and aesthetics to other parts of the industrial world" (Yano 683)? Or is it rather the case that language precedes aesthetics, and that terms end up reconfigured according to the local discursive contexts in ongoing dialogic and situated negotiations? In other words, what happens when the Japanese word moe (萌え), a slang term "originally referring to the fictional desire for characters of comics, anime, and games or for pop idols” (Azuma 48) is read in its Mandarin Chinese pronunciation meng by amateur translators of anime and manga, picked up by audiences of video streaming websites, and popularised on discussion boards and other online platforms? On a broader level, this is a question of how the vocabularies of specialised fan cultures mutate when they move across language barriers on the vectors of digital media and amateur translations. While in Japanese otaku culture moe indicates a very specific, physically arousing form of aesthetic appreciation that is proper to a devote fan (Azuma 57), the appropriation of the (originally Chinese) logograph by the audiences of dongman (animation and comics) products in Mainland China results in the general propagation of meng as a way of saying 'cute' slightly more fashionable and hip than the regular Mandarin word ke'ai. Does this impact on the semantics or the aesthetics of cuteness in China? These questions have not been ignored by researchers; Chinese academics in particular, who have a first-hand experience of the unpredictable moods of vernacular terms circulating from digital media user cultures to everyday life interactions, appear concerned with finding linguistic explanations or establishing predictors for these rogue terms that seem to ignore lexical rules and traditional etymologies. Liu, for example, tries to explain the popularity of this particular term through Dawkins' neo-Darwinian theorisation of memes as units of cultural transmission, identifying in meng the evolutionary advantages of shortness and memorisability. As simplistic treatments of language, this sort of explanations does not account for the persistence of various other ways of describing general and specific kinds of cuteness in Mandarin Chinese, such as ke'ai, dia or sajiao, as described by Zhang & Kramarae (767). On the other hand, most of the Chinese language research about meng at least acknowledges how the word appears under the sign of a specific media ecology: Japanese comics and animation (dongman) translated and shared online by fan communities, Japanese videogames and movies widely consumed by Chinese young audiences, and the popularisation of Internet access and media literacy across China. It is in this context that this and other neologisms "continuously end up in the latest years' charts of most popular words" (Bai 28, translation by the author), as vernacular Mandarin integrates words from digital media user cultures and online platforms. Similar comparative analyses also recognise that "words move faster than culture" (Huang 15, translation by the author), and that it is now young Chinese digital media users who negotiate their understanding of meng, regardless of the implications of the Japanese moe culture and its aesthetic canons (16). According to Huang, this process indicates on the one hand the openness and curiosity of Chinese youth for Japanese culture, and on the other "the 'borrowist' tendency of the language of Internet culture" (18). It is precisely the speed and the carefree ‘borrowist’ attitude with which these terms are adopted, negotiated and transformed across online platforms which makes it questionable to inscribe them in the classic relationship of generational resistance such as the one that Moore proposes in his treatment of ku, the Chinese word for 'cool' described as the "verbal icon of a youth rebellion that promises to transform some of the older generation's most enduring cultural values" (357). As argued in the following section, meng is definitely not the evolutionary winner in a neo-Darwinian lexical competition between Chinese words, nor occupies a clear role in the semantics of cuteness, nor is it simply deployed as an iconic and rebellious signifier against the cultural values of a previous generation. Rather, after reaching Chinese digital media audiences along the "global wink of pink globalization" (Yano 684) of Japanese animation, comics, movies and videogames, this specific subcultural term diffracts along the vectors of the local media ecology. Specialised communities of translators, larger audiences of Japanese animation streaming websites, larger populations of digital media users and ultimately the public at large all negotiate meng’s meaning and usage in their everyday interactions, while the term quickly becomes just another "word popular on the Internet” listed in end-of-the-year charts, ready to be appropriated by marketing as a local wink to Chinese youth culture. Fig. 3: Baidu image search for 萌 (meng), as of 28 February 2014: the term ‘cute’ elicits neotenic puppies, babies, young girls, teen models, and eroticised Japanese comic characters. Screenshot by the author Everything Meng: Localising and Appropriating CutenessIn the few years since it entered the Chinese vernacular, first as a specialised term adopted by dongman fans and then as a general exclamation for "cute!", meng has been repurposed and adapted to local usages in many different ways, starting from its syntactic function: while in Japanese moe is usually a verb (the action of arousing feelings of passion in the cultivated fan), meng is more frequently used in Chinese as an adjective (cute) and has been quickly compounded in new expressions such as maimeng (literally "to sell cuteness", to act cute), mengwu (cute thing), mengdian (cute selling point), widening the possibilities for its actual usage beyond the specific aesthetic appreciation of female pre-teen anime characters that the word originally refers to. This generalisation of a culturally specific term to the general domain of aesthetic judgments follows local linguistic patterns: for example maimeng (to act cute) is clearly modelled on pre-existing expressions like zhuang ke'ai (acting cute) or sajiao (acting like a spoiled child) which, as Zhang & Kramarae (762) show, are common Mandarin Chinese terms to describe infantilised gender performativity. This connection between being meng and setting up a performance is confirmed by the commentative practices and negotiations around the cuteness of things: as one of my informants quipped regarding a recently popular Internet celebrity: "Some people think that he is meng. But I don't think he's meng, I think he's just posing." Hence, while Japanese moe characters belong to a specific aesthetic canon in the realm of 2D animation, the cuteness that meng indicates in Chinese refers to a much broader scope of content and interactions, in which the semantic distinctions from other descriptors of cuteness are quite blurred, and negotiated in individual use. As another informant put it, commenting on the new WeChat avatar of one of her contacts: "so meng! This is not just ke'ai, this is more ke'ai than ke'ai, it's meng!" Other informants explained meng variably as a more or less performed and faked cuteness, as regular non-specified cuteness, as a higher degree or as a different form of it, evidencing how the term is deployed in both online and offline everyday life interactions according to imitation, personal invention, context and situation, dialogic negotiations, shared literacies, and involvements in specific communities. Moreover, besides using it without the sexual overtones of its Japanese counterpart, my research participants were generally not aware of the process of cross-linguistic borrowing and specialised aesthetic meaning of meng—for most of them, it just meant 'cute', although it did so in very personal ways. These observations do not exclude, however, that meng maintains its linkages to Japanese cultural products and otaku fandom: on the same online platforms where meng was originally borrowed from the lines of fansubbed Japanese anime series, its definition continues to be discussed and compared to its original meaning. The extremely detailed entries on Mengniang Baike (MoeGirl Wiki, http://zh.moegirl.org) testify a devoted effort in collecting and rationalising the Japanese moe aesthetics for an audience of specialised Chinese zhainan (literally 'shut-in guy", the Chinese word for otaku), while Weimeng (Micro-Moe, http://www.weimoe.com) provides a microblogging platform specifically dedicated to sharing dongman content and discuss all things meng. The recent popularity of the word is not lost on the users of these more specialised online platforms, who often voice their discontent with the casual and naive appropriations of uncultured outsiders. A simple search query of the discussion board archives of AcFun, a popular zhainan culture video streaming website, reveals the taste politics at play around these vernacular terms. Here are some complaints, voiced directly by anonymous users of the board, regarding meng: "Now I really detest this meng word, day and night everywhere is meng meng meng and maimeng but do you really understand what do these words mean?" "Don't tell me, alternative people think that watching anime is fashionable; they watch it, learn some new word and use it everywhere. Last time I was playing videogames I heard a girl saying Girl: 'Do you know what does meng mean?' Guy: 'I don't know' Girl: 'You don't even know this! Meng means beautiful, lovely' Fuck your mom's cunt hearing this I wanted to punch through the screen" "Anyway these 'popular words' are all leftovers from our playing around, then a bunch of boons start using them and feel pleased of 'having caught up with fashion', hehe" Fig. 4: "Don't tell me, alternative people think that watching anime is fashionable…", anonymous post commenting on the use of meng on the AcFun message board. Screenshot by the authorConclusion: Do Signifiers Float in Media Ecologies? The choice of examining the networks traced by a slang term signifying cuteness was determined by the conviction that the "minor aesthetics" described by Ngai (812) play an important role in the social construction of taste and judgment in contemporary consumer societies. This is especially significant when discussing digital folklore as the content produced by the everyday interactions of users and digital media: cuteness and the negotiations around its deployment are in fact important features of the repertoires of user-generated content shared and consumed on online platforms. In the case of this essay, the strange collective included green sprouts, textbook illustrations, cats, Japanese anime characters, selfies, and Coke bottle label designs. Summing up the overview of the word meng presented above, and attempting a critical response to Ngai's linkage of the minor aesthetics of cuteness to national contexts which make them "ideologically meaningful" (819), I suggest the recuperation of Lévi-Strauss’ concept of floating signifier as developed in his analysis of Melanesians’ fuzzy notion of mana. This theoretical choice comes almost naturally when dealing with pervasive terms: as Holbraad explains, “part of the original attraction of mana-terms to anthropologists was their peculiarly double universality – their semantic breadth (‘mana is everywhere’, said the native) coupled with their geographical diffusion (‘mana-terms are everywhere’, replied the anthropologist)” (189). Meng seems to be everywhere in China as both a term (in everyday, online and offline interactions) and as cuteness (in popular culture and media), thus making it an apparently perfect candidate for the role of floating signifier. Lévi-Strauss deployed Mauss’ concept as a reinforcement of his structuralist conception of meaning against a surfeit of signifiers (Holbraad 196-197), "a symbol in its pure state, therefore liable to take on any symbolic content whatever [...] a zero symbolic value […] a sign marking the necessity of a supplementary symbolic content over and above that which the signified already contains" (Lévi-Strauss 63-64). Moore’s framing of the Chinese ku and the American cool as “basic slang terms” (360) follows the same structuralist logic: extremely pervasive terms lose in meaning and specificity what they gain in supplementary symbolic content (in his case, generational distinction). Yet, as shown through the examples presented in the essay, meng does in no case reach a zero symbolic value—rather, it is “signifier and signified (and more)” (Holbraad 197), meaning different kinds of cuteness and aesthetic judgement across more or less specialised usages, situated contexts, individual understandings and dialogic negotiations. This oversimplified rebuttal to Lévi-Strauss' concept is my attempt to counter several arguments that I believe to be grounded in the structuralist theorisation of series of signifiers and signified: the linkage between aesthetic categories and national contexts (Ngai); the correlation between language and cultural practices or aesthetics (Yano); the semantic analyses of slang terms (Moore, Bai); the memetic explanations of digital folklore (Liu). As briefly illustrated, meng’s popularity does not necessarily convey a specific Japanese aesthetic culture, nor does its adaptation mirror a peculiarly Chinese one; the term does not necessarily define a different form of cuteness, nor does it confront generational values. It could be more useful to conceptualise meng, and other elements of digital folklore, as what Latour calls quasi-objects, strange hybrids existing in different versions and variations across different domains. Understood in this way, meng traces a network leading to: the specialised knowledge of fansubbing communities, the large audiences of video streaming websites, the echo chambers of social networking platforms and participatory media, and the ebbs and flows of popular culture consumption. To conclude, I agree with Yano that "it remains useful for Asia analysts to observe these ebbs and flows as they intersect with political frameworks, economic trends, and cultural values" (687-88). Meng, as scores of other Chinese slang terms that crowd the yearly charts of ‘words popular on the Internet’ might not be here to stay. But digital folklore is, as long as there will be users interacting and negotiating the minor aesthetics of their everyday life on online platforms. The general theoretical aim of this brief discussion of one vernacular term is evidencing how the very idea of a "Internet culture", when understood through the concepts of media ecology, online vernaculars and quasi-objects becomes hard to grasp through simple surveying, encyclopaedic compilations, statistical analyses or linguistic mapping. Even in a brief contextualisation of one simple slang term, what is revealed is in fact a lively bundle of practices: the cross-linguistic borrowing of a specialised aesthetic, its definition on crowdsourced wikis and anonymous discussion boards, the dialogic negotiations regarding its actual usage in situated contexts of everyday life, and the sectorial dynamics of distinction and taste. Yet, meng just means 'cute'.ReferencesAllison, Anne. “Portable Monsters and Commodity Cuteness: Pokémon as Japan’s New Global Power.” Postcolonial Studies 6.3 (2003): 381–95. Azuma, Hiroki. Otaku: Japan's Database Animals. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2009. Bai, Lin. “Qianxi Wangluo Liuxingyu - Meng [A Brief Analysis of a Popular Internet Term - Meng].” Wuyi Xueyuan Xuebao 31.3 (2012): 28–30. Burdelski, Matthew, and Koji Mitsuhashi. “‘She Thinks You’re Kawaii’: Socializing Affect, Gender, and Relationships in a Japanese Preschool.” Language in Society 39.1 (2010): 65–93. 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