Remember when animation was hand-drawn? Those were the days of classic films like Jungle Book, Peter Pan, and Aladdin – to name but a few. But gone are the days of hand-animation; of brilliantly conceived backgrounds and facial gestures. With the advent of advanced graphical rendering software, animation is becoming more and more lifelike – but at what cost? If art history has taught us anything, it is that the most beautiful art isn’t art that mimics reality, it’s art the suggests it or improves on it. Computer animation, for all its awesome realism, fails to capture any of the spirit of what makes art great. And then there’s the loss of the animator. When animations had to be hand-drawn, there was actually a culture of lifelong artists – craftsmen, almost – who devoted themselves to pictorial depiction of narrative Now, there’s just a lot of computer experts with some visual arts training clicking away at their 3D interfaces to produce the next tweenie blockbuster before movies go out of style altogether.

Emerging from the rubble of hand animation are just two major animation companies – Pixar and Dreamworks. While their accomplishments in producing entertaining narrative are commendable, who is to say that any of the films were enhanced by their use of high-tech animating software and celebrity voices? What’s obvious is that Hollywood figured out along the way that they could save a lot of money by drawing everything digitally and could sell more tickets by hiring celebrities to do cartoon voices; not that they were looking to improve cinematic status quo, as the public has been suckered into believing.

Yet there are still some smaller animation companies that blend the realities and capabilities of new technology with the sense of style that accompanied the now-romanticized pencil and paper. Smaller animation companies will produce animation for websites, advertisements, corporate videos, or just about any other purpose that could use a more ‘animated’ twist. These small companies have hired many of the former animators to make true animation accessible to those who appreciate its integrity; and they’re able to produce some stunning pictures for a lot less than you’d think.

So next time you’re considering employing media for your company, consider doing a good for the cause of real art while you do good for your company’s top line: employ an animation company to help you convey your message to customers in a manner they’re sure to appreciate.

Many people interested in pursuing a martial art like karate or jiu jitsu are discouraged by what seems to be an overwhelming quantity of budget karate academies popping up around the Dallas area. It seems that all you need to open up martial arts schools in Dallas, Texas is a black belt and enough cash to get you through a quick do-it-yourself dojo renovation an a couple months of low revenue. That is to say, it seems that owing to the surge in popularity of martial arts – attributable in no small way to the increased popularity of UFC and mixed martial arts or MMA – a lot of rather unqualified people have gotten into the business of teaching karate – a practice that hurts students as much as it hurts the reputations of the martial arts these teachers claim to teach.

Finding a reputable karate academy in the Dallas area is daunting enough to make you want to avoid pursuing your black-belt dreams altogether. You shouldn’t be discouraged; even though there are dozens of mediocre teachers out there who want nothing more than your money, there are others still that want to see you improve – improve your self-defense skills, improve your fitness, improve your alacrity, improve your self-confidence… in short, improve your life.

Finding a good martial arts school is a lot like finding a good professor. It is important that they be extremely comfortable with the material and know it extremely well; but it is equally important that they are able to convey that knowledge to you in a way that you understand, and that they are able to motivate you not only to attend your classes several times per week, but also that they can motivate you when you’re in class to succeed.

Having detailed the right aspects of a good martial arts instructor, it seems obvious then that the best martial arts school is one that employs teachers with the most experience and has a reputation as one of the better schools. In a way, a good martial arts academy perpetuates its own success by attracting the best talent – teachers who want to work for the academy with the best teachers, much as newly doctored students all want to work at Harvard. So when looking for a place to learn martial arts, remember the three most important things about a martial arts school: experience, experience, experience!