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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 4:19 am
by Touched
I have to disagree. Adherents.com has very detailed information about the religious practises of Japan (and everywhere else), and I don't see any support for this .01% figure. Relevant text on Buddhism:
Estimates of the percentage of Japanese who are Buddhist vary widely. Perhaps 85% of the population will cite Buddhism is asked what their preferred religion is, but 75% of the population claim to be nonreligious -- to practice and believe in no religion. Frequently seen high figures of 85% or 90% of Japanese being Buddhist come primarily from birth records, following a longstanding practice of family lines being officially associated with a local Buddhist temple. Japan has a large and thriving Buddhist community, but surveys indicate it to be closer to 20% of the population.
Relevant text on Shintoism:
Shinto is one of the "classic" eleven or twelve "major world religions." But adherent counts for this religion are problematic and often misunderstood. [...] The number of adherents of Shinto are often reported as being around 100 million, or around 75 to 90% of the Japanese population. These figures come from the Shukyo Nenkan (Religions Yearbook), put out by the Ministry of Education & Bureau of Statistics, and they obtain their figures by asking religious bodies for statistics. The Shinto religious bodies have on record most Japanese citizens because of laws established in the 17th Century which required registration with the Shinto shrines. Essentially everybody within local "shrine districts" were counted as adherents. This is comparable to certain Catholic and Protestant nations in Europe where the majority of people have been Christianed or otherwise counted as a member of the state church, but where large proportions of the population are non-practicing.
The difference is that in those European countries, those people are at least nominally adherents of the religion that claims them. "Nominally" here means if asked their religion, they can recall the name of the church they were baptized into as an infant, and don't mind citing that as their religious preference. In Japan, the majority of adherents of Shinto, as claimed by the Shinto organizations, don't even consider themselves adherents, even nominally. In polls, only about 3.3% of the Japanese people give Shinto as their religion. A high world-wide figure for people who consider themselves primarily practitioners of Shinto would be about 4 million. Certainly most Japanese people participate in holidays which have Shinto roots, but in this list we are trying to track self-identification, not general vestigial influence.
"Atheist" doesn't automatically preclude general belief in the supernatural (ghosts, spirits, charms, etc.) -- only in gods. So yes, there's plenty of superstition, but I don't count that as "religion". Sorry to divert the thread, though... I just had the figures handy.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 4:51 am
by artfx
It sounds like we're saying the same thing, though this particular site doesn't state the 0.01% figure. I stated that the largest portion of the population don't follow any specific religion. You are right about the definiton of atheist:
a·the·ist (plural a·the·ists)
noun
Definition:
unbeliever in God or deities: somebody who does not believe in God or deities
What I found from my time in Japan, though, is that most believe in all manner of "kami", a word which we translate as god, the same from which "kamikaze" (wind of god) derives. While the word applies to all gods studied in western world, the word "god" does not apply to all kami, making the use of the term atheist somewhat problematic. The Cambridge dictionary defines the term specifically as,
"someone who believes that God does not exist." This would not apply to far too many Japanese unless you then specifically define God, such as in a particular religion.
I think it becomes, in many ways, semantics because the concepts in question, religion, gods, etc. do not always directly translate into the terms associated with similar concepts of spirituality in Japan. I think this also plays into why some of the interesting concepts in anime seem out of place or offend some western viewers when touching on these things.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:03 am
by Touched
Yes, I agree that if you consider all kami to be gods, then we can't call them atheist, even if we use the broader definition of "one who lacks belief in any gods" as opposed to the stronger "one who
disbelieves in any gods". (Merriam-Webster gives both definitions: "
2 a : a disbelief in the existence of deity b : the doctrine that there is no deity") I personally would call those nature kami "spirits", which is a more accurate Western analogue. Just as I would translate "oni" as "ogre", not as "demon" as it often is, because an oni's appearance, behaviour, and other characteristics are almost identical to the western concept of an ogre, and not at all like the western concept of a demon. So, yes, when we clarify our definitions, we're definitely agreeing. To be clearer, I should have said that Japan is overwhelmingly
nonreligious, avoiding the ambiguity of the word "atheist".
good stuff to share
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:05 am
by minimacman
hey man, i for one appreciate in a large way you doing these little tests. i'm not really sure why, but i had a hard time trying to figure out the best way to get a more "hand drawn" look like your few samples. up til these tests i really didn't "get" how to really make animations done in this program look high quality. i've had this program for a while and just really started trying to figure it all out here recently.
i started doing animation the old way (hand drawn frames) using flash, but now that i've seen your samples -- it helps me see to what level you can take Anime Studio to. i'll have to play with it more
by the way-- your anime DVD was freakin' awesome and i learned a lot from it.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:11 am
by Touched
I appreciate seeing your tests too, by the way!
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:11 am
by artfx
Thanks Touched. What does Bones are better than Bonez mean?
minimacman, I am glad you liked the DVD. I hope to have lots of new stuff soon, even getting deeper into Anime Studio among other fine tools out there.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:19 am
by Touched
It's a reference to an old commercial for doggie treats called Bonez, and the slogan was "Bonez are better than bones." I keep thinking of it every time I play with or talk about the bones in this program, so I reversed the slogan and put it in my sig. AS's bones are better than doggie treats, by far!
by the way--
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:59 am
by minimacman
dude, i just went by your site and your ANIGEN is freakin' sweeeeeet! gonna download blender and ONscripter as soon as I get to work tomorrow.
man, please do continue to share such wealth in knowledge bro-- I've learned quite a bit and i sent a link of your blog to my boss so he'll buy me one of those "draw on your screen" things. we just got contracted to do a animation for our local college (arkansas state university) and i had to draw each frame with pencil, ink the frame, scan it in, color it and then do the animation on top of my hand drawn background as well.
here is what one of the background looks like ::
it'd be so much easier if i could do it all in the computer than going back in forth. but none the less man-- your site is the freakin' spot yo!
it's good to see someone share such good information to the rest of us artist still feeling our way in the dark, figuring stuff out.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:10 pm
by LittleFenris
artfx wrote:I hope to have lots of new stuff soon, even getting deeper into Anime Studio among other fine tools out there.
I have seen a lot of Flash animation video tutorials out there that people charge money for. I wonder if you could make yourself a niche market for affordable video tutorials on using AS/AS Pro. Or if you are feeling generous just have free tutorials every once in a while. You and GreyKids seem to be putting out some of the best looking stuff using AS and you just started using it recently. Props on that one.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:22 pm
by Rasheed
LittleFenris wrote:a niche market for cheap video tutorials on using AS/AS Pro.
make that "affordable" or "low cost" instead of "cheap", cheap can be interpreted as something negative.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:27 pm
by LittleFenris
Rasheed wrote:LittleFenris wrote:a niche market for cheap video tutorials on using AS/AS Pro.
make that "affordable" or "low cost" instead of "cheap", cheap can be interpreted as something negative.
Good point, but you know what I meant.
I changed the wording to something more appropriate.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:54 pm
by Rasheed
I'm sure there is a market, and I can imagine that e frontier is even willing to promote those on their site. If a course costs less than say a car wash, many people are willing to do such a course. If your organizational costs per participant are low enough, you can even earn a little profit for only one participant.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:25 pm
by artfx
Some of those Flash training videos out there really get up there in price. Some cost more than Anime Studio, but then Flash isn't cheap either. Maybe they are aimed at professional animators who need to go digital and learn vector. I haven't seen them.
I definitely think videos like that for AS, but geared more towards AS's price range, would be a good idea.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:24 pm
by bupaje
I personally have brought several inexpensive Flash tutorials from
http://www.cartoonsolutions.com and
http://www.cartoonsmart.com. I think this model works very well for distributing content. Another model to consider (sorry, I owned and managed businesses for many years so tend to look at this stuff
) is Ron's Toon-A-Day
http://www.toonaday.com website. You could sign up for a daily toon delivered by email. I think various packages that included a weekly or monthly lesson subscription, plus weekly or daily tips or AS props or characters or effects (like partciles etc) with a weekly price could be a good business if done right. Would have to be quality and reliable. Then you can also sell collections on CD as the stuff builds up. I've thought about other ideas related to this last one as I was going to do it for game textures at one point, but don't want to meander to much.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:59 pm
by LittleFenris
artfx wrote:Some of those Flash training videos out there really get up there in price.
Yeah, I was thinking something like cartoonsolutions.com type of thing where the videos are $5-10 each depending on how long they are and how much information they provide. I wouldn't bother with making models like they do though...I highly doubt there are enough people that would buy them for AS to make it worth your time. Video tips and tricks however would get peoples attention. Anything that could take weeks or even months off of someones learning curve would definitely be worth a measily $10 or so.