ANIMATING IMAGES

Q::I have this logo of a dude with an infected face that I want to turn into an animated cartoon character… at least to help navigate my site at www.killertoothache.com . It would also be a dream to turn him into a lead in a cartoon series… how could i get him to the next level with blowing too much cash?

Michael
Reed Deer, AB

Sean’s note: It depends on how animated you want to make this guy in the short term — if you just want a moving character for a website, you can do this with a freeware or shareware program dedicated to making animated GIF files (there are a ton of them on Tucows and Download.com). On the other hand, if you’re serious about creating longer animations with both full motion and audio, you’ll want to check out Adobe’s Flash. The new version is about $700, but as CS3 has just come out, you may be able to find a used copy of one of the previous versions for less. With a full version of Flash, you’ll have the tools you need to create a full-on animated feature—in fact, Flash is used these days for cartoons on major networks, like the new version of George of the Jungle. The problem is that it has a pretty steep learning curve. It may be worth checking out a seminar on the program first before you dedicate that much money to it.

IP

Q::I Wanted to know how can i hide my ip address and is there a program that can help me do it?

Andre
Toronto, ON

Take a look at TOR : http://tor.eff.org/

HOW SECURE IS OPERA?

Q::I was using Firefox 2.0 and I am finding it slow. I have an older computer which is a celeron. I do not want to use IE7 though I do have it installed. I recently heard about Opera. I downloaded it and it seems to be much faster. I was wandering how secure it is? Is it safe to use or should I stick with Firefox? I am running Windows XP.

Rick
Edmonton, AB

Opera is an excellent choice. It’s as secure as Firefox and has some very nice features.