Hello from all of us on the Flipnote Hatena team. This is Aaron at Hatena's offices in Kyoto, Japan with another edition of our weekly news blog.
I hope that you enjoyed last week's topic "Squash and Stretch", and I had a great time watching all of your Flipnotes. Practicing the squash and stretch technique can help you to create interesting and realistic movement, and it is a useful exercise for improving your animation skills. Animation is known as "the illusion of life", and understanding how things move and being able to express that is a skill that all animators must master.
This week's topic "Text" will give you a chance to use a different part of your brain than last week. You can get inspiration for how text can be animated by looking at things such as the opening credits of films, newspapers and magazines, or books that teach about language. Try to bring the "illusion of life" to text, and see where your creativity takes you!
This week we're also pleased announced the start of a new series of limited editions themes called the "Forest Animals Collection". Please access the Color Star Exchange by tapping on the "Get Special Themes!" button from the top menu of Flipnote Hatena for Nintendo DSi for more information.
New limited edition themes: Forest Animals Collection
From now until October 15, 2010 (Friday), you'll get one chance to win a prize for every 10 stars you exchange for themes in the Color Star Exchange. If you're lucky you might win the weekly limited edition theme.
This week's limited edition theme is "Fox" which is available until September 24, 2010.
For more information about the Forest Animals Collection tap on the "Get Special Themes!" button on the top menu of Flipnote Hatena for Nintendo DSi.
This week's new themes
The Flipnote team has created two new Creator's Room themes that are available in the Color Star Exchange this week. Below are some screenshots and details about the new themes.
★An autumn-inspired theme with animals silhouetted over a knitwear pattern. (20 color stars).
★A fiery orange and yellow theme based on the legendary Phoenix. (10 color stars).
The best of last week's topic: "Squash and Stretch"
We've selected some of the best Flipnotes posted from around the world that we hope you'll enjoy.
You can see all of the Flipnotes posted about last week's topic at the URL below (be sure to set your content preference to Worldwide to see Flipnotes from all regions):
You can also see the Flipnotes for last week's topic by entering the command 
via "Command Search" on Flipnote Hatena for Nintendo DSi.
Hatena's favorite "Squash and Stretch" Flipnotes from the Americas region
★ A bouncing ball wreaks havoc on a town in this Flipnote by ANDREI (id:mc-donald)
★ A seemingly invincible egg squashes and stretches in this funny Flipnote by SnapDragon (id:SnapDragon).
★ redninja22 (id:redninjaa22) used the Nintendo DSi Camera application creatively to create this squashy and stretchy Flipnote.
★ A little creature gets squashed and stretched in this nicely done Flipnote by Sammy (id:GammaX).
★ Jumbif (id:Jumbif) created this beautifully drawn love story involving a bouncing ball.
★ Water drops are animated using squash and stretch techniques in this neat Flipnote by gadget (id:gadget01).
Hatena's favorite "Squash and Stretch" Flipnotes from the Europe & Oceania region
★ A coconut jumps up and down on a perch and tries to avoid flying objects in this Flipnote by Simon (id:simon-a).
★ This Flipnote by Maryra (id:dannytriene) features some blobs that are animated using squash and stretch techniques.
★ …∴ToaTom∴… (id:ToaTom) created this Flipnote about some robotic arms squashing a stretching an elastic-like material.
★ We liked this short Flipnote by TAJI (id:taji-cruzito) with cute sounds and fluid animation.
★ The character in this Flipnote by Summer★ (id:EmerO36) uses elastic bands to do some squashing and stretching.
★ This Flipnote by Washabashi (id:washabashi) features a cute squash-stretchy character.
Hatena's favorite"Squash and Stretch" Flipnotes from Japan
★ You'll enjoy the animation of the elastic-like creature in this Flipnote by Rib Destroyer (id:ribdestroyer).
★ This nicely drawn Flipnote by Sumiko shows how donuts are made.
★ Ugoku Channel (id:dsright) created this short and noisy Flipnote about a bouncing object.
★ Mira (id:pokemon2010) combined images from the Nintendo DSi Camera application with hand drawn animation to create this nice Flipnote.
★ A mean character who squashes and stretches another character gets into trouble in this Flipnote by Peter•J (id:piass-15).
★ A little monkey stretches up to get some apples in this cute Flipnote by Syncoteen (id:TransMetalsGP).
This week's topic: "Text" (9/17/2010 - 9/24/2010)
For this week's topic we would like to create Flipnotes that use animated text, or are based on the alphabet or letters in any language. You might want to create Flipnotes using the alphabet (in whole or in part) in a language, or animate text in a creative way. Remember that many of the users on Flipnote Hatena may not speak your language, so try to make Flipnotes that can be understood by people regardless of the meaning of any words you use.
We're looking forward to seeing your Flipnotes, and will feature some of the best ones next week here in the Flipnote Hatena Weekly News. Post the Flipnotes you create to channel 7 from Flipnote Hatena on your Nintendo DSi.
Also, please do not use copyrighted music in your Flipnotes if you want them to be featured here. Check out some of the sites below for Creative Commons licensable and other royalty free music:
You can see all of the Flipnotes currently posted about this week's topic at the URL below (be sure to set your content preference to Worldwide to see Flipnotes from all regions):
Weekly Frog Sighting
If you are interested in having your frog photo or illustration featured in the "Weekly Frog Sighting" section of the blog please post them on Hatena Haiku and we might feature it here.
Please submit only original photos/illustrations that you have created yourself.
★ id:r0mer0 posted this photo of a frog on a balcony in La Calera on the island La Gomera. The sign reads "Apartments for rent" in Spanish.
★ id:a721pikachu posted this photo of a funny frog thermometer.
★ id:Orion_789 posted this illustration of a frog delivering a box of dissection frogs(!).
Please let us know what you think about the Flipnote Hatena Weekly News blog by posting any comments you might have in the box below. Thanks!
★ You can also see comments posted by Nintendo DSi users by viewing the comments for the Flipnote below:
