Welcome back ladies and gentlemen! This is Marvel's Corner!.

Today I introduce you to a new segment. The Rise of Electric Ferret Animation Studios!

What is "EF Animation"? Click on the link and find out.

Seriously, click it. 

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Did you click it?

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Okay. I'm pretty sure you clicked it. Let's get down to it.

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Today's Topic: EF Animation

So, what is this so called "EF Animation"? 

It is the new arm of the Electric Ferret. The animation arm. It is only natural that the Electric Ferret expand like this. It is what serge would've wanted...

Anyways, animation, as defined by myself after years of research (such as watching cartoons, and animated movies) is just seeing things move, apparently by their own power, even though they normally couldn't. For example, in stop motion animation, you can have pretty much anything appear to move by itself. That's just one type of animation. There are many other ways to do it. Here's the three that are used the most:

The Super Expensive but Awesome Quality Type

Yes, the expensive, but awesome looking, Pixar method. It's basically paying hundreds of young enslaved children to work computers. Each little frame is hours and hours of painful, backbreaking labor. Such hit movies, like Toy Story and Wall-e, rocked this medium. 

Pros: Great picture quality. Tis what dreams are made of.

Cons: Hours of hard work. Tons of employees needed. Swimming pools full of cash (Scrooge McDuck style).

The Old School Method

This is your grandfather, and your father's animation. Where Pixar's way requires advanced computers to work around the clock, this way requires an army of skilled artists working around the clock. Yes, as crazy as it sounds, each frame is drawn by hand. While Disney eventually mastered this medium, in the beginning, cartoon animation was primitive. Often black and white, with storytelling kept to a minimum. As the years progressed, and the technology became better, a new crop of movies mastered this style. I'm talking about the "Lion King", and "Beauty and the Beast"..

Pros: Looked pretty good back in the day. Had some good stories told on it. 

Cons: Army of artists. Hours of work. Tons of paper. Patience. But mostly, an army of artists. 

Stop Motion Animation

Ah, here it is. The working man's animation. This one just required a camera, and a hilarious amount of free time. You basically took a picture of an object, barely moved it, then took another picture. You would then repeat this process for a long, long time. When you flipped through all the pictures, it looked like the object was moving by itself. Naturally, the more pictures you took, the better the final product was. Such hits, like Wallace & Gromit, as well as some early Star Wars scenes, really proved what this was about. However, the best example, in my opinion, was Gumby. 

Pros: Anyone can do this. Easy to work with. 

Cons: Required hours of hard work. Plus, who had enough time to do this?

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As you just saw, the easiest animation is, thanks to various iPhone apps I purchased, the Stop Motion Animation method. It is what Electric Ferret Animation Studios will focus on. This blog, will chronicle its rise to animation power. 

Part 1: Supplies

After serge had instructed me in his EF dream to one day rule the world through a multimedia empire, I got to work on gathering the supplies needed. Armed with a minuscule budget, I realized I would have to make do with what little I had. So, I began...

• First I realized what apps I could use on my iPhone. There's the "iTimelapse App", as well as the "ReelDirector App". Add in the "Slow Mo App" and I have the App store's finest. 

• Next up, I set up a set. A search through my basement ended with me finding a suitable location, as well as an old teenage mutant ninja playset.

• Finally, I found suitable characters. Among them, there's a sweet "Limited Edition: Barack Obama Action figure" I got on my trip to DC. Looking through old boxes in my basement, I found plenty of action figures, such as Superman, Batman, Hulk, and Thor. 

And so ended my search for supplies. Now a new obstacle awaited me. The story. 

This, I hope, is something my electric ferret comrades can help me with. What sort of creative masterpiece will be the EF Studios' first production? 

Well, whatever it is, it will only help fuel the EF. Join me next time, as my quest for animation continues. Until next time, this is Marvel Man signing off. 

Excelsior!