Use of animation to get atheists' message across

[thenastik]

Hi Nirmukta members,
I am a new member of Nirmukta.Recently I came across these videos on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CccaGaKOl...A85DF461E3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd7iXASIO...playnext=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah5xFMYbP...re=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QWwzT4ul...re=channel

and I was wondering if we can produce similar animation of popular hindu mythological stories or critique the religious texts. Use of sarcasm and humour can make the atheists point of view more palatable to the youth ( who I believe is the prime demography for our message). One of the hilarious ones and I believe a very good starting point would be the story of Ganesha. It is one of those which is used most frequently to brainwash kids (think Bal ganesh) etc and is so full of logical fallacies that it is a wonder that so many hindus believe in it.

Anyway I was wondering if any one has thought/discussed about it or has the expertise in producing such videos.

A free website for producing animation is xtranormal

http://www.xtranormal.com/

However using this website we can only produce the most basic animation with computerized voices, so please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

[Ajita Kamal]

Welcome to the forum!

Bala Bhaskar is Nirmukta's Animation and Graphics expert. He has posted some atheism-related work here: http://nirmukta.net/Forum-TV-Video

Also check out the nurmukta youtube channel:
http://youtube.com/user/Nirmuktavideos

[thenastik]

Thanks Ajita. I was aware of the channel and watched pretty much all of them. I was a silent reader of this blog for a long time and have read or watched pretty much everything on this website/blog.

However, I was wondering if members of Nirmukta have the bandwidth or expertise to produce videos which can engage teenagers/kids as well. (Btw, I am curious - does Nirmukta have a target demography ? )

It doesn't need to be humorous but something which can hold their attention long enough. Something which is both informative and entertaining. There are a lot of atheist videos which deal with Christianity/Islam but very few on Hinduism. This can often give Hindus the false sense of superiority or a belief that somehow Hinduism is free of logical fallacies when in reality Hindu mythologies are a treasure trove of logical fallacies and pseudo-scientific teachings .

Anyway, if anyone is interested in producing such videos, I would be willing to help with the effort also. Although I don't have much expertise in producing animations I am always keen to learn new technologies.

[Ajita Kamal]

(27-Oct-2010, 06:11 AM)thenastik Wrote: However, I was wondering if members of Nirmukta have the bandwidth or expertise to produce videos which can engage teenagers/kids as well. (Btw, I am curious - does Nirmukta have a target demography ? )

The target demographic is currently the educated online audience. But that is temporary. We have discussed some long-term plans, but for now we are focusing on the online effort.

Quote:It doesn't need to be humorous but something which can hold their attention long enough. Something which is both informative and entertaining. There are a lot of atheist videos which deal with Christianity/Islam but very few on Hinduism.

Sounds good. The type of organization used as an example in this article under the section Who Decides? is what Nirmukta is in its organization. Quoting the relevant portions:

Quote:Such communities usually operate under a hetearchical organizational structure where each individual user is also an independent agent acting on her/his own imperative to create innovation and foster change. Individuals may collaborate with other individuals and actively seek common solutions to common problems. Crowdsourcing strategies emerge in such groups as a means of getting the most labor intensive work done with relatively little individual input and practically no centralized command. In such groups, the political infrastructure is built on strong bonds that develop due to dynamic relationships between members of the group. There may be hierarchical elements in a hetearchy, but the group exercises power through a participation-merit system. Thus the system maintains fairness while being effective in achieving its goals. In such a system, the rules of engagement are agreed upon through mutual agreement, weighted by degree of participation in the group.

I'm completely with you in producing videos to point out the inconsistencies, fallacies and silly superstitions that are found in Hinduism.

Quote:Anyway, if anyone is interested in producing such videos, I would be willing to help with the effort also. Although I don't have much expertise in producing animations I am always keen to learn new technologies.

I hope reading the bit that I quoted above gives you some idea of what we think Nirmukta should be about. If you want to produce videos, you can use the resources that we have put together under the Nirmukta banner, in order to coordinate on projects with specific individuals interested in your specific talents. Come up with a project and you can pitch it to the rest of us. If you need help, we can send messages on facebook to all the Nirmukta and Indian Atheists members. Others have brought up ideas like this before, and have gone on to create interesting forms of atheist activism as part of Nirmukta...so, do let us know what you would like to do!