Fixies have a special sign I happened to discover.
They hold three fingers in the air And flash it to each other.
They send their greetings to you, They sing them and they shout.
But if you meet a Fixie, please, Don’t let their secret out!
The Wires
Quiet down!
Get ready for your lesson!
Be quiet!
Quiet down, please!
It’s so hot here!
In today's class, we'll learn about...
What was that?
It must have been an earthquake.
Yeah, it was an earthquake! Hurrah!
Sorry there, Professor.
I have to find an outlet so I can plug in this fan.
It feels terribly hot!
It sure does. Well, keep looking. You'll find one.
Now then, where was I?
Oh, right, today…
No! It’s impossible! In this whole laboratory there is not one free outlet!
Look at this!
Just pull out one of these wires and then you'll have a free outlet.
I can’t.
I fear I could pull out a plug for something important.
Volt himself would get all tangled up in these wires.
Don’t worry about it, Professor Eugenius!
We’ll find a free outlet for you.
That’s right, my colleague!
A cup of tea will do you good, so just go relax.
Thank you, my colleague! And as always I'm eternally grateful.
Fixies have opened schools for their children in all sorts of different places:
like factories, stores, and warehouses –
anywhere where there are lots of machines and appliances and places to hide from humans.
And this is where we hold our school - right here inside the laboratory of Professor Eugenius.
It’s a fantastic place for me to hold class!
Every day new devices, materials, toys and even food are brought here for examination.
And there are lots of scientific devices and tools to study here as well.
But most importantly, we never need to hide from the head of the laboratory,
because my colleague, Professor Eugenius, is someone I am proud to call a friend.
He loves Fixies, helps us any time we need,
and will never let our secret out!
- What should we do first? - We have to start out with pulling apart these wires.
That willl take a second!
Over here!
No, here!
Nolik, come help!
Let's do this!
Come on, come on, come on! Just one more tug!
Stop it!
I can't get out! Loosen the wires!
We need to pull out this one!
Stop this nonsense, will you?!
Thank you, Digit!
Tideesh!
Well, the way I see it, in order to get the knot out that's over here,
we need to expand the loop that's over there,
and then push that wire through it.
And then, do it again from the other end.
That's it.
Very good, girls. Now pull it hard.
Perfect.
Hey, check it out!
This green wire up here isn't plugged into anything.
Then no one's using it.
So that means we should go and pull it out from the outlet.
Got it!
Tideesh!
Verda, here is another wire that isn't plugged in!
I found another wire no one's using!
I mean… Simka and I found it together!
Nolik, why are you so upset?
Because you guys are doing all of the work!
How about this wire? Nobody's checked it yet.
Really?
Oh, wow!
What? Did you find some treasure, Nolik?
Ah-huh! There are six free outlets under here!
Great! Now professor Euginius can plug in his fan, and his kettle, and even his soldering iron!
To get electricity to a device that doesn't use batteries,
you need to plug a pair of wires into an outlet.
But it's important not to let the wires touch one another or the electricity can burn them out.
That’s why wires are covered in plastic or rubber,
so the electricity won't pass from one wire to the other.
Or to us when we touch them.
So always be very careful with wires,
and never, ever touch a bare wire!
You could get killed by the electric shock.
Oh, what would I do without my wonderful friends!
Thank you!
Sorry, I just… I didn't... I wanted to…
I should go.
Go ahead. That's a great idea.
And we’ll start our class.
What were we talking about?
All about wires.
Well it looks like our class is over!
Time to go play!
Can you believe that Fixies are Such itty-bitty creatures?
Even when they’re magnified It’s hard to see their features.
They’re tiny, infinitesimal, So small it makes you doubt.
But if you meet a Fixie, please, Don’t let their secret out!
The Cartoon
Yeah.
Like that.
Yeah.
Tom Thomas, aren't you done yet?
Yeah! Show us your surprise and quit drawing!
But this IS the surprise!
So, make yourselves comfortable!
Quiet on the set! And… action!
Great crash!
You should put a huge bump on his head!
It's just like a cartoon that you drew on there!
He did draw us a real cartoon there.
Oh, right!
Real cartoons? They only show them on television.
But they make them exactly the same way.
Animation is made with many-many pictures called frames.
Each one of the frames is a little bit different from the one that comes right before it.
For example, a character can lift his arm up a little bit at a time.
And then, if you watch the frames very quickly one right after the other,
it looks like the character is really moving.
And that's how cartoons are made.
And you know what, to make one minute of a cartoon
you might have to draw more than a thousand frames!
Oh wow!
I'm not patient enough for that.
It’s no big deal that your cartoon is short.
Especially since it's funny.
Yeah, it's so funny!
Tom Thomas, who is this kooky guy you drew here?
You're just joking, Nolik!
You don't recognize yourself?
So this is suppose to be me on here?
Did you already forget what happen to you this morning?
Simka, you’re it! You can't catch me!
I'm too fast for you!
You're weren't too fast for the pole.
Simka! You didn't have to tell him about that!
Real sisters don’t treat their brothers like that!
And your cartoon's not funny at all!
Nolik, don't go!
It’s OK, he just needs to sulk for a while.
While he's gone there's something I wanna show you.
Do you have a cartoon you can put on the TV?
I have plenty!
What should I do?
Let's watch it again,
but now I wanna show you the same cartoon a frame at a time.
Here. Take a look.
This... is a frame.
and here's… another,
and another.
Isn't that cool?
Uh-huh!
So cool!
And then, back at regular speed,
there's 25 frames every second!
What should I do?
It's magical!
Simka, you know...
I feel awful for Nolik.
Yeah. I feel awful too.
There are many different ways of making animation.
Hand-drawn-animation is, of course, drawn by hand.
And stop-motion is made like this:
The animators pose the model and take a picture of it.
Then they move the model a little bit and take another picture.
And they do it again, and again, and again,
until there are enough frames to make the characters
look like they're moving very smoothly across the screen.
Another popular style of animation is clay animation.
In these films everything is built and rebuilt out of modeling clay.
But today most of the cartoons are made on a computer.
At first they make a computer model of a character,
a sort of digital puppet.
After the models are built there're colored and animated to move.
This is the kind of animation that's used in The Fixies cartoons!
Tom Thomas, what are you doing?
Are drawing a new cartoon?
Nah. I started fixing the old one,
so Nolik will stop being angry.
Good! Keep drawing.
And I’ll go and get him.
Nolik!
I’m not here!
Nolik, forgive me!
Please don't be so mad.
There's a cartoon to watch!
I’ve already seen your stupid cartoon!
So what did you do now? Put a huge bump on my head?
Not a chance!
I did it all over again!
I'm sure you'll love it!
You sure of that?
Alright, go ahead!
Show me your cartoon!
Quiet on the set!
And… action!
There you go!
Now that cartoon I really liked!
Good!
Because I'm all out of paper.
Well, I think that the first cartoon was funnier.
Woah!
But this one's much better of course!
Yeah!