The NFBs new youth targeted Website, "Ultrabug Cliposcope," gives visitors a hands-on introduction to moviemaking. Part of the NFB's overall media education initiative, the Ultrabug Cliposcope site lets kids (or adults!) create films, view them and e-mail them to their friends. The site is powered by the Ez-Toons game engine developed by Quebec's Sarbakan. The NFB is the first organization in Canada to use the Ez-Toons engine under license from Sarbakan, and the Ultrabug Cliposcope site represents the world's first appearance of this engine on the Web. The character Ultrabug, an interstellar super-cockroach from outer space created by director/screenwriter Martin Barry, takes visitors on a guided tour to explain how to use the Cliposcope game engine to create animated clips. The Cliposcope lets the user choose from a library of backgrounds and actions, along with camera movements and animated accessories, to create an animated short. Once created, clips can be viewed, e-mailed and submitted to the Ultrabug Cliposcope site for a chance to become clip of the month. The Ultrabug Cliposcope Website can be found at www.nfbkids.ca/cliposcope.
