Jamaal E

For the record, I DO keep my personal accounts and business accounts separate and have done so successfully for a while now. However, a large personal emergency came up leaving me with not much personal funds to go by. I know the ideology is to keep both expenses separate for accounting reasons, but I only need to dip into the business account for four short days. Will this be ok?

I'm still very new to bookkeeping so I hope I've researched this correctly. I have a fixed asset that was purchased at $1589.57 USD. I've estimated that it will have a Salvage value of $500 with a total Useful Life of 10 years. If I did the formula correctly, this means that it would be depreciating at $108.95 each year and apparently on a calculator I found, the first year would take out $45.40 and the final year being $63.56 (which is still $108.95...not sure why the split yet).

Here's the problem, the asset was purchased 08/24/2012 and was recently repurposed for my business which started in 07/15/2014.

I'm entering the values for the asset into Quickbooks, but do I have to provide the previous year's values along with this year to determine it's current depreciated value, or do I have to continue with this year's value? In other words, do I say my depreciation currently stands at $108.95 (2014), or $263.32 (2012 through 2014)

I'm very new to quickbooks and I've read that the best way to track fixed assets and record their depreciation is to make an account for each asset. That's fine for a few assets, but what if you have 50-100 computers to track? That method would seem like huge overkill. I'm not running into that problem any time soon, but I would like to keep the book's as clean as possible. Any ideas?

Say I have a game company called XYZ Media and we'd like to create a child company called XYZ Animations as a new division of the company. Would XYZ Animation be ok doing business as XYZ Media, or would the Animations division need to have there own company filing? As a guess, I'd would think one of the only things you can't do if XYZ Animation where to file this way, is create checks in the name of XYZ Animation; they would have to say XYZ Media. But is there any other liability I'm not aware of?

As a small addition, would XYZ Animation also need it's own Tax ID number even if they are a child company of XYZ Media?

I've been getting hit by a rather annoying spam bot which is operating in switzerland (it seems). How should I go about blocking the IP range it's generating? It seems to be working on 30.41.x.x. Should I block everything from 30.41? I don't want to block the entire country, but I don't want the IP ranges the bot is generating to pass through the site either.

What do I do?

Hi all,

I'm still relatively new to 3D software and AE but I've been looking Maya and Trapcode Particular for AE. The initial problem I'm trying to solve is that I want to create blowing leaves (and eventually fire particles) that interact dynamically with wind. I'd want both to have depth of field and I'll possibly make a transition effect with a leaflet being close to the camera.

So what I realize is that a 2D planar particle system wont work since the leaves need to loop and flip around, interact with wind, need to curve and flatten out around the Z-Plane, and bend based on wind physics. I don't have extensive knowledge with working with current 3D Software (used Bryce 5 back in the day), but I believe all this takes is a leaf image on a 2D flat and whatever particle system emits the flats. Knowing this, I've been hesitant on if Trapcode can handle something like this. Any ideas?

The other question I've been struggling is when is it more practical to use something like Maya for particle systems than something like AE Trapcode? It seems like both have a huge overlap with AE obviously excelling also in 2D compositing and VFX. But when would I need to bring a 3D modeling program into the picture? Like the problem above, or for some other reason?

Thanks in advance. I know this is very noobish question, but like I said, I've had very little experience working with AE or newer 3DSoftware.

Can a contract be canceled if both parties agree to terminate the contract even before the time of expiration documented within the contract? Does this apply if there is no time of expiration documented?

We're slowly gaining support and planning for the future, but how does one actually contact and hire AAA studios like A-1 Pictures Inc., MAD House, 4Degree C, ect. for an animation production? Not saying we have the kind of budget yet for a full show or movie, but for at least to get a pilot or two completed?

I live in Florida and I know of Megacon, Florida Super Con, and I know about New York Super Con upstate. Any other major ones along the east coast I should know about? Or is there a list somewhere of conventions on the east coast?

In comics,

What is the difference between a spread and a pinup? Essentially, I thought they were pretty much the same thing. Maybe just in content they are different?

Suppose I have a music track that I sell to a customer under an exclusive license. I retain my share of the copyright, and the exclusive license between us allows only that customer the right to use the track, and I can no longer sell the track to anyone else. So say for instance a large investor comes and sees the said track and wants to pay a substantial amount of money to use it as part of a commercial campaign and to be used on live broadcast on his show. Since I still retain my share of the copyright for the track (50%), can I sell the track to the investor without any slap back from both parties?

I've gotten mixed results on this topic but basically what I would like to do is sell someone else's book(s) as part of my brand. The author makes the profit and I possibly make a commission. This sounds like affiliate marketing, but what I've seen with affiliate marketing is that it seems like a simple mini link click through of an advertised product with no real association between either company other than being part of the program and them taking a commission. What I would like is to be able to put the product as part of the site, market the product as my products, create pages for it, have it branded with my site name, and be able to sell it.

I also don't know if doing something like this would require some kind of exclusive license?

I believe this issue relates to international copyright law as well but my question is, suppose I formed an agreement as a US citizen in the US and within the terms of the agreement, it states that the terms will abides by US copyright laws. The person who is signing it is being regarded as an employee however that employee is from (and is signing it in) another country.

If that person violates the copyright either by creating unwanted derivatives, or selling material as an unintended owner, is it in my rights to take legal action? Rather, will the other person be at fault for a violation of copyright despite him not being a US citizen and even though the agreement states that it's abiding by US Copyright laws?

Seems like a needless feature for something already done unless you're promoting a specific product. I just don't know if this is popular or not.

Is there a way to see who exactly pressed the like button on your Kickstarter page?

Does anyone know of any beaches where dogs can play in the water in the South Florida area near Hollywood or Ft.Lauderdale area?

The only one I can really think of off the top of my head is Pjanoo by Eric Prydz. Any more? I'd like to take a listen to them.

I'm creating a piece that requires a tagline and I'd like some opinions. Would you (or think others) click for more information if you saw this tagline -

When a ticket home is all she wants, how can she buy one to nowhere?