Introduction to Animation
Lecture 1
Prepared by
Dr Victor Mageto
Outline
1. Principles of Traditional Animation
Applied to Computer Animation
(Lasseter, 1987)
2. Animation: Can it facilitate? (Tversky and
Morrison, 2002)
3. On Creating Anima ted Presentations
(Zongker and Salesin, 2003)
Principles of Animation
• Animation is possible because of a biological
phenomenon known as persistence of vision and the
psychological phenomenon called phi .
• An object seen by the human eye remains chemically
mapped on the eye's retina for a brief time after viewing.
• Combined with the human mind's need to conceptually
complete a perceived action.
• This makes it possible for a series of images that are changed
very slightly and very rapidly, one after the other, seem like
continuous motion.
What is Animation?
• 'To animate' literally means to give life to.
• Animating is moving something that cannot move on it's own.
• Animation adds to graphics the dimensions of time, which
tremendously increase the potential of transmitting the desired
information.
• In order to animate something the animator has to be able to
specify directly or indirectly how the 'thing' has to move
through time and space.
2-D Animation
Two types:
1. Cel animation
2. Path animation
Cel Animation
• Made famous by Disney
• Cel animation: is based on changes that occur from
one frame to the next.
• 24 frames per second therefore a minute may require
as many as 1,440 separate frames.
• Cel stands for celluloid which is a clear sheet with
images drawn on them.
• The celluloid images are place on a background that
is usually stationary.
Cel development process
Path Animation
• Moves an object along a predetermined path on the screen
• The path can be a straight line or have a number of curves.
• Starts with keyframes (the first and last frame of an action).
• The series of frames in between the keyframes are drawn
in a process called tweening.
• Tweening requires calculating the number of frames
between keyframes and the path the action takes, and then
actually takes, and then sketches a series of progressively
different outlines.
Computer animation
• Typically employes the same logic and procedural
concepts as cell animation
• You can usually set your own frame rate at 15
frames a second the animation but may appear slow
• 2-D animation can be an acceptable alternative to
the expense of creating video
3-D Animation
• 3-D Animation involves three steps: modeling,
animation, and rendering
1. Modeling - the process of creating objects and
scenes
2. Animation - the process of defining the object's
motion
3. Rendering - the final step in creating 3-D
animation.
Morphing is the process of blending two images into a series
of images
Warping allows you to distort a single image
Virtual reality (VR) creates an environment that surrounds the
user so that they become part of.
Animation Techniques
• As is evident from the history, animators have used and
invented a variety of different animation techniques.
• Traditionally most of the animation was done by hand.
• All the frames in an animation had to be drawn by hand.
• Since each second of animation requires 24 frames (film),
the amount of work required to create even the shortest of
movies, can be tremendous.
Animation Techniques
Key Frames
• In this technique a storyboard is laid out and then the artists
draw the major frames of the animation.
• These major frames are in which a lot of changes take place.
• They are the key points of animation.
• Later a bunch of artists draw in the frames in between.
• This technique is, of course, very time and effort intensive to
-- ...
animate.
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Animation Techniques
Rotascoping:
• Rotascoping is a technique where images are copied from a
moving video into an animation.
• The animator draws the motion and shape of the object by
referring to the video as opposed to imagining in his head.
• With the help of the rotascoping one can animate some
complex scenes that would be hard to visualize otherwise.
• The disadvantage is that one will have to hunt for the exact
video that one wants to animate.
Animation Techniques
Motion Ca pture
• It’s a technique in which magnetic or vision based sensors record the
actions of a human or animal object in three dimensions.
• A computer then uses these data to animate the object.
• This technology has enabled a number of famous athletes to supply the
actions for characters in sports video games.
• Motion capture is pretty popular with the animators mainly because some
of the commonplace human act ions can be captured with relative ease.
• However, there can be serious discrepancies between the shapes or
dimensions of the subject and the graphical character and this may lead to
problems of exact execution.
Animation Techniques
Simulation:
• Simulation uses the laws of physics to generate
motion of figures and other objects unlike key framing
and motion picture.
• Virtual humans are usually represented as a
collection of rigid body parts.
Overview: Traditional Animation
• Early 2D Animation: Used traditional techniques
• Early 3D Animation: Neglected traditional techniques.
Fundamental principles of traditional animation
techniques
• Understanding the Fundamental principles of
traditional animation techniques is essential to producing
good computer animation.
1. Squash and Stretch
• Teaches basic
mechanics of
animation
• Defines rigidity of
material.
• Important in facial
animation.
Squash and Stretch Cont.
• Can relieve the
disturbing effect of
strobing.
2. Timing and Motion
• Gives meaning to movement.
• Proper timing is critica l to making ideas
readable.
Examples:
1. Timing: tiny characters move quicker
than larger ones.
2. Motion: can define weights of objects.
3. Anticipation
Preparation for an action
Example:
Goofy prepares to hit a baseball.
4. Staging
A clear presentation of an idea.
Some Techniqu es:
1. Use motion in a still scene or use of static movement in a
busy scene.
2. Use of silhouettes
5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action
1. Follow Through
Termination part of an action.
Example: after throwing a ball
2. Overlapping Action
Starting a second action before the first has completed.
Example: Luxo Jr.' s hop with overlapping action
on chord.
6. Straight ahead action and pose-to-pose action
1. Straight ahead action
Animator start from first drawing in the scene and draw all
subsequent frames until the end of scene.
2. Pose-to-Pose
Animator plans actions, draws a sequence of poses, in
between frames etc.
Pose-to-pose
Straight ahead action
