Animation

Lecture 8

Razia Nisar Noorani

Animation

• The rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement.

• Relies on persistence of vision to create the illusion of movement.

Persistence of Vision In the early 1800’s, the phenomenon known as persistence of vision gave mankind the first glimpse into the modern world of animation.

Persistence of vision refers to the way our eyes retain images for a split second longer than they actually appear, making a series of quick flashes appear as one continuous picture.

Persistence of Vision

Using a flipbook, you can see the persistence of vision effect in action.

If you have a different sequential drawing on each page of the flipbook and you flip through the pages rapidly, the drawings appear to move.

Examples of Early Animation

Traditional Animation

Also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation. Begins with a storyboard. A preliminary soundtrack is recorded. Penciled drawings are made by lead animators of

keyframes. Pencil tests are prepared. Artists called in-betweeners draw the frames

between the keyframes. The drawings are traced onto cels and painted. Finally, they are photographed.

What is Cell Animation?

Method used for creating hand-drawn animation. Individual frames are drawn in a sequence that,

when played back quickly (usually 10 to 30 frames per second), creates the illusion of continuous movement.

What is Cell Animation?

Animators drew on semi-transparent sheets of vellum, or acetate cells (cellulose acetate) - they could see through the frame they were drawing to the previous frames.

What is Digital Animation

Electronically generated movement of anything on your computer screen.

Three different levels of digital animation: Basic Intermediate Advanced

What is Digital Animation

Basic At the most fundamental level, animation

consists of simple transitions (wipes and dissolves between PowerPoint slides, for example) and path animations (moving text and logos).

What is Digital Animation

Intermediate The next level up is cel animation (the method

used in cartoons) and special effects, which include all manner of distortions and color effects applied to a graphic, photo or movie.

What is Digital Animation

Advanced The most sophisticated level of digital animation

is 3D animation. Movies such as "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life" are the most prominent examples of what can be achieved through the latest computer technology.

Ambitious designers can take advantage of these same tools to manufacture some dazzling 3D creations of their own.

Computer Assisted Animation The computer is used to make the animation

process quicker and easier. Usually involves 2-D images

Can be hand-drawn and scanned into the computer.

Can be drawn directly into the computer using graphics tablets.

The images are positioned into keyframes containing the most important movements.

Tweening is then performed by the computer to create images between keyframes.

Computer Assisted Animation

Even though computers are now used extensively, many traditional steps are still used.Storyboarding Pencil Testing KeyframesTweening

Computer Generated Animation

All images, objects and animation are created on the computer.

Typically uses 3-D images. Adds two steps to the animation

process. Modeling – process of creating a

wireframe structure of the 3-D objects and scenes.

Rendering – process of applying colors, textures, shadows, transparency, etc. to create the final image or animation.

3-D Graphics and Animation

3-D animations are more complex. Creating 3-D animations involves

modeling, animation, and rendering. Modeling is creating broad contours and

structure of 3-D objects and scenes. Animation is determining the motions of the

objects. Rendering involves determining colors, surface

textures, and amounts of transparency of objects.

Computer Generated Animation

Motion capture can be used to create animation. Actors wear special suits that allow the

computer to capture their movements. The movements can then be applied to

computer-generated graphics. Examples:

The Polar Express Avatar

Traditional animation is defined as the process of creating the illusion of motion by viewing a series of individual drawings successively.

Computer animation is creating a digital scene by digitally recording cells, sorting them on an electronic storyboard, and displaying them electronically in succession.

Bridging the Traditional and

Computer Eras

Review

History of Animation Animation Traditional Animation Computer Assisted Animation Computer Generated Animation