Chapter Five

Multimedia Element:
ANIMATION
Let’s start!
Chapter Highlights
01 02 03
Animation Traditional 2-D
Basics Animation Animation
Keyframes, Tween,
Techniques Programmed

04 05
3-D Guidelines
Animation Using
Motion capture,
Kinematics, Animating Animation
with Physics
Pinnacle of Modern Multimedia
• Animation draws inspiration from each of the
other media.
• Computer is a partner in creative expression.
– It lowered costs and increased ease of
creating animation.
– It supports creative expression through:
• Interactivity
• 3-D sensory experience
• Embodiment and implementation of rules
of behavior.
Animation Basics
• Animation: rapidly displayed sequence
of individual, still images.
• Made possible by "persistence of vision."
– Images formed on the retina persist for a
short period of time after stimulus has
disappeared.
– This physical memory of the retina
produces the illusion of motion.
• Early animating devices:
– Thaumatrope View sample Thaumatrope
– Zoetrope
View sample Zoetrope
Animation Basics
• Flipbook technique
– Still images showing a different stage
of motion are created on each page.
• Pages are "flipped" in rapid
succession to view the motion.

View a sample FlipBook

Animation Basics
Animation basics used in flipbook:
• Quality of motion is based on rate of
display.
• Speed is based on differences between
images.
• Onionskinning: a technique used to draw
new image based on the previous image.
• Registration: physically aligns images with
one another.

View a sample FlipBook

Traditional Animation
• Film based process
– Images are photographed and recorded as
separate frames on long strip of transparent
film.
– Film passed in front of light source and
animation appeared on a screen.
• Film enhanced possibilities of animation
– Multiple reels allowed longer animations.
– Projectors displayed images at reliable
frame rates.
– Animators could add sound to the motion.
Challenges of Traditional Animation
• Number of images to create.
– 24 frames per second requires 1,440
individual still images for each minute of
animation.
– Methods to generate images include:
• Shooting on twos cuts number of images
in half.
• Cycle of images can be reused to extend
repetitive
motion.
• Holds produce sequence of identical
drawings to extend a particular state or
action.
Challenges of Traditional Animation
• Artistic strategies to create realistic
world require:
– Awareness of how things move in the world.
• Ease-in and ease-out address the physics of
motion.
• Overshooting a resting point addresses kinetic
energy of motion.
• Different components of objects move independently
of one another (overlapping motion).
– Exaggerate motion for dramatic effect using:
• Variations in speed
• Stretch and squash
Animation principle
explained.
Traditional Techniques
Strategies for achieving motion have been
applied to:

Paper cut-outs
Clay figurines

Puppets

Natural Objects
Photographed,
Reposed and
rephotographed
Cel Animation
• Perfected and made popular by Disney
studios.
– Cel: drawings of individual frames made on
sheets of celluloid.
– Drawings were then photographed to
produce the animated film.
• Technique that directly influenced development
of digital animation.
Cel Animation
• Advantages:
– Artists saved drawing time.
• Fixed components of a scene were drawn
once and layered on the bottom of a stack
of celluloid sheets.
• Moving components were drawn
separately and placed on top of the fixed
scene components.
– Gave precise control over elements.
• Individual cel layers could reproduce
interdependent, complex motions.
Cel Animation
• Advantages, cont.
– Encouraged division of labor and promoted
high
artistic standards.
• Master artists drew key frames or extremes.
• Assistants drew the tweens.
• Inkers transferred drawings from paper to
celluloid.
• Opaquers applied colors to the celluloid.
• Additional specialists included:
– Producers
– Directors
– Script writers
– Audio specialists
– Camera operators
– Checkers.
Producing Cel Animation
• Cost and complexity of creating animation
required a carefully defined process.
– Storyboard: sequence of drawings that
sketch out
content of major scenes in the production.
– Pencil test: series of simple sketches that are
photographed and projected to test the
design of the animated sequences.
– Scratch track: draft of animation’s audio
track.
– Leica reel: working draft of the complete
animation. View IT
"Animation 101" from
Dreamworks illustrates the
production process for
digital animation.
Producing Cel Animation
• Uses specialized equipment in production
process.
– Specialized paints to convey proper hue.
– Specialized camera and lighting to capture
cels.
– Devices to:
• Track changes in paths of animated
characters.
• Align and hold the cels for camera shots.
• Synchronize and edit the final film.
• Cel animation is complex, demanding, and
expensive animation.
– Computers dramatically improved the process.
Digital Animations
Two Different Forms:

2-D
2-D evolved from
traditional animation 3-D
techniques. 3-D exploited
capabilities unique
to the computer.
2-D Animation
• Produced by mimicking basic traditional
techniques such as:
• Flipbook technique
• Cutout animation technique
• Rotoscoping
• Cel animation
• Paint/draw programs are used to create the
components.
• Animation software can sequence, set timing,
transitions, and produce the final animation.
Digital Cel Animation

• Animations are a series of individual frames.

– Synchronized to one or more sound tracks.
– Graphics arranged on layers.
– Major changes identified in keyframes.
– Illusion of motion produced as series of
tweens.
Animation Software
• Elements of Flash organization.
– Timeline: horizontal row of frames.
– Frames: have multiple layers in columns.
• Layers have stacking order (background
elements on lower layers, changing
elements on upper layers)
– Keyframes: define major changes in a frame.
– Tweens: frames created
automatically by software.
– Onionskinning: assists in drawing changes
from one frame to the next.
Animation Software
• Frame-by-frame animation: each frame is
manually drawn to reflect motion sequence.
– Gives detailed control of each motion.
– Time consuming process.
• Tween animation: computer generates in-
between frames based on two designated key
frames.

• Motion tween • Size tween

• Path-based tween • Color tween
• Shape tween (morphing) • Transparency tween
Animation Software
• Provide tools to support animation process.
– Image-editing tools
– Alignment tools and grids to control
placement
– Text tools
– Basic sound control
– Strategies to support interactivity
 Flash Development Screen
Timeline Keyframes and
tweened sequence.
Frame one on
the timeline

Development
Tools

Layers contain
individual elements
arranged in a
stacking order of
background on the
bottom to sound on
the top layer.
Programmed Animation
• Animators write commands and the computer
generates the animation.
– Requires knowledge of programming and
mathematical techniques to specify motion.
• Advantages:
– File sizes are smaller.
– Animations load and play faster.
– Reduces bandwidth and processor
demands.
– Efficient creation of different versions of
animated sequence.
Programmed Animation
• Supports complex forms of interactivity.
– Computer games take input from the user
and animate the objects "on the fly."
• Scripting languages frequently used to
generate programmed animations:
– Lingo
– Actionscript
– Javascript
2-D Animation
• Elements of 3-D animation set in motion
include:
– Objects
– Sounds
– Cameras
– Lights
• Techniques are similar to 2-D animation:
– Key frame
– Tween motion
• Complex motion may involve using models of
humans and animals.
Motion Capture
• Also called performance animation.
– Technique of recording motion of actual
objects and mapping these motions to a
computer- generated animated character.
– Performers have sensors to track the
motion of various body parts as they create
the action sequences.
• Used to capture complex natural motions that
are difficult to create.

View IT
Demonstration of a
motion capture
animation rig from
YouTube.
 Forward Kinematics

• Kinematics is study of motion of bodies or

systems of bodies.
– The motion of one part generates related
motion in others.
• Animator must adjust all motion in all related
parts of the body.
View IT
–Simple to implement Animation using forward
kinematics as displayed
–Models easily defined. on YouTube.

–Computer processing is minimal.

–Quality of motion depends on animator's skill.
–Animation is time consuming process.
 Inverse Kinematics

• Motion of one body part produces

related motions in other body parts.
– Simplifies animator's work and ensures
consistent,
realistic motion.
• Software embodies the knowledge of
anatomical motion.
– Requires innovative programming.
– Demands more processing power than
forward kinematics.
• Significantly reduces work of animator.
 Animating with Physics

• Software can automatically generate

motions based on properties of object and
laws of physics.
• Will free animators from more tedious tasks
of 3-D animation and produce more
realistic content.
– Animators can concentrate on
developing stories and characters.
Completing the Animation
• Rendering creates the final animation frames
by applying:
– The modeling
– Surface definition
– Scene composition as specified by
animator.
 Rendering Options
• Pre-render
– Requires enormous processing resources and
time for animated movies.
– Computer carries out complex calculations to
implement the object properties, lighting,
camera angles and motions.
• Render in real time
– Computer produces animation immediately.

– Used in video games and highly interactive 3-

D animations.
Shrek 1 in 2001 used about 5 million CPU render hours.
Shrek 2 in 2004 used 10 million CPU hours
Shrek3 in 2007 used 20 million CPU hours.
Animation Tips & Guidelines
• Prepare for a learning curve.
– Animation programs are more difficult to
master.
• Design for delivery.
– Minimize file size if delivery is for Web.
• Consider clip animation to reduce costs.
• Consult the tradition in developing motion.
– Cycles, holds, shooting on twos, tweening,
stretch and squash, ease in & ease out,
overshoot & overlap motion are traditional
techniques.
Wrap Up
• Digital animation based on:
– Rich animation tradition
– Powerful set of digital tools
– Creativity of new digital artists
• Potential of the "universal machine":
– An assistant in the animation process.
– A virtual partner in the creative process
creating worlds only possible in digital
environments.
View IT
• Animation is the frontier of digital Finding Nemo
production process
multimedia. illustrates the power of
digital animation to
create new worlds.
Wrap Up
• Traditional animation set the procedures and
techniques for computer animation.
• Types of computer animation.
§ 2-Dimensional
• Based largely on traditional techniques.
• Computer provides efficiencies in the
animation development.
§ 3-Dimensional
• Techniques include motion capture,
kinematics, animating with physics.
• Computer becomes a virtual partner to
create and animate objects.
Key Term Check Up