[email protected] [email protected] [email protected].

eg

Chapter (3)
Computer Animation
Animation means giving life to any object in computer graphics. It has the power of injecting
energy and emotions into the most seemingly inanimate objects. Computer-assisted
animation and computer-generated animation are two categories of computer animation. It
can be presented via film or video.
The basic idea behind animation is to play back the recorded images at the rates fast enough
to fool the human eye into interpreting them as continuous motion. Animation can make a
series of dead images come alive. Animation can be used in many areas like entertainment,
computer aided-design, scientific visualization, training, education, e-commerce, and
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computer art.

3.1 Computer Animation

Generally, Computer animation is a visual digital display technology that processes the
moving images on screen. In simple words, it can be put or defined as the art or power of
giving life, energy and emotions etc. to any non-living or inanimate object via computers. It
can be presented in form of any video or movie. Computer animation has the ability to make
any dead image alive. The key/main concept behind computer animation is to play the
defined images at a faster rate to fool the viewer so that the viewer should interpret those
images as a continuous motion of images.
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Animation refers to the movement on the screen of the display device created by displaying a
sequence of still images. Animation is the technique of designing, drawing, making layouts
and preparation of photographic series which are integrated into the multimedia and gaming
products. Animation connects the exploitation and management of still images to generate the
illusion of movement. A person who creates animations is called animator. He/she use
various computer technologies to capture the pictures and then to animate these in the desired
sequence. Animation includes all the visual changes on the screen of display devices. These
are:

1. Change of SHAPE as shown in Figure:

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2. Change in SIZE as shown in Figure:

3. Change in COLOR as shown in Figure:

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4. Change in STRUCTURE as shown in Figure:

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5. Change in ANGLE as shown in Figure:

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Computer Animation

3.2 History of Computer Animation

Computer Animation is a sub-part or small part of computer graphics and animation.
Nowadays, animation can be seen in many areas around us. It is used in a lot of movies, films
and games, education, e-commerce, computer art, training etc. It is a big part of entertainment
area as most of the sets and background is all build up through VFX and animation.

Year Developments
1906 “Humorous phase of funny faces” – 1st animated movie/film.
1909 “Gertie the trained Dinosaur” – Cartoon was developed.
1913 Felix the cat” and “Old doc Yak” – Cartoon series was developed.
1923 Cartoon movie Alice’s Wonderland was created.
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1926 “Prince Achmed” – 1st full length animated movie.

1928 “Mickey Mouse” – First cartoon with sound (developed by Walt Disney).
1970 “Scanimate” – 1st analog video synthesizer.
1977 “Star War” – First popular movie using animation.
1993 “Jurassic Park”, movie using VFX and animation.
1995 “Disney Pixar’s Toy Story” – 1st computer animation featuring film.
Movies like: “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions”, used virtual
2003
cinematography.
2006 Video Game named “Play Station 3” was developed.

3.3
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Applications of Computer
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Animation 2024/2025

Figure 3. 1 Application Areas of Computer Animation

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1. Education and Training:

Animation is used in school, colleges and training centers for education purpose. Flight
simulators for aircraft are also animation based.

2. Entertainment:
Animation methods are now commonly used in making motion pictures, music videos and
television shows, etc.

3. Computer Aided Design (CAD):

One of the best applications of computer animation is Computer Aided Design and is
generally referred to as CAD. One of the earlier applications of CAD was automobile
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designing. But now almost all types of designing are done by using CAD application, and
without animation, all these work can't be possible.

4. Advertising:
This is one of the significant applications of computer animation. The most important
advantage of an animated advertisement is that it takes very less space and capture people
attention.

5. Presentation:
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Animated Presentation is the most effective way to represent an idea. It is used to describe
financial, statistical, mathematical, scientific & economic data.

3.4 Animation Techniques

Animators have invented and used a variety of different animation techniques. Basically there
are six animation techniques which we would discuss one by one in this section.

3.4.1 Traditional Animation (Frame-by-Frame)

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
efforts required to create even the shortest of movies can be tremendous.
Earlier, in traditional method, animation was done by hands because of the absence of the
computer-aided drawing facilities. And, this traditional method required a lot of effort for
even making a short video because of the fact that every second of animation requires 24
frames to process.

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Computer Animation

3.4.2 Keyframing
In this technique, a storyboard is laid out and then the artists draw the major frames of the
animation. Major frames are the ones in which prominent changes take place. They are the
key points of animation. Keyframing requires that the animator specifies critical or key
positions for the objects. The computer then automatically fills in the missing frames by
smoothly interpolating between those positions.
A key frame in computer animation is a frame where we define changes in an animation.
According to key framing, a storyboard requirement is must as the animator/artist draws the
major frames (frames in which major/important changes can be made later) of animation
from it. In key framing, character’s or object’s key position are the must and need to be
defined by the animator, because the missing frames are filled in those key position via
computer automatically.
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A keyframe is a frame where we define changes in animation. Every frame is a keyframe

when we create frame by frame animation. When someone creates a 3D animation on a
computer, they usually don’t specify the exact position of any given object on every single
frame. They create keyframes.
Keyframes are important frames during which an object changes its size, direction, shape or
other properties. The computer then figures out all the in-between frames and saves an
extreme amount of time for the animator. The following illustrations depict the frames drawn
by user and the frames generated by computer.

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Figure 3. 2 Key Framing Drawn By UserKey Frames Generated By Computer

3.4.3 Procedural
In a procedural animation, the objects are animated by a procedure − a set of rules − not by
keyframing. The animator specifies rules and initial conditions and runs simulation. Rules are
often based on physical rules of the real world expressed by mathematical equations.
In Procedural method, set of rules are used to animate the objects. Animator defines or
specifies the initial rules and procedure to process and later runs simulations. Many of the
times rules or procedure are based on real worlds physical rule which are shown by
mathematical equations.

3.4.4 Behavioral
In behavioral animation, an autonomous character determines its own actions, at least to a
certain extent. This gives the character some ability to improvise, and frees the animator from
the need to specify each detail of every character's motion.

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According to this method/technique, to a certain extent the character or object

specifies/determines its own actions which helps / allows the character to improve later, and
in turn, it frees the animator in determining each and every details of the character’s motion.

3.4.5 Performance Based (Motion Capture)

Another technique is Motion Capture, 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 actions can be captured with relative ease. However, there
can be serious discrepancies between the shapes or dimensions of the subject and the
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graphical character and this may lead to problems of exact execution.

This method of animation uses the live action/motion footage of a living human character
which is recorded to the computer via video cameras and markers and later, that action or
motion is used/applied to animate the character which gives the real feel to the viewers as if
the real human character has been animated. Motion Capture is quite famous among the
animators because of the fact that the human action or motion can be captured with relative
ease.

3.4.6 Physically Based Dynamics

Unlike key framing and motion picture, simulation uses the laws of physics to generate
motion of pictures and other objects. Simulations
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different sequences while maintaining physical realism. Secondly, real-time simulations
allow a higher degree of interactivity where the real person can maneuver the actions of the
simulated character.
In contrast the applications based on key-framing and motion select and modify motions form
a pre-computed library of motions. One drawback that simulation suffers from is the
expertise and time required to handcraft the appropriate controls systems.
In this method, simulations are used in order to produce a quite different sequence while
maintaining the physical reality. Physics’ laws are used in simulations to create the motion of
pictures/characters. High level of interactivity can be achieved in this method, via the use of
real-time simulations, where a real person performs the action or motions of a simulated
character.

3.5 Animation Functions

3.5.1 Morphing
Morphing is an animation function which is used to transform object shape from one form to
another. It is one of the most complicated transformations. This function is commonly used in
movies, cartoons, advertisement, and computer games.
A morph looks as if two images melt into each other with a very fluid motion. In technical
terms, two images are distorted and a fade occurs between them.

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Computer Animation

Figure 3. 3 Original Graphics

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Figure 3. 4 Warped Version of Graphics

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The process of Morphing involves three steps:

1. In the first step, one initial image and other final image are added to morphing
application as shown in fig: Ist & 4th object consider as key frames.
2. The second step involves the selection of key points on both the images for a smooth
transition between two images as shown in 2nd object.
3. In the third step, the key point of the first image transforms to a corresponding key
point of the second image as shown in 3rd object of the figure.
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Figure 3. 5 Process of Morphing

3.5.2 Wrapping
Wrapping function is similar to morphing function. It distorts only the initial images so that it
matches with final images and no fade occurs in this function.

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3.5.3 Tweening
Tweening is the short form of “inbetweening”. Tweening is the process of generating
intermediate frames between the initial & last final images. This function is popular in the
film industry.

Figure 3. 6 Tweening

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Computer Animation

3.5.4 Panning
Usually Panning refers to rotation of the camera in horizontal Plane. In computer graphics,
Panning relates to the movement of fixed size window across the window object in a scene.
In which direction the fixed sized window moves, the object appears to move in the opposite
direction as shown in Figure:
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Figure 3. 7 Panning

If the window moves in a backward direction, then the object appear to move in the forward
direction and the window moves in forward direction then the object appear to move in a
backward direction.

3.5.5 Zooming
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and change its size, the object also appear to
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change in size. When the window is made smaller about a fixed center, the object comes
inside the window appear more enlarged. This feature is known as Zooming In.
When we increase the size of the window about the fixed center, the object comes inside the
window appear small. This feature is known as Zooming Out.

Figure 3. 8 Zooming In and Zooming Out

3.5.6 Fractals
Fractal Function is used to generate a complex picture by using Iteration. Iteration means the
repetition of a single formula again & again with slightly different value based on the

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previous iteration result. These results are displayed on the screen in the form of the display
picture.
Fractals are used in many areas such as:
 Astronomy: for analyzing galaxies, rings of Saturn, etc.
 Biology/Chemistry: for depicting bacteria cultures, Chemical reactions, human
anatomy, molecules, plants,
 Others: for depicting clouds, coastline and borderlines, data compression, diffusion,
economy, fractal art, fractal music, landscapes, special effect, etc.
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Figure 3. 9 Fractals

Generation of Fractals
Fractals can be generated by repeating the same shape over and over again as shown in the
following figure. In figure a, shows an equilateral triangle. In figure b, we can see that the
triangle is repeated to create a star-like shape.
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figure b is repeated again and again to create a new shape.
We can do unlimited number of iteration to create a desired shape. In programming terms,
recursion is used to create such shapes.

Figure 3. 10 Generation of Fractals

Geometric Fractals
Geometric fractals deal with shapes found in nature that have non-integer or fractal
dimensions. To geometrically construct a deterministic nonrandom self-similar fractal, we
start with a given geometric shape, called the initiator. Subparts of the initiator are then
replaced with a pattern, called the generator.

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