Computer Graphics

Unit 6

 Segment and Animation

 Contents
 Segment: Introduction, Segment table, Segment creation, closing,
deleting and renaming, Visibility.
 Animation: Introduction, Design of animation sequences, Animation
languages, Key-frame, Morphing, Motion specification.
 Colour models and applications: Properties of Light, CIE
chromaticity Diagram, RGB, HSV, CMY, YIQ, colour Selection and
applications.
 Segments
 In general, the image on display screen is often composed of pictures of
several objects.
 Each object has a set of attributes such as size, colour, position etc.
 We might wish to see all these objects simulteneously or a single object at a
time. For this we need to organize the image information in a particular
manner.
 The image information is stored in Display file.
 A display list (or display file) is a series of graphics commands that define an
output image. The image is created (rendered) by executing the commands.
 Existing structure of display file does not satisfy the requirements of viewing
image. Hence the display structure is modified to reflect the sub picture
structure. To achieve this display file is divided into segments.
 Each segment corresponds to a component or a object of the overall display
and is associated with a set of attributes.
 Along with the attributes, the segment is also associated with the image
transformation parameters such as scaling and translation along X and Y
direction, rotation and shearing.
 Thus, segment allows:
 Subdivision of the picture
 Visualization of a particular part of the picture
 Scaling, rotation, translation and shearing of a particular object in the picture
 The structure used to organize all this information related to segments is
called segment table.
Segment Table
 Each row in the segment table represents information of one segment
including its name, position, size, visibility, attributes and image
transformation parameters.
 If we wish to make segment 4 visible then this is achieved by setting the
visibility entry for segment 4 to 'ON'.
 The display file interpreter initially checks the start, size and visible attribute
of the segments and it interprets only those segments which are to be made
visible.
• The segment table is formed by using arrays. An alternative approach
is linked list.
• In case of arrays, maximum no. of segments that can be included in
the segment table are equal to the length of the arrays. But with linked
list there is no such limit on the maximum no. of segments; as list is
dynamic.
• In linked List, ordering is achieved by simply adjusting the links. In
case of arrays we have to move actual segment information in the
process of sorting the segments.
• The Disadvantage of linked list is that it requires more storage to hold
the links.
 Segment Creation
• We Must give the segment name so that we can identify it. For example say that there is segment
no. 3, then all following commands would belong to segment 3. We could then close segment 3
and open another.
• First thing to create a segment is to check whether some other segment is open. We can not open
two segments at the same time because we would not know to which segment we should assign
the drawing instructions. If there is segment open, we have an error
• Next we should select valid segment name and check whether there already exists a segment under
this name. If so, we again have an error.
• The first instruction belonging to this segment will be located at the next free storage area in the
display file.
• The current size of the segment is zero since we have not actually entered any instructions into it
yet.
• The attributes of the segment are initialized as a default attribute values.
Algorithm: Create Segment
 A segment is created by the function:

 CREATE SEGMENT(ID)

 where ID is the name by which the segment is to be known.

 This segment is then the open segment.

 BEGIN

 SEGMENT-START[SEGMENT-NAME] <- FREE;

 SEGMENT-SIZE[SEGMENT-NAME] <- 0;

 VISIBILITY[SEGMENT-NAME] <- VISIBILITY[0];

 ANGLE[SEGMENT-NAME] <- ANGLE[0];

 SCALE-X[SEGMENT-NAME] <- SCALE-X[0];

 SCALE-Y[SEGMENT-NAME] <- SCALE-Y[0];

 TRANSLATE-X[SEGMENT-NAME] <- TRANSLATE-X[0];

 TRANSLATE-Y[SEGMENT-NAME] <- TRANSLATE-Y[0];

 END;
 It is important to note that at any time, only one segment can be open, thus a
series of function calls such as:

 CREATE SEGMENT(1)
 output primitives

 CREATE SEGMENT(2) ILLEGAL!!

 output primitives
 CLOSE SEGMENT
 CLOSE SEGMENT
 Closing a Segment
• Once segment is open, we can enter display file instructions in it.
After completion of entering all display file instruction, the segment
must be closed.
•
 CREATE SEGMENT(1)
 output primitives
 CLOSE SEGMENT
Deleting a Segment
 Algorithm: Deleting a Segment

1. Read the name of the segment which is to be deleted.

2. Check whether the segment name is valid; if not display error
“Segment not valid” go to step 8
3. Check whether the segment is open, if yes, display error message “
Can’t delete open segment” go to step 8.
4. Check whether the size of segment is greater than 0, if no, no
processing is required as segment contains no instructions.
5. Shift the display file elements (other segments in display file) which
follow the segment which is to be deleted by it’s size.
6. Adjust the starting positions of the shifted segments by subtracting
the size of the deleted segment from it.
7. Stop.
 Renaming a Segment
• The display processor is continuously reading the display file and
showing its contents.
• Suppose we wish to use this device to show an animated character
moving on the display.
• To display a new image in the sequence we have to delete the current
segment and re-create it with the altered character. The problem in
this process is that during the time after the first image is deleted and
time before the second image is completely entered, only a partially
completed character is displayed on the screen.
• We avoid this problem by keeping the next image ready in the display
file before deleting the current segment.
• Segment which is to be deleted and segment which is to be replaced
with must exist in display file at the same time.
• We do this by building the new invisible image (making visibility of
that image as OFF) under some temporary segment name. When it is
completed, we can delete the original image, make the replacement
image visible, and rename the new segment to become the old
segment to achieve apparent motion.
• The idea of maintaining two images, one to show and one to build or
alter, is called double buffering.
Algorithm: Renaming a Segment
Visibility
Image Transformation
 Animation
• To animate means "to give life to“. Animating is moving something
which can't move itself.
• Computer animation is the use of computer graphics to create
animations. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation.
• Animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation.
• An animator's job is to take a static image or object and literally bring
it to life by giving it movement.
• In computer animation, animators use software to draw, model and
animate the objects and characters.
• The basic idea behind animation is to playback 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 computer art.
 Design of Animation Sequences
• Common Steps of designing the animation sequence are as given:
1. Storyboard layout
2. Object definitions
3. Key-frame specifications
4. Generation of in-between frames
1. Storyboard layout:
• The Storyboard layout is an outline of the action. It defines the
motion sequence as a set of basic events that are to take place. Such
ordered set of events gives the motion sequence.
 The storyboard could consist of a set of rough sketches or it could be
a list of the basic ideas for the motion.
• The storyboarding process was developed at Walt Disney Productions
during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being
in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.
2. Object definitions:
• Each active section of the scene is treated as an object.
• The object definition is specified for all participant objects in action.
• Along with objects, the description of the movements that are to be
performed by each character or object is also specified.

3. Key-frame specifications:
• A keyframe is a detailed drawing of the scene at a certain time in the
animation sequence.
• Within each key frame, each object is positioned according to the
time for that frame.
• Some key frames are chosen at extreme positions in the action; others
are spaced so that the time interval between key frames is not to great.
4. Generation of in-between frames:
• In-between frames are the intermediate frames between the key
frames.
• The number of in-between frames is based on the media to be used to
display the animation. In common, film needs twenty-four frames per
second, and graphic terminals are refreshed on the rate of 30 to 60
frames per second.
• Classically, there are three to five in-between frames for each pair of
keyframes.
• E.g. We want to design an animation sequence for 10 seconds. For
this we need to have 24x10 frames because film requires 24 frames
per second. Out of these 240 frames, we can have 48 keyframes and
remaining 192 in-between frames. In this case there are 4 in-between
frames between two keyframes.
  Animation languages
 There are many different languages for describing computer animation
and new ones are constantly being developed.
 Animation languages can be categorized as:
1) Linear-list notations
2) General purpose languages
3) Graphical languages
 1) Linear-list notations:

 In Linear-list notations, each event in the animation is described by a starting

and ending frame number and an action that is to take place.
 The action is specified by a statement with relative parameters.
 E.g. 30,45, C ROTATE “ARM”, 1,60
 The above statement say that - between frames 30 and 45, rotate the object
called ARM about axis 1 by 60o , determining the amount of rotation at each
frame from table C.
 2) General purpose languages:

 General purpose languages such as C, C++, Pascal or Lisp can be used to

design and control the animation sequences.
 These languages have great potential. They can certainly do everything that
Linear-list notations do. But most of these languages require considerable
programming expertise.
 ASAS is an example of general purpose language.
 It is built on top of LISP.
 Its primitives include vectors, colours, polygons, solids and lights.
 It also includes a wide range of geometric transformations that operate on
objects. These transformations take an object as an argument and return a
value that is transformed copy of the object. These transformations include
up, down, left, right, zoom-in, zoom-out, forward and backward.
 3) Graphical languages:

 There are several specialized animation languages developed called

graphical languages.
 These languages provide various animation functions which make it easy to
design and control the animation.
 These animation functions include a graphics editor, a keyframe generator,
an in-between generator and standard graphics routines.
 Thus, specialized animation language allows us to design and modify
object's shape and position. They also define photometric parameters such as
light intensities, surface illumination properties. They can set camera
parameters such as position, orientation and lens characteristics.
 Following are some graphical languages:
 1) Keyframe systems 2) Parameterized systems 3) Scripting systems.
 1) Keyframe systems:
 This is a specialized animation language used to generate in-between frame
from the user-specified keyframes.
 By controlling the movement of object bodies, keyframe systems generate
in-between frames.

 2) Parameterized systems:
 These languages specifies the object motion characteristics to be as a part of
the object definitions.
 So the designer can have control over object's characteristics such as degree
of freedom, motion limitation and allowable shape changes.
 3) Scripting systems:
 This language allows object specifications and animation sequences to be
defined in a user-input script.
 It is possible to write a script for defining object and its motion.
 Such a scripts can be stored in the library.
 Morphing
 Morphing is transformation of object shape from one form to another
 Morphing is common in entertainment industry. Morphing is widely used
in movies, animation, games etc.
 Morphing is the process in which the source image is gradually distorted
and vanished while producing the target image.
• The earlier images in the sequence are similar to source image and
last images are similar to target image.
• Middle image of the sequence is the average of the source image
and the target image.
 When an object is described using polygon, we compare the two keyframes
for which in-between frames are to be generated.
 The keyframes are compared in terms of number of vertices and number of
edges . If they are unequal, they are added or deleted to match the count as a
preprocessing steps.
 This is shown in following example:
 There are 2 keyframes, K and K+1.
 The frame K has one line segment while frame K+1 has two line segments.
 As keyframe K+1 has an extra vertex, we add a vertex between vertices 1
and 2 in keyframe K to balance the number of vertices in two frames as a
preprocessing step.
 Then using linear interpolation, we translate the added vertex in keyframe K
into vertex 3' along the straight line path.
 So the intermediate position of this 3' gives us the in-between frames.
Following figure shows transformation of triangle into quadrilateral using
linear interpolation:
Equalize two keyframes
 Tweening
 The animator draws objects and characters either by hand or with a
computer.
 Then he positions his creations in key frames, which form an outline of the
most important movements.
 Next, the computer uses mathematical algorithms to fill in the "in-between"
frames. This process is called tweening.
 Key framing and tweening are traditional animation techniques that can be
done by hand, but are accomplished much faster with a computer.
  Motion specification
 There are following common ways in which the motions of objects
can be specified:
 Direct motion specification
 Goal-directed systems
 Kinematics and Dynamics
 Direct motion specification:
 It is most straight forward method for defining a motion sequence.
 In this method, the rotation angles and the translation vectors are specified so
that geometrical transformations can be applied to the objects in the scene to
generate animation sequences.


 Goal-directed systems:
 In these systems, instead of specifying motion parameters, goal specific
instructions are specified.
 For example: We would specify that we want an object to walk or to run to a
particular destination.
 Kinematics and Dynamics:
 1) Kinematic descriptions:
 Motion parameters such as position, velocity and acceleration are specified
without reference to the forces that causes the motion to generate animation
sequences.
 Inverse Kinematics: In this approach, initial and final positions of objects
are specified and from that motion parameters are computed by system to
generate animation sequences.

 2) Dynamic descriptions:
 The forces that produce the velocities and accelerations are specified. Such
descriptions of objects are referred as a physically based modeling.
 Here, object motions are obtained from the force equations describing
physical laws, such as Newton's laws of motion for gravitational and friction
forces, Euler or Navier-stokes equations describing fluid flow and Maxwell's
equations for electromagnetic forces.