Animation

What is ANIMATION?
• Definition:
– A collection of static images joined together
and shown consecutively so that they appear to
move.
• Animation is about storytelling by bringing
things to life (making them move).

Cell VS Computer(Digital)

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 Computer /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.

Creating Animation
• 2 step process for creating animations
– Step 1: Planning
– Step 2: Implementation
• Step 1: Planning
– Decide on the problem to be solved
– Design a solution – storyboard
– Determine the characters and objects to appear
on

Story Board Example

Creating Animation
• Step 2: Implementation
– Start production
– Post-production
– Test playback and review
– Amendments
– Delivery or packaging

• Understanding the 12 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 critical to making ideas
readable.
Examples:
1. Timing: tiny characters move quicker than
larger ones.
2. Motion: can define weights of objects.

Heavy vs. Light Objects
QuickTime™ and a
Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

3. Anticipation
Preparation for an action
Example:
Goofy prepares to hit a baseball.

4. Staging
A clear presentation of an idea.
Some Techniques:
1. Use motion in a still scene or use of static movement
in a busy scene.
2. Use of silhouettes (to the side)

5. Follow Through and
Overlapping Action
1. Follow Through
Termination part of an action.
2. Overlapping Action
Starting a second action before the first has completed.
Example: after throwing a ball
Example: Luxo Jr.’s hop with overlapping
action on chord.

6. Straight Ahead Action and
Pose-to-Pose Action
1. Straight Ahead
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.

7. Slow in and Out
Spacing of inbetween
frames to achieve
subtlety of timing and
movement.
1. 3d keyframe comp. Systems
uses spline interpolation to
control the path of an object.
2. Has tendency to overshoot at
extremes (small # of frames).

8. Arcs
• Visual path of action for natural movement.
• Makes animation much smoother and less
stiff than a straight line.

9. Exaggeration
• Accentuating the essence of an idea via the
design and the action.
• Needs to be used carefully.
Example: Luxo Jr. made
smaller to give idea of a
child.

10. Secondary Action
• Action that results directly from another action.
• Used to increase the complexity and interest of a
scene.
Example:
Body movement is the primary
action, facial expression is the
secondary action

11. Solid Drawing
– The basic principles of drawing form, weight, volume solidity
and the illusion of three dimension apply to animation as it does
to academic drawing.
– Transform these into color and movement giving the characters
the illusion of three-and four-dimensional life. Three
dimensional is movement in space.

12. Appeal
• Refers to what an audience would like to see.
• Character cannot be too simple (boring) or too
complex.
Examples:
Avoid mirror symmetry,
assymmetry is interesting.

Design of animation sequence
• Storyboard layout.
• Object Definitions
• Key Frame Seq.
• Generation of in-between frame

H/W and S/w
• Adobe photoshop
• GIF animator
• 3D studio
• Macromedia
Flash
• SGI -unic
• PC
• Macintosh

Authoring Principles for
Animations for Presentations
1. Use parameterization at all levels of the
system.
2. Treat animations as models - animations
are treated as parameterized models that
have a single parameter: time.
3. Build slides hierarchically

Animation Principles for Presentations.
1. Make all movement meaningful
2. Avoid instantaneous changes
3. Reinforce structure with transitions
4. Create a large virtual canvas
5. Smoothly expand and compress detail
6. Manage complexity through overlays
– Do one thing at a time.
– Reinforce animation with narration.
– Distinguish dynamics from transitions.

Types of animation system
1. Scripting System - LISP, ASAS(Actor cript
Animation Lang)
2. Procedural Animation.
3. Representational Animation - Morphing
4. Stochastic Animation - Fileworks/Waterfall
5. Behavioral animation