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Overview of Computer Animation Techniques

This document discusses computer animation. It describes animation as giving life to graphics by adding the dimension of time. There are two main categories of computer animation: computer-assisted animation, which involves 2D/3D modeling and inbetweening, and computer-generated animation, which uses low-level techniques like shape interpolation or high-level techniques like physically-based motion. The early days of animation are also summarized, including innovations by Blackton, Cohl, McCay, Bray, Fleischer, and Disney. More recent examples using extensive computer graphics are provided.

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Tanveer Ahmed Hakro
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106 views18 pages

Overview of Computer Animation Techniques

This document discusses computer animation. It describes animation as giving life to graphics by adding the dimension of time. There are two main categories of computer animation: computer-assisted animation, which involves 2D/3D modeling and inbetweening, and computer-generated animation, which uses low-level techniques like shape interpolation or high-level techniques like physically-based motion. The early days of animation are also summarized, including innovations by Blackton, Cohl, McCay, Bray, Fleischer, and Disney. More recent examples using extensive computer graphics are provided.

Uploaded by

Tanveer Ahmed Hakro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chapter 9

Computer Animation
Dr. Umair Ali Khan
Animation

 Animate = “Give life to”


 Adding the dimension of time to graphics
 Animator specifies movement of objects
through time and space
Two main categories
 Computer-assisted animation
 2D & 3D
 Inbetweening
 virtual camera, managing data, etc
 Computer generated animation
 Low level techniques
▪ Precisely specifying motion
 High level techniques
▪ Describe general motion behavior
Animation

 Low-level techniques
 Shape interpolation
 Helps the animator fill in the details of the motion given
enough information
 Animator has a fairly specific idea of target motion
 High-level techniques
 Generate a motion given a set of rules or constraints
 Object motion is controlled by a model/algorithm
 Fairly sophisticated computation, such as physically-based
motion
Animation
 Another way of looking at this: level of abstraction
 Very low-level: animator colors every pixel
individually in every frame
 Very-high level: tell the computer “make a movie
about a dog”
 Challenge lies in developing tools that allow
animators to animate on different levels
Perception
 Eye/brain assembles images and
interprets them as continuous
movement
 Persistence of vision: sequence of still
images shown at a fast enough rate to
induce sensation of continuous imagery
 Eye retains visual imprint once stimulus
is removed
 “afterimages”
 Persistence of vision is not persistence
of motion
Perception
Perception

 Persistence of vision lower bound:


 Playback rate of images
 Critical flicker frequency
 Persistence of motion has an upper bound:
 Object moves too quickly
 Motion blur
 Two important rates:
 Playback/refresh rate
 Sampling/update rate
The early days

 Persistence of vision:
discovered in the 1800s.
 Zoetrope
 Flipbook
 Thaumatrope
The early days
 End of the 19th century introduced moving
image by using a projector.
 Magic Lantern and shadow puppets
The early days
 Kinetograph/kinetoscope
 First motion picture camera/viewer
The early days
 Animation movie pioneers
 J. Stuart Blackton (smoke effect, 1900)
▪ First animated cartoon in 1906
▪ Used a chalkboard for drawing and erasing frames

 Emile Cohl (Fantasmogorie,


1908)
 Winsor McCay (Little Nemo)
▪ Each image redrawn on rice paper and then filmed
The early days

 Major technical developments by John Bray (1910):


 compositing multiple layers of drawings into a final image
(celluloid)
 using grayscale
 Drawing background on long sheet of paper for panning
 Max Fleischer (Betty Boop), Walter Lantz (Woody
Woodpecker)
 Fleischer patented rotoscoping in 1915
The early days

 First animated character: Felix the Cat (Otto


Messmer) in early 1920s.
 Disney came around end 1920s, introducing a
number of innovations
 Storyboards
 Pencil sketches for reviewing motion
 Multiplane camera
 Using sound & colour
The early days

 Sound was added for the first time in


Steamboat Willie (1928)
 Disney promoted idea that mind of the
character was the driving force of the action
 Analysis of real-life motion
MGM and Warner Brothers, etc.
Other Media Animation

 Claymation
 Sand animation

Physical object is manipulated, image


captured, repeat
More recent movies with CG
 Final fantasy (2001)
 Fully 3D simulated
environment
 Lord of the Rings (2001-
2003)
 One of the first movies using
crowds (Massive)
 Avatar (2009)
 Benjamin Button (2008)
 Prometheus (2012)

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