What is animation?

1. What is animation? • Animation • process of creating images one at a time to be displayedrapidly in sequence giving the illusion of movement . • Persistence of vision • blending together by the eye and brain of rapidly displayed sequential images, giving the illusion of movement.

2. Usage of animation • Artistic purposes • Storytelling • Displaying data (scientific visualization) • Instructional purposes

3. Animation Pipeline Stages • 1. Story • 2. Visual Development • 3. Character Design • 4. Storyboards • 5. Scene Layout • 6. Modelling • 7. Rendering • 8. Post Production

4. Main “Computer-less” Process • Almost only keyframe animation • Experienced artist draws key frames • In-betweener draws “what’s in between” • To simplify: use translucent cels • Cellular animation • Frame consists of layers drawn separately • put together and photograph to produce final frame • The principle transfers directly to computers • Layer are used in any animation program

5. Conventional Animation • Make storyboard: Sequence of scenes. • Draw Key Frames: Characteristic or extreme positions of characters. • Inbetweening: Draw intermediate frames. • Painting: Fill regions with color. • Assembling: Put characters and objects on background paintings. • Filming: Photograph the sequence of frames.

6. Storyboard • One drawing for each shot in each scene. • Camera angles and transitions. • Representative illustration style(s). • Verbal description of the action. • Incremental and cumulative timing. • Description of sound track.

7. Storyboard

8. Keyframe • Traditional animation technique • Dependent on artist to generate ‘key’ frames • Additional, ‘inbetween’ frames are drawn by Inbetweeners • But today automatically by computer

9. Cel Animation Background and static objects are drawn on opaque paper. • Each dynamic object is drawn on a separate sheet of transparent cellophane. • As scene changes from one frame to the next, only changing objects need to be redrawn.

10. The Twelve Principles of Animation • Created in the early 1930s by animators at the Walt Disney Studios. • Used to guide production and creative discussions as well as to train young animators better and faster. • The twelve principles became one of the foundations of hand-drawn cartoon character animation. • The twelve principles also helped to transform animation from a novelty into an art form. • By applying these principles to their work these pioneering animators produced many of the earliest animated feature films that became classics: • Snow White (1937), • Pinocchio and Fantasia (1940), • Dumbo (1941), and • Bambi (1942).

11. The Twelve Principles of Animation • The twelve principles are mostly about five things: • Acting the performance, • Directing the performance, • Representing reality (through drawing, modeling, and rendering), • Interpreting real world physics, and • Editing a sequence of actions. • The original principles are still relevant today because they help us to create more believable characters and situations. • They can be applied to almost any type of animation, even though they work best for comedy. • Some of these principles require updates, and a few new additional principles are also needed to address the new techniques and styles of 3D computer animation

12. 1). Squash and Stretch • Squash and stretch, the first principle from the original twelve, is used to exaggerate the amount of non-rigid body deformations usually with the purpose of achieving a more comedic effect. • Three-dimensional squash and stretch can be implemented with a variety of techniques: skin and muscle, springs, direct mesh manipulation and morphing.

13. Squash and Stretch • Squash: • Flattening by external pressure • Stretch: • Extended by external force • Computer implementation: scaling transform • squash and stretch is used here to distort a face after receiving a punch.

14. 2). Anticipation • The technique of anticipation helps to guide the audience's eyes to where the action is about to occur. • More anticipation equals less suspense. Horror films, for example, switch back and forth from lots of anticipation to total surprise. • Slow action: can use little anticipation • Meaning is carried by the action itself • Fast action: need more anticipation • Need to know what’s going to happen even before the action • Exaggerated anticipation: • Emphasize extreme weight / action difficulty

15. AnticipationBefore throwing the ball the pitcher anticipates the target and winds up for the pitch

16. 3). Staging • Staging is about translating the mood and intention of a scene into specific character positions and actions. • Staging the key character poses in the scene helps to define the nature of the action. • Techniques: hiding or revealing the center of interest, or a chain reaction of actions-reactions. • Contemporary cinematic techniques such as slow motion, frozen time, motion loops, and hand-held camera moves.

17. Differences in staging can turn the same scene from happy to suspenseful.

18. Staging • Presentation of the idea in action • Only one idea at a time • Contrast the object of interest from the rest of the scene • Still scene: notice movement • Busy scene: note lack of motion • Silhouettes are more noticeable • Use strongest and simplest way • “Look at this, now look at this”

19. 4). Pose-to-Pose Action and Straight-Ahead Action • Straight-ahead action and pose-to-pose are two different animation techniques that yield fairly different results. • pose-to-pose action: it breaks down structured motion into a series of clearly defined key poses. • straight-ahead action: the character moves spontaneously through the action one step at a time until the action is finished. • Motion capture and dynamics simulations, are clearly the straight-ahead techniques of three-dimensional computer animation.

20. The structured movements of a ballerina, from one key pose to another, is a good example of pose-to-pose action. Her smooth motions follow curved paths

21. The improvisation, spontaneity, and unpredictability in the walk of a drunken character illustrates straight-ahead action

22. 5). Follow-Through and Overlapping Action • Follow-through and overlapping action are two techniques that help make the action richer and fuller with detail and subtlety. • Follow-through action consists of the reactions of the character after an action, and it usually lets audiences know how he or she feels about what has just happened or is about to happen. • In overlapping action multiple motions influence, blend, and overlap the position of the character. In three-dimensional computer animation a lot of the common follow-through motions of clothing and hair, for example, can be animated with dynamics simulations. • The layers and channels in three-dimensional computer animation software allow us to mix and blend different overlapping motions from different areas of the character.

23. Follow-through includes the reactions of a character after an action.These let the viewer know how the character feels about what has just happened.

24. Multiple motions happening at the same time result in overlapping action, for example when a character falls

25. 6). Slow-in and Slow-out • Movement of the human body, and most other objects, needs time to accelerate and slow down. For this reason, an animation looks more realistic if it has more frames near the beginning and end of a movement, and fewer in the middle. • Slow-in and slow-out consist of slowing down the beginning and the end of an action, while speeding up the middle of it. • When using motion capture techniques for cartoon-style animated characters it is essential to remind performers to do slow-ins and slow-outs.

26. Right before and right after kicking the ball a soccer player slows-in and slows-out; this highlights the precise moment of the kick

27. Slow in and Slow out • Even spacing between frames = constant speed • Better to have gradual acceleration and slowing down • With computers: use special parameterizations of spline curves

28. 7). Arcs • Using arcs to animate the movements of characters helps achieve a natural look because most living creatures move in curved paths, never in perfectly straight lines. • Non-arc motion comes across as robotic. • In three-dimensional computer animation we can use software constraints to force all or some of the motion within arcs.

29. Arcs • Visual path should be an arc • Rather than a straight line • Can be a problem for typical computer methods: • Fast movement = straight lines • Solution: • Use independent curves for position interpolation and speed control

30. 8). Secondary action • Secondary action consists of the smaller motions that complement the dominant action. • In three-dimensional computer animation we can take advantage of layers and channels for building up different secondary motions, for example, a layer for hair, a layer for the character's hat, a layer for the cape, and so on.

31. Head motion/Eyes-Shut actions of the robot, and the waving of Mickey’s cloth are secondary actions.

32. 9). Timing • Timing is the precise moment and the amount of time that a character spends on an action. • Timing adds emotion and intention to the character's performance . • Most three-dimensional computer animation tools allow us to fine tune the timing by shaving off or adding frames with non-linear time-editing. • Timing can also be controlled and adjusted by placing each character on a separate track, and using sub-tracks for parts of the character such as head, torso, arms and legs.

33. The timing of a response to someone calling us, or to a noise, tells a lot about our attitude, confidence and disposition

34. 10). Exaggeration • Exaggeration usually helps cartoon characters to deliver the essence of an action (realism, comedy). • A lot of exaggeration can be achieved with squash and stretch, or staging. • In three-dimensional computer animation we can use procedural techniques, motion ranges and scripts to exaggerate motion. • The intensity of a moment can be increased with cinematography and editing, not just with performance

35. Exaggerated reactions are often comedic.

36. 11). Solid Modeling and Rigging • Solid modeling and rigging, or solid drawing as it was called in the 1930s, emphasizes the clear delineation of shape necessary to bring animated characters to life. • Solid and precise modeling helps to convey the weight, depth and balance of the character. • Animation rigs are at their best when they are optimized for the specific personality and motion of the character. • Modern-day computer animators in theory do not need to draw at all, yet their work can still benefit greatly from a basic understanding of these principles.

37. Solid modeling helps to pose silhouettes that are easy to read visually, and good rigging helps animators deliver performances that are adequate to the character.

38. 12). Character Personality / Appeal • Character personality, or appeal as it was originally called, facilitates the emotional connection between character and audience. • Characters must be well developed, have an interesting personality, and have a clear set of desires or needs that drive theirbehavior and actions. • Complexity and consistency of motion are two elements of character appeal that can be easily developed with three-dimensional computer animation. • Writing down the ways in which the character moves , how he/she reacts to different situations, and how he/she relates to other characters can help define the main characteristics of the character's personality. • Fine-tune the personality with the key poses and the character turnarounds.

39. Understanding the motivations and desires of characters makes their personality better defined and increases their appeal.

40. Principles of 3D Animation • Principles of 3D Animation • Squash and Stretch - defining the rigidity and mass of an object by distorting its shape during an action • Timing - spacing actions to define the weight and size of objects and the personality of characters • Anticipation - the preparation for an action • Staging - presenting an idea so that it is unmistakably clear • Follow Through and Overlapping Action - the termination of an action and establishing its relationship to the next action • Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose Action - The two contrasting approaches to the creation of movement • Slow In and Out - the spacing of the in-between frames to achieve subtlety of timing and movement • Solid Modeling and Rigging – helps conveying the weight, depth and balance of a character • Arcs - the visual path of action for natural movement • Exaggeration - Accentuating the essence of an idea via the design and the action • Secondary Action - the action of an object resulting from another action • Character Personality/Appeal - creating a design or an action that the audience enjoys watching