Chap08 DMManimation

Animation
Rawesak Tanawongsuwan
ccrtw@mahidol.ac.th
8 242
Animation
• The creation of moving pictures one frame at a
time
• Literally 'to bring to life'

• e.g. make a sequence of drawings on paper,
in which a character's position changes
slightly in each drawing
• Photograph drawings in sequence, using
movie camera that advances one frame at a
time
• Play back resulting film – character will
move
8 243–244
Traditional Methods
• Drawings/paintings on paper
• 1440 drawings for every minute of film
• Cel
• Painted or scratched film
• Cut-outs
• Clay animation (Claymation) and stop-motion
animation
• etc
8
Famous Disney’s characters
http://www.scifistation.com/images/disney/mickey34.jpg
8
Cut-out Animation
• Cutout animation is a technique for producing
animations using flat characters, props and
backgrounds cut from materials such as paper,
card, stiff fabric or even photographs.
• Today, cutout-style animation is often produced

using computers, with scanned images or vector
graphics taking the place of physically cut
materials
8
Sunflower
• http://www.cut-out.co.uk/
8
Stop-motion animation
• Stop Motion Animation is the cinematic process

by which an armatured, poseable puppet is
brought to life on screen by breaking up the
figure's motion into increments and filming one
frame of film per increment
8
The Nightmare Before Christmas

8
The Nightmare Before Christmas

8
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/34/rogerrabbit.html
http://officecom.qc.ca/Media-film/classiques/
com%8Edie_fantaisiste/Who%20Framed%20Roger%20Rabbit%201.jpg
8
3D Animation
8
The Matrix Trilogy

8 245–246
Captured Animation
• Computer + video camera + traditional
technique
• Frame grabbing – record each frame to disk
• Save as QuickTime, edit non-linearly like video
• Can also use scanner or digital still camera, or

create each frame in a graphics program (e.g.
Painter)
8 249–250
Digital Cel
• Use layers (e.g. in Photoshop) like
sheets of acetate in traditional cel
animation
• e.g. static background on one layer,
moving simple object on a layer in
front of it. Make the object move by
repositioning the layer
• More complex cases, just need to
http://automanga.sourceforge.net/Doc/node3.html
change those layers where
movement or other change occurs
between frames
8 250
Sprite Animation
• Store a single copy of all static elements
and moving objects (sprites) and a
description of how the objects move
• Each sprite can be a collection of images

called sprite faces, which can be substituted
in sequence to produce composite motion
• e.g. walk cycle

8
Sprite animation
• Sprite animation differs substantially from

traditional video animation.
• With traditional video animation, you
describe a frame by specifying the color of
each pixel.
• With sprite animation, you describe a frame

by specifying which sprites appear at
various locations. At a given moment a
sprite displays a single image selected from
a pool of images shared by all of the sprites
8
Sprite animation
• Think of a sprite animation as a theatrical play
• The background is the play’s set; the

background may be a single solid color, an
image, or a combination of images.
• The sprites are the actors in the play.
• A sprite has properties that describe its location

and appearance at a given point in time.
• During the course of an animation, you modify a

sprite’s properties to cause it to change its
appearance and move around the set or stage
8 251–252
Key Frame Animation

• A keyframe is defined by its particular moment
in the animation timeline as well as by all the
parameters associated with it
• Traditional: key frames drawn by chief

animators at important points in the animation
• In-between frames drawn by less skilled

animators
• Computer-based: key frames drawn explicitly
• In-between frames interpolated by software

8
Keyframe Animation
http://www.cadtutor.net/dd/bryce/anim/anim.html
8 252
Linear Interpolation
• Simplest and straightforward
• Average the parameters in

the keyframes and provides
as many equally spaced in-
between frames as needed
• Constant velocity
• Motion begins and ends

instantaneously
8 253
Easing In
• Take into account the

variations of speed over
time (acceleration)
• Object accelerates,
gradual transition from
stasis to motion
8 253
Easing Out
• Object decelerates,
gradual transition from
motion to stasis
8 247–249
Animated GIFs
• Sequence of images can be stored in a single
GIF file, and displayed one after another by a
Web browser or other software
• No browser plug-in required
• Can specify looping, delay between frames
• 256 colour palette
• No sound
8 254
SWF
• Popular Web animation format
• Usually generated by Macromedia Flash
• Vector animation format
• Motion represented as numerical operations

on vector data
• Can also include bitmapped images (e.g. as

backgrounds)
8 254–256
Flash
• Timeline – graphical representation of
sequence of frames
• Key frames – drawn/copied from previous

and transformed
• Simple frames – hold on previous key frame
• Stage – sub-window in which frames are

created by drawing with vector tools
• Can also import bitmaps as objects, add

text
8 256–257
Symbols
• Reusable objects stored in a library
• Graphic symbols
• Button symbols (for interactivity)
• Movie clip symbols (self-contained

animations within a movie)
• Create instances by dragging on to stage
• If symbol is edited, all its instances updated

8 256
Motion Tweening
• Motion tweening
• Object is placed in a key frame
• Create Motion Tween
• Object is turned into a symbol
• Add key frame at end of tweened sequence

and move or transform object
• Motion in intermediate frames is

interpolated (tweened)
8 257
Shape Tweening
• Also called morphing
• Shapes of graphical objects are transformed

in between key frames
• Have to generate the interpolated frames,

so resulting SWF is bigger than when
motion tweening is used
8 261–266
Motion Graphics
• Like time-based graphic design
• Move, transform, alter layers of a bitmapped

image between frames
• Compare to Flash (vector), we can apply

interpolation between key frames of bitmapped
images
• We can’t pick objects in bitmapped images,

so layers are important
8
Motion Graphics
• AfterEffects is the leading application for
animation of this kind and can work with
Photoshop and Illustrator well
• Simple animation can be done by repositioning

layers and interpolating motion between key
frames
• Moving graphic designs can be obtained by

combining layers and adding effects and filters
that also vary over time Motion Graphics
8
Motion Graphics
• First appear in title sequences for feature films
and credit sequences
• Apply time-varying filters and effects
• AfterEffects supports linear and Bézier

interpolation in both space and time (rate of
change)
• Can have new effects that only make sense

in time, e.g. shatter, particle effects
8 266–267
3-D Animation
• "Easy to describe but much harder to do"
• Properties of 3-D models (shape, size, position,

rotation, surface characteristics, etc), light
sources and cameras are numerically defined
• Animate a scene by changing the numbers,

rendering a new frame, changing further …
• Can make objects move, or move the camera
• Requires 3-D visualization and animation skills

and great amount of processing power
8
• Show senior projects

8
Kinematics
• The study of the motion of bodies without
reference to mass or force
• only concerned with how things can move
• useful for animating human or animal

structures
8 268
Inverse Kinematics
• Useful for animating jointed structures,
especially limbs of human or animal figures
• Model must obey kinematic constraints
• e.g. if upper arm moves, lower arm and
hand must move with it
• Inverse kinematics follows chain in reverse
(easier for the animator)
• e.g position the hand, then compute motion
of the rest of the arm move to
accommodate it
8
• Show animation movie from Washington

(inverse kinematics)
8 269–271
Virtual Reality
• Strictly, an immersive sensory experience of a
synthetic world
• Head-mounted displays, data gloves, haptic

interfaces, etc
• More modestly, 3-D graphic that can be

explored
• Draggable panorama, objects that can be

moved round, etc
• VRML, QuickTime VR
8
Virtual Reality
8
• Show qtvr of TimeSquare

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Chap08 DMManimation

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Animation

• Literally 'to bring to life'

Famous Disney’s characters

• Today, cutout-style animation is often produced

• Stop Motion Animation is the cinematic process

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The Matrix Trilogy

• Frame grabbing – record each frame to disk

• Save as QuickTime, edit non-linearly like video

• Can also use scanner or digital still camera, or

• Each sprite can be a collection of images

• e.g. walk cycle

• Sprite animation differs substantially from

• With sprite animation, you describe a frame

• The background is the play’s set; the

• The sprites are the actors in the play.

• A sprite has properties that describe its location

• During the course of an animation, you modify a

Key Frame Animation

• Traditional: key frames drawn by chief

• In-between frames drawn by less skilled

• Computer-based: key frames drawn explicitly

• In-between frames interpolated by software

• Average the parameters in

• Motion begins and ends

• Take into account the

• No browser plug-in required

• Can specify looping, delay between frames

• 256 colour palette

• Usually generated by Macromedia Flash

• Vector animation format

• Motion represented as numerical operations

• Can also include bitmapped images (e.g. as

• Key frames – drawn/copied from previous

• Simple frames – hold on previous key frame

• Stage – sub-window in which frames are

• Can also import bitmaps as objects, add

• Button symbols (for interactivity)

• Movie clip symbols (self-contained

• Create instances by dragging on to stage

• If symbol is edited, all its instances updated

• Object is placed in a key frame

• Create Motion Tween

• Object is turned into a symbol

• Add key frame at end of tweened sequence

• Motion in intermediate frames is

• Shapes of graphical objects are transformed

• Have to generate the interpolated frames,

• Move, transform, alter layers of a bitmapped

• Compare to Flash (vector), we can apply

• We can’t pick objects in bitmapped images,

• Simple animation can be done by repositioning

• Moving graphic designs can be obtained by

• Apply time-varying filters and effects

• AfterEffects supports linear and Bézier

• Can have new effects that only make sense

• Properties of 3-D models (shape, size, position,

• Animate a scene by changing the numbers,

• Can make objects move, or move the camera

• Requires 3-D visualization and animation skills