RESEARCH ON TECHNIQUES

Persistence of vision:
Animation works by using an optical illusion. By presenting a
sequence of still images in quick enough succession, the viewer
interprets them as a continuous moving image. This is the
same principle that enables live action film making and
projection to work. Film theorists often refer to this illusion of
movement as the persistence of vision.
Persistence of vision is the theory of the human eye having the
illusion of an after image still persisting . We don't notice the
fractional skips between images because that persistence fills
in the momentary gap to make the motion seem seamless.
Persistence of vision works because the human eye and brain
can only process 10 to 12 separate images per second,
retaining an image for up to a fifteenth of a second. If a
subsequent image replaces it in this period of time it will create
the illusion of continuity. It's kind of like when you look out a
window on a sunny day and close your eyes real tight, you can
still kind of see the basic shapes of what you were looking at.
Stop Frame Animation: (introduction paragraph)
Stop Motion Animation is a technique used in animation to
bring static objects to life on screen. This is done by moving the
object in increments while filming a frame per increment. When
all the frames are played in sequence it shows movement. Clay
figures, puppets and miniatures are often used in stop motion
animation as they can be handled and repositioned easily.
Stop motion animation is almost as old as film itself. Film
makers needed a way to animate objects on screen and the
technique was devised. The first instance of its usage is
credited to J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith for bringing a
toy circus to life in Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897).

Stop-motion animation techniques include object animation,

clay animation, puppet animation, and cutout animation.
The primary difference among these techniques is the type of
object used to create the animation. Stop-motion animation can
also be combined with live action movie or video footage using
a process called compositing.
Object animation is one of the most widely used stop-motion
techniques. In this type of animation, simple objects are used to
create the animation. For example, a photographer might use a
child's rubber duck instead of a detailed chicken model with
movable body parts.
Stop-motion animation using more complex models with
detailed textures and movable parts is called puppet
animation. Puppet animation derives its name from the fact
that the complex models used look and move like puppets. Tim
Burton's film The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) was made
using stop-motion puppet animation.

Frame rates:

Movement of models:

3D computer animation combines 3D models of objects and

programmed or hand "keyframed" movement. These models
are constructed out of geometrical vertices, faces, and edges in
a 3D coordinate system. Objects are sculpted much like real
clay or plaster, working from general forms to specific details
with various sculpting tools. Unless a 3D model is intended to
be a solid color, it must be painted with "textures" for realism.
A bone/joint animation system is set up to deform the CGI
model (e.g., to make a humanoid model walk). In a process
known as rigging, the virtual marionette is given various
controllers and handles for controlling movement. [17] Animation
data can be created using motion capture, or keyframing by a
human animator, or a combination of the two.
RIGGING
A character rig is essentially a digital skeleton bound to the 3D
mesh. Like a real skeleton, a rig is made up of joints and bones,
each of which act as a "handle" that animators can use to bend
the character into a desired pose.
To speed up the animation process for the animators, a rigging
artist can utilize driven keys when rigging a character. Driven
keys allow you to use one control or object to drive multiple
different objects and attributes. In the example above we can
use a driven key to control the fist position for the hand, with
just one single control.
A driven key contains two parts: the driver and the driven. The
driver is the object in control of the animation. The driven is the
objects and attributes that are being controlled by the driver.
Typically for regular keyframes an attribute has values keyed to
time in the time slider. For a driven key, the attribute has
values keyed to the value of the driving attributes. The driver
can be another object, or in the case of the example image
above it is a control slider.
A blend shape, or morph depending on your 3D application,
allows you to change the shape of one object into the shape of
another object. When rigging, a common use for blend shapes
is to set up poses for facial animation. This might be lip sync
poses or more complex expressions like a smile or frown. You

can tie all these new poses into the original face mesh and
have it operate all on one control slider.
For example, if you want to raise an eyebrow you can model a
face pose with one eyebrow raised, connect it to a blend shape
and using the slider with a value of 0 to 100 to either raise or
lower the eyebrow. This is a great way for the animator to be
able to quickly make face poses without having to move
individual facial controls around. There are some downsides to
using blend shapes for facial poses, because the edit ability can
be limited. Riggers often will give the animators both blend
shape options and traditional control points to use them in
conjunction.
Inverse Kinematics means that the child node within your rigs
hierarchy can influence the movement of its parents. For ex
ample, if you use IK for your characters arm you can position
your characters hand and the rest of the arm chain will be
calculated. This allows the animator to animate independently
of the chains hierarchy. Because of this IK is great when
needing to have a characters arm stay planted on something.
For example, pushing against a wall or swinging on a bar.
Control curves are created by the rigger to assist the animator
in manipulating joints within the rig. Typically a rig consists of
many components that need to be manipulated to move the
character in the desired pose. This can be very difficult to do
without control curves because the animator would need to
hide the mesh to see the skeleton within the character and try
to determine which joint manipulates the elbow, for example.
Control curves are typically simple NURBS curves placed
outside of the character so the animator can easily select the
curve to position the character instead of the actual joint.
Constraints are very important in both the rigging and
animation process. Typically your 3D application will have
several options for constraining. Constraints limit an objects
position, rotation and scale based off of the attributes of the
parent object. For example, by taking two separate spheres,
applying a parent constraint, and then deciding which is the

parent and which is the child, you can select just one and the
other will follow whatever the parent is doing.
Setting up constraints is a vital step when creating control
curves for the rig. For example, you will need to determine the
type of affect that a control curve has on an individual joint.
Setting up constraints will allow you to do this.
There are many different deformers/modifiers depending on
your 3D application which can be utilized to enhance your rigs.
Deformers are often used among modelers but they are also
extremely helpful for riggers as well. Deformers contain
algorithms that can move large sections of vertices on a model
to produce organic shapes. For example, when rigging a
character you can utilize something like a cluster deformer that
allows you to manipulate a large section of vertices by using
just one single control.
Once created, a cluster can be constrained to a control object.
This is great for creating facial controls like cheeks or eyebrows.
Skinning is the process of taking the joints or bones of the rig and binding
them to the actual 3D mesh. When the joints are bound to the 3D mesh it
allows you to move the joints and the mesh will follow. Without skinning
the mesh to the joints the joints will have no influence on the actual 3D
model.

Weight painting is a vital step once the skeleton has been

created. Even though the bones are put into place, it doesnt
mean the 3D model will be able to deform exactly how you
want. When a mesh is bound to the skeleton, the computer
doesnt know how much influence each joint should have over
each vertex, so it averages the weight out based on the
distance from the joint to the mesh.
Basically painting weights allows you to manually set how much
influence a joint has on a particular area of the model and
correct the deformations on the 3D mesh. For example, if the
leg joint has too much influence on the model it might affect
the torso area giving you unrealistic results.
When creating complex character rigs the facial rig setup is
often a whole different monster. A typical joint or bone setup
doesnt work well for a facial rig other than having a joint for

the jaw bone because facial movement often requires very

stretchy and organic motion. Instead of a normal joint setup,
facial rigging usually requires deformers and blend shapes
which was discussed previously.