Computer Animation Summary

Lecture 1
 Computer Animation (CA) refers to any computer-based computation used
in producing images intended to create the perception of motion.
 Commonly the effect of animation is achieved by a rapid succession of
sequential images that minimally differ from each other.
 In general, any value that can be changed can be animated.
o position and orientation are candidates for animation.
 Animation Types:
o 2D Animation: took place in a two-dimensional space, Modern 2D
animation can be created by hand or computer animation software.
o 2.5D Animation: involves the motion of 2D-animated object in a 3-D
space.
 The trick lies behind the perspective and shadows of 2D
animated objects drawn in 2D space that appears to be 3D.
 Inbetweening: a process in animation that involves generating intermediate
frames, called (called inbetweens) between two keyframes, the intended
result is to create illusion of movement by smoothly transitioning one image
into another.
 The computer animation can be divided to two main categories:
o Computer-assisted animation: usually refers to 2 and 2.5 dimensional
systems that computerize the traditional animation process.

 Interpolation between key shapes is typically the only

algorithmic use of the computer in the production of this type of
animation
 o Computer generated animation: divided into two categories:
 low level techniques:
 Aid the animator in precisely specifying motion.
 Consist of techniques, such as shape interpolation
algorithms (Inbetweening)
 The animator usually has a fairly specific idea of the exact
motion that he or she wants.

 high level techniques:

 Describe general motion behavior.
 Typically algorithms or models used to generate a motion
using a set of rules or constraints
 There is background information on mathematical areas
such as vector algebra and numerical techniques.
 CA general approaches to motion control:
o artistic animation:
 The animator has the prime responsibility for crafting the
motion.
 The foundation of artistic animation is interpolation.
o data-driven animation:
 Live motion is digitized and then mapped onto graphical objects.
 The primary technology for data-driven animation is referred to
as motion capture.

o procedural animation:
 There is a computational model that is used to control the
motion.
 Usually, this is in the form of setting initial conditions for some
type of physical or behavioral simulation.
 Positive afterimages in human eyes: fill in the gaps between the images to
produce the perception of a continuously changing image
 The phi phenomenon: a type of perceptual illusion that tricks your eyes into
thinking that still images are actually moving.
 Flicker: the animation appears as a rapid sequence of still images to the eye
brain complex.
 Critical flicker frequency: the rate at which individual images must be played
back in order to maintain the perception of continuous imagery varies.
 The limitations on motion perception are determined by the reaction time of
those sensors and by other mechanical limitations such as blinking and
tracking.
 Motion blur: occurs when the receptors in the eye are unable to respond fast
enough for the brain to distinguish the sharply defined, individual details of
an object that moves too quickly with respect to the viewer.
o In a still camera, a fast-moving object will not blur if the shutter speed
is fast enough
o To compute motion blur, the scene needs to be sampled over an
interval of time or manipulated to appear as though it were.
 Strobing: The images of a fast-moving object can appear disjointed, similar
to viewing live action under the effects of a strobe light.
 Different rates in CA:
o The playback (Refresh rate): the number of images per second
displayed in the viewing process. (Related to flicker).
o The sampling (update) rate: the number of different images that
occur per second. (determine how jerky the motion appears)
 The multiplane camera: consists of a camera mounted above multiple planes,
each of which holds an animation cell. Each of the planes can move in six
directions (right, left, up, down, in, out), and the camera can move closer and
farther away.
Lecture 2
 Animation Hierarchy:
o Production: The overall animation (the entire project)
o Sequence: a major episode and is usually identified by an associated
staging area.
o Shot: the recording of the action from a single point of view.
o Frame: a single recorded image.
 Storyboard: a series of drawings that provide a basic outline of the final 3D
animation.
 Story reel (animatic): an animated storyboard. Include basic sound effects,
dialogue recordings and scratch soundtrack
 Key frames (extremes): identified and produced by master animators to aid
in confirmation of timing, character development, and image quality.
o Associate and assistant animators are responsible for producing the
frames between the keys (Inbetweening)
 Rendering:
o The process of getting the final assembled animation scenes or pieces
out of the computer in the format of a sequence of individual frames.
o Used in both 2D and 3D computer animation.
 Test shots: short sequences rendered in full color, are used to test the
rendering and motions.
 Pencil test: a full-motion rendering of an extended sequence using low-
quality images such as pencil sketches.
 Inking: refers to the process of transferring the penciled frames to cells.
 Opaquing (painting): is the application of color to these cells.
 Animation Principles (organized according to the type of motion quality):
o Simulating physics
o Designing aesthetically pleasing actions:
o Effectively presenting action
o Production Techniques
 Simulating Physics:
o Squash and stretch: distortion of the object's shape during an action,
especially a collision.
 The absence of squash and stretch gives a rigidity (stiffness) to
the motion
o Timing: can be the duration of an action or the speed and velocity of
an action. It is the way actions overlap and secondary objects follow
the main action.
 If the timing is off, too slow, too long, too fast, or too linear, the
animation will not look realistic.
o Secondary action:
 An action that results directly from another action
 Supports the main action, possibly supplying physically based
reactions to an action that just occurred
o Slow in and slow out: concerned with how things move through space.
Objects slow in and slow out of poses.
o Arcs: The visual path of action from one extreme (keyframe) to
another.
 Arcs are the most economical routes by which a form can move
from one position to another.
o They create motion that is more expressive and less stiff than action
along a straight path.
Lecture 3

 Designing aesthetically pleasing actions: principles that address the

aesthetic design of an action or action sequence.
o Appeal (enjoyable to watch):
 To create interesting characters that appeal to the audience
 Doesn't mean making everything fluffy and cute but creating a
clear visual design that will capture the audience's interest.
o Solid Drawing:
 Gives characters and objects more weight and volume.
 Making objects more 3D and avoids wooden, flat-looking
characters.
o Follow Through and Overlapping (two closely techniques):
 Help to render movement more realistically and help to give the
impression that characters follow the law of physics.
 Follow through: the idea that loosely connected parts of a body
or object will continue moving after the character has stopped.
 Overlapping: describes how different parts of a body or object
tend to move at different rates.
o Squash and stretch can also be used in this regard.
o Secondary actions and timing considerations also play a role in
designing pleasing motion.
 Effectively Presenting Actions:
o Anticipation:
 The preparation for the action
 Used to inform the audience about the upcoming action is
coming (setting up the upcoming actions)
 An action occurs in three parts:
o The preparation (anticipation)
o The action itself
o The termination of the action.
 o Exaggeration:
 Used to push movements further, adding more appeal to an
action
 Should always be implemented to some degree.
 Can be incorporated with a little more control for more
realistic actions
 Can still use exaggeration to make a more readable or
fun movement while still staying true to reality.
 The animator needs to employ exaggeration so a motion
cannot be missed or so it makes a point
o Staging:
 Presenting an action so that it is not missed by the audience.
 Good staging makes the important actions easily detected and
understood.
 Poor staging makes the audience's attention be captured by
something other than the primary focus in the scene.
o Anticipation and staging concern how an action is presented to the
audience
o Timing also involved in effective presentation to the extent that an
action has to be given the appropriate duration for the intended
effect to reach the audience.
o Secondary action can also be used to create an effective
presentation of an action.
 Production Techniques:
o Straight Ahead: uses only the first key pose and then continues
drawing the character to create the desired motion.
 Example: Physically based animation.
o Pose to Pose: uses key poses for characters and then Inbetweening
them in intermediate frames to make the character appear to move
from one pose to next.
 Examples: Traditional animation, computer-based 3D animation.
Lecture 4

 Principles of Filmmaking:
o Three-point Lighting: uses three standard lights to illuminate the
central figure in the scene, these are:
 The key light:
 The primary light source.
 Positioned up and to the side of the camera.
 Focuses the observer's attention on what is important.
 The fill light:
 Less powerful light, sits opposite the key light.
 Fills the high-contrast shadows that the key light creates
on the subject's face.
 Positioned below the camera and fills the figure with soft
light bringing out other details in the figure's appearance.
 The rim light:
 Exposes the outline or rim of the subject with light
(making it stands out from the background)
 Highlights the contours of the subject and creates a
dramatic and mysterious effect.
 Positioned behind the object.
o 180 Degree rule: two characters (or more) in the scene should always
have the same left/right relationship with each other.
 Can be done through drawing an imaginary line between the
two characters and try to keep the camera on the same side of
this 180-degree line.
 If camera crosses the line, the audience's understanding of the
characters orientation will be thrown off.
 It makes things confusing, messy and unprofessional if it
is not intended.
o Rule of thirds: Divide the frame visually into thirds horizontally and
vertically and the image divided into nine equal parts.
 The interesting places are one-third along the way, either side-
by-side or up-and-down or both.
 In particular, don't center the subject in the image or put it at the
edge of the image.
o Types of shots: categorized based on the distance from the camera
and the angle at which the shot is taken.
 Distance-based shots: divided into five types depends on the
amount and location of detail:
 Extreme long: filling the frame with the environment
 Long: .
 Medium range (bust shot): The head and shoulders of the
subject (great for dialogue)
 Close-up: lls most of the frame
 Extreme close-up: A
 Angle-based shots:
 A low angle shot:
o Camera is shooting up at the subject.
o imparts a feeling of power or dominance to the
subject
 A high angle shot:
o Camera is shoots down on the subject.
o Imparts a feeling of subject is insignificant or
subordinate.
o Tilt: can convey a sense of urgency, strangeness, or fear to the shot
o Framing: refers to allowing enough room in the image for the action
being captured.
 Allow enough room so the subject does not fill the frame (unless
there is a reason to do so).
 Allow enough room for motion
 o Focus the writer's attention:
important in the image
 Use color, lighting, movement, focus, etc., to direct the
attention of the viewer to what you want the viewer to see
 Eye will naturally follow converging lines, a progression from
dark to light or dark to bright, and an identifiable path in the
image.
 Sound: -drawn,
computer-based, or stop-motion.
o Early formats used optical or magnetic analog tracks for sound, but
more recent formats digitally print the sound track on the film
 Most formats record the audio on the same medium that
records the images
 In some formats, a separate medium, such as a CD, is used to
hold the audio. This allows more audio to be recorded, but
creates a synchronization issue during playback.
 Sound roles in production:
o Voice:
 In live action, voice is recorded with the action because of timing
considerations while most of the other sounds are added in a
post-processing phase
 In animation, voices are recorded first and the animation made
to sync with it.
o Body sounds:
 Non-speech sounds made by the actors.
 The recorded body sounds are usually replaced by synthesized
sounds, called Foley:
 The people responsible for creating these sounds are
called Foley artists
o Special effects
o Background music
 Computer animation production has borrowed most of the ideas from
conventional animation production, including the use of a storyboard, test
shots, and pencil testing.
o The storyboard has translated directly to computer animation
production
o The use of key frames, and interpolating between them, has become a
fundamental technique in computer animation
 The difference between computer animation and conventional animation:
o In computer animation, there is usually a strict distinction among:
 Creating the models.
 Creating a layout of the models including camera positioning
and lighting
 Specifying the motion of the models, lights, and camera.
 Rendering process applied to those models. This allows for
reusing models and lighting setups.
o In conventional animation, all of these processes happen
simultaneously as each drawing is created
 The only exception is the possible reuse of backgrounds, for
example, with the multilayer approach
 Computer animation is well suited for producing the equivalent of test shots
and pencil tests.
o Test shot in computer animation: produced by a rendering of a highly
detailed model to see a single frame or a short sequence of frames of
the final product
o Pencil test in computer animation: performed using low-quality
renderings, by eliminating all but the most important lights, or by using
simplified motion.
o It can be argued that it is even better suited for these evaluation
techniques than conventional animation.
 Electronic editing allows the manipulation of images as electronic signals
rather than using a physical process
o Drawbacks: material is copied in the editing process, introducing some
image degradation and the amount of wear on the source material as
the source tapes are repeatedly played.
Lecture 5

 Computer animation involves transforming data:

o Object data are transformed from a defining space into a world space
in order to build a synthetic environment.
o Object data are transformed as a function of time in order to produce
animation.
 A Coordinate Space can be defined by using Left-handed or Right-handed
coordinate system:
o Right-handed coordinate system:
 X-axis points towards right in positive direction.
 Y-axis towards positive upwards.
 Z-axis perpendicular to the screen which is positive and
negative into the screen.
 The display pipeline: the transformation of object data from its original
defining space through a series of intermediate spaces until its final mapping
onto the screen.
 Spaces types:
o Object Space: The space in which an object is originally defined
 The data in are usually centered at the origin
 The object, as defined by its data points (vertices) is
transformed, usually by a series of rotations, translations, and
scales, into world space.
o World Space: the space in which objects are assembled to create the
environment to be viewed.
 Can also be the space in which light sources and the observer
are placed.
 Object space and world space are commonly right-handed spaces.
 Observer position:
o Used synonymously and interchangeably with camera position and
eye position.
o Has the following parameters:
 Position
 Orientation: fully specified by the view direction and the up
vector
 A rotation away from up vector will effect a tilt of the
.
o A left-handed coordinate system for the observer is assumed.
 The observer position is known as Look-from point, and the COI (Center Of
Interest) is known as Look-to point.
 Field Of View (FOV): visible area of world space, informed by:
o observer position and orientation
o near clipping distance
 Sets the distance before which data are not viewed.
 This is primarily used to avoid division by zero in the
perspective projection
o far clipping distance:
 Sets the distance beyond which data are not viewed. This is
used, for example, to avoid processing arbitrarily complex data
that is too far away to have much
o angle of view: defines the angle made between the upper and lower
clipping planes
o The view frustum: the six-sided volume of world space containing data
that need to be considered for display.
 In preparation for the perspective transformation, the data points defining
the objects are usually transformed from world space to eye space
o In eye space, the observer is positioned along the z-axis, this allows
the depth of a point, and therefore perspective scaling, to be
-coordinate.
 from
eye space to image space.
o The pyramid-shaped view frustum becomes a rectangular solid, or
cuboid.
 Perspective Foreshortening: points that are farther away from the observer
in eye space have their x- and y-coordinates scaled down more than points
that are closer to the observer
 Homogeneous Representation: a three-dimensional point is represented by
a four-element vector.
o When transforming a point in world space, the fourth component in
the matrix will be one (x, y, z, 1).
 Transformation matrix: a 4x4 matrix that can be used to represent the
combination of three dimensional:
o Translations
o Scales:
 Uniform Scaling: represented by the identity matrix with a scale
factor 𝑆 replacing the first three elements along the diagonal.
 Non-uniform Scaling: allows for independent scale factors to be
applied to the x, y, and z axis. (Not just one scale factor).
 Values are set in the upper left 3x3 submatrix.
o Rotations:
 Can be clockwise, or counterclockwise.
 Determined by Left-handed coordinate system as
pointing the thumb of the left hand in the direction of the
positive axis, the fingers wrap clockwise.
 Values are set in the upper left 3x3 submatrix.
o Perspective Projections
 A point is presented as 4x1 matrix (column vector) is multiplied by a 4x4
transformation matrix to the left (pre-multiplying).
 A point is presented as 1x4 matrix (row vector) is multiplied by a 4x4
transformation matrix to the right (post-multiplying).