Computer Animation

Introduction
• Animation means giving life to any object in computer
graphics. It has the power of injecting energy and emotions into
the most seemingly inanimate objects. Computer-assisted
animation and computer-generated animation are two categories
of computer animation. It can be presented via film or video.
• The basic idea behind animation is to play back the recorded
images at the rates fast enough to fool the human eye into
interpreting them as continuous motion. Animation can make a
series of dead images come alive. Animation can be used in
many areas like entertainment, computer aided-design,
scientific visualization, training, education, e-commerce, and
computer art.
 Principles of Animation
1. Squash and Stretch: Considered the most important principle, “squash
and stretch” gives a sense of weight and volume to drawn objects. It is
best described with a bouncing ball, which appears stretched when falling
and squashed when it hits the ground. Even slightly exaggerating on
shortening and widening animated objects will give them that realistic
feel.
2. Anticipation: Almost nothing happens suddenly. As as the action
appears more realistic if the audience is given a clue of what happens
next, anticipation is used to prepare for the main action of an animated
scene.
3. Staging: Johnston and Thomas defined staging as “the presentation of
any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear,” so as the
audience’s attention is directed to what is of greatest importance in a
scene. The essence of staging is keeping focus on what is relevant,
eliminating unnecessary detail, and avoiding any confusion.
Cont.
4. Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose: There are two ways to manage an
animation, each of which has its advantages and disadvantages, so much so
that they are often combined with each other. The direct action is to draw a
frame at a time from beginning to end, and is the best choice if you are looking
for a smooth or realistic movement. With the technique to pose to pose,
however, you draw first the initial frame, then the final one and some key
frames in between. Only then will you go back and complete the rest: in this
way you get more control on the scene and you increase the dramatic effect.
5. Follow through and overlapping action:
When an object moves, not all of its parts move at the same speed, and when
the movement stops, not everything stops at the same time. For example, if our
character runs from one side of the scene to another, the arms and head will
move at a different pace from the head (this is the overlapping action) and,
when it stops, the hair will probably continue to move for a few frames after
the head is blocked (this is the pursuit).
Cont..
6. Slow-in and slow-out : The best way to understand this principle is to think about
how a car accelerates or decelerates: the change from zero to one hundred kilometers
per hour is not immediate, but it takes some time to reach cruising speed, just like
when presses the brake pedal the car does not stop immediately, but gradually. By
carefully monitoring changes in the speed of objects, our animation can be made
more credible.
7. Secondary action : It serves to support or emphasize the main action, and to give
greater depth to our animation. For example, we refer to the slight movement of the
hair while the character walks, or to a simple facial expression that can make you
understand what you are thinking.
8. Timing (temporizzazione): This principle also aims to apply the laws of physics
observed in the natural world to animation. If you move an object too quickly or too
slowly, in fact, this action will not be credible. Instead, by using the times correctly
and consistently, it is possible to communicate certain characteristics or reactions of
our objects or characters: for example, something that moves more slowly will be
perceived as heavier.
 Key Framing
• A key frame is a frame where we define changes in animation. Every
frame is a keyframe when we create frame by frame animation. When
someone creates a 3D animation on a computer, they usually don’t specify
the exact position of any given object on every single frame. They create
keyframes.
• Key frames are important frames during which an object changes its size,
direction, shape or other properties. The computer then figures out all the
in-between frames and saves an extreme amount of time for the animator.
The following illustrations depict the frames drawn by user and the frames
generated by computer.
 Deformation
Free Form Deformation (FFD) is part of the computer graphics literature on soft
objects. The definition of a soft object is an object that can be deformed by the user
or during the process of animation. Soft object deformation is used for many
purposes:
Shape distortion to highlight dynamic interaction with the environment
For instance, an animator may want to create a basketball that will deform when it
bounces on the ground. Another use would be to deform the shape of a car during a
collision in a racing simulation.
Realistic deformation of an object that has a highly elastic and flexible shape.
Examples include the facial expressions, motion of the human body, and cartoon
animation. In movies like Luxo Jr. and Toy Story, the character shapes are
deformed when they walk, talk, or hit another object.
Deformation of an object occurs by moving the vertices of a polygonal object or
the control points of a parametric curve. Deformation of polygonal objects will not
be discussed in this presentation. Successful deformation of a polygonal object
requires that there be a sufficient number of polygons in the object. If the polygon
resolution is low, deformations give rise to a degradation in silhouette edge aliasing
 Physics-Based Animation
• Unlike key framing and motion picture, simulation uses the laws of
physics to generate motion of pictures and other objects. Simulations can
be easily used to produce slightly different sequences while maintaining
physical realism. Secondly, real-time simulations allow a higher degree of
interactivity where the real person can maneuver the actions of the
simulated character.
• In contrast the applications based on key-framing and motion select and
modify motions form a pre-computed library of motions. One drawback
that simulation suffers from is the expertise and time required to handcraft
the appropriate controls systems.
Benefits of Physics-based animations
• Natural Looking
• Reduced visual janks
• Better animated motion
 Physics-based animation
• Physically-Based Animation (PBA) refers to an area of computer graphics
in which the aim is to generate physically-plausible animations
using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The animations are usually played using a
virtual character in a 2D or 3D simulated environment.
• One of the main differences between PBA and traditional keyframe
animation is that PBAs can dynamically adjust to the changes in the
environment. On the other hand, keyframe animation is static and non-
responsive in nature and must be handled carefully, otherwise it can easily
produce unnatural movements.
• We begin with a simple, and complete, example of a mass-spring system,
introducing the principles behind physics-based animation: mathematical
modeling and numerical integration. From there, we systematically present
the mathematical models commonly used in physics-based animation
beginning with Newton's laws of motion and conservation of mass,
momentum, and energy. We then describe the underlying physical and
mathematical models for animating rigid bodies, soft bodies, and fluids.
 Groups of Objects
• 3D computer animation combines 3D models of group 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 much like real clay or plaster
working from general forms to specific details with various tools.
Unless a 3D model is intended to be a solid color, it must be painted
with “textures” for realism.
• All animation works by using a series of quickly moving still
images to trick the viewer into thinking they are seeing a smoothly
moving scene. In computer animation, the animator creates
keyframes, setting the positions of characters and group of objects.
A process called “tweening” fills in the movement in between the
two group of an objects and keyframes
 Animation Techniques
Animators have invented and used a variety of different animation techniques.
Basically there are few animation technique which we would discuss one by one
in this section.
• Keyframing
In this technique, a storyboard is laid out and then the artists draw the major
frames of the animation. Major frames are the ones in which prominent changes
take place. They are the key points of animation. Keyframing requires that the
animator specifies critical or key positions for the objects. The computer then
automatically fills in the missing frames by smoothly interpolating between those
positions.
• Procedural
In a procedural animation, the objects are animated by a procedure − a set of
rules − not by keyframing. The animator specifies rules and initial conditions and
runs simulation. Rules are often based on physical rules of the real world
expressed by mathematical equations.