What is Animation?

• Animation is mainly used to produce cartoons, however, it is also used to produce special effects in commercials, live-action movies, video games, and websites

What is Animation?

• The blending of individual images into one image that seems to move is called persistence of vision

• The image appears to move because the eye sends signals to the brain faster than the brain can process them. Before the brain has finished processing one image, it receives another.

• An example of POV is a flip book – multiple drawings, each slightly different from the drawing before, is flipped quickly which gives the illusion of a moving image

Flip Book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH97UerMW6I

Persistence of Vision

ZoetropeThaumatrope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD0ovANHdqQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjSxrVXsfVM

• A storyboard is a series of sketches that can be used as a guide for making a show

• Storyboards are used to describe the action and dialogue of a film

• Storyboards can be simple or very detailed

• They can be made by hand or on the computer

Storyboards – what do they include?

Stop Motion• In stop-motion

animation, models are photographed on a set one frame at a time. The frames are played in a sequence to create movement

Motion Capture• Motion-capture animation

is a 3D representation of a live performance

• Real actors are used

• There are 3 types of motion capture:• Magnetic, Optical, and

Electro-mechanical

Stop Motion vs. Motion CaptureWhat’s the BIG difference?

Stop MotionGumby and Pokey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ss6pm-ydSg

This is Halloween – Nightmare Before Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOtEdhKOMgQ

Motion CaptureRory McIlroy Motion Capture session for Tiger Woods 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8U8BTR93Y

Stop Motion vs. Motion CaptureExamples

Hand Drawn Animation

• A series of drawings is photographed

• Each drawing makes up one frame of the film

• The position of the character or drawing changes slightly from frame to frame

Computer Animation

• In computer animation, software is used to create an animated scene, cartoon, video game or full length movie

• 2D or 3D animation software can be used

Hand Drawn & Computer Animation

Motion Capture Animation• The three types of motion capture animation are:

• Magnetic motion – uses sensors placed on an actors body that measures magnetic fields created by a transmitter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRsyz8C-ggc

• Optical Motion – uses video cameras to track the motion of light-emitting diodes or reflective markers placed on the joints of an actors body

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8U8BTR93Y

• Electro-mechanical – an exoskeleton is worn by an actor being recorded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c0IeKP7-p4

• An exoskeleton is worn by an actor and their movements are recorded

• Later, animators will add special effects • Iron Man Suit• Avatar

Electro-mechanical Exoskeleton

• In hand-drawn animation, animators draw the characters

• Artists then trace the animator’s drawings onto clear plastic sheets called cels.

• Color is added to complete the drawings

• The first animated characters were drawn on thin plastic sheets of celluloid

Animation Cel

• A key frame shows a beginning or ending point in an action sequence

• Key frames are drawn using 3D models

• The computer generates the “in-between” frames need to simulate motion

Key Frame

GIF• This was the first successful

kind of animation used on the web

• GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format

• They are still images that can be animated using software

Dynamic HTML• Is a term for a collection of

technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites. (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

• Some web animations need plug-in’s to be viewed

• Plug-in’s are small programs designed to play certain media files

• QuickTime and Windows Media Player are common video plug-in’s

Web Animation Techniques

Video

• Video game development is the most complex form of animation

• The biggest DIFFERENCE between video game an movie animation is that video games need to be interactive

• Video games need to respond to commands given by players

• Video games are created by a team of artists, programmers, and marketing experts

• Programmers with advanced skills are needed to produce the challenging games that serious video game fans demand

Video Game vs. Movie Animation