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IMB20303 – COMPUTER ANIMATION

By : Mrs. Sharifah Aminah Syed Abdullah

Learning Outcomes !Upon completion this course students should be able to :!!1.  Explain the fundamental concepts in both 2D and 3D animation.!2.  Describe the basic processes and people involved in a animation

production.!3.  Asses the suitable technique, software and platform for producing different

types of animation.!4.  Examine the various use of animation in multimedia projects.!5.  Develop 2D animated sequences using appropriate animation tools and

technique.!

Synopsis This course to introduce students with concepts, !skills and technique of computer animation.!!

Grading and Assessments method !Test! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !20%!Lab Exercises ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !15%!Assignments! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !15%!Final project ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !50% !

What is Animation !!!!Animation is the art of “breathing Life” into still pictures. More specifically, it is the rapid display of a sequence of image to create optical illusion of motion due to phenomenon of persistence of vision.!!Animation has been around in various forms of centuries – from the magic lantern to the kinetoscope.!

History Of Animation !!!!

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Magic Lantern !!!!

The Thaumatrope !!!!

The phenakistoscope !!!!

Zoetrope !!!!

The Praxinoscope !!!!

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Flip Book !!!!

Animation Pipeline !!!!

Final Project Brief

Program : Bachelor Interactive Multimedia Design !Course Title : Computer Animation Course Code : IMB 20303 Lecturer : Mrs Sharifah Aminah Syed Abdullah! FINAL PROJECT BRIEFING:! !SHORT Animation (INDIVIDUAL)!!You are required to produce ANIMATICS of 60 second – 1 minute SHORT FILM of Corporate Social Responsibility for any company at your references. You required to emphasis on positive value, to promote positive social and environmental change! !!Do some research on the issue and company CSR. !!Choose final idea and develop it into a plot with a beginning, middle and end. !

!TOTAL MARKS: 40 marks !Research !– !5%!Idea ! !- !5%!Storyboard !- !10%!Animatic! !- !20%!!(Also based on: Storyboard required Elements, Script, Effectiveness of Animatics, Neatnes & Clarity and Teamwork)!

SUBMISSION SPECS !Write the report on A4 size!Consist of: Company and Product Research,! Synopsis, Scripting, !Pre production process and strategy, !!On-Screen in Hard copy and soft copy. !

RESEARCH REPORT!!!1.0 ! !Background of company!

! !1.1 ! !Company CSR!!2.0 ! !Objective!!3.0 ! !Process and strategy!

! !3.1 ! !Scripting!! !3.2 ! !Thumbnail!! !3.3 ! !Storyboard!! !3.4 ! !Character!

!4.0 ! !On- Screen process!

! !4.1 ! !Development Phase!! !4.4 ! !Character Design!

!References / Appendix!!

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3.3 ! !Storyboard! 3.4 ! !Character Design!

12 Principles of Animation

The original animators at Disney Studios in the ’30s developed 12 Principles of Animation that are still in use today. !!

Although the principles were developed using traditional hand drawn animation techniques; they can and should be applied to any form of animation — from hand

drawn to stop motion to computer generated art. !!The principles are:!

Gives the illusion of weight and mass. Applies in all forms of animation from a bouncing ball to a walking person.!

In animation, exaggeration is the caricature of expressions, poses and actions. Without exaggeration, animation can appear stiff and mechanical. Exaggeration can be subtle or broad depending on the style of the film or action. Exaggeration can also help a film its appeal.!

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The preparation of an action. This can be as broad as a golfer’s back swing or as subtle as a person looking off screen to anticipate someone’s arrival.!

Use staging to direct the audience’s eye to the story being told. Each shot needs to communicate one idea; so the pose, shot length and camera angle all need to work together to set the stage clearly.!

These are two different ways to approach animating. With straight ahead action the animator starts at the beginning of the shot and works frame by frame until the end of the shot. This method doesn’t work well in computer animation but in traditional animation, it can infuse the action with spontaneity. Pose-to-pose animation is planned out with key poses done at important intervals throughout the shot. This method is used almost exclusively in computer animation.!

Closely related techniques that help give the illusion of physics in the world.  When the main mass of the character stops moving the arms, hair, clothing, etc. don’t stop immediately. Instead, these parts continue to move before settling.  When the character starts moving again those same elements will drag behind the body before catching up.!

Slow-ins and -outs soften the action at the beginning and end of an animation to make movements more realistic.!

Use staging to direct the audience’s eye to the story being told. Each shot needs to communicate one idea; so the pose, shot length and camera angle all need to work together to set the stage clearly.!

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Secondary action enhances the main action without overwhelming it. In a walk cycle; the body and legs could be considered the main action while the arms, hair and facial animation would be a secondary action.!

Timing: How much time you allow the character to move from pose to pose.  Point of view is the best way to figure out the timing. What works for live action doesn’t translate directly to animation, which requires added exaggeration of movements.!

Solid Drawing: Applying the basic principles of drawing — form, weight, volume — to animation. This is less applicable in computer animation and stop motion.!

Appeal: Appeal is often misinterpreted as “cute.”  But appeal is equivalent to an actor’s chemistry. All characters need appeal. Bunnies are cute. Alien villains are ugly. Without appeal the audience won’t be able to connect with the character.!

Types of Animation

Classical 2D animation is also known as hand-drawn 2D animation or t radi t ional an imat ion. In th is technique animators need to make at least 12 drawings on paper for one second length of film. The drawings are later scanned or captured for post-production using computer. This technique was the dominant form of animation in film and TV series, until the development of CGI animation.!

HAND-DRAWN ANIMATION  

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Hand-drawn animation takes an extremely long time to achieve a finished product since it requires that artists drawn each individual frame on a new piece of paper by hand. The process is painstaking and seemingly impossible yet, in the early days of animation, it was the only way that anyone knew to make an animated feature. Walt Disney and several other animators worked tirelessly for months to create “Steamboat Mickey” and other cartoons that lasted merely a few minutes upon completion. However, these early short films lead to such success, acclaim, and public joy that Disney went on to create entire feature-length animated films. This task took hundreds of artists years to complete but the first film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was an enormous success that helped to spawn an empire. Today, even hand-drawn animation is aided by technology so the process is not as tiresome as it once was yet hand drawn animation is still a style that many cartoonists prefer (or at least incorporate) into their work.

In digital 2D animation technique, animation frames are drawn directly on software using mouse or pen tablet. This technique is used mostly for TV series and web animation.

In stop-motion animation, one needs to set the character or object, in the desired state or pose against its background to expose a frame, and then do slight modifications in progression and take another frame. The process is repeated until the desired length of animation is achieved and shot.

STOP-MOTION ANIMATION  

Stop-motion animation is a time consuming mode of animation yet its result is unique and is something that practically anyone can do. People of all ages—even grade school aged children—can create and share stop motion videos on YouTube and world famous directors like Tim Burton have repeatedly used stop-motion animation techniques to make some of their most famous films (like “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” for example). Stop motion animation requires the animator to take a photo of an object, move it slightly, and then take another photo. By combining a sequence of photos together at a quickened speed the image will give the illusion that the objects are moving. A three minute stop-motion video can include over one thousands pictures and it can take months to complete. Luckily, some phone apps have made it easier than ever to create these videos and share them on YouTube so all the hard work is not in vain.

3D animation a general term describing an entire industry that utilizes 3D animation computer software and hardware in many types of productions. !

3D ANIMATION  

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Two primary types of films are created in the 3D animation realm: fully animated films and visual effects films. In fully animated films, all the visual elements onscreen are created in 3D animation software and rendered. Examples include Toy Story, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Shrek. Visual effects films are typically shot with real actors, but the backgrounds or other effects are computer generated. Jurassic Park, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and Tron are examples of visual effects films.!The film industry is one of the largest industries using 3D animation. These films typically take about six months to four years to complete, depending on the scale of the project. The production crew can range from 3 people to 300, again depending on the scale of the overall film.!Fully animated full-length films can take two to four years to create and have a very large crew of hundreds of employees. One studio usually completes the whole!

film internally. Short films (those shorter than 40 minutes) often are created by individuals or small studios. These short films are usually done on the side or after hours as personal projects. Large studios might create a short film to test a new technique or production pipeline. These films can be completed in a few months with a large crew or may take years depending on the artists’ work schedules. !Visual effects films are different from fully animated feature films in that they are shot by a regular movie crew. A visual effects supervisor helps with camera work and with collecting any other data needed for the addition of the visual effects. Then the completed shots are sent to visual effects studios to complete parts or the whole sequence of effects as needed. Today most visual effects–heavy films use one or two primary studios for most of the work to keep the effects looking consistent, but then farm out smaller shots or sequences to other studios to save time. Visual effects studios can be very large to very small, depending on the type of work they are expected to complete. !