Computer Animation

Prepared by Khadija Kuhail

Supervised by Dr Sanaa Alsayegh

What is Computer Animation?

Animate = “to give life to”Specify, directly or indirectly, how ‘thing’ moves in time and space

Anything to do with visual representations on a computer

Includes 2D graphics and 3D graphics modeling and rendering

The term Computer Graphics was created by William Fetter of Boeing in 1960

• Persistence of vision: discovered about 1800s– Zoetrope or “wheel of life”– Flip-book

SketchPad: first interactive graphics (1961)

Spacewars: first computer graphics game (MIT 1961)

Whirlwind: early graphics using VectorScope (1951)

first CAD system (IBM 1959)

ComputerGraphics

Image SynthesisGenerate Images(Realistic or not)

AnimationGenerate Motion(Realistic or not)

Image ProcessingManipulate Images

• Computer-assisted animation– 2D & 2 1/2 D– Inbetweening– Inking, virtual camera,

managing data, etc

• Computer generated animation– Low level techniques

• Precisely specifying motion

– High level techniques• Describe general motion

behavior

1. Modelling: creating and representing the geometry of objects in the 3D world

2. Rendering: creating a image in 2D of these objects

3. Animation: describing how objects change in time

• Describes the motion algorithmically

• Example: a clock with second, minute and hour hands– hands should rotate together– express the clock motions in terms of a

“seconds” variable– the clock is animated by varying the seconds

parameter

Types of Animation

• Assign physical properties to objects (masses & forces)

• Simulate physics by solving equations• Realistic but difficult to control

v0

m g

Types of Animation

• Usually uses optical markers and multiple high-speed cameras

• Triangulate to get marker 3D position

• Faces or joints• Captures style and realism• You must observe someone do

something

• Computer Aided Design (CAD)

• Visualization (Scientific , Information )

DNA visualization

• Medical Visualization

3D MRI

• Entertainment (animation, games, …)

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

• …

Thank you

What are the three main Tasks in Animation?