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Chapter 5: Animation
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Overview
•  Introduction to animation
•  Computer-generated animation
•  File formats used in animation
•  Making successful animations
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Introduction to Animation
•  Animation: the creation of moving images
one frame at a time. Animate: literally “to
bring to life.”
•  Cel Animation: Elements intended to move in
a scene were drawn on celluloid sheets and
laid over a separate background.
•  Stop Motion and Claymation
•  Captured one frame at a time.
•  Image Sequence, Movie, Vector Animation,
Animated GIF, Rotoscoping, etc.
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Introduction to Animation
(continued)
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Introduction to Animation
(continued)
•  Possible due to “persistence of vision” and a
psychological phenomenon called phi.
•  A series of images rapidly changed to create
illusion of movement.
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Introduction to Animation
(continued)
•  Animation can be rendered in:
–  2D: simple, transformations in (x,y) coordinates.
–  2 1/2D space: Illusion of depth through shadowing,
highlighting, forced perspective and reflections,
though in reality still just 2D.
–  3D space: Complicated and realistic animation. Can
have flat shaded cartoon look all the way to photo
realistic renderings.
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Introduction to Animation
(continued)
•  When creating animation:
–  Organize the execution in a series of logical steps.
–  Choose an animation tool best suited for the job
and intended output/format.
–  Build and tweak the sequences.
–  Keyframes: first and last frames of an action.
–  Tweening: drawing frames in between keyframes.
–  Post-process the completed animation.
–  Export proper format(s).
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Introduction to Animation
(continued)
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Computer-Generated Animation
•
Interpolation: calculation of values of a
function lying between known points.
-
Only properties that have a simple numerical
representation can be interpolated.
-  Linear (unnatural), Easing, Bezier
•  Motion Path: used to guide the object.
- Orient to Path option
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Computer-Generated Animation
(continued)
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Computer-Generated Animation
(continued)
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Computer-Generated Animation
(continued)
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Computer-Generated Animation
•  Kinematics: the study of movement and
motion of structures that have joints.
•  Inverse kinematics: process of linking
objects and defining their relationship and
limits.
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Computer-Generated Animation
(continued)
•  Morphing is an
effect in which
a still or moving
image is
transformed
into another.
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Web Animation Formats
•  GIF89a file format:
–  Allows multiple images into a single file displayed
as animation in a web browser.
–  256 indexed colors max, transparency, handled by
most browsers and does not need a plugin.
–  LZW compression not good for severe changes (ex.
Animated photos)
–  Not interactive for the most part.
•  Flash SWF, SVG, Video
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Making Successful Animations
•  Use animation carefully and sparingly.
•  High-quality animations require superior
display platforms and hardware, as well as
raw computing horsepower.
•  File compression is key when preparing
animation files for the Web.
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Making Successful Animations
(continued)
•  Some animation tools are:
–  Adobe’s Flash, FireWorks, Photoshop, After Effects
–  AutoDesk’s Maya, 3DSMax
–  Apple’s Motion
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Making Successful Animations
(continued)
A rolling ball
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Making Successful Animations
(continued)
A bouncing ball
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Making Successful Animations
(continued)
Making GIF animations
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Making Successful Animations
(continued)
Making GIF animations
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Summary
•  Animation is visual change over time and
adds great power to multimedia.
•  Cell animation uses a series of progressively
different graphics on each frame of movie
film.
•  Computer animation has eased the process
of creating animation.
•  Many file formats are designed specifically
to contain animation.
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