Basics Animation: Digital Animation

178 Pages·2009·14.82 MB·English

by  Andrew Chong

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as a freelancer in commercial video and available than at any time in cinema history. Wachowski brothers, Rod Lord, National nimNIM The Visual Dictionary of Animation
broadcast television, and his assignments The various tools available to the novice aAT
have ranged from prop making through to and professional alike have also broadened Space Centre UK, Johnny Hardstaff, Onyx, tioION Basics Animation:
Dan Lane, Marc Craste, Mainframe, Willie n Andrew Chong
computer graphics and live-action video. the pallet of the animator so that the Scriptwriting
Williams, Onedotzero, Halas & Batchelor
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boundaries between media have blurred.
Padawan to the legendary John Grace, Studio, Oskar Fischinger, Don Bluth, William 2 Basics Animation:
he designed the interactive multimedia The development of digital animation Latham, Gareth Howell, Hayao Miyazaki, Drawing for Animation
components of Animation Workshops – echoes the evolution of cinema, from The Crew of Two, Christin Bolewski, Zinkia
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a web-centred e-learning project, early experimental work produced by the Entertainment, Rooster Teeth Productions,
Stop-motion Animation
which delivered traditional core skills creators of the very technology through Al and Al and Michael Shaw. i
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and techniques to new animators groundbreaking steps of individual films Basics Animation:
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and designers. and film-makers, to the industrialisation t Producing Animated Films
of a medium leading new genres of Covers subjects including: a
He currently works at Loughborough Basics Animation:
mainstream cinema. l adj.involving or n.the technique of filming
University’s Animation Academy under Early mechanical developments, the first Performance and Animation
A relating to successive drawings
the direction of Professor Paul Wells, Digital animation also has a wider scope animated films, the foundation of modern
facilitating various research projects from than the delivery of entertainment to computing, experimental animators, early n the use of or positions of models Basics Animation:
computer to create an illusion of Animation Archives
stop-frame animation to motion-capture. cinema and television audiences. Parallel special effects, the birth of computer games, i
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development of technology has allowed first CGI in cinema, GUIs and SIMs, the first technology movement when the film Re-imagining Animation:
animation to become a component part of digital games, the animator’s role, CGI a is shown as a sequence The Changing Face of the Moving Image
modern life from medical instruments to aesthetics, character animation, computers
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pre-school toys. for everyone, digitally animated shorts, digital i
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animation in fine arts, photorealism, the
Basics Animation: Digital Animation n
Internet and animation, digital animation in
looks at the history of the medium –
cinema, digital animation in television,
charting its progress with references to A
traditional skills in CGI, digital worlds and
specific examples, which demonstrate the n
digital actors, digital tools for all, digital
growth and development of the form over
feature films, digital auteurism, media d
the last 50 years. With contributions from
crossover, aesthetic confidence, beyond r
innovators and pioneers in the medium to cinema and television, machinima and return e
present-day practitioners in the cinema,
to core values. w
game, and television industries, Digital
Animationintroduces and examines some
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digital animation.
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series also includes:
Scriptwriting
Drawing for Animation
Stop-motion Animation
Producing Animated Films
Performance and Animation
Animation Archives
ava publishing sa
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(AVA) Basics Aimation - Digital Animation
COVER CD408-94 / 4150 5th proof
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Andrew Chong
Digital Animation
adj.involving or n.the technique of filming
relating to successive drawings
the use of or positions of models
computer to create an illusion of
technology movement when the film
is shown as a sequence
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An AVA Book
Published by AVA Publishing SA
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ISBN 2-940373-56-6
ISBN 978-2-940373-56-7
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Production by
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U2 Vertigo Tour
animator
Cover image:
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Pocoyo/Pocoyo™ © 2005 Zinkia Entertainment S.L.
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Basic Animation - Digital Animation
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Contents
6 Introduction
12 How to get the most out of this book
14 Foundations 30 Pioneers 52 Development
< 1960 1960–1980 1980–1990
16 Early mechanical 32 Experimental 54 The first digital games
developments animators
56 The animator’s role
20 The first animated 36 Early special effects
62 CGI aesthetics
films
38 The birth of
66 Character animation
28 The foundation of computer games
modern computing 70 Computers for
42 First CGI in cinema
everyone
44 GUIs and SIMs
72 Digitally animated
shorts
74 Digital animation
in fine arts
76 Photorealism
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78 Maturity 104 Integration 146 Predictions
1990–2000 2000–2007 2007 >
80 The Internet and 106 Digital tools for all 148 Machinima
animation
110 Digital feature films 152 Return to core values
84 Digital animation
112 Digital auteurism 156 Digital auteurism
in cinema
revisited
118 Media crossover
90 Digital animation
in television 122 Aesthetic confidence
94 Traditional skills 134 Beyond cinema
in CGI and television
100 Digital worlds and
digital actors
160 Glossary
164 A timeline of digital animation
168 Conclusion
170 References and bibliography
172 Further resources
175 Acknowledgements
176 Picture credits
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Introduction
Digital technology is the conduit for resurgence
in animated features and animation in general.
Technology’s increasing power and spread into
all areas of modern life give the opportunity
for animation to be used in a wide range of
technologies and contexts. Personal computers
and digital media devices have made the medium
more accessible than at any other time.
Marc Craste, Animation Director at Studio AKA,
has suggested that: ‘For a while, at least, the
limitations of all but the very highest end
computer graphics seemed to outweigh its
potential. But for those of us not particularly
interested in pursuing photorealism, or unable to
even if we were interested, these limitations could
sometimes work to our advantage.’ Craste’s
remark is important for three reasons, which are
fundamental to anyone seeking to engage with
digital animation, theoretically or in practice:
▶ New technologies may often offer new
opportunities for expression, but the animator or
creator, not the software, must determine the
nature of the work.
▶ Technical dexterity is not always required to be
very creative with technology, which appears
to offer an extraordinary range of choices, tools
or applications.
▶ Embracing new technology and its potential does
not mean abandoning previous core skills and
knowledge. The old and new must always be
brought together to achieve the most persuasive
and original developments in the form.
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The following pages will discuss how
digitisation, new technologies and
animation all combine to produce the
end products which we know as
digital animation.
Digitisation
Complex and heterogeneous media can By increasing the number of light bulbs at
be integrated because the foundation of your disposal, the amount of information
most digital systems is binary. In simple you can store and display increases
terms binary, otherwise known as ‘Base 2’, exponentially. With two lights you may
is a counting method based on values achieve four states: both off, off and on, on
that can only exist in two states: 1 or 0. and off, both on. This may be expressed
Computers are programmed and operated thus: 00, 01, 10, 11. Hence, two lights allow
using binary languages. Hence, for you a 4-bit system.
information to be handled by computers it
Eight bits in set is called a byte. The byte is
must first be expressed or converted to a
the basic packet of information that
digital form.
computers deal with.
In simpler terms, a computer is a machine
The power and sophistication of the
that can count to 1.
machines available to the untrained, non-
For a computer to deal with data it must technical user means that we never usually
be translated into a form that can be see anything in a binary form; the closest we
measured in 1s and 0s. This process is get is when a device crashes and text
termed digitisation. warnings appear, or if we are adventurous
enough to program a website and step into
Consider a light bulb. It has two states: on or
the world of HTML. These are examples of
off. This represents the smallest measure of
codes that let humans talk to computers.
information a system can hold: on or off,
0 or 1. This is known as ‘bit’. A light bulb can It is important for the digital animator to have
be used as a 1-bit information store, and knowledge of the fundamentals of digital
because it is obvious when the state is on or technology so as to better harness the
off, you could also say it has a simple visual potential of digital tools and media.
display built in.
▶
title
The Painter
creator
Hewlett-Packard
Development Company LP/
422 South
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Introduction
Animation
The basic principle of animation can
be defined as a process that creates the
illusion of movement to an audience by
the presentation of sequential images in
rapid succession.
An absolute definition of animation is not
as straightforward as some texts may
portray. On a practical basis, whether you
work with pencils, clay, or pixels, the creation
of movement is a form of magic – the
techniques of which have been developed
by the pioneers of film and are in a constant
process of evolution and refinement by
subsequent generations of animators.
The physiology of the human eye has
evolved to facilitate a wide range of
requirements. Human vision has its highest
resolution in the centre of its field of vision. A
concentration of the colour-detecting nerves
(cone cells) means you see well what you are ▲
looking at directly. The less receptive
expanse of the retina remains sensitive to title
movement, and even in environments of Machinima Island 2006
poor ambient light human sight is very
animators
sensitive to movement.
Ricard Gras, Gareth Howell
The development of visual illusion and and Alex Lucas
moving images has held a particular
fascination for audiences and film-makers
alike. Even in our media-rich, image-
saturated world, the first experiments in
animation, such as flip books, still have
the power to capture the maker and
viewer alike.
Animation technique has some fundamental
elements, which are unchanging despite the
sophistication of the technology used to
make it.
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Computers
Even before the computer first appeared, In an era of ubiquitous digital technology it is
expectations and assumptions of such a difficult to imagine a time when computers
machine’s capabilities and design had were the stuff of dreams and science fiction.
existed. In the hundred years since The iconic image of a screen with a
Charles Babbage built his arithmetic keyboard and mouse atop a box with slots
calculating engine in 1822, moving and lights is only applicable since the mid
pictures had developed from curios like 1970s. The historical facts of computer
the phenakistoscope and zoetrope into a technology are at odds with public
global industry and new art form. perception.
Through the portrayal of the imagined The fundamentally screen-centric notion of
future worlds in films such as Metropolis computers conflicts with the truth that with
(1927) by Fritz Lang and Things to Come few exceptions, computers were
(1936) by William Cameron Menzies, a programmed and used with an interface
global public were offered a vision of based on rows of switches and lights
machines with visual displays that could requiring laborious and expert effort to
store and deliver information and control perform any task. However, the portrayal of
mechanical processes. computer technology in cinema and popular
fiction has always presented an image of
The very aesthetic of electric or
computer technology with assets and
electromechanical devices – comprising
capabilities beyond reality.
keyboards, dials, switches, screens and
the ability to perform multiple operations – This predictive power of film proves a
was unlike anything that had come before. constant and recurring theme in the
Fantasy and science fiction were responsible development of digital animation.
for the foundation of video and computer-
based moving images.
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