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Wikipedia

Computer animation

Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation only refers to moving images. Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics to generate a three-dimensional picture. The target of the animation is sometimes the computer itself, while other times it is film.

An example of computer animation which is produced from the "motion capture" technique

Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to stop motion techniques, but using 3D models, and traditional animation techniques using frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations. Computer-generated animations can also allow a single graphic artist to produce such content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or props. To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer monitor and repeatedly replaced by a new image that is similar to it but advanced slightly in time (usually at a rate of 24, 25, or 30 frames/second). This technique is identical to how the illusion of movement is achieved with television and motion pictures.

For 3D animations, objects (models) are built on the computer monitor (modeled) and 3D figures are rigged with a virtual skeleton. Then the limbs, eyes, mouth, clothes, etc. of the figure are moved by the animator on key frames. The differences in appearance between key frames are automatically calculated by the computer in a process known as tweening or morphing. Finally, the animation is rendered.[1]

For 3D animations, all frames must be rendered after the modeling is complete. For pre-recorded presentations, the rendered frames are transferred to a different format or medium, like digital video. The frames may also be rendered in real-time as they are presented to the end-user audience. Low bandwidth animations transmitted via the internet (e.g. Adobe Flash, X3D) often use the software on the end user's computer to render in real-time as an alternative to streaming or pre-loaded high bandwidth animations.

Explanation

To trick the eye and the brain into thinking they are seeing a smoothly moving object, the pictures should be drawn at around 12 frames per second or faster.[2] (A frame is one complete image.) With rates above 75 to 120 frames per second, no improvement in realism or smoothness is perceivable due to the way the eye and the brain both process images. At rates below 12 frames per second, most people can detect jerkiness associated with the drawing of new images that detracts from the illusion of realistic movement.[3] Conventional hand-drawn cartoon animation often uses 15 frames per second in order to save on the number of drawings needed, but this is usually accepted because of the stylized nature of cartoons. To produce more realistic imagery, computer animation demands higher frame rates.

Films seen in theaters in the United States run at 24 frames per second, which is sufficient to create the illusion of continuous movement. For high resolution, adapters are used.

History

Early digital computer animation was developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1960s by Edward E. Zajac, Frank W. Sinden, Kenneth C. Knowlton, and A. Michael Noll.[4] Other digital animation was also practiced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[5]

In 1967, a computer animation named "Hummingbird" was created by Charles Csuri and James Shaffer.[6] In 1968, a computer animation called "Kitty" was created with BESM-4 by Nikolai Konstantinov, depicting a cat moving around.[7] In 1971, a computer animation called "Metadata" was created, showing various shapes.[8]

An early step in the history of computer animation was the sequel to the 1973 film Westworld, a science-fiction film about a society in which robots live and work among humans.[9] The sequel, Futureworld (1976), used the 3D wire-frame imagery, which featured a computer-animated hand and face both created by University of Utah graduates Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke.[10] This imagery originally appeared in their student film A Computer Animated Hand, which they completed in 1972.[11][12]

Developments in CGI technologies are reported each year at SIGGRAPH,[13] an annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques that is attended by thousands of computer professionals each year.[14] Developers of computer games and 3D video cards strive to achieve the same visual quality on personal computers in real-time as is possible for CGI films and animation. With the rapid advancement of real-time rendering quality, artists began to use game engines to render non-interactive movies, which led to the art form Machinima.

Film and television

"Spring", a 3D animated short film made using Blender

CGI short films have been produced as independent animation since 1976.[15] Early examples of feature films incorporating CGI animation include the live-action films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Tron (both 1982),[16] and the Japanese anime film Golgo 13: The Professional (1983).[17] VeggieTales is the first American fully 3D computer animated series sold directly (made in 1993); its success inspired other animation series, such as ReBoot (1994) and Transformers: Beast Wars (1996) to adopt a fully computer-generated style.

The first full length computer animated television series was ReBoot,[18] which debuted in September 1994; the series followed the adventures of characters who lived inside a computer.[19] The first feature-length computer animated film is Toy Story (1995), which was made by Disney and Pixar:[20][21][22] following an adventure centered around anthropomorphic toys and their owners, this groundbreaking film was also the first of many fully computer-animated movies.[21]

The popularity of computer animation (especially in the field of special effects) skyrocketed during the modern era of U.S. animation.[23] Films like Avatar (2009) and The Jungle Book (2016) use CGI for the majority of the movie runtime, but still incorporate human actors into the mix.[24] Computer animation in this era has achieved photorealism, to the point that computer animated films such as The Lion King (2019) are able to be marketed as if they were live-action.[25][26]

Animation methods

 
3D game character animated using skeletal animation.
 
In this .gif of a 2D Flash animation, each 'stick' of the figure is keyframed over time to create motion.

In most 3D computer animation systems, an animator creates a simplified representation of a character's anatomy, which is analogous to a skeleton or stick figure.[27] They are arranged into a default position known as a bind pose, or T-Pose. The position of each segment of the skeletal model is defined by animation variables, or Avars for short. In human and animal characters, many parts of the skeletal model correspond to the actual bones, but skeletal animation is also used to animate other things, with facial features (though other methods for facial animation exist).[28] The character "Woody" in Toy Story, for example, uses 712 Avars (212 in the face alone). The computer doesn't usually render the skeletal model directly (it is invisible), but it does use the skeletal model to compute the exact position and orientation of that certain character, which is eventually rendered into an image. Thus by changing the values of Avars over time, the animator creates motion by making the character move from frame to frame.

There are several methods for generating the Avar values to obtain realistic motion. Traditionally, animators manipulate the Avars directly.[29] Rather than set Avars for every frame, they usually set Avars at strategic points (frames) in time and let the computer interpolate or tween between them in a process called keyframing. Keyframing puts control in the hands of the animator and has roots in hand-drawn traditional animation.[30]

In contrast, a newer method called motion capture makes use of live action footage.[31] When computer animation is driven by motion capture, a real performer acts out the scene as if they were the character to be animated.[32] Their motion is recorded to a computer using video cameras and markers and that performance is then applied to the animated character.[33]

Each method has its advantages and as of 2007, games and films are using either or both of these methods in productions. Keyframe animation can produce motions that would be difficult or impossible to act out, while motion capture can reproduce the subtleties of a particular actor.[34] For example, in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Bill Nighy provided the performance for the character Davy Jones. Even though Nighy doesn't appear in the movie himself, the movie benefited from his performance by recording the nuances of his body language, posture, facial expressions, etc. Thus motion capture is appropriate in situations where believable, realistic behavior and action is required, but the types of characters required exceed what can be done throughout the conventional costuming.

Modeling

3D computer animation combines 3D models of objects and programmed or hand "keyframed" movement. These models are constructed out of geometrical vertices, faces, and edges in a 3D coordinate system. Objects are sculpted much like real clay or plaster, working from general forms to specific details with various sculpting tools. Unless a 3D model is intended to be a solid color, it must be painted with "textures" for realism. A bone/joint animation system is set up to deform the CGI model (e.g., to make a humanoid model walk). In a process known as rigging, the virtual marionette is given various controllers and handles for controlling movement.[35] Animation data can be created using motion capture, or keyframing by a human animator, or a combination of the two.[36]

3D models rigged for animation may contain thousands of control points — for example, "Woody" from Toy Story uses 700 specialized animation controllers. Rhythm and Hues Studios labored for two years to create Aslan in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which had about 1,851 controllers (742 in the face alone). In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, designers had to design forces of extreme weather with the help of video references and accurate meteorological facts. For the 2005 remake of King Kong, actor Andy Serkis was used to help designers pinpoint the gorilla's prime location in the shots and used his expressions to model "human" characteristics onto the creature. Serkis had earlier provided the voice and performance for Gollum in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Equipment

 
A ray-traced 3-D model of a jack inside a cube, and the jack alone below.

Computer animation can be created with a computer and an animation software. Some impressive animation can be achieved even with basic programs; however, the rendering can require much time on an ordinary home computer.[37] Professional animators of movies, television and video games could make photorealistic animation with high detail. This level of quality for movie animation would take hundreds of years to create on a home computer. Instead, many powerful workstation computers are used.[38] Graphics workstation computers use two to four processors, and they are a lot more powerful than an actual home computer and are specialized for rendering. Many workstations (known as a "render farm") are networked together to effectively act as a giant computer,[39] resulting in a computer-animated movie that can be completed in about one to five years (however, this process is not composed solely of rendering). A workstation typically costs $2,000 to $16,000 with the more expensive stations being able to render much faster due to the more technologically-advanced hardware that they contain. Professionals also use digital movie cameras, motion/performance capture, bluescreens, film editing software, props, and other tools used for movie animation. Programs like Blender allow for people who can't afford expensive animation and rendering software to be able to work in a similar manner to those who use the commercial grade equipment.[40]

Facial animation

The realistic modeling of human facial features is both one of the most challenging and sought after elements in computer-generated imagery. Computer facial animation is a highly complex field where models typically include a very large number of animation variables.[41] Historically speaking, the first SIGGRAPH tutorials on State of the art in Facial Animation in 1989 and 1990 proved to be a turning point in the field by bringing together and consolidating multiple research elements and sparked interest among a number of researchers.[42]

The Facial Action Coding System (with 46 "action units", "lip bite" or "squint"), which had been developed in 1976, became a popular basis for many systems.[43] As early as 2001, MPEG-4 included 68 Face Animation Parameters (FAPs) for lips, jaws, etc., and the field has made significant progress since then and the use of facial microexpression has increased.[43][44]

In some cases, an affective space, the PAD emotional state model, can be used to assign specific emotions to the faces of avatars.[45] In this approach, the PAD model is used as a high level emotional space and the lower level space is the MPEG-4 Facial Animation Parameters (FAP). A mid-level Partial Expression Parameters (PEP) space is then used to in a two-level structure – the PAD-PEP mapping and the PEP-FAP translation model.[46]

Realism

Joy & Heron – A typical example of realistic animation

Realism in computer animation can mean making each frame look photorealistic, in the sense that the scene is rendered to resemble a photograph or make the characters' animation believable and lifelike.[47] Computer animation can also be realistic with or without the photorealistic rendering.[48]

One of the greatest challenges in computer animation has been creating human characters that look and move with the highest degree of realism. Part of the difficulty in making pleasing, realistic human characters is the uncanny valley, the concept where the human audience (up to a point) tends to have an increasingly negative, emotional response as a human replica looks and acts more and more human. Films that have attempted photorealistic human characters, such as The Polar Express,[49][50][51] Beowulf,[52] and A Christmas Carol[53][54] have been criticized as "disconcerting" and "creepy".

The goal of computer animation is not always to emulate live action as closely as possible, so many animated films instead feature characters who are anthropomorphic animals, legendary creatures and characters, superheroes, or otherwise have non-realistic, cartoon-like proportions.[55] Computer animation can also be tailored to mimic or substitute for other kinds of animation, like traditional stop-motion animation (as shown in Flushed Away or The Peanuts Movie). Some of the long-standing basic principles of animation, like squash and stretch, call for movement that is not strictly realistic, and such principles still see widespread application in computer animation.[56]

Animation studios

Some notable producers of computer-animated feature films include:

Web animations

The popularity of websites that allow members to upload their own movies for others to view has created a growing community of independent and amateur computer animators.[57] With utilities and programs often included free with modern operating systems, many users can make their own animated movies and shorts. Several free and open-source animation software applications exist as well. The ease at which these animations can be distributed has attracted professional animation talent also. Companies such as PowToon and Vyond attempt to bridge the gap by giving amateurs access to professional animations as clip art.

The oldest (most backward compatible) web-based animations are in the animated GIF format, which can be uploaded and seen on the web easily.[58] However, the raster graphics format of GIF animations slows the download and frame rate, especially with larger screen sizes. The growing demand for higher quality web-based animations was met by a vector graphics alternative that relied on the use of a plugin. For decades, Flash animations were the most popular format, until the web development community abandoned support for the Flash Player plugin. Web browsers on mobile devices and mobile operating systems never fully supported the Flash plugin.

By this time, internet bandwidth and download speeds increased, making raster graphic animations more convenient. Some of the more complex vector graphic animations had a slower frame rate due to complex rendering compared to some of the raster graphic alternatives. Many of the GIF and Flash animations were already converted to digital video formats, which were compatible with mobile devices and reduced file sizes via video compression technology. However, compatibility was still problematic as some of the popular video formats such as Apple's QuickTime and Microsoft Silverlight required plugins. YouTube, the most popular video sharing website, was also relying on the Flash plugin to deliver digital video in the Flash Video format.

The latest alternatives are HTML5 compatible animations. Technologies such as JavaScript and CSS animations made sequencing the movement of images in HTML5 web pages more convenient. SVG animations offered a vector graphic alternative to the original Flash graphic format, SmartSketch. YouTube offers an HTML5 alternative for digital video. APNG (Animated PNG) offered a raster graphic alternative to animated GIF files that enables multi-level transparency not available in GIFs.

Detailed examples

Computer animation uses different techniques to produce animations. Most frequently, sophisticated mathematics is used to manipulate complex three-dimensional polygons, apply "textures", lighting and other effects to the polygons and finally rendering the complete image. A sophisticated graphical user interface may be used to create the animation and arrange its choreography. Another technique called constructive solid geometry defines objects by conducting boolean operations on regular shapes, and has the advantage that animations may be accurately produced at any resolution.

Computer-generated animation

To animate means, figuratively, to "give life to". There are two basic methods that animators commonly use to accomplish this.

Computer-generated animation is known as three-dimensional (3D) animation. Creators design an object or character with an X, a Y and a Z axis. No pencil-to-paper drawings create the way computer-generated animation works. The object or character created will then be taken into a software. Key-framing and tweening are also carried out in computer-generated animation but so are many techniques unrelated to traditional animation. Animators can break physical laws by using mathematical algorithms to cheat mass, force and gravity rulings. Fundamentally, time scale and quality could be said to be a preferred way to produce animation as they are major aspects enhanced by using computer-generated animation. Another positive aspect of CGA is the fact one can create a flock of creatures to act independently when created as a group. An animal's fur can be programmed to wave in the wind and lie flat when it rains instead of separately programming each strand of hair.[59]

A few examples of computer-generated animation movies are Toy Story, Antz, Ice Age, Happy Feet, Despicable Me, Frozen, and Shrek.

2D computer animation

2D computer graphics are still used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time renderings.

Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to stop motion techniques, but using 3D models, and traditional animation techniques using frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations.

For 2D figure animations, separate objects (illustrations) and separate transparent layers are used with or without that virtual skeleton.

2D sprites and pseudocode

In 2D computer animation, moving objects are often referred to as "sprites." A sprite is an image that has a location associated with it. The location of the sprite is changed slightly, between each displayed frame, to make the sprite appear to move.[60] The following pseudocode makes a sprite move from left to right:

var int x := 0, y := screenHeight / 2; while x < screenWidth drawBackground() drawSpriteAtXY (x, y) // draw on top of the background x := x + 5 // move to the right 

Computer-assisted animation

Computer-assisted animation is usually classed as two-dimensional (2D) animation. Drawings are either hand drawn (pencil to paper) or interactively drawn (on the computer) using different assisting appliances and are positioned into specific software packages. Within the software package, the creator places drawings into different key frames which fundamentally create an outline of the most important movements.[61] The computer then fills in the "in-between frames", a process commonly known as Tweening.[62] Computer-assisted animation employs new technologies to produce content faster than is possible with traditional animation, while still retaining the stylistic elements of traditionally drawn characters or objects.[59]

Examples of films produced using computer-assisted animation are The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, The Road to El Dorado and Tarzan.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Sito 2013, p. 232.
  2. ^ Masson 1999, p. 148.
  3. ^ Parent 2012, pp. 100–101, 255.
  4. ^ Masson 1999, pp. 390–394.
  5. ^ Sito 2013, pp. 69–75.
  6. ^ "Charles Csuri, Fragmentation Animations, 1967 – 1970: Hummingbird (1967)". YouTube.
  7. ^ ""Kitten" 1968 computer animation". YouTube.
  8. ^ "Metadata 1971". YouTube.
  9. ^ Masson 1999, p. 404.
  10. ^ Masson 1999, pp. 282–288.
  11. ^ Sito 2013, p. 64.
  12. ^ Means 2011.
  13. ^ Sito 2013, pp. 97–98.
  14. ^ Sito 2013, pp. 95–97.
  15. ^ Masson 1999, p. 58.
  16. ^ "The Making of Tron". Video Games Player. Vol. 1, no. 1. Carnegie Publications. September 1982. pp. 50–5.
  17. ^ Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Review Press. p. 216. ISBN 1569762228.
  18. ^ Sito 2013, p. 188.
  19. ^ Masson 1999, p. 430.
  20. ^ Masson 1999, p. 432.
  21. ^ a b Masson 1999, p. 302.
  22. ^ "Our Story", Pixar, 1986–2013. Retrieved on 2013-02-15. . Pixar. Archived from the original on 2015-09-05.
  23. ^ Masson 1999, p. 52.
  24. ^ Thompson, Anne (2010-01-01). "How James Cameron's Innovative New 3D Tech Created Avatar". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
  25. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (October 13, 2016). "Disney's Live-Action 'Lion King' Taps Jeff Nathanson As Writer". Deadline Hollywood. from the original on October 15, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
  26. ^ Rottenberg, Josh (July 19, 2019). "'The Lion King': Is it animated or live-action? It's complicated". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  27. ^ Parent 2012, pp. 193–196.
  28. ^ Parent 2012, pp. 324–326.
  29. ^ Parent 2012, pp. 111–118.
  30. ^ Sito 2013, p. 132.
  31. ^ Masson 1999, p. 118.
  32. ^ Masson 1999, pp. 94–98.
  33. ^ Masson 1999, p. 226.
  34. ^ Masson 1999, p. 204.
  35. ^ Parent 2012, p. 289.
  36. ^ Beane 2012, p. 2-15.
  37. ^ Masson 1999, p. 158.
  38. ^ Sito 2013, p. 144.
  39. ^ Sito 2013, p. 195.
  40. ^ Foundation, Blender. "blender.org – Home of the Blender project – Free and Open 3D Creation Software". blender.org. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
  41. ^ Masson 1999, pp. 110–116.
  42. ^ Parke & Waters 2008, p. xi.
  43. ^ a b Magnenat Thalmann & Thalmann 2004, p. 122.
  44. ^ Pereira & Ebrahimi 2002, p. 404.
  45. ^ Pereira & Ebrahimi 2002, pp. 60–61.
  46. ^ Paiva, Prada & Picard 2007, pp. 24–33.
  47. ^ Masson 1999, pp. 160–161.
  48. ^ Parent 2012, pp. 14–17.
  49. ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (2004-11-10). "The Polar Express". Salon. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
  50. ^ Herman, Barbara (2013-10-30). "The 10 Scariest Movies and Why They Creep Us Out". Newsweek. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
  51. ^ Clinton, Paul (2004-11-10). "Review: 'Polar Express' a creepy ride". CNN. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
  52. ^ Digital Actors in 'Beowulf' Are Just Uncanny 2011-08-27 at the Wayback Machine – New York Times, November 14, 2007
  53. ^ Neumaier, Joe (November 5, 2009). . New York Daily News. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  54. ^ Williams, Mary Elizabeth (November 5, 2009). . Salon.com. Archived from the original on January 11, 2010. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  55. ^ Sito 2013, p. 7.
  56. ^ Sito 2013, p. 59.
  57. ^ Sito 2013, pp. 82, 89.
  58. ^ Kuperberg 2002, pp. 112–113.
  59. ^ a b Roos, Dave (2013). "How Computer Animation Works". HowStuffWorks. Retrieved 2013-02-15.
  60. ^ Masson 1999, p. 123.
  61. ^ Masson 1999, p. 115.
  62. ^ Masson 1999, p. 284.

Works cited

  • Beane, Andy (2012). 3D Animation Essentials. Indianapolis, Indiana: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-14748-1.
  • Kuperberg, Marcia (2002). A Guide to Computer Animation: For TV, Games, Multimedia and Web. Focal Press. ISBN 0-240-51671-0.
  • Magnenat Thalmann, Nadia; Thalmann, Daniel (2004). Handbook of Virtual Humans. Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-470-02316-3.
  • Masson, Terrence (1999). CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference. Digital Fauxtography Inc. ISBN 0-7357-0046-X.
  • Means, Sean P. (December 28, 2011). "Pixar founder's Utah-made Hand added to National Film Registry". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
  • Paiva, Ana; Prada, Rui; Picard, Rosalind W. (2007). "Facial Expression Synthesis using PAD Emotional Parameters for a Chinese Expressive Avatar". Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer Science+Business Media. 4738. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74889-2. ISBN 978-3-540-74888-5.
  • Parent, Rick (2012). Computer Animation: Algorithms and Techniques. Ohio: Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-12-415842-9.
  • Pereira, Fernando C. N.; Ebrahimi, Touradj (2002). The MPEG-4 Book. New Jersey: IMSC Press. ISBN 0-13-061621-4.
  • Parke, Frederic I.; Waters, Keith (2008). Computer Facial Animation (2nd ed.). Massachusetts: A.K. Peters, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-56881-448-3.
  • Sito, Tom (2013). Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation. Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01909-5.

External links

  •   Media related to Computer animations at Wikimedia Commons

computer, animation, been, suggested, that, this, article, should, split, into, articles, titled, computer, animation, computer, animation, discuss, june, 2019, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, ad. It has been suggested that this article should be split into articles titled 3D computer animation and 2D computer animation discuss June 2019 This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Computer animation news newspapers books scholar JSTOR November 2009 Learn how and when to remove this template message Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations The more general term computer generated imagery CGI encompasses both static scenes still images and dynamic images moving images while computer animation only refers to moving images Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics to generate a three dimensional picture The target of the animation is sometimes the computer itself while other times it is film An example of computer animation which is produced from the motion capture technique Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to stop motion techniques but using 3D models and traditional animation techniques using frame by frame animation of 2D illustrations Computer generated animations can also allow a single graphic artist to produce such content without the use of actors expensive set pieces or props To create the illusion of movement an image is displayed on the computer monitor and repeatedly replaced by a new image that is similar to it but advanced slightly in time usually at a rate of 24 25 or 30 frames second This technique is identical to how the illusion of movement is achieved with television and motion pictures For 3D animations objects models are built on the computer monitor modeled and 3D figures are rigged with a virtual skeleton Then the limbs eyes mouth clothes etc of the figure are moved by the animator on key frames The differences in appearance between key frames are automatically calculated by the computer in a process known as tweening or morphing Finally the animation is rendered 1 For 3D animations all frames must be rendered after the modeling is complete For pre recorded presentations the rendered frames are transferred to a different format or medium like digital video The frames may also be rendered in real time as they are presented to the end user audience Low bandwidth animations transmitted via the internet e g Adobe Flash X3D often use the software on the end user s computer to render in real time as an alternative to streaming or pre loaded high bandwidth animations Contents 1 Explanation 2 History 2 1 Film and television 3 Animation methods 4 Modeling 5 Equipment 6 Facial animation 7 Realism 8 Animation studios 9 Web animations 10 Detailed examples 11 Computer generated animation 12 2D computer animation 12 1 2D sprites and pseudocode 12 2 Computer assisted animation 13 See also 14 References 14 1 Citations 14 2 Works cited 15 External linksExplanationTo trick the eye and the brain into thinking they are seeing a smoothly moving object the pictures should be drawn at around 12 frames per second or faster 2 A frame is one complete image With rates above 75 to 120 frames per second no improvement in realism or smoothness is perceivable due to the way the eye and the brain both process images At rates below 12 frames per second most people can detect jerkiness associated with the drawing of new images that detracts from the illusion of realistic movement 3 Conventional hand drawn cartoon animation often uses 15 frames per second in order to save on the number of drawings needed but this is usually accepted because of the stylized nature of cartoons To produce more realistic imagery computer animation demands higher frame rates Films seen in theaters in the United States run at 24 frames per second which is sufficient to create the illusion of continuous movement For high resolution adapters are used HistoryMain article History of computer animation See also Timeline of computer animation in film and television and Video game graphics Early digital computer animation was developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1960s by Edward E Zajac Frank W Sinden Kenneth C Knowlton and A Michael Noll 4 Other digital animation was also practiced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 5 In 1967 a computer animation named Hummingbird was created by Charles Csuri and James Shaffer 6 In 1968 a computer animation called Kitty was created with BESM 4 by Nikolai Konstantinov depicting a cat moving around 7 In 1971 a computer animation called Metadata was created showing various shapes 8 An early step in the history of computer animation was the sequel to the 1973 film Westworld a science fiction film about a society in which robots live and work among humans 9 The sequel Futureworld 1976 used the 3D wire frame imagery which featured a computer animated hand and face both created by University of Utah graduates Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke 10 This imagery originally appeared in their student film A Computer Animated Hand which they completed in 1972 11 12 Developments in CGI technologies are reported each year at SIGGRAPH 13 an annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques that is attended by thousands of computer professionals each year 14 Developers of computer games and 3D video cards strive to achieve the same visual quality on personal computers in real time as is possible for CGI films and animation With the rapid advancement of real time rendering quality artists began to use game engines to render non interactive movies which led to the art form Machinima Film and television source source source source source source source source source source source source source source track Spring a 3D animated short film made using Blender CGI short films have been produced as independent animation since 1976 15 Early examples of feature films incorporating CGI animation include the live action films Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan and Tron both 1982 16 and the Japanese anime film Golgo 13 The Professional 1983 17 VeggieTales is the first American fully 3D computer animated series sold directly made in 1993 its success inspired other animation series such as ReBoot 1994 and Transformers Beast Wars 1996 to adopt a fully computer generated style The first full length computer animated television series was ReBoot 18 which debuted in September 1994 the series followed the adventures of characters who lived inside a computer 19 The first feature length computer animated film is Toy Story 1995 which was made by Disney and Pixar 20 21 22 following an adventure centered around anthropomorphic toys and their owners this groundbreaking film was also the first of many fully computer animated movies 21 The popularity of computer animation especially in the field of special effects skyrocketed during the modern era of U S animation 23 Films like Avatar 2009 and The Jungle Book 2016 use CGI for the majority of the movie runtime but still incorporate human actors into the mix 24 Computer animation in this era has achieved photorealism to the point that computer animated films such as The Lion King 2019 are able to be marketed as if they were live action 25 26 Animation methods 3D game character animated using skeletal animation In this gif of a 2D Flash animation each stick of the figure is keyframed over time to create motion In most 3D computer animation systems an animator creates a simplified representation of a character s anatomy which is analogous to a skeleton or stick figure 27 They are arranged into a default position known as a bind pose or T Pose The position of each segment of the skeletal model is defined by animation variables or Avars for short In human and animal characters many parts of the skeletal model correspond to the actual bones but skeletal animation is also used to animate other things with facial features though other methods for facial animation exist 28 The character Woody in Toy Story for example uses 712 Avars 212 in the face alone The computer doesn t usually render the skeletal model directly it is invisible but it does use the skeletal model to compute the exact position and orientation of that certain character which is eventually rendered into an image Thus by changing the values of Avars over time the animator creates motion by making the character move from frame to frame There are several methods for generating the Avar values to obtain realistic motion Traditionally animators manipulate the Avars directly 29 Rather than set Avars for every frame they usually set Avars at strategic points frames in time and let the computer interpolate or tween between them in a process called keyframing Keyframing puts control in the hands of the animator and has roots in hand drawn traditional animation 30 In contrast a newer method called motion capture makes use of live action footage 31 When computer animation is driven by motion capture a real performer acts out the scene as if they were the character to be animated 32 Their motion is recorded to a computer using video cameras and markers and that performance is then applied to the animated character 33 Each method has its advantages and as of 2007 games and films are using either or both of these methods in productions Keyframe animation can produce motions that would be difficult or impossible to act out while motion capture can reproduce the subtleties of a particular actor 34 For example in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man s Chest Bill Nighy provided the performance for the character Davy Jones Even though Nighy doesn t appear in the movie himself the movie benefited from his performance by recording the nuances of his body language posture facial expressions etc Thus motion capture is appropriate in situations where believable realistic behavior and action is required but the types of characters required exceed what can be done throughout the conventional costuming Modeling3D computer animation combines 3D models of objects and programmed or hand keyframed movement These models are constructed out of geometrical vertices faces and edges in a 3D coordinate system Objects are sculpted much like real clay or plaster working from general forms to specific details with various sculpting tools Unless a 3D model is intended to be a solid color it must be painted with textures for realism A bone joint animation system is set up to deform the CGI model e g to make a humanoid model walk In a process known as rigging the virtual marionette is given various controllers and handles for controlling movement 35 Animation data can be created using motion capture or keyframing by a human animator or a combination of the two 36 3D models rigged for animation may contain thousands of control points for example Woody from Toy Story uses 700 specialized animation controllers Rhythm and Hues Studios labored for two years to create Aslan in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which had about 1 851 controllers 742 in the face alone In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow designers had to design forces of extreme weather with the help of video references and accurate meteorological facts For the 2005 remake of King Kong actor Andy Serkis was used to help designers pinpoint the gorilla s prime location in the shots and used his expressions to model human characteristics onto the creature Serkis had earlier provided the voice and performance for Gollum in J R R Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings trilogy Equipment A ray traced 3 D model of a jack inside a cube and the jack alone below Computer animation can be created with a computer and an animation software Some impressive animation can be achieved even with basic programs however the rendering can require much time on an ordinary home computer 37 Professional animators of movies television and video games could make photorealistic animation with high detail This level of quality for movie animation would take hundreds of years to create on a home computer Instead many powerful workstation computers are used 38 Graphics workstation computers use two to four processors and they are a lot more powerful than an actual home computer and are specialized for rendering Many workstations known as a render farm are networked together to effectively act as a giant computer 39 resulting in a computer animated movie that can be completed in about one to five years however this process is not composed solely of rendering A workstation typically costs 2 000 to 16 000 with the more expensive stations being able to render much faster due to the more technologically advanced hardware that they contain Professionals also use digital movie cameras motion performance capture bluescreens film editing software props and other tools used for movie animation Programs like Blender allow for people who can t afford expensive animation and rendering software to be able to work in a similar manner to those who use the commercial grade equipment 40 Facial animationMain article Computer facial animation The realistic modeling of human facial features is both one of the most challenging and sought after elements in computer generated imagery Computer facial animation is a highly complex field where models typically include a very large number of animation variables 41 Historically speaking the first SIGGRAPH tutorials on State of the art in Facial Animation in 1989 and 1990 proved to be a turning point in the field by bringing together and consolidating multiple research elements and sparked interest among a number of researchers 42 The Facial Action Coding System with 46 action units lip bite or squint which had been developed in 1976 became a popular basis for many systems 43 As early as 2001 MPEG 4 included 68 Face Animation Parameters FAPs for lips jaws etc and the field has made significant progress since then and the use of facial microexpression has increased 43 44 In some cases an affective space the PAD emotional state model can be used to assign specific emotions to the faces of avatars 45 In this approach the PAD model is used as a high level emotional space and the lower level space is the MPEG 4 Facial Animation Parameters FAP A mid level Partial Expression Parameters PEP space is then used to in a two level structure the PAD PEP mapping and the PEP FAP translation model 46 Realism source source source source source source source source source source source source source source track track track Joy amp Heron A typical example of realistic animation Realism in computer animation can mean making each frame look photorealistic in the sense that the scene is rendered to resemble a photograph or make the characters animation believable and lifelike 47 Computer animation can also be realistic with or without the photorealistic rendering 48 One of the greatest challenges in computer animation has been creating human characters that look and move with the highest degree of realism Part of the difficulty in making pleasing realistic human characters is the uncanny valley the concept where the human audience up to a point tends to have an increasingly negative emotional response as a human replica looks and acts more and more human Films that have attempted photorealistic human characters such as The Polar Express 49 50 51 Beowulf 52 and A Christmas Carol 53 54 have been criticized as disconcerting and creepy The goal of computer animation is not always to emulate live action as closely as possible so many animated films instead feature characters who are anthropomorphic animals legendary creatures and characters superheroes or otherwise have non realistic cartoon like proportions 55 Computer animation can also be tailored to mimic or substitute for other kinds of animation like traditional stop motion animation as shown in Flushed Away or The Peanuts Movie Some of the long standing basic principles of animation like squash and stretch call for movement that is not strictly realistic and such principles still see widespread application in computer animation 56 Animation studiosMain article List of animation studios The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject You may improve this section discuss the issue on the talk page or create a new section as appropriate May 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message Some notable producers of computer animated feature films include Animal Logic Films include Happy Feet 2006 Legend of the Guardians The Owls of Ga Hoole 2010 Walking with Dinosaurs 2013 The Lego Movie 2014 Aardman Animations Films include Flushed Away 2006 Arthur Christmas 2011 Big Idea Entertainment Jonah A VeggieTales Movie 2002 and The Pirates Who Don t Do Anything A VeggieTales Movie 2008 Bron Studios Films include The Addams Family 2019 The Willoughbys 2020 Blue Sky Studios Films include Ice Age 2002 Robots 2005 Horton Hears a Who 2008 Rio 2011 Epic 2013 The Peanuts Movie 2015 DNA Productions Films include Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius 2001 Santa vs the Snowman 3D 2002 and The Ant Bully 2006 DNEG Films include Ron s Gone Wrong 2021 DreamWorks Animation Films include Shrek 2001 Shark Tale 2004 Madagascar 2005 Over the Hedge 2006 Bee Movie 2007 Kung Fu Panda 2008 Monsters vs Aliens 2009 How to Train Your Dragon 2010 Rise of the Guardians 2012 The Croods 2013 Trolls 2016 The Boss Baby 2017 ImageMovers Films include The Polar Express 2004 Monster House 2006 Beowulf 2007 A Christmas Carol 2009 Mars Needs Moms 2011 Ilion Animation Studios Films include Planet 51 2009 Mortadelo and Filemon Mission Implausible 2014 Wonder Park 2019 Illumination Films include Despicable Me 2010 The Lorax 2012 Minions 2015 The Secret Life of Pets 2016 Sing 2016 The Grinch 2018 The Secret Life of Pets 2 2019 Industrial Light amp Magic Films include Rango 2011 and Strange Magic 2015 Pacific Data Images Films include Antz 1998 Shrek 2001 Shrek 2 2004 Madagascar 2005 Megamind 2010 Mr Peabody and Sherman 2014 Paramount Animation Films include The SpongeBob Movie Sponge Out of Water 2015 Monster Trucks 2017 Sherlock Gnomes 2018 Wonder Park 2019 The SpongeBob Movie Sponge on the Run 2020 Pixar Animation Studios Films include Toy Story 1995 Monsters Inc 2001 Finding Nemo 2003 The Incredibles 2004 Cars 2006 Ratatouille 2007 WALL E 2008 Up 2009 Brave 2012 Inside Out 2015 Coco 2017 and Soul 2020 Rainmaker Studios Films include Escape from Planet Earth 2013 and Ratchet amp Clank 2016 Reel FX Animation Studios Films include Free Birds 2013 and The Book of Life 2014 Wizart Animation Films include The Snow Queen 2012 Sheep and Wolves 2016 Shirogumi Films include Friends Mononoke Shima no Naki 2011 Stand by Me Doraemon 2014 and Dragon Quest Your Story 2019 Skydance Animation Films include Luck 2022 film Spellbound 2023 film Square Pictures Films include Final Fantasy The Spirits Within 2001 Sony Pictures Animation Films include Hotel Transylvania 2012 Spider Man Into the Spider Verse 2018 and The Mitchells vs the Machines 2021 Sony Pictures Imageworks Films include The Angry Birds Movie 2016 and Over the Moon 2020 Triggerfish Animation Studios Films include Zambezia 2013 Khumba 2014 Vanguard Animation Films include Valiant 2005 Space Chimps 2008 Walt Disney Animation Studios Films include Bolt 2008 Tangled 2010 Wreck It Ralph 2012 Frozen 2013 Big Hero 6 2014 Zootopia 2016 Moana 2016 and Encanto 2021 Warner Animation Group Films include The Lego Movie 2014 Storks 2016 The Lego Batman Movie 2017 Smallfoot 2018 Scoob 2020 Weta Digital Films include The Adventures of Tintin 2011 Web animationsThe popularity of websites that allow members to upload their own movies for others to view has created a growing community of independent and amateur computer animators 57 With utilities and programs often included free with modern operating systems many users can make their own animated movies and shorts Several free and open source animation software applications exist as well The ease at which these animations can be distributed has attracted professional animation talent also Companies such as PowToon and Vyond attempt to bridge the gap by giving amateurs access to professional animations as clip art The oldest most backward compatible web based animations are in the animated GIF format which can be uploaded and seen on the web easily 58 However the raster graphics format of GIF animations slows the download and frame rate especially with larger screen sizes The growing demand for higher quality web based animations was met by a vector graphics alternative that relied on the use of a plugin For decades Flash animations were the most popular format until the web development community abandoned support for the Flash Player plugin Web browsers on mobile devices and mobile operating systems never fully supported the Flash plugin By this time internet bandwidth and download speeds increased making raster graphic animations more convenient Some of the more complex vector graphic animations had a slower frame rate due to complex rendering compared to some of the raster graphic alternatives Many of the GIF and Flash animations were already converted to digital video formats which were compatible with mobile devices and reduced file sizes via video compression technology However compatibility was still problematic as some of the popular video formats such as Apple s QuickTime and Microsoft Silverlight required plugins YouTube the most popular video sharing website was also relying on the Flash plugin to deliver digital video in the Flash Video format The latest alternatives are HTML5 compatible animations Technologies such as JavaScript and CSS animations made sequencing the movement of images in HTML5 web pages more convenient SVG animations offered a vector graphic alternative to the original Flash graphic format SmartSketch YouTube offers an HTML5 alternative for digital video APNG Animated PNG offered a raster graphic alternative to animated GIF files that enables multi level transparency not available in GIFs See also Comparison of HTML5 and FlashDetailed examplesComputer animation uses different techniques to produce animations Most frequently sophisticated mathematics is used to manipulate complex three dimensional polygons apply textures lighting and other effects to the polygons and finally rendering the complete image A sophisticated graphical user interface may be used to create the animation and arrange its choreography Another technique called constructive solid geometry defines objects by conducting boolean operations on regular shapes and has the advantage that animations may be accurately produced at any resolution Computer generated animationTo animate means figuratively to give life to There are two basic methods that animators commonly use to accomplish this Computer generated animation is known as three dimensional 3D animation Creators design an object or character with an X a Y and a Z axis No pencil to paper drawings create the way computer generated animation works The object or character created will then be taken into a software Key framing and tweening are also carried out in computer generated animation but so are many techniques unrelated to traditional animation Animators can break physical laws by using mathematical algorithms to cheat mass force and gravity rulings Fundamentally time scale and quality could be said to be a preferred way to produce animation as they are major aspects enhanced by using computer generated animation Another positive aspect of CGA is the fact one can create a flock of creatures to act independently when created as a group An animal s fur can be programmed to wave in the wind and lie flat when it rains instead of separately programming each strand of hair 59 A few examples of computer generated animation movies are Toy Story Antz Ice Age Happy Feet Despicable Me Frozen and Shrek 2D computer animationMain article 2D computer animation 2D computer graphics are still used for stylistic low bandwidth and faster real time renderings Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to stop motion techniques but using 3D models and traditional animation techniques using frame by frame animation of 2D illustrations For 2D figure animations separate objects illustrations and separate transparent layers are used with or without that virtual skeleton 2D sprites and pseudocode In 2D computer animation moving objects are often referred to as sprites A sprite is an image that has a location associated with it The location of the sprite is changed slightly between each displayed frame to make the sprite appear to move 60 The following pseudocode makes a sprite move from left to right var int x 0 y screenHeight 2 while x lt screenWidth drawBackground drawSpriteAtXY x y draw on top of the background x x 5 move to the right Computer assisted animation Computer assisted animation is usually classed as two dimensional 2D animation Drawings are either hand drawn pencil to paper or interactively drawn on the computer using different assisting appliances and are positioned into specific software packages Within the software package the creator places drawings into different key frames which fundamentally create an outline of the most important movements 61 The computer then fills in the in between frames a process commonly known as Tweening 62 Computer assisted animation employs new technologies to produce content faster than is possible with traditional animation while still retaining the stylistic elements of traditionally drawn characters or objects 59 Examples of films produced using computer assisted animation are The Little Mermaid The Rescuers Down Under Beauty and the Beast Aladdin The Lion King Pocahontas The Hunchback of Notre Dame Hercules Mulan The Road to El Dorado and Tarzan See also Animation portalAnimation Animation database Autodesk Avar animation variable Computer generated imagery CGI New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab Computer representation of surfaces Hand Over Humanoid animation List of animation studios List of computer animated films List of computer animated television series Medical animation Morph target animation Machinima recording video from games and virtual worlds Motion capture Procedural animation Ray tracing Rich Representation Language Skeletal animation Timeline of computer animation in film and television Virtual artifact Wire frame model Twelve basic principles of animationReferencesCitations Sito 2013 p 232 Masson 1999 p 148 Parent 2012 pp 100 101 255 Masson 1999 pp 390 394 Sito 2013 pp 69 75 Charles Csuri Fragmentation Animations 1967 1970 Hummingbird 1967 YouTube Kitten 1968 computer animation YouTube Metadata 1971 YouTube Masson 1999 p 404 Masson 1999 pp 282 288 Sito 2013 p 64 Means 2011 Sito 2013 pp 97 98 Sito 2013 pp 95 97 Masson 1999 p 58 The Making of Tron Video Games Player Vol 1 no 1 Carnegie Publications September 1982 pp 50 5 Beck Jerry 2005 The Animated Movie Guide Chicago Review Press p 216 ISBN 1569762228 Sito 2013 p 188 Masson 1999 p 430 Masson 1999 p 432 a b Masson 1999 p 302 Our Story Pixar 1986 2013 Retrieved on 2013 02 15 The Pixar Timeline 1979 to Present Pixar Archived from the original on 2015 09 05 Masson 1999 p 52 Thompson Anne 2010 01 01 How James Cameron s Innovative New 3D Tech Created Avatar Popular Mechanics Retrieved 2019 04 24 Fleming Mike Jr October 13 2016 Disney s Live Action Lion King Taps Jeff Nathanson As Writer Deadline Hollywood Archived from the original on October 15 2016 Retrieved July 9 2019 Rottenberg Josh July 19 2019 The Lion King Is it animated or live action It s complicated Los Angeles Times Retrieved December 13 2021 Parent 2012 pp 193 196 Parent 2012 pp 324 326 Parent 2012 pp 111 118 Sito 2013 p 132 Masson 1999 p 118 Masson 1999 pp 94 98 Masson 1999 p 226 Masson 1999 p 204 Parent 2012 p 289 Beane 2012 p 2 15 Masson 1999 p 158 Sito 2013 p 144 Sito 2013 p 195 Foundation Blender blender org Home of the Blender project Free and Open 3D Creation Software blender org Retrieved 2019 04 24 Masson 1999 pp 110 116 Parke amp Waters 2008 p xi a b Magnenat Thalmann amp Thalmann 2004 p 122 Pereira amp Ebrahimi 2002 p 404 Pereira amp Ebrahimi 2002 pp 60 61 Paiva Prada amp Picard 2007 pp 24 33 Masson 1999 pp 160 161 Parent 2012 pp 14 17 Zacharek Stephanie 2004 11 10 The Polar Express Salon Retrieved 2015 06 08 Herman Barbara 2013 10 30 The 10 Scariest Movies and Why They Creep Us Out Newsweek Retrieved 2015 06 08 Clinton Paul 2004 11 10 Review Polar Express a creepy ride CNN Retrieved 2015 06 08 Digital Actors in Beowulf Are Just Uncanny Archived 2011 08 27 at the Wayback Machine New York Times November 14 2007 Neumaier Joe November 5 2009 Blah humbug A Christmas Carol s 3 D spin on Dickens well done in parts but lacks spirit New York Daily News Archived from the original on July 10 2018 Retrieved October 10 2015 Williams Mary Elizabeth November 5 2009 Disney s A Christmas Carol Bah humbug Salon com Archived from the original on January 11 2010 Retrieved October 10 2015 Sito 2013 p 7 Sito 2013 p 59 Sito 2013 pp 82 89 Kuperberg 2002 pp 112 113 a b Roos Dave 2013 How Computer Animation Works HowStuffWorks Retrieved 2013 02 15 Masson 1999 p 123 Masson 1999 p 115 Masson 1999 p 284 Works cited Beane Andy 2012 3D Animation Essentials Indianapolis Indiana John Wiley amp Sons ISBN 978 1 118 14748 1 Kuperberg Marcia 2002 A Guide to Computer Animation For TV Games Multimedia and Web Focal Press ISBN 0 240 51671 0 Magnenat Thalmann Nadia Thalmann Daniel 2004 Handbook of Virtual Humans Wiley Publishing ISBN 0 470 02316 3 Masson Terrence 1999 CG 101 A Computer Graphics Industry Reference Digital Fauxtography Inc ISBN 0 7357 0046 X Means Sean P December 28 2011 Pixar founder s Utah made Hand added to National Film Registry The Salt Lake Tribune Retrieved January 8 2012 Paiva Ana Prada Rui Picard Rosalind W 2007 Facial Expression Synthesis using PAD Emotional Parameters for a Chinese Expressive Avatar Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Lecture Notes in Computer Science Springer Science Business Media 4738 doi 10 1007 978 3 540 74889 2 ISBN 978 3 540 74888 5 Parent Rick 2012 Computer Animation Algorithms and Techniques Ohio Elsevier ISBN 978 0 12 415842 9 Pereira Fernando C N Ebrahimi Touradj 2002 The MPEG 4 Book New Jersey IMSC Press ISBN 0 13 061621 4 Parke Frederic I Waters Keith 2008 Computer Facial Animation 2nd ed Massachusetts A K Peters Ltd ISBN 978 1 56881 448 3 Sito Tom 2013 Moving Innovation A History of Computer Animation Massachusetts MIT Press ISBN 978 0 262 01909 5 External links Media related to Computer animations at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Computer animation amp oldid 1133716955, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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