Computer Animation

Priti Sehgal
ANIMATION
refers to motion though it covers all
changes that have a visual effect.
includes the time varying position (motion
dynamics), shape, color, transparency,
structure, and texture of an object (update
dynamics), and all changes in lighting,
camera position, orientation, and focus.
AppIications
entertainment industry (motion pictures,
cartoons, video games) advertising, education,
in industrial applications such as control system
and heads-up displays and flight simulators for
aircraft, and in scientific research
scientific application of computer graphics and
especially of animation have come to be known
under the group called scientific visualization
Often, the animations in scientific visualization
are generated from simulations at scientific
phenomena.
Some animations require realistic displays
0sign of an animation
s06:0nc0
1. Storyboard layout
2. Participating object definition
3. Key frame specifications
4. Generation of in-between frames
Storyboard
The storyboard is an outline of the action (animation).
t defines motion as a set of basic events that are to take
place.
the storyboard could consist of a high level sequence of
sketches showing the structure and ideas of the
animation.
Next, sound track, if any, is recorded and a detailed
layout is produced with a drawing for every scene in the
animation. The detailed lay out and the sound track are
then correlated.
Object Definitions
Each participating object in the action
must be given a definition.
Objects can be defined in terms of basic
shapes such as polygons or splines.
the associated movements for each object
along with the shape can also be
specified.
Key-Frame systems
detailed drawing of the scheme at particular
instant in the animation sequences.
Some key frames are chosen at extreme or
characteristic positions in the action.
Others are spaced so that the time interval
between key frames is not too large.
More key frames are specified for intricate
motions than for simple and slowly varying
motions.
n-between frames
n-betweens are the intermediate frames between the
key frames.
The number of in-betweens needed depends on the
media to be used to display the animation.
Typically, time intervals for the motion are selected so
that there are three to five in-betweens for each pair of
key frames.
Depending on the speed specified for the motion,some
key frames can be duplicated. To produce a one-minute
film sequence with, no duplication, we would need 1440
frames or 288 key frames if there were five in betweens
for each pair of key frames. f the motion is smoothly
varying, we could space the key frames a little further
apart.
Other tasks
Motion verification,editing
Production and synchronization of
soundtrack
Animation F:nctions
The development of an animation sequence requires several operations, which
include
object manipulation and rendering, camera motions, and the generation of
in betweens.
Animation packages such as wave front provide special functions for
designing
the animation and processing individual objects.
Functions for storing and managing the object databases, which include
object shapes and associated parameters.
Motions can be generated according to the specification of kinematics and
dynamics or goal using 2-D or 3-D transformations.
Standard functions are then applied to identify visible surfaces followed by
rendering algorithms.
Function to simulate camera movements to produce standard motions:
zooming,
panning and tilting.
Finally, given the specification for key frames, the in-betweens have to be
generated automatically through functions.
#aster Animations
On raster animation systems, we can
generate real-time animation in limited
applications.
By raster modification of pixels
2-D motion paths using color look up table
tables predefine the object at successive
positions along motion path, set the
successive blocks of pixel values to color
table entries.
Animation Iang:ag0s
A general purpose lang can be used to program
animation functions
Special purpose languages also.
Tasks- scene description, action specification
key frame systems - which are used to generate
inbetweens from the user specified key frames.Each
object is defined as a set of rigid bodies connected at
joints and with some number of degrees of freedom.
Parameterized systems object motion characteristics
specified as part of object definitions. Adjustable
parameters control object characteristics
Scripting systems Object specification and animation
sequences defined as user-input script from which
objects and motions can be constructed.
Key-frame systems
From the specified two or more key frames, the
key-frame systems generate sets of in-
betweens.
Motion paths, represented as a set of spline
curves can be given with kinematic descriptions
or motions produced by specifying the forces
acting on the objects to be animated, can be
physically based, i.e., can be described by
dynamics under the influence of forces.
Morphing
With the application of transformations, the
shapes of complex objects may change
over time.
Morphing, a shortened form of metamorphosis is
a transformation of an object from one form to
another. Morphing methods can be applied to
any motion or transition involving a change in
shape and thus they yield evolving shapes.
Here, we use linear interpolation for generating
the in-betweens.
Morphing
Equalizing frames in edges, in
vertices
Suppose we equalize the edge count and
let parameters Lk and Lk+1 denote the
number of line segments in two
consecutive frames. We then define
Equalizing frames in edges, in
vertices
Then the preprocessing using the edge count is
performed by
1. Dividing Ne edges of (Key frame)min into Ns+1
sections
2. Dividing the remaining edges of (Key frame) min into
Ns sections
f we take L
k
= 15 and L
k+1
= 11 in Eqn. (1), then we will
get N
e
= 4 and N
s
= 1 from Eqn (2). Since (Key
frame)min occurs with L
k+1
( smaller) we would divide
four edges of (Key frame)
k+1
into N
s+1
= 2 sections each.
The remaining edges of (Key frame)
k+1
are left intact so
that L
k
=2x4+(11-4)=8+7=15.
Equalizing frames in edges, in
vertices
For equalizing the vertex count, let parameters Vk and
Vk+1 denote the number of vertices in the two
consecutive frames. n this case, we define
$im:Iating acc0I07ations
we introduce time interpolation to specify the animation paths
between key frames and produce realistic displays of different speed
changes, i.e., accelerations particularly at the beginning and at the
end of a motion sequence.
Curve fitting methods are used to determine the time spacing
between frames using non linear interpolation
Constant speed
f n-in betweens for key frames at times t
1
and t
2.
Time interval is divided into n+1
subintervals yielding a spacing of:
Non-zero acceleration
To model increasing speed: increasing interval size function is used.
Time spacing bet. The frames is increased so that greater changes in
position occur as object moves faster
Deceleration
For both increasing and decreasing
Motion specification
Direct motion specification
The specification consists of rotation angles and translation vectors.
The geometric transformation matrices are applied to transform
coordinate positions. Alternatively, one can use an approximation
equation to specify certain kinds of motions.
Goal Directed Systems
Motions in an animation sequence in these systems are specified
using the constraints and the goals respectively. E.g walk, pick, run
Motion Specification
Kinematics and Dynamics
kinematics, which refers to positions, velocities and acceleration of
points; or dynamics, which accounts for the physical laws governing
the kinematics. With kinematics description the animation is
specified by giving motion parameters (i.e., position, velocity and
acceleration) with out reference to the forces that cause the motion.
nverse kinematics offers an alternative specification of motion. Here,
given the initial and final position of objects at specified times, the
system computes the motion parameters. f we ask the question,
"What must be the constant velocity of the cube for it to reach
position (14, 16, 45) in 6 seconds from the origin, this could be
answered by the inverse kinematics.
Motion Specification
Dynamic descriptions of an object require the
specification of the forces that produce the velocities and
accelerations. Descriptions of object behaviour under the
influence of forces are generally referred to as a
physically based modeling. Forces affecting object
motions are of varied types such as electromagnetic,
gravitational,friction and other mechanical forces. We
can obtain object motions from the force equations
describing the physical laws.We need to use inverse
dynamics to obtain the forces given the initial and final
positions of objects and the type of motion.