1Animation1999 Star Wars: Phantom Menace2002 LOTR Two Towers2001 Final Fantasy2Computer Animation• Models have parameters– Polygon positions, normals, spline control points, joint angles, camera parameters, lights, color– n parameters define an n-dimensional state space– Values of n parameters = point in state space• Animation defined by path through state space– To produce animation:» 1. start at beginning of state space path» 2. set the parameters of your model» 3. render the image» 4. move to next point along state space path, repeat 2– Path usually defined by a set of motion curves» one for each parameter• Every animation technique reduces to specifying the state space trajectory—the state space will change with the techniqueOverview• Animation techniques–Traditional animation (frame-by-frame)–Keyframing–Procedural–Behavioral–Performance-based (motion capture)–Physically based (dynamics)• Modeling issues–Rotations–Inverse kinematics3Traditional Cel Animation• Film runs at 24 frames per second (fps)– That’s 1440 pictures to draw per minute– 1800 fpm for video (30fps)• Productions issues:– Need to stay organized for efficiency and cost reasons– Need to render the frames systematically (render farms)• Artistic issues:– How to create the desired look and mood while conveying story?– Artistic vision has to be converted into a sequence of still frames– Not enough to get the stills right--must look right at full speed» Hard to “see” the motion given the stills » Hard to “see” the motion at the wrong frame rateGertieAttack of the Note SheepTraditional Animation: The Process• Story board–Sequence of drawings with descriptions–Story-based description• Key Frames–Draw a few important frames as line drawings» For example, beginning of stride, end of stride• Inbetweens–Draw the rest of the frames• Painting–Redraw onto acetate Cels, color them in4Layered Motion• It’s often useful to have multiple layers of animation– How to make an object move in front of a background?– Use one layer for background, one for object– Can have multiple animators working simultaneously on different layers, avoid re-drawing and flickering• Transparent acetate allows multiple layers– Draw each separately– Stack them together on a copy stand– Transfer onto film by taking a photograph of the stackStory Boarding (from “A Bug’s Life”)5Principles of Traditional Animation[Lasseter, SIGGRAPH 1987]• Stylistic conventions followed by Disney’s animators and others (but this is not the only interesting style, of course)• From experience built up over many years– Squash and stretch -- use distortions to convey flexibility– Timing -- speed conveys mass, personality– Anticipation -- prepare the audience for an action– Followthrough and overlapping action -- continuity with next action– Slow in and out -- speed of transitions conveys subtleties– Arcs -- motion is usually curved– Exaggeration -- emphasize emotional content– Secondary Action -- motion occurring as a consequence– Appeal -- audience must enjoy watching itPrinciples of Traditional Animation6Squash and StretchSquash and Stretch7AnticipationFollow Through8Secondary ActionComputer Assisted Animation• Computerized Cel painting– Digitize the line drawing, color it using seed fill– Eliminates cel painters (low rung on totem pole)– Widely used in production (little hand painting any more)– e.g. Lion King• Cartoon Inbetweening– Automatically interpolate between two drawings to produce inbetweens (a la morphing)– Hard to get right» inbetweens often don’t look natural» what are the parameters to interpolate? Not clear...» not used very oftenHunger93D Computer Animation• Generate the images by rendering a 3-D model• Vary the parameters to produce the animation• Brute force– Manually set the parameters for each and every frame– For an n parameter model: 1440n values per minute• Traditional keyframing– Lead animators draw the important frames– Underpaid drones draw the inbetweens• Computer keyframing– Lead animators create the important frames with 3-D computer models– Unpaid computers draw the inbetweens– The dominant production methodPixarInterpolation• Hard to interpolate hand-drawn keyframes– Computers don’t help much• The situation is different in 3D computer animation:– Each keyframe is a defined by a bunch of parameters (state)– Sequence of keyframes = points in high-dimensional state space• Computer inbetweening interpolates these points• How? You guessed it: splines10Keyframing Basics• Despite the name, there aren’t really keyframes, per se.• For each variable, specify its value at the “important”frames. Not all variables need agree about which frames are important.• Hence, key values rather than key frames• Create path for each parameter by interpolating key valuesparamsframeskey valuesinterpolated valuesKeyframing: Issues• What should the key values be?• When should the key values occur?• How can the key values be specified?• How are the key values interpolated?• What kinds of BAD THINGS can occur from interpolation?– Invalid configurations (pass through objects)– Unnatural motions (painful twists/bends)– Jerky motion11Keyframe Animation: Production Issues• How to learn the craft–apprentice to an animator–practice, practice, practice–Read Cinefex, …• Pixar starts with animators, teaches them computers and starts with computer folks and teaches them some artFrom the Making of Toy Story12Scene from Toy Story IIRyanHow Do You Interpolate Between Keys?• Splines: non-uniform, C1is pretty good• Velocity control is needed at the keyframes• Classic example - a ball bouncing under gravity– zero vertical velocity at start– high downward velocity just before impact– lower upward velocity after– motion produced by fitting a smooth spline looks unnatural• What kind of spline might we want to use?Hermite is good• What kind of continuity do we want?13How Do You Interpolate Between Keys?Problems with Interpolation• Splines don’t always do the right thing• Classic problems–Important constraints may break between keyframes»feet sink through the floor»hands pass through walls–3D rotations»Euler angles don’t always interpolate in a natural way• Classic solutions:–More keyframes!–Quaternions
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