Introduction to Animation, Lecture notes of Computer Applications

Download Introduction to Animation and more Lecture notes Computer Applications in PDF only on Docsity! Animation Animation refers to the process of bringing pictures to motion by drawing, designing, creating the layout, and preparing a presentation that runs slightly altered graphics in the background. The pictures used for animation can be caught through any digital media, such as a camera or a mobile phone. A person who creates animations is called animator. He/she use various computer technologies to capture the pictures and then to animate these in the desired sequence. He create animations using a sequence of images of still objects/drawings. Here, every succeeding image in the presentation is slightly different from the previous one, thus giving the viewers a sense of motion when running at a considerate speed. Animation is of two broad types, 2D and 3D. It is very famous in the arts and entertainment industry. Apart from this, animation is also helpful for developing websites, creating motion graphics, generating special effects, etc. Key benefits of animation Among the key benefits of using animated objects you will be sure to find these:  Animation helps deepen visual understanding better than traditional diagrams.  Animation omits unnecessary verbiage and visuals.  It allows you to communicate ideas quickly and sharply.  Animation is a cost-saving communication strategy.  It educates & engages the audience through entertainment.   It also provides real to life scenarios faced in daily life during learning, and so many other activities. Types of Animation Different types of animation have been developed for different situations at various stages of evolution and are used as a powerful medium of expression. Traditional animation (cel animation or hand-drawn animation) More traditional animation is the oldest form made by Disney or similar. Here, the animator creates all the frames in the animation sequence. These frames are hand- drawn. Therefore, the animator must be a great artist. The series moves one after the other exceptionally quickly, which creates the effect of movement. They created drawings on a vast drafting table with lights in the past. Even nowadays, these animations are made using computers or tablets, if special artistry should be added to the process. Traditional is most often 2D animation. Aladdin, The Lion King, and other earlier cartoons are the best examples of this.  2D animation 2D animation can fall under traditional animation like most early Disney movies — Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, etc. But there is something called Vector-based animation that can be 2D without being traditional.  This is a vector animation. An animation is often created using Flash or similar. This type is popular due to the availability of technology. Here too, the animator may create frame-by-frame series. In addition, we may create rigs for characters. In addition, there are tools for dragging and applying special effects and so much more. Images with familiar formats like JPG, GIF, BMP, are pixel images. These images cannot be enlarged or shrunk without affecting image quality. Vector graphics don’t need to worry about resolution. Vectors are characterized by pathways with various start and end points, lines connecting these points to build the graphic. Shapes can be created to form a character or other image. Vector-based animation uses mathematical values to resize images, so motion is smooth. They can re-use these creations so the animator doesn’t need to keep drawing the same characters over and over again. Animator can move around these vectors and animate that way.  3D animation Today, 3D or computer animation is the most common type. But just because computers have stepped in instead of actual drawings, it’s not necessarily easier. The computer is just another tool, and 3D animation is still a long, intense process.  In 3D animated movies, the animator uses a program to move the character’s body parts around. They set their digital frames when all of the parts of the character are in the right position. They do this for each frame, and the computer calculates the motion from each frame.  Animators adjust and tweak the curvatures and movements their characters make throughout. From Toy Story in 1995 to today’s Coco, 3D animation has become the dominant style in animated films. 3D animation is also unique in that, unlike 2D or other traditional methods, the character’s entire body is always visible. If a character turns to the side, the animator only needs to draw the side profile in 2D animation, but in 3D, the entire body still needs to be visible. So again, even though computers are being used, with new technology comes with way more considerations.  Motion graphics This is for moving graphic elements or text creatively. Commercials, logos, movie titles, television commercials use these types of animation. This requires an understanding of composition and camera movements. Motion Graphics are pieces are digital graphics that create the illusion of motion usually for ads, title sequences in films, but ultimately exist to communicate something to the viewer. They’re often combined with sound for multimedia projects. They’re a type of animation used mostly in business, usually with text as a main player.  Stop Motion Stop motion encompasses claymation, pixelation, object-motion, cutout animation, and more. But the basic mechanics are similar to the traditional style like a flipbook. However, instead of drawings, stop motion adjusts physical objects in each frame. moves, the flatter the arc and the broader the turn. The only time something would move in a perfectly straight line is a robot.  If a character is turning his head, he will dip his head down during the turn to create an arcing motion. You also want to ensure that more subtle things move in arcs. For example, when a character walks, even the tips of their toes should move in a rounded, arcing motion. 7. Exaggeration Exaggeration is used to push movements further, adding more appeal to an action, and should always be implemented to some degree.  Exaggeration can be used to create extremely cartoony movements including physical alterations or supernatural elements. Or, exaggeration can be incorporated with a little more restraint for more realistic actions. But, even then you can still use exaggeration to make a more readable or fun movement while still staying true to reality. So, if a character is preparing to jump off a diving board, you can push them down just a little bit further before they leap off. Alternatively, you can use exaggeration in the timing to enhance different movements or help sell the weight of a character or object. 8. Solid Drawing In 2D animation, solid drawing is about creating an accurate drawing in terms of volume and weight, balance, shadow, and the anatomy in a pose. With 3D animation, animators need to think about how to pose out your 3D character rig to ensure there is correct balance and weight, as well as a clear silhouette. Avoid “twinning,” which is creating a mirrored pose across to the other side (both arms on hips or both hands in pockets) because this creates a rather boring and unappealing pose. 9. Appeal This principle can really come down to adding more appeal (charisma) in many different areas of your animation, such as in posing. The most obvious example, however, is appeal in the character design because you want to have a character that the audience can connect with or relate to, whereas a complicated or confusing character design can lack appeal. You can find areas on the character to push and exaggerate in order to create a more unique design that will stick out in your audience’s memory. One example is to simply exaggerate the jawline or push the youthfulness in the eyes. Either of these can help create more appeal.  Keep in mind that appeal is also required for villains.  10. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose Straight ahead action is a very spontaneous and linear approach to animating and is animated from start to finish, frame by frame. With this, you’ll create each pose of the animation one after the other. So, if your character is landing on the ground after jumping in the air, you would create the poses where he is standing, then the poses where he is beginning to kneel down, and then completely crouched. In other words, you’re really working through the animation as you’re going to make quick action fluid and dynamic. With pose to pose, the animation is much more methodical, with just the most important poses required to properly tell the story. You would animate the character landing on the ground after jumping in the air by using fewer poses (standing and crouched). This allows for more simple work and ensures the proportions and timing are correct before you add more intervals later, and is great for slow, dramatic, or emotional scenes. Often, these two approaches are used in combination to great effect. 11. Secondary Action Secondary action refers to the actions that support or emphasize the main action to breathe more life into the animation and create a more convincing performance. It’s important to remember that the secondary action should typically be something subtle that doesn’t detract from the main action happening (perhaps even thought of as a subconscious action). For this reason, dramatic movements take priority over things like facial expressions. Let’s say a character is talking to another character in a waiting room. The two of them talking would be the main action, but if one of them begins tapping their foot nervously, that would be the secondary action. Other examples would be a character whistling, leaning on a wall, or crossing their arms while a primary action is taking place. 12. Staging Staging is how you go about setting up your scene, from the placement of the characters, to the background and foreground elements, the character’s mood, and how the camera angle is set up. Staging is used to make the purpose of the animation unmistakably clear to the viewer. You want to keep the focus on what you want to communicate to the audience (and avoid unnecessary detail) so they don’t become confused. Application Areas of Animation Animation can be considered as a unique branch of technology which can bring great value to a number of business and entertainment activities. The animation is extensively used in a lot of industries because of the advantages offered. Let’s look at some of the most important areas using animation extensively. 1. Education Sector It is a known fact that the human mind has a tendency to remember videos and images more than textual information. Animation can be effectively utilized for educational purposes to enhance the reception levels of the students, trainees and even teachers. Animation videos bring exceptional changes to the academic capabilities of students without second thoughts. Graphics, motion videos and dynamic presentations are being used by several education portals and organizations to teach complex and difficult concepts to students in an easy and understandable approach. Students can go through the content at their own pace and any number of times to understand the complex topics. 2. Entertainment Industry The entertainment industry is using animation very extensively for various purposes. Perhaps, computer graphics are most widely for entertainment as compared to any other purpose. Varying animation services are used for entertainment in a range of platforms such as TV, media, internet and even on the smartphones. Several top animation companies are providing animation services in the entertainment industry. Several animation series and movies are created for children as well as the adult audience that can be enjoyed as normal movies. Apart from movies, a range of cartoons and TV series are created to target a wider audience including all age groups. Animation programs are being created for entertainment as well as teaching important life lessons and moral values. Some well-known studios like Pixar, Disney, and DreamWorks are primarily involved with making animated cartoon movies. 3. Advertisement Industry Benefits of animation in the advertising industry are quite astounding. Advertisements are always required to be creative and connecting to the real world. Animation plays an important role in making effective commercials to easily capture the imagination of the audience and luring the audience to purchase the product being advertised. The rapidly growing use of the internet has given birth to a new platform where animated advertisements are used extensively and target audiences of all age groups. The animation is being used for TV advertising for a long time. Animations make advertisements inspiring and funny and always captures the imagination of the end customer. 4. Marketing Animations add a lot of creativity to the marketing of any organization. It also enables any organization to reach out to more demographics. Any animated demonstration of a product is attentive and provides instant benefits. Animation can be a great conversion medium. 5. Scientific Visualization The animation is widely used to create accurate and representative scientific visualization. Animation can be used for the purpose of research as well as analytical studies. It can be effective used to create and demonstrate 3D models for a wide variety of objects for realistic visualizations. 6. Arts The animation is extensively used to demonstrate creative skills. For example, creative arts can be designed as a computer course. Courses can utilize animation to get the education across the class leveraging various presentations, models and diagrams. Making animation requires an animator to be creative and make animations that replicate the real world. 7. Gaming Industry The gaming industry is using animation extensively as compared to any other industry for sure. Any game today consists of 3d characters and all these characters are created using animation. Entirely gaming industry is dependent on these 3D animations. Every game is modelled and created using animation. A lot of modelling