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ANIMATION
Since my childhood I was fascinated with animation. I use to see so many 2-D animations and play so many pc games. When ever I say to my friends and people that I have chosen animation as my career most of them start wondering. This is because most of them don't really know what animation exactly means and its importance in today's world and in future as well.
Walt Disney quoted: "Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation."
Animation basically means, "The rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement." It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways. The person who deals with animation is known as an 'animateur' or an 'animator'. An 'animist' is a person who attributes a living soul in a plant, inanimate objects and natural phenomena. This attribution is termed as 'animism'. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program, although several other forms of presenting animation also exist.
There is not just one creator of animation but several people doing various types of animation related projects. The special-effects that we enjoy today in films were created by Georges Melies. He was the first to discover the technique known as stop-motion animation. In this the camera rolling is stopped to change the scene and then the film rolling is continued. Melies discovered this technique accidentally when his camera broke down while shooting a moving bus. When he had fixed the camera, a hearse happened to be passing by just as Melies restarted rolling the film, his end result was that he had managed to make a bus transform into a hearse. J. Stuart Blackton, an American filmmaker, was the first to use stop-motion and hand-drawn animation techniques. Emile Cohl, a French artist, began drawing cartoon strips. After Blackton and Cohl many other artists began experimenting with animation. Winsor McCay, a successful newspaper cartoonist, was one of the many artists; he created detailed animations that required a team of artists. Each frame was drawn on paper; which invariably required backgrounds and characters to be redrawn and animated.
The history of animation goes as back as more than 5200 years ago.
In the past different ways that show animation were -
- Cave paintings - The earliest examples derived from still drawings, which can be found in Paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple sets of legs in superimposed positions, this clearly showed motion.
- Pottery of Persia - A 5,200-year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-i Sokhta has five images painted along the sides. It shows phases of a goat leaping up to a tree to take a pear.
- Egyptian murals - this was approximately 4000 years old. It shows wrestlers in action.
- Zoetrope - it is a device which creates the image of a moving picture. In 180 AD the earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China by the prolific inventor Ting Huan.
In 1834 Zoetrope was the first instrument for the animation-world to start with which was used by William George Horner. The device is basically a cylinder with vertical slits around the sides. Around the inside edge of the cylinder there are a series of pictures on the opposite side to the slits. As the cylinder is spun, the user then looks through the slits producing the illusion of motion. Even today in the present world zoetrope is being used in animation classes to illustrate early concepts of animation.
- Leonardo shoulder study (ca. 1510) - Seven drawings by Leonardo da Vinci extending over two folios in the Windsor Collection, Anatomical Studies of the Muscles of the Neck, Shoulder, Chest, and Arm, show detailed drawings of the upper body (with a less-detailed facial image), illustrating the changes as the torso turns from profile to frontal position and the forearm extends.
- The magic lantern - it is an older version of the modern day projector. According to Athanasius Kircher it was originated from China in the 16th century. It consisted of a translucent oil painting and a simple lamp. When put together in a darkened room, the image would appear larger on a flat surface. Some slides for the lanterns contained parts that could be mechanically actuated to present limited movement on the screen.
- Thaumatrope - in 1824 a simple toy was used. It was a small circular disk or card with two different pictures on each side that was attached to a piece of string running through the centre. When the string was twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image. The creator of this invention was either John Ayrton Paris or Charles Babbage.
- Phenakistoscope - in 1831 the phenakistoscope was an early animation device, the older version of the zoetrope. It was invented simultaneously by Joseph Plateau and Simon von Stampfer.
- Praxinoscope - in 1877 it was invented by French scientist Charles-Emile Reynaud. It was a more sophisticated version of the zoetrope. It used the same basic mechanism as zoetrope but instead of viewing it through slits, it was viewed in a series of small, stationary mirrors around the inside of the cylinder so that the animation would stay in place and provide a clearer image and better quality.Later on a larger version of the praxinoscope was developed by Reynaud called Theatre Optique which could be projected onto a screen.
- Flip book - Like the Zoetrope, the Flip Book creates the illusion of motion. By flipping a set of sequential pictures at a high speed creates this effect. It was patented in 1868 by John Barns Linnet.
The Mutoscope (1894) is basically a flip book in a box with a crank handle to flip the pages.
In the present age animation has grown unimaginatively to a great height.
Some of the modern techniques of animation are -
- Stop-motion - it is used for many animation productions using physical objects unlike traditional animation which used images on people. In this an object is photographed, moved slightly, and then photographed again. When the pictures are played back in normal speed the object appears to move by itself. This process is used for many productions like clay animations as well as animated movies which use poseable figures. Sometimes even objects are used, such as with the films of Jan Svankmajer. Stop motion animation was also commonly used for special effects work in many live-action films. Some of the examples of stop-motion animation are Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit, The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, the 1933 version of King Kong and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
- Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) animation - this revolutionized animation. The first film done completely in CGI was Toy Story, produced by Pixar. It is similar to traditional animation. A principal difference of CGI Animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modeling. It is almost like virtual version of stop-motion. It is a form of animation that combines the two worlds but on 2D computer drawing.
- In the future it is being said that animators will be creating realistic-looking humans.
- Animated humans - Most CGI created films are based on animal characters, monsters, machines or cartoon-like humans. Animation studios are now trying to develop ways of creating realistic-looking humans. However, due to the complexity of human body functions, emotions and interactions, this method of animation is rarely used. The more realistic a CG character becomes, the more difficult it is to create the minute details of a living person. The creation of hair and clothing that move convincingly with the animated human character is another area of difficulty. Examples of Films that have attempted this include Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001, The Polar Express in 2004, Final Fantasy: Advent Children in 2005, and Beowulf in 2007.
- Cel-shaded animation - A type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. True real-time cel-shading was first introduced in 2000 by Sega's Jet Set Radio for their Dreamcast console. Cel-shading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon. It is a somewhat recent addition to computer graphics, most commonly turning up in console video games. Though the end result of cel-shading has a very simplistic feel like that of hand-drawn animation, the process is complex. The name comes from the clear sheets of acetate, called cels that are painted on for use in traditional 2D animation. It may be considered a "2.5D" form of animation. Besides video games, a number of anime have also used this style of animation, such as Freedom Project in 2006.
There are 5 categories of animation:
1. VFX - Category mainly concerning with the effects made for Visual Effects movies, live footage integration
2. FEATURE - Dealing with feature animation (Full Computer Generated imagery), Movies such as UP, Shrek
3. VISUALIZATION - Anywhere between scientific visualization for purposes medical, architectural, traffic, etc...
4. GAME - Design, execute and implementation of game assets, character, vehicles...etc in a game environment.
5. CIMMERCIAL - Any computer generated imagery targeting TV (or similar) mediums.
Some applications used fro animation are:
MAYA, 3D Studio MAX, XSI and many more...
There are twelve basic principles of animation introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. This book was referred to as Bible of the industry. Though it is great relevance for today's more prevalent computer animation it was originally intended to apply to traditional, hand-drawn animation.
The twelve principles are:
- Squash and stretch - this is the most important principle. Its purpose is to give a sense of weight and flexibility to drawn objects. It can be applied to simple objects, like a bouncing ball, or more complex constructions, like the musculature of a human face
- Anticipation - used to prepare the audience for an action, and to make the action appear more realistic. A dancer jumping off the floor has to bend his knees first; a golfer making a swing has to swing the club back first.
- Staging - Its purpose is to direct the audience's attention, and make it clear what is of greatest importance in a scene, what is happening, and what is about to happen. Johnston and Thomas defined it as "the presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear", whether that idea is an action, a personality, an expression or a mood.
- Straight ahead action and pose to pose - These are two different approaches to the actual drawing process. Straight ahead action means drawing out a scene frame by frame from beginning to end and it creates a more fluid, dynamic illusion of movement, and is better for producing realistic action sequences. On the other hand, it is hard to maintain proportions, and to create exact, convincing poses along the way. Pose to pose involves starting with drawing a few key frames and then filling in the intervals later and it works better for dramatic or emotional scenes, where composition and relation to the surroundings are of greater importance.
- Follow through and overlapping action - this principle help render movement more realistic. Follow through means that separate parts of a body will continue moving after the character has stopped. Overlapping action is when a character changes direction, and parts of the body continue in the direction he was previously going. There is also another technique called drag. In this a character starts to move and parts of him take a few frames to catch up. These parts can be inanimate objects like clothing or the antenna on a car or parts of the body, such as arms or hair.
- Slow in and slow out - The movement of the human body and most other objects need time to accelerate and slow down. An animation looks more realistic if it has more frames near the beginning and end of a movement and fewer in the middle. This principle not only goes for characters moving between two extreme poses such as sitting down and standing up but also for inanimate moving objects like a bouncing ball.
- Arcs - Most human and animal actions occur along an arched trajectory. Animation should reproduce these movements for greater realism. This can apply to a limb moving by rotating a joint, or a thrown object moving along a parabolic trajectory. The exception is mechanical movement which typically moves in straight lines.
- Secondary action - when a secondary action is added to the main action it gives a scene more life and can help to support the main action. A person walking can simultaneously swing his arms or keep them in his pockets, he can speak or whistle or he can express emotions through facial expressions. The important thing about secondary actions is that they emphasize on the main action.
- Timing - this is of two types: physical timing and theatrical timing. It is essential that the timing is correct for the physical realism as well as to the storytelling of the animation. Correct timing makes objects appear to abide to the laws of physics (e.g. an object's weight decides how it reacts to an impetus, like a push).
- Exaggeration - it is an effect especially useful for animation, as perfect imitation of reality can look static and dull in cartoons. The level of exaggeration depends on whether one seeks realism or a particular style, like a caricature or the style of an artist. The definition of exaggeration, by Disney, was to remain true to reality, just presenting it in a wilder, more extreme form. Other forms of exaggeration can involve the supernatural or surreal, alterations in the physical features of a character, or elements in the storyline itself.
- Solid drawing -this means that like an artist animator too has to apply same principles. The drawer has to understand the basics of anatomy, composition, weight, balance, light and shadow etc.
- Appeal - Appeal in a cartoon character corresponds to charisma in an actor. It is not necessary that only a character that is sympathetic is appealing even villains or monsters can be. The important thing is that the viewer feels the character is real and interesting.
In controlling the position of any part of an animated object avar (animation variables or hinge) is used. E.g. the character "Woody" in Pixar's movie Toy Story uses 700 avars (with 100 in the face alone). Successive sets of avars control all movement of the character from frame to frame.
Norman McLaren, a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director, quoted,
"Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn."
Animation has become one of the biggest industries with lots of job opportunities. In film industry it has advanced to such a height that in future instead of real humans in a film we will see realistic-looking humans. Animation has become a big part of films as without animation there are no special effects and without special effects the films look incomplete in action. Apart from film industry animation is being applied in many other fields. Before constructing a building (accommodation, offices, hotels, etc) the constructor uses a 3-D animated image (moving or still) of the building. In medical field it is used as visual animated body of Human for teaching. Animation is used in web-designing as well.
References:
- Wikipedia
- CHTHO produces documentary on world's oldest animation - Tehran Times.
- courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exh ibit10.htm - zoetrope
- dailymotion.com/related/x1mrkq/video/x3ifhv_fan tasmagorie_shortfilms
- animationtoolworks.com/library/article9.html
- Animated advertisements from General Websites like yahoo, facebook, etc.
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