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- John Lasseter, "Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to =
/://3/3D
Computer Animation", Computer Graphics, pp. 35-44, 21:4, July 1=
987
(SIGGRAPH 87).
- Ollie Johnston and John Lasseter, Course 1 at SIGGRAPH 94,
"Animation Tricks".
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- Computers are stupid
- Worst case, keyframe required for every frame
- John discovered that some degrees of freedom (DOFs) require more
keyframes than others to look natural
- You must start with a clear idea of the motion you desire
- Plan actions with thumbnail sketches and plot timing on exposure she=
et
- Refer to sketches/timing frequently
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- Native computer character is 3-D
- Sometimes makes it harder
- A character’s hand may go through its body when seen from a
certain angle
- Sometimes makes it easier
- Animation reuse: An animation may look very different when seen fr=
om
different locations
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- Rendering can make realistic-looking objects (marble, feathers, stee=
l)
- Good rendering benefits are lost if animation is poor
- Physics matters – heavy things take longer to start/stop
moving…
- Proper timing/spacing of poses is more important than the poses
themselves
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- Every motion must exist for a reason
- Mood
- Personality
- Attitude
- You must convey the character’s thoughts to tell the story
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- Lead with the eyes
- Move eyes first, with lock-in of focus a few frames before the head=
- Head follows and leads the body by a few frames
- More delay implies more thought required
- Use this relationship as a tool
- External forces cause opposite timing relationship
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- Traditional 2-D animation permits “holds”
- Reuse of one drawing for multiple frames
- This is one way to control timing
- In computer animation action dies immediately
- Perhaps due to realistic rendering and smooth animations
- Eye picks it up every time
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- Have some part of the character continue to move in same direction
during holds
- Remember to coordinate realism of character to realism of motions
- More realistic characters (rendering style and dimensions) require =
more
realistic movements
- This rule limits the straightforward reuse of human facial mocap for
non-human /://3/3D characters
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- Character’s personality conveyed through emotion
- Emotion dictates animation pace
- Distinguish emotional state of two characters through contrast in
movement
- No two characters perform same action in same manner
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- To make sure an idea or action is unmistakably clear, the
audience’s eye must be led to the right place at the right tim=
e
- Timing
- Not too slow or audience eyes wander
- Not too fast or action is misunderstood
- The faster the motion, the more critical it is to make the audience
focus on it
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- Animation must be timed to stay slightly ahead or behind
audience’s understanding
- Ahead conveys suspense and surprise
- Initial scene of Luxo Jr. where Dad is surprised by ball
- Closing scene of Red’s Dream
- Behind reveals the story to the audience before a character to conv=
ey
character’s discovery
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- Why is this here?
- Does it further the story?
- Does it support the whole?
- Change of shape shows a character is thinking
- “It is the thinking that gives the illusion of life.
It is the life that gives meaning to the expression”<=
sup>1
- “It’s not the eyes, but the glance – not the lips,
but the smile”2
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- Use attitudes and actions to illustrate ideas and thoughts, not words
and mechanical movements
- Squash and stretch the entire body for attitudes
- Preserve volume
- Useful for face too
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- Change of expression and dialog are points of interest –
don’t move head too much
- Concentrate on drawing clear, not clean
- Everything has a function – know why
- Let the body attitude echo the facial
- Find best part of character’s pose to squash and stretch
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- The eye is pulled by the eyebrow muscles
- Get a plastic quality in the face
- The audience has a difficult time reading the first 6 – 8 fram=
es
- Actions can be eliminated and staging “cheated” if it
simplifies the picture you are trying to show and it doesn’t
disturb the audience
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- Spend half your time planning your scene and the other half animatin=
g
- How to animate a four-legged walk:
- Work out acting patterns with squash and stretch in body, neck, and
head
- Animate the legs
- Adjust up and down motion of body according to legs
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- Can be anatomical
- Swinging your foot back before kicking
- Device that attracts viewer’s attention
- Staring off camera until character enters at that position
- Can help convey mass. =
More
wind-up or concentration implies increased scale
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- Contrast is powerful staging technique
- Motion is one example
- Original Disney characters were black and white (no grayscale)
- Important motions had to be drawn in silhouette because limbs pass=
ing
in front of others were not easy to see
- Even when grayscale (and color) is possible, silhouette makes acti=
ons
more visible
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- "It is not necessary for an animator to take a character to one
point, complete that action completely, and then turn to the followi=
ng
action as if he had never given it a thought until after completing =
the
first action. When a character knows what he is going to do he doesn=
't
have to stop before each individual action and think to do it. He ha=
s it
planned in advance in his mind."
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- A facsimile of physics
- First, second, and third order continuity
- Remember challenges getting splines to interpolate endpoints
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- Film a Sequences a Shot/Scene a Frames
- Preliminary story a Script a Storyboard
- Model Sheet
- Multiple drawings for each character
- Exposure Sheet
- Sound track cues, camera moves, and compositing info for each frame=
- Route Sheet
- Personnel responsible for each scene
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- Animatic or Story reel
- Scratch track
- First pass at audio (music, special fx, dialog)
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- Story Department: build the storyboard
- Art Department: build consistent look to coloring, lighting, models<=
/li>
- Modeling Department: build character and prop models. Give character’s hook=
s that
animators can use to move
- Layout Department: build 3-D world for staging and blocking
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- Shading Department: builds texture maps, shaders, lighting models
- Animation Department: animate
- Lighting Department: position lights (hundreds) and camera to create
final image
- Camera Department: I want to be a cowboy… render wrangling
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- Nonlinear editing
- Cut and paste frames anywhere in animation
- Film splicing
- Video tape copying
- Source aDestination (Assemble Editing)
- Character generator and special effects
- Cannot splice into middle of destination reel (linear editing)
- Industry standard: Sony BetaSP
- Frame accurate inserts
- Low quality degredation
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- Nothing is consistent
- Two decks play at different speeds (time-based corrector / blackbur=
st
generator)
- NTSC refresh signal helps to synchronize
- Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) time cod=
e is
absolute 8-digit tag that is pre-striped onto the tape (the parts of
the visual image TVs don’t show)
- Insert Editing allows flexible selection of insert points on
destination tape
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- Frames are always represented digitally (no degeneration)
- Infinite compositing
- 21Mb/sec required for playback
- 1 hour of video =/://3/3D 76 Gb of storage
- D1 and digital Betacam are industry standard
- Digital to analog or film?
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