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MODULE 5
Computer Animation
 Computer animation is a visual digital display technology that processes
the moving images on screen. In simple words, it can be put or defined as
the art or power of giving life, energy and emotions etc. to any non-living
or inanimate object via computers.
 Computer animation is the processed used for generating animated images
using computer graphics.
 Animators are the artists who specialize in the creation of animation.
 It can be presented in form of any video or movie.
 Computer animation has the ability to make any dead image alive.
 The key/main concept behind computer animation is to play the defined
images at a faster rate to fool the viewer so that the viewer should interpret
those images as a continuous motion of images.
Computer Animation is a sub-part or say small part of computer graphics and
animation. Nowadays, animation can be seen in many area around us. It is
used in a lot of movies, films and games, education, e-commerce, computer
art, training etc. It is a big part of entertainment area as most of the sets and
background is all build up through VFX and animation.

Applications of computer Animation

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Methods/Techniques:

1. FramebyFrame (Traditional Method):

Earlier, in traditional method, animation was done by hands because of the
absence of the computer-aided drawing facilities. And, these traditional method
required a lot of effort for even making a short video because of the fact that
every second of animation requires 24 frames to process.

2. Procedural:
In Procedural method, set of rules are used to animate the objects. Animator
defines or specify the initial rules and procedure to process and later runs
simulations.Many of the times rules or procedure are based on real world.s
physical rule which are shown by mathematical equations.

3. Behavioral:
According to this method/technique, to a certain extent the character or object
specifies/determines it?s own actions which helps / allows the character to
improve later, and in turn, it frees the animator in determining each and every
details of the character?s motion.

4. Key Framing:
A key frame in computer animation is a frame where we define changes in an
animation. According to key framing, a storyboard requirement is must as the
animator/artist draws the major frames (frames in which major/important
changes can be made later) of animation from it. In key framing, character?s or
object?s key position are the must and need to be defined by the animator,
because the missing frames are filled in those key position via computer
automatically.

5. Motion Capture:
This method of animation uses the live action/motion footage of a living human

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character which is recorded to the computer via video cameras and markers and
later, that action or motion is used/applied to animate the character which gives
the real feel to the viewers as if the real human character has been animated.
Motion Capture is quite famous among the animators because of the fact that
the human action or motion can be captured with relative ease.

6. Dynamics:
In this method, simulations are used in order to produce a quite different
sequence while maintaining the physical reality. Physics?s laws are used in
simulations to create the motion of pictures/characters. High level of
interactivity can be achieved in this method, via the use of real-time
simulations, where a real person performs the action or motions of a simulated
character.
Design Of Animation Sequences
Generally there are 4 steps in designing an animation sequence :
1.Storyboard Layout
2.Object definition
3.Key frames specification
4.Generation of in between frames

1.Storyboard Layout

 Storyboard is basically the layout of what action is going to happen in the

animation
 Depending on the type of animation the storyboard layout may contain
images of the objects and also a list of basic motion ideas in the animation
sequence.

2.Object definition

 An object definition is given for each participant in the animation

 Objects are defined by specifying what type of basic shapes are there in the
object,what are properties that is the color or size of the object.
 Also the motion of the objects that is the movements of the objects is also
mentioned with the shape

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3.Key Frame Specification

 A key frame is detailed drawing of the scene at a particular moment.

 In each key frame the objects are placed at exact specific position according
to specific time in the animation sequence.
 In some animation scene where the a lot of detailed motion is NOT
NEEDED,extreme key frames are chosen
 Key frames are spaced at short time intervals so better animation sequence is
developed ,as it provides more information about position of objects at
specific times intervals is available

4.Generation of In-btween frames

 In between frames are frames that are placed or added in between the key
frames
 Depending on the medium the number of in between the frames differ
 For example on film there are 24 frames per second and on Telecision or
graphics monitors the frame rate is 30 to 60 frames per second
 Usually there are 3 to 5 in between frames between 2 Key frames

Raster Animations
Raster Images
• Images generated on Raster Scan Display Devices.
• These images are formed by illumination of spots called pixels.
• Each pixels contain information about each colour,position and its
brightness
• Thus, raster images are collection of large number of pixels.
• These pixels are stored in bitmap of the image in the system memory which
is then viewed by the video controller.
Raster Animations
• Animation frames made up of pixels ratherthan scalable components are
referred as raster animation.

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• Raster images when played in a particular sequence it is called as Raster

Animation Sequence.
• Each raster image is called as Raster Frame
• Raster animation stores images as pixels ratherthan vector and shows more
realistic real images.
• In raster animation computer doesnot have to render each frame in real time.
• On raster systems, real-time animation in limited applications can be
generated using raster operations.
• Sequence of raster operations can be executed to produce real time
animation of either 2D or 3D objects.
• We can animate objects along 2D motion paths using the color-table
transformations.
• Predefine the object as successive positions along the motion path, set
the successive blocks of pixel values to color table entries.
• Set the pixels at the first position of the object to „on= values, and set
the pixels at the other object positions to the background color.
• The animation is accomplished by changing the color table values so
that the object is „on= at successive positions along the animation path
as the preceding position is set to the background intensity.

Types of Raster Animation

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a.Traditional Raster Animation :-

 Used low detailed animation using Sprite Sheets

 Sprite sheets allowed the removal of any object that was not needed,but
distributed the animated sequence.

b.Modern Raster Animation :-

 Each animation frame is either scanned into a computer.

 Programming languages such as Flash,HTML,and Java is used.
 Generate 2-D animations based on user input events,such as mouse clicks or
keystrokes
 Scaled to fit any window with predefined resolution

Vector vs Raster Animation

 Store image information as a sequence of points where as raster animation

stores information in the form of pixels.
 Vector animation doesnot provide much clarity of image rather than raster
animation generate real time images.
 Raster animations are rendered at high resolutions whereas vector
animations at low resolution

Applications of Raster Animation

 3D and 2D animation rendering

 Mesh filtering
 Real time game designing and graphics
 Cartoon animation to make realistic
 Animation movies

Advantages of Raster Animation

 Gives the animator control over apperance of an image

 Raster Animation uses less memory
 Flexible and can remove selective objects in animation sequence

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 Support 3D object animation

Disadvantages of Raster Animation

 Raster files are much larger

 Biggest problem of scaling leads to multiplication of each pixles which
generates a blocky pixelated image
 Costly hardware devices are required to render

Computer Animation Languages

 General purpose language such as C,Lips,pascal or Fortan are used to
program the animation function.
 Several specialized animation language have been developed.
 Animation functions include a graphics editor, a key frame generator, an in-
between generator and standard graphics routines.

• The graphics editor allows designing and modifying object shapes, using
spline surfaces, constructive solid geometry methods or other representation
schemes

Animation function included in computer animation language :-

1.Animation description

a.Scene Description :- It includes the positioning of objects and light sources

defining the photometric parameters and setting the camera parameters.

b. Action specification :- It involves the layout of motion paths for the objects and
camera.

2. Keyframe systems

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Specialized animation languages designed simply to generate the in- betweens

from the user specified keyframes.

3. Parameterized systems

Allow object motion characteristics to be specified as part of the object definitions.

The adjustable parameters control such object characteristics as degrees of
freedoms, motion limitations and allowable shape changes.

4. Scripting systems

Allow object specifications and animation sequences to be defined with a user

input script. From the script, a library of various objects and motions can be
constructed.

Keyframe Systems
• Each set of in-betweens are generated from the specification of two
keyframes.
• For complex scenes, we can separate the frames into individual components
or objects called cells, an acronym from cartoon animation.
• A keyframe is a frame where we define changes in animation. Every frame
is a keyframe when we create frame by frame animation. When someone
creates a 3D animation on a computer, they usually don?t specify the exact
position of any given object on every single frame. They create keyframes.
• Keyframes are important frames during which an object changes its size,
direction, shape or other properties. The computer then figures out all the in-
between frames and saves an extreme amount of time for the animator. The
following illustrations depict the frames drawn by user and the frames
generated by computer.

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Morphing
• Morphing is an animation function which is used to transform object shape
from one form to another is called Morphing.
• Transformation of object shapes from one form to another is called
Morphing.
• It is one of the most complicated transformations
• This function is commonly used in movies, cartoons, advertisement, and
computer games.
• The process of Morphing involves three steps:

1. In the first step, one initial image and other final image are added to
morphing application as shown in fig: Ist & 4th object consider as key frames.
2. The second step involves the selection of key points on both the images for a
smooth transition between two images as shown in 2nd object.

3. In the third step, the key point of the first image transforms to a
corresponding key point of the second image as shown in 3rd object of the figure.

• Morphing methods can be applied to any motion or transition involving a

change in shape.

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• The general preprocessing rules for equalizing keyframes in terms of either

the number of vertices to be added to a keyframe.
• We equalize the edge count and parameters Lk and Lk+1 denote the number
of line segments in two consecutive frames. We define,
• Lmax =Max Lk, Lk+1)
• Lmin min(Lk ,Lk+1)
• Ne= Lmax mod Lmin, Ns = int (Lmax/Lmin)

• The preprocessing is accomplished by

• Dividing Ne edges of keyframemin into Ns+1 section.
• Dividing the remaining lines of keyframemin into Ns sections.
• For example, if Lk= 15 and Lk+i = 11, we divide 4 lines of keyframek+i into
2 sections each. The remaining lines of keyframek+i are left intact.
• If the vector counts in equalized paraiiieters Vk and Vk+i are used to denote
the number of vertices in the two consecutive frames. In this case we define

• Preprocessing using vertex count is performed by

• Adding Np points to Nls line section of keyframemin .
• Adding Np-1 points to the remaining edges of keyframemin .

Simulating Accelerations

• Curve-fitting techniques are often used to specify the animation paths

between key frames. Given the vertex positions at the key frames, we

can fit the positions with linear or nonlinear paths.

• Suppose we are given a nonlinear fit of key-frame positions. This

determines the trajectories for the in- betweens. To simulate accelerations,

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we can adjust the line spacing for the in-betweens. For constant speed (zero
acceleration) we use equal-interval time spacing for the in-betweens.
• Suppose we want n in-betweens for keyframes at times t1 and t2. The time
interval between key frames is then divided into n + 1 subintervals. yielding
an in-between spacing of
• delta= t2-t1/n+1
• we can calculate the time for any in-between as
• tBj =t1+j delta t, j = 1,2,..

Motion Specification
There are several ways to specify the motion in an animation system.The most
general and straightforward methods are:
1.Direct motion specification
2. Goal direct systems
3. Kinematics and Dynamics
1.Direct motion specification

• There are several ways in which the motions of the object can be specified in
an animated system.
• The most straight forward method for defining the motion sequence is direct
specification of the motion parameters.
• Explicit parameters are provided.
• Here, we explicitly give the rotation angles and translation vectors, then the
geomagnetic transformation matrices are applied to transform co-ordinate
positions.
• Alternatively, we use an approximating equation to specify certain motions.
• Example :-Bouncing ball,Moving car changed to other object

• For example, we can approximate the path of a bouncing ball, for instance
with a damped, rectified sine curve; y(x) =A|sin(wx+0o)|e^k
• Where A is the initial amplitude, w is the angulat frequency, 0o is the phase

angle and k is the damping constant.

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• These methods can be used for <user programmed animation sequences=.

Advantages :-

• Easily and explicitly parameters are provided to any object

• Coordinate positions are easily /applied to transform the object

Disadvantages :-

• No simplicit parameters can be transform

• Accelaration of any object is not possible

2.Goal direct systems

• We can specify the motions that are take place in general terms, that
abstractly describe the actions.
• These systems are reffered to as goal directed, because they determine
specific motion parameters given the goals of the animation.
• For example, we could specify that we want an object to >walk? or to 'run? to
a particular destination or we could state that we want an object to >pick up?
some other specified object. The input directives ae then interrupted in terms
of component motions that will accomplish the selected task.
• Human motions for instance, can be defined as a hierarchical structure of
sub motions for the for some, limbs and so-forth.

3.Kinematics and Dynamics

Kinematics

• Study of motion (velocity, position and acceleration)

• Movement of an object from one place to another

• Here we specify the animation by given motion parameters (velocity,

position and acceleration) without reference to the forces that cause the
motion.
• Time intervals are measured such as min,sec,hour etc.

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• These time intervals are observed between relative position and reference
point
• For constant velocity, we designate the motions of rigid bodies scene by
giving an initial position and velocity vector for each object.
• Kinematic specification of a motion can also be given simply describing the
motion path. This is often done using spline curves.
• An alternative is to use=inverse kinematics <.here we specify the initial and
final position if objects at specified times and the motion parameters are
computed by the system. This method is often used with complex objects by
given the position and orientation of an end node of an object, such as a
hand or a root.
• The system then determines the motion parameters of other nodes to
accomplish the desired motion.

Dynamic

• It require the specification of the forces that produce the velocities and
accelerations.
• Description of the object behavior under the influence of forces are generally
referred to as a physically based modelling.
• Object motions are obtained from the force equations describing physical
laws.
• We can also use <inverse dynamics= to obtain the forces, given the initial
and final positions of objects and the type of motion.
• Applications of physically based modelling include complex rogid body
systems and such non – rigid systems as clothes and plastic materials.

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