Computer Animation Photography Shack Guide
Computer Animation In Movies
By Nikos L Maxwell
Something happened while we weren’t looking. Or perhaps
something happened because we were looking. Whatever
the reason the results are awesome. This is of course
in reference to animation and not just any animation
but computer animation.
If you are old enough to remember life without it,
then you are probably continuously impressed with the
technological advances that have been made in this field.
If you are young enough that you do not remember a time
without it, then you are likely to still be impressed
with the advancements and changes that computer animations
have gone through. Animation actually refers to any
kind of animated graphic, not just the 3D animations.
The History Of Animation
Animation has historically been produced in two ways.
The first is by artists creating a succession of cartoon
animations frames, which are then combined into a film.
A second method is using physical models, such as in
King Kong. The model is positioned, the image is recorded,
then the model is moved, the next image is recorded,
and the process continues.
At times a simple rendering machine is used to produce
successive frames to create animations, where the image
is slightly changed in each one. It is hard to believe
that it all started as basic cartoon figures in a book
and flipping the pages over.
Motion Control
The major part of computer animation, or actually of
all types of animation, is motion control. Early systems
did not have the type of computational power it takes
for animation preview and interactive control to create
animations.
Also, many of the early animators were computer scientists
rather than artists, thus scripting systems were developed,
meaning the animator wrote a script, or program to control
the animation.
Keyframes, Story and The Storyboard
In the early days of animations cartoons, expert animators
such as Walt Disney, would design (choreograph) an animation
by drawing certain intermediate frames called keyframes.
Then the other, less experienced animators would draw
the in-between frames. The sequence of steps to produce
a full design computer animation would include developing
a story (or script), and laying it out on what is known
as a storyboard.
This is a sequence of drawings showing the form, structure
and story of the animation. Once a detailed layout of
the action scenes is produced, it is correlated with
a soundtrack. They would then transfer the frames to
sheets of acetate film, called "cels". The
cels were then assembled into a sequence and filmed.
Using A Computer To Create Animation Is Much Faster
You have more than likely dealt with animations and
may not have even known it. For example, if you have
ever created a project using PowerPoint or a similar
application, then you have created a project using 2D
animations. Using the computer to create these animations
is a much faster method than the original method of
hand-painting cels.
Considering the fact that it is close to impossible
to produce the thousands of drawings that would be needed
for creating the animation by hand, the superiority
of computer animation can be seen when creating 3D animation
versus hand-drawn methods, as most people are pretty
inefficient at drawing three-dimensional objects.
About the Author:
Nikos L Maxwell has written a number of articles on
digital photography and digital editing software including
Digital
Editing Software, Large
Images, Edit
Pictures, Fuji
Film Digital Cameras, DVD
Editing, Video
Editing Computers, Digital
Image Processing, Ray
Disc, Blu
Ray, Blu
Ray Disc, Blu
Ray HD DVD, Blu
Ray Reviews, Blu
Ray Vs HD DVD, DVD
Duplication, Ray
HD, HD
DVD.
Keep a lookout as more articles are added from this
popular author on this website in the near future.
More Computer Animation Facts....
Computer programs, cartoons, movies and websites
probably would not get very far without animation.
No, it is not the hand drawn animation used in some
cartoons. It is computer animation.
Those incredible fight scenes in action movies are
all done through this form of animation. It keeps the
action moving and the audience enthralled all while
ensuring that no one is harmed during the production
of the movie.
You can be part of this animation movement. It could
be your work up there on the big screen or on a cartoon.
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