Animation CS 551 / 651

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AnimationCS 551 / 651

• Lecture 5
• Classical Animation

2
Principles of Computer Animation

• John Lasseter, "Principles of Traditional
  Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation",
  Computer Graphics, pp. 35-44, 214, July 1987
  (SIGGRAPH 87).
• Ollie Johnston and John Lasseter, Course 1 at
  SIGGRAPH 94, "Animation Tricks".

3
Comments from LasseterKeyframing

• Computers are stupid
• Worst case, keyframe require 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 sheet
• Refer to sketches/timing frequently

4
Lasseter 2-D vs. 3-D

• Native computer character is 3-D
• Sometimes makes it harder
• A characters 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 from different locations

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Lasseter Weight and Size

• Rendering can make realistic-looking objects
  (marble, feathers, steel)
• 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

6
Lasseter Thinking Character

• Every motion must exist for a reason
• Mood
• Personality
• Attitude
• You must convey the characters thoughts to tell
  the story
• Use anticipation

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Lasseter Anticipation

• 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

8
Lasseter Moving Holds

• 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

9
Lasseter Moving Holds

• 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 3D characters

10
Lasseter Emotion

• Characters 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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Lasseter Readability of Actions

• To make sure an idea or action is unmistakably
  clear, the audiences eye must be led to the
  right place at the right time
• 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

Harold Whitaker and John Halas, Timing for
Animation, 1981
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Readability of Actions

• Staging
• Audience can only see one idea at a time
• Object of interest must be contrasted against
  rest of scene
• Pick strongest and simplest technique
• ex Still object vs. busy background

13
Lasseter Readability of Actions

• Anticipation
• First action should not be brought to complete
  stop before starting second
• Slight overlapping preserves flow
• ex Luxo Jr.

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Lasseter Story Tricks

• Animation must be timed to stay slightly ahead or
  behind audiences understanding
• Ahead conveys suspense and surprise
• Initial scene of Luxo Jr. where Dad is surprised
  by ball
• Closing scene of Reds Dream
• Behind reveals the story to the audience before a
  character to convey characters discovery

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Lasseter Ask Why

• 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
  expression1
• Its not the eyes, but the glance not the
  lips, but the smile2

1. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Disney Animation
   The Illusion of Life, 1981
2. Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1932

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Johnston Notes

• 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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Johnston Notes

• Change of expression and dialog are points of
  interest dont 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 characters pose to squash and
  stretch

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Johnston Notes

• The eye is pulled by the eyebrow muscles
• Get a plastic quality in the face
• Cheeks, mouth, and eyes
• The audience has a difficult time reading the
  first 6 8 frames
• Actions can be eliminated and staging cheated
  if it simplifies the picture you are trying to
  show and it doesnt disturb the audience

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Johnston Notes

• Spend half your time planning your scene and the
  other half animating
• 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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Anticipation

• Can be anatomical
• Swinging your foot back before kicking
• Device that attracts viewers attention
• Staring off camera until character enters at that
  position
• Can help convey mass. More wind-up or
  concentration implies increased scale

21
Staging

• 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 passing in front of others were not
  easy to see
• Even when grayscale (and color) is possible,
  silhouette makes actions more visible

22
Follow through and Overlapping Action

• "It is not necessary for an animator to take a
  character to one point, complete that action
  completely, and then turn to the following 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 has it planned in advance in his mind."

Walt Disney
23
Ease-in and Ease-out

• A facsimile of physics
• First, second, and third order continuity
• Remember challenges getting splines to
  interpolate endpoints

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End of hand animation

• Disney shuttered its last-remaining hand
  animation studio last year
• Home on the Range is the last 2-D film
• They sold all their equipment
• Pixar bought all the 2-D animation desks!
• Indias 2-D development is bigger than ever
• http//www.savedisney.com/news/se/killing_animatio
  n.asp

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Recent Disney Hits

• 84,355,863 - Little Mermaid (1989) 145,863,363
  - Beauty and the Beast (1991) 217,350,219 -
  Aladdin (1992) 312,855,561 - Lion King (1994)
  141,579,773 - Pocahontas (1995) 100,138,851 -
  Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) 99,112,101 -
  Hercules (1997) 120,620,254 - Mulan (1998)
  171,091,819 - Tarzan (1999) 89,302,687 -
  Emperor's New Groove (2000) 84,056,472 -
  Atlantis Lost Empire (2001) 145,794,338 - Lilo
  Stitch (2002) 38,176,783 - Treasure Planet
  (2002) 85,005,561 - Brother Bear (2003)

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Companies
Pixar Disney Sony Imageworks Industrial Light and
Magic (ILM) Rhythm and Hues Pacific Data
Images(PDI)
Dreamworks SKG Tippett Studios Angel Studios Blue
Sky Robert Abel and Associates Giant Studios
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Toy Story (1995)

• 77 minutes long 110,064 frames
• 800,000 machine hours of rendering
• 1 terabyte of disk space
• 3.5 minutes of animation produced each week
  (maximum)
• Frame render times 45 min 20 hours
• 110 Suns operating 24-7 for rendering
• 300 CPUs

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Toy Story 2

• 80 minutes long, 122,699 frames
• 1400 processor renderfarm
• Render time of 10 min to 3 days
• Direct to video film

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Stuart Little

• 500 shots with digital character
• 6 main challenges
• Lip sync
• Match-move (CG to live-action)
• Fur
• Clothes
• Animation tools
• Rendering, lighting, compositing

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Stuart Little

• 100 people worked on CG
• 32 color/lighting/composite artists
• 12 technical assistants
• 30 animators
• 40 artists
• 12 RD

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Final Fantasy

• Main characters gt 300,000 polys
• 1336 shots
• 24,606 layers
• 3,000,000 renders (if only rendered once)
• typically 5 render revisions
• render time per frame 90 min
• Most layers per shot 500
• 934,162 days of render time on one CPU
• they used 1200 CPUs 778 days of rendering

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Final Fantasy

• Renderman (Pixar) used for rendering
• direct illumination
• many hacks to fake global illumination
• Maya used for modeling
• Hair
• Modeled is splines
• Lighting and rendering complicated as well

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Production Team

• Directors
• Modelers
• Lighting
• Character Animators
• Technical Directors
• Render Wranglers
• Tools Developers

• Shader Writers
• Effects Animators
• Looks Team
• Security Officer
• Janitor
• Lackey

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Michel Gondry

• Great director

At Clemons
2005 Oscar Nominee, Best Writing,Best Lead
Actress
Palm pictures www.director-file.com/gondry
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Michel Gondry

• Lucas Lucas with the Lid Off
• Daft Punk Around the World
• Foo Fighters Everlong
• Chemical Brothers Let Forever Be

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Michel Gondry

• White Stripes Fell in Love with a Girl
• White Stripes The Hardest Button to Button
• Beck Deadweight

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Michel Gondry

• Bjork Human Behavior
• Bjork Army of Me
• Bjork Bachelorette