Lecture 1: introduction

 Introduction to basic techniques in Computer Animation  Motion capture & synthesis, facial animation, IK, …  Introduction to research topics  Giving presentations  Reading and evaluating research papers  Writing an essay about an animation topic  Hands-on experience with motion capture  Short animation movie production

 Grading:  Presentation (P)  Animation movie (M) (and an Oscar for the winning movie )  Essay (E)  Final grade = 0.3*P + 0.3*M + 0.4*E ▪ Condition: E >= 5  Attendance of the sessions is mandatory

 Papers/presentations:  Papers are presented in teams of two  Multiple presentations per session  minutes per presentation  10 minutes evaluation/discussion  Evaluation forms

 minutes (divide slides over team members)  Presentation should discuss the contents of the paper  What is it about, what is the contribution, what are the drawbacks of the proposed method…  After the presentation, there is time for discussion/questions (10 minutes)  Last slide should contain 2-3 discussion points

 Presentations will be evaluated by all using a grading and evaluation form.  Content  Visual aids  Delivery  Ability to answer questions  Presentation grade will be given to you the next session.

 Introduction  Background  Paper content  Contributions of the method  Drawbacks of the method  Conclusion  Discussion points

 Preparing the presentation  Read the paper thoroughly  Read a few of the background papers to place the research  Identify advantages, drawbacks, and discussion points  Collect images/movies  Contact the author in case of specific questions!  Do a ‘test-drive’ at home to check the presentation is not too long or too short

 Tips for showing movies:  VLC player  Or: use Windows Movie Maker  Please make sure that your movies work properly on your laptop!  You may also use the computer in the lecture room instead, but check that your presentation works as it should!  Alternative to PowerPoint: Reveal.js

 To be done in teams of 4/5  Assignment: short animation movie  Make a storyboard and a previz movie  Record the animations in the mocap lab  Animate one or more characters and make a nice rendering  Tools:  MotionBuilder + Maya  We have a number of 3D models of characters  Look on the Internet for additional resources  Planning of the motion capture lab visit  BBG building, room K61 (basement)  Show movies during last session!

 Essay:  Between words, including references  Can be on any topic related to animation ▪ Motion capture ▪ Motion synthesis (graphs etc.) ▪ Facial animation ▪ Hand animation ▪ Animation & interaction (gestures etc.) ▪ Animation & emotions ▪ Skinning

Check the website regularly for updates:

 Animate = “Give life to”  Adding the dimension of time to graphics  Animator specifies movement of objects through time and space

 Computer-assisted animation  2D & 2 1/2 D  Inbetweening  Inking, virtual camera, managing data, etc  Computer generated animation  Low level techniques ▪ Precisely specifying motion  High level techniques ▪ Describe general motion behavior

 Low-level techniques  Shape interpolation  Helps the animator fill in the details of the motion given enough information  Animator has a fairly specific idea of target motion  High-level techniques  Generate a motion given a set of rules or constraints  Object motion is controlled by a model/algorithm  Fairly sophisticated computation, such as physically-based motion

 Another way of looking at this: level of abstraction  Very low-level: animator colours every pixel individually in every frame  Very-high level: tell the computer “make a movie about a dog”  Challenge lies in developing tools that allow animators to animate on different levels

 Eye/brain assembles images and interprets them as continuous movement  Persistence of vision: sequence of still images shown at a fast enough rate to induce sensation of continuous imagery  Eye retains visual imprint once stimulus is removed  “positive afterimages”  Persistence of vision is not persistence of motion

 Persistence of vision lower bound:  Playback rate of images  Critical flicker frequency  Persistence of motion has an upper bound:  Object moves too quickly  Motion blur  Two important rates:  Playback/refresh rate  Sampling/update rate

 Persistence of vision: discovered in the 1800s.  Zoetrope  Flipbook  Thaumatrope

 Eadweard Muybridge  “Animal Locomotion”  “Animals in Motion”  “The Human Figure in Motion”

 End of the 19 th century introduced moving image by using a projector.  Magic Lantern and shadow puppets

 Zoopraxiscope (zoetrope + projector)

 Kinetograph/kinetoscope  First motion picture camera/viewer

 Animation movie pioneers  J. Stuart Blackton (smoke effect, 1900) ▪ First animated cartoon in 1906 ▪ Used a chalkboard for drawing and erasing frames  Emile Cohl (Fantasmogorie, 1908)  Winsor McCay (Little Nemo) ▪ Each image redrawn on rice paper and then filmed

 Major technical developments by John Bray (1910):  compositing multiple layers of drawings into a final image (celluloid)  using grayscale  Drawing background on long sheet of paper for panning  Max Fleischer (Betty Boop), Walter Lantz (Woody Woodpecker)  Fleischer patented rotoscoping in 1915

 First animated character: Felix the Cat (Otto Messmer) in early 1920s.  Disney came around end 1920s, introducing a number of innovations  Storyboards  Pencil sketches for reviewing motion  Multiplane camera  Using sound & colour

 Move scene layers independently of camera  Six directions of movement for each plane

 Powerful tool:  More effective zoom ▪ Move foreground image to the side  Parallax effect ▪ Moving planes at different rates  Adding depth cues ▪ Blur the images on more distant planes  Introduce motion blur by fast moving planes

 Sound was added for the first time in Steamboat Willie (1928)  Disney promoted idea that mind of the character was the driving force of the action  Analysis of real-life motion

 Computer animation is often compared to stop motion animation  Puppet animation ▪ Willis O’Brian (King Kong) ▪ Ray Harryhausen (Might joe Yong, Jason and the Argonauts)

 Claymation  Sand animation Physical object is manipulated, image captured, repeat

 Preliminary story  Story board  Detailed story  Key Frames  Test shot  Pencil test  Inbetweening  Inking  Coloring Computer Animation basically follows this pipeline

 Lasseter translated traditional principles of animation to computer animation  Lasseter is conventionally trained animator ▪ Worked at Disney before going to Pixar ▪ Many celebrated animations ▪ Knick-knack (oscar-winning)

In Research labs  NYIT Still frame from Gumby animation by Hank Grebe and Dick Lundin, 1984.

 University of Utah  Films on walking and talking figure  Animated hand and animated face (1972)  University of Pennsylvania  Human figure animation (Norm Badler)  MIRALab, Geneva  Virtual Humans (Daniel & Nadia Thalmann)

Pixar  Luxo Jr. (1986)  first computer animation to be nominated for an Academy Award  Red's Dream (1987)  Tin Toy (1988)  first computer animation to win an Academy Award  Knick Knack (1989)

 Future World (1976)  Star Wars (1977)  Tron (1982, MAGI)  Supposed to look like a computer  The Last Starfighter (1984)  Use CG in place of models  Willow (1988, ILM)  Morphing video  First digital blue screen matte extraction  The Abyss (1989, ILM)  Lawnmower man (1992, Xaos, Angel Studios)  Hollywood’s view of VR

 Jurassic Park (1993, ILM)  Forrest Gump (1994, Digital Domain)  Insert CG ping pong ball  Babe (1995, Rhythm & Hues)  Move mouths of animals & fill in background  Toy Story (1995, Pixar & Disney)  First full length fully CG 3D animation

 Reboot (1995, Limelight Ltd. BLT Productions)  Similar intention of “inside computer”  First fully 3D Sat. morning cartoon  Babylon 5 (1995)  Routinely used CG models as regular features  Simpsons (1995 PDI)

 Final fantasy (2001)  Fully 3D simulated environment  Lord of the Rings ( )  One of the first movies using crowds (Massive)  Avatar (2009)  Benjamin Button (2008)  Prometheus (2012)

 Milestones of the animation industry in the 20th Century  stones6.php3 stones6.php3  Brief History of NYIT Computer Graphics Lab   Rick Parent   nimation/rick_parent/Intr.html nimation/rick_parent/Intr.html