Computer Game and Animation Techniques – a brief history Matt Boggus CSE 3451/5541

Computer – using a computer Game – a form of play with rules and an objective Animation – moving things that can’t move themselves Motion techniques – Procedural Geometry transformations Physically based Behaviorally based – Artist driven – Data-driven

Heritage of animation Early devices Conventional animation Disney and the 12 basic principles of animation Stop motion animation Computer graphics animation

Early animation devices Thaumatrop Flipbook and Zoetrope

Conventional animation Winsor McCay – Gertie the Dinosaur Gertie the Dinosaur – How much effort to make this film? Number of frames * time per frametime per frame Making a Hand Drawn Animated 16mm film

12 Principles of Animation Squash and stretch Arcs Secondary action Slow in & slow out Anticipation Exaggeration Solid drawing Appeal In-between v. straight ahead Follow-through Staging Timing As articulated by Disney’s “9 old men” To summarize: Simulate physics Make it appealing Effective presentation Production alternatives Rotoscoping Animation reuse

Principles of Filmmaking 180 degree rule rule of thirds types of shots 3-point lighting tilt framing focus the viewer’s attention

Animation production Production->sequence->shot->frame Storyboard: the proposal Model sheet: consistency Animatic: storyboard with timing Key frames & in-betweens Test shot Pencil tests Inking: drawings onto cells Painting: coloring in Sound: voice, body, special effects, background

Storyboard

Production Pencil tests – examplesexamples For 3d animations – allow rendering controls – Shadows – Physics – Articulation – Textures – Facial animation – Interpolation

Production tasks Story Dept. Art Dept. Modeling Dept.Lighting Dept. Animation Dept. Rendering Dept.

Computer graphics and animation pervade film For another look at the history of animation, check out The Art of Animation and Motion Graphics | Off Book | PBS

Computer game history eras First games, consoles Video game crash 8 and 16 bit eras 32 and 64 bit eras Current era For more on the history of games, check out The Video Game Revolution | PBS

Game development process Concept Design document Prototype Production – Design, Levels – Programming – Art, Audio Testing Deployment Maintenance

Types of game programming Game engine – Graphics – Animation Artificial Intelligence Sound Game logic / scripts User Interfaces Networking Databases Development tools Systems/Parallel programming

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(Data from Forbes 2006 study)