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

2. 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
Computer graphics more precisely defined later, but good to mention here too.

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

4. Early animation devices
Thaumatrop
Flipbook and Zoetrope – Pixar example
Thaumatrop video for reference ; watch outside of class
Show the Pixar example video in class

5. Conventional animation
Winsor McCay
Gertie the Dinosaur
How much effort to make this film?
Number of frames * time per frame
Making a Hand Drawn Animated 16mm film
Layering, cells, etc.
Compare to the use of sprites
Show first couple of minutes for Gertie the Dinosaur video in class
Other videos provided for reference ; watch outside of class

6. 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
Rotoscoping video for reference ; watch outside of class
Show some of Animation reuse video in class
Draw from scratch vs. tracing ;

7. Principles of Filmmaking
180 degree rule
rule of thirds
types of shots
3-point lighting
tilt
framing
focus the viewer’s attention
Provided for reference and flavor, no details discussed in class meeting ; reinforces the idea of professions using standard tools and terms

8. 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
Production pipeline ; rough work first
Creation of assets, some reusable

9. Storyboard
Example of student work from CSE 682

10. Production Pencil tests – examples
For 3d animations – allow rendering controls
Shadows
Physics
Articulation
Textures
Facial animation
Interpolation
Pencil test video for reference ; watch outside of class
Compare to expectations of graphical detail for lab assignments – grey boxes demos are acceptable for most of them

11. Production tasks Story Dept. Art Dept. Modeling Dept. Lighting Dept.
Note the specialization areas relevant for software development
Animation Dept.
Rendering Dept.

12. Computer graphics and animation pervade film
Video linked for outside of class
For another look at the history of animation, check out
The Art of Animation and Motion Graphics | Off Book | PBS

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

14. Game development process
Concept
Design document
Prototype
Production
Design, Levels
Programming
Art, Audio
Testing
Deployment
Maintenance
Production pipeline ; again note that rough work is made first

15. Types of game programming
Game engine
Graphics
Animation
Artificial Intelligence
Sound
Game logic / scripts
User Interfaces
Networking
Databases
Development tools
Systems/Parallel programming
Note the specialization areas

16. Motivates research area of procedural content
(As of Au’16 haven’t come across updated study or data, but $50-60M for biggest titles is accurate)
Read more at:

17. (Data from Forbes 2006 study)
Note the three biggest cost areas and practices to reduce those costs
(Data from Forbes 2006 study)

18. List of games with now open-source code
id software titles ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/
Duke Nukem 3D
Serious Sam
Penumbra: Overture
To provide examples of what finished assets and code can look like