3D CGI Animation

3D CGI Animation

History

3D CGI was first used in mainstream cinema in the film Futureworld released in 1976.  The film featured a computer generated hand and face, it was created by graduate students of the University of Utah Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke, their animation for the 1976 film is said to have initially appeared in their 1971 experimental short film, 'A computer animated hand'.

The same as 2D animation with 3D CGI each scene is created and tweaked slightly and when played we see a fluent piece of art come to life before our very eyeballs.

One of the programs used by animators is autodesk 3DS Max, this can be used to create character models, cars, buildings anything you put your mind to really.

3D CGI animations are made up of thousands of little pixles which can be altered and manipulated to change scenes.

3D is most commonly used in videogames where every aspect of it has been made using 3D programming tools.  Most movies these days also incorporate a huge amount of 3D mainly to make the films look cool and to make up for shitty acting with special effects.

One of the most well known films to use 3D CGI for the first time in mainstream cinemas was Star wars A New Hope, a lot of scenes take place in space which would require alot of CGI effects to bring the scenes to life, this then paved the way for many more films after they seen the potential within 3D CGI. 

The advantages of 3D is that it looks amazing if done right, it has endless possibilities, it's can be used for many things like movies, games, cartoons, presentations and shit like that.

The disadvantages are it can be expensive, its not particularly easy to make your own and the soft ware you need to make these things is expensive.




Here is some kind of dragon thing being made within 3ds Max.

Here is a video about 3d animation

2D Computer animation

2D Computer Graphic Animation

History

John Whitney was born and raised in America and is said to be the father of computer animation.  The first examples of 2D computer animation is thought to be between the 50's and 60's.

How it works

To put it simply animation is nothing more than a series of pictures called frames, quickly played along a timeline or reel. 

So why does animation work?

Why don’t we just see a bunch of still pictures?  

The phenomenon that enables humans to perceive animation is called Persistence of Vision, a theory that supposes that an afterimage exists on the retina for one twenty-fifth of a second before escaping the present consciousness, allowing for frames to bleed into one another and create the perception of motion.  It's basically a high tech digital flips book where the pictures move seamlessly and fluently.

Adobe Flash is one of the more popular tools among animators these days.

Although 2D animation has been around for quite some time it is still everywhere you look these days.  Shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons along with a few other thousand cartoons prove that 2D animation is still going to be around for many years to come.

Although some of these cartoons are using some 3D CGI in their shows 2D remains dominant and a world where all 2D animation is replaced with 3D well that's just not going to happen so lets leave it at that.

Here is a long but in depth video on how to draw a character in photoshop

Cell Animation

Cel Animation

History

Gertie the Dinosaur was the first Cel animated cartoon it took American animator Windsor McCay 3 years to create the 12 minute film back in 1914. It took so long in production because he redrew every single scene which is clearly visible in the cartoon, the background looks like it has parkinson's disease.

Scene from Gertie the Dinosaur

How it works

Once all the cels have been inked and painted, they are given to the camera person who photographs the backgrounds, along with their matching cels, according to the instructions on the dope sheet. The processed film, vocal tracks, music and sound tracks are then synchronized and edited together. The final film is sent to the lab to make a film project print or to be put on video. If the studio is employing digital equipment, all these stages happen in the computer before the finished film is output.

Advantages - it is very fluent and can look amazing if it is done professionally, it has endless amounts of variety (given you have the artistic ability)

Disadvantages - it still takes alot of time to animate and finalize, you need a camera (which would be expensive back in the early 1900's), you need to be a good artist.

Cartoons that used Cel animation

• Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney, 1928)
• Snow white (Walt Disney, 1937)
• Dumbo (Walt Disney, 1941)
• Bambi (Walt Disney, 1942)
• Alice in wonderland (Walt Disney, 1951)

Below is the first Cel animated cartoon along with some history and background about the creators, skip to about 7 minutes in for the cartoon itself.

Stop Motion

Stop Motion

Stop motion is an animation technique it first came about in the late 1800's.  Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton are thought to be the inventors of stop motion, one of if not the first stop animation film is The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898).  This form of animation is still being used to this day and keeps getting better with all the new technology helping aid bring stop animation to life.

The principle of stop animation is very simple yet holds a level of complexity at the same time.

The are a few different variations of stop motion such as claymation (Wallace & Gromit).

Cutout animation (El Apostol) and puppet animation (Nightmare before Christmas).

It is basically a bunch of images of the same scene but every scene is different from the last to create the illusion that it is alive, it's usually 12 frames per second, so as you can imagine it is a very time consuming process but can be made from the comfort of your own home, all you need is a camera, some paper or clay or even some puppets and a whole lot of time.
You'd also need a tiny amount of editing skills I'd say.

The advantages are its cheap, the possibilities are endless and its still very much in fashion.
The disadvantages are that it takes a very long time for a very short video, you need to be quite artistic and have the correct resources.

Here we see a very creative modern day use of stop motion

Here is a behind the scenes video from The nightmare before Christmas.  It shows us how using puppets for stop animation works and shows us how there are even changeable faces to help bring the illusion to life

The flipbook

The Flipbook

A brief history

The first flipbook appeared in September 1868 patented by John Barnes Linnett under the name 'kineograph' (MOVING PICTURE) although the French Pierre-Hubert Desvignes is generally credited with being the inventor of the flipbook. After Linnett died his wife sold the patent to an American.

How it works

It's pretty much just a lot of drawings that when flipped they give off the illusion that you're watching some sort of short animated movie. 

"The books are designed so that each page’s image advances the scene from the previous page; when the pages are thumbed rapidly the sequence becomes animated due to the persistence of vision." ~ history of the museum of science

What you need to make it work

You only need very basic materials to make a flipbook;

A pencil or pen

A sharpener 

An eraser 

A lot of paper 

Coloured pens or pencils (optional)

Although flipbooks are ideal and very cost efficient to make there are a few quite big draw backs for example, because they are made of paper they're prone to damage and don't have much in the way of life expectancy, they take a massive amount of time and patience to make a half decent one and lastly you need to be a pretty good artist to produce a good final outcome.

Here are a few flipbook examples

Zoetrope of dreams

The Zoetrope

What is a Zoetrope?

Some sources claim the Chinese inventor Ting Huan invented the device first in 180 AD.  His version hung over a lamp and would turn from the hot air currents that the lamp produced (although this is believed to be lies).   In the western world, the zoetrope was reinvented in 1834 by the British mathematician William George Horner (1786-1837). He called his invention the "daedalum" or “Wheel of the Devil.”

The Zoetrope produces the illusion of movement by viewing individual images through narrow slits in a rotating cylinder.  The cylinder is often made of cardboard because it's a cheap readily available material so people could make it in their homes given they had the few resources required and a degree of artistic ability.

How is it made?

First you'd get a cardboard cylinder with a solid bottom on it and evenly cut slits into the sides all the way round. 

Then you'd get a small piece of card or paper the same length as the circumference of the cylinder.  On this card would have a series of images drawn all slightly different. 

The strip of paper would be placed into the cylinder.

In the centre of the bottom of the cylinder a small hole would be cut and a stick or something of the sort would be inserted with a good enough fit that you could hold up the whole thing by the stick then you could spin it in your hands, this of course is only a cheap homemade variation of the toy.  

Some versions of the toy have wheel mechanisms that you would crank with your hand to spin the Zoetrope.

Advantages - could be made in the comfort of your own home, if you're artistic the designs are endless, offers more entertainment than its predecessor.

Disadvantages  - If you can't draw then you're going to have a bad Zoetrope and people will make fun of you.

Homemade Zoetrope in action

Thaunatrope

Thaumatrope

What is a Thaumatrope?

Thaumatropes were the first of many optical illusion toys. John A. Paris was responsible for the creation of the toy in 1825.  Thaumatrope means "wonder turner" or "turning marvel" they provided a form of animation until the development of the cinema came into action.


The design was simple and easy to make, all that was required was a circle piece of cardboard or something of the sort, a few pieces of string and a pencil to draw the designs.
Each side had an image drawn on it so when spun it gave of the impression that the two images are one, the faster the disc is spun the more convincing the illusion becomes.

How does it work?

To spin the disc, a string is held in each hand and rotated to wind the disc, the illusion would be kept alive by gently stretching the strings so that they would continue to unwind and rewind.

Advantages - Easy to make, easy to use, cheap to make, the designs could be limitless to the right people.
Disadvantages - For the best quality you'd need to be a good artist to some extent.

Two well known examples of the Thaumatrope would be the bird in a cage and a dog scaring some birds.

 

Examples of modern day Thaumatropes

                                          Here we can see many different designs and how
                                          they are used.