Section 4 - Visualization, 3D Modeling & Animation

What are the 5 main types of animation?

1. Traditional Animation (2D Cell or Hand Drawn) 2. 2D Animation (Vector-Based) 3. 3D Animation (CGI, Computer Animation) 4. Motion Graphics (Typography, Animated Logos) 5. Stop Motion. (Claymation, Cut-Outs)

What are the differences between 2D and 3D?

3D objects have height, width, and depth, while 2Dobjects only have height and width. Objects in the real world are 3-dimensional, because they have depth. A drawing on paper is often 2D, but linear perspective is the process of creating a 2D image that appears to be 3-Dimensional.

What are faces, edges, and vertices in Polygon Modeling?

Faces: A face is the most basic part of a 3D polygon. When three or more edges are connected together, the face is what fills in the empty space between the edges and makes up what is visible on the polygon mesh. Edges: An edge is another component of a polygon. Edges help define the shape of the models, but they can also be used to transform them. An edge is defined by two vertices at their endpoints. Vertices: A vertex is the smallest component of a polygon model. It is simply a point in a three-dimensional space. By connecting multiple vertices with edges, you can create a polygon. These points can be manipulated to create the desired shape.

What is 3D modeling?

In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any surface of an object in three dimensions via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model.

What is the color theory for raster and vector images?

It is important for both raster and vector images. If Red, Green, and Blue are primary colors for additive mixing, then Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta are primary colors for subtractive mixing.

What are the key types of 3D modeling?

NURBS Modeling, Polygon Modeling, and Parametric Modeling

What is NURBS Modeling?

NURBS stands for Non-Uniform Rational Basis Spline. A NURBS model is a mathematical modeling type commonly used to generate curves and surfaces. The main advantages of this modeling technique are the great flexibility and precision you have in generating your shapes.

What is Parametric Modeling?

Parametric is a term used to describe a dimension's ability to change the shape of model geometry as soon as the dimension value is modified. Parametric modelling uses the computer to design objects or systems that model component attributes with real world behavior.

What is Polygon Modeling?

Polygon models are a collection of vertices, edges and faces that define the model, which allows for easy and precise editing of parts of your object. By changing the coordinates of one orseveral vertices, you can change the shape of the model.

What are the steps in the animation production pipeline?

Pre-Production, Production, and Post Production.

What are raster images?

Raster images are made up of a set grid of dots called pixels where each pixel is assigned a color value. Unlike a vector image, raster images are resolution dependent.

What are the 12 principles of 2D animation?

Squash and Stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose, Follow Through and Overlapping Action, Slow In and Slow Out, Arcs, Secondary Action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid Drawing, and Appeal

What happens when a raster image is created?

The image on the screen is converted into pixels. Each pixel is assigned a specific value that determines its color. This format uses the red, green, blue (RGB) color system. An RGB value of 0,0,0 would be black, and the values go all the way through to 256 for each color, allowing the expression of a wide range of values.

What are vector images?

Vector images are made up of basic geometric shapes such as points, lines and curves. The relationship of the shapes is expressed as a mathematical equation which allows the image to scale up or down in size without losing quality.

What are the 5 principles of 3D amination?

Visual Styling, Blend Motion, Cinematography, Facial Animation, and Optimizing user-controlled Animation.

What is Appeal?

a. Appeal is like the charisma of a real person. It's the sum of everything that makes a character in an animation come to life. b. Appeal is about trying to make characters and objects more interesting. It's about giving your animation a certain "je ne sais quoi," something enjoyable that's difficult to describe. c. This principle is about the whole being more than the sum of the parts. If you consider all the other principles, you should at least find yourself on the right path toward appeal.

What is Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose?

a. Both are methods for creating an animation. In straight ahead action, you would draw everything in frame one and then move on to do the same in frame two. You would continue to draw every frame from first to last in sequence. This method allows animators to explore and discover as they go. b. With pose-to-pose, you draw important keyframes and then create in between frames to connect them. This is how computer animation works, and it's the way you work with CSS animations. This method allows more planning up front and lets the computer do much of the work.

What are the components of Post Production?

a. Compositing b. Music and Sound Design c. Editorial (Phase 2 = ongoing) d. Color Grading

What is Optimizing user-controlled Animation?

a. Computer and platform games put much of the animation control in the hands of gamers. b. This poses the challenge to create great animation that works regardless of what move the gamer decides to make. c. Games are a combination of user-controlled animation and preset/narrative animation.

What is Follow Through and Overlapping Action?

a. In the section on anticipation, I mentioned that animation occurs over three steps and that the last step was following through. b. Follow through is similar to anticipation, except it occurs after the action instead of before it. Things don't stop suddenly in the real world any more than they start suddenly. c. When throwing a ball, your arm continues its motion after releasing the ball. When a ball bounces on the ground, it doesn't stop. It continues bouncing until eventually coming to rest. Both are examples of follow through. d. Overlapping action is similar. An example is your arms swinging as you run. The running is the major action and your swinging arms overlap it. The overlapping action should usually move at different speeds than main action.

What is Blend Motion?

a. It is possible today to blend motion from different sources, and we need to develop a clear approach for blending cartoon with realistic motion. b. Before production starts it is necessary to define clear guidelines for a variety of motion/animation styles including cartoon physics, realistic cartoon, realistic human motion and rotoscoping. c. We must direct live performers when capturing their motion to add intention to their movements.

What are the components of Production?

a. Modeling b. Surfacing c. Rigging d. Layout/Set Dressing/Animation prep e. Character Animation f. Crowds g. Character Effects / Simulation h. FX (Special Effects) i. Technical Direction j. Matte Painting k. Lighting

What is Arcs?

a. Most movement in the natural world occurs over an arc. The movement isn't a perfect straight line. You want to have movement follow arcs as opposed to straight lines where possible. b. The shallower the arc, the faster the object will appear to move and the more pronounced the arc, the slower the object will appear to move. Keep in mind the arc of motion can be around any axis, which might mean into and out of the screen. c. Mechanical movement is the exception to this principle. It's typically less curved and more linear than organic movement.

What is Facial Animation?

a. Most of the thoughts and emotions of characters are expressed on their faces. b. Three-dimensional computer animation offers more facial animation control than ever before, including the subtle motion of eyelids and eyeballs. c. Establishing early in the process the level facial control and techniques has a positive effect on the styling of the character and the design of the production flow. d. Building a catalog of facial morph targets or blend shapes for production and reuse is today as essential as building walk cycles.

What is Slow In and Slow Out?

a. Movement usually starts and ends slower than movement in between. Objects accelerate and decelerate. They ease into and ease out of the action. Your car isn't doing 60 mph the instant you step on the gas pedal. It doesn't go back to 0 mph instantly when you step on the break. It accelerates to 60 and decelerates back to 0. b. In practice, this means adding more keyframes to the start and end of an animation. It's not uncommon for anticipation to take up 25 percent of an animation and for follow through to take up a similar amount of time.

What is Exaggeration?

a. Oddly enough, to make animations appear more realistic, you have to exaggerate them. If animation tries to mimic reality too closely, it tends to appear stiff and lifeless. b. Exaggeration is often used to accent actions and emotions. A ball might squash and stretch more than it should. A cartoon windup before throwing a ball is usually shown as the arm spinning like a propeller in the opposite direction of the throw itself. c. You don't want to exaggerate everything. Use restraint. Exaggerate to add a little more life and excitement but not so much to completely destroy believability.

What is Anticipation?

a. Real-world actions don't start immediately. An action in an animation occurs in three steps: 1. Set up for the action 2. The action 3. Follow through on the action b. The setup is anticipation, which is typically a movement in the opposite direction (contrary movement) to the action. c. For example, to throw a ball, your arm winds up and moves back before moving forward to release the ball. This windup is anticipation. It signals the action to come and leads the viewer's eye to the object that will perform the action. d. Anticipation is often the most important part of any animation. It's also the part that typically lasts the longest. The greater the action, the longer and more exaggerated the anticipation should be.

What is Secondary Action?

a. Secondary action is similar to overlapping action, and it can be difficult to determine if an action is secondary or overlapping at times. The difference is that overlapping action is the result of the main action, and secondary action is independent of the main action. For example, an alien with antenna might be walking (the main action), while the alien's antenna is moving around to sense the environment (secondary action). Whether the alien is walking or standing still, the antenna continues to sense the environment. Its movement is independent of the walking. Secondary action should remain minor when compared to the main action or their roles could be reversed. It should support the main action and make it more interesting.

What is Staging?

a. Staging is how you present objects. It provides context for the object and the animation, and it helps tell your story. b. For example, a cube displayed at an angle to any of its six sides will show the cube as a 3D object. If you're looking directly at one side though, it will appear to be a 2D square c. There are three main considerations with staging: 1. Characters and objects should have strong silhouettes to more quickly understand them. 2. The environment (the stage) should be interesting, without drawing attention away from the characters, objects, and actions. 3. Major actions should be presented one at a time or it could potentially lead to confusion.

What are the components of Pre-Production?

a. Story b. Storyboarding c. Editorial (Phase 1) d. Visual Development/Look Development e. Pre-Visualization

What is Solid Drawing?

a. The idea behind solid drawing is to take the 3D space into account even while working in a 2D plane. The real world is 3D, and your animations should appear to live in that same world. b. Shadows, gradients, scale, and perspective can all add depth to an animation creating the illusion of 3D space. Ironically, the trend toward flat design does the opposite. Fortunately, designers are already bringing back some depth, albeit subtler than before. For example, a flat rectangle doesn't say "button." Add a slight shadow or gradient, and it looks like something you push or click or tap.

What is Timing?

a. The key to good animation is timing. Slow in and out is a subset of this principle. b. The timing you use in an animation should give a sense of the object's characteristics: how heavy or light is it, for example. c. Timing can communicate a lot. A person blinking quickly might be seen as alert, whereas a person blinking slowly might appear tired. Changing nothing more than how quickly the eye blinks can help communicate the emotional state of the character. d. More than anything, timing is something you should experiment with when creating transitions and animations. Trial and error and your own judgment will go a long way here.

What is Squash and Stretch?

a. Three-dimensional (3D) objects have mass and volume, and they exhibit a certain amount of rigidity when moving. Real objects deform slightly during movement, revealing how rigid they are. b. Organic objects aren't completely rigid. They're usually softer and more malleable. When the movement of organic objects is stiff and rigid, it doesn't feel right. Manmade objects, on the other hand, tend to be stiff and rigid. c. The principle of squash and stretch is about showing objects flattening and elongating as they move to reveal their rigidity. The object should appear to retain its mass and volume, but it should also deform to appear more natural. For example, a bouncing ball will squash when it comes in contact with the ground, and then it will stretch after the bounce, elongating in the direction of movement.

What is Visual Styling?

a. Visual styling in three-dimensional computer animation means more than just how things are supposed to look. b. Visual styling also has a significant impact on rendering, on animation techniques, and overall production complexity. c. As we develop a visual look we must keep in mind that it is feasible to produce within the boundaries of the project. d. A certain look for the skin of a beast, for example, might look cool but might also require too complex a rig, too detailed a model and too complex an animation process.

What is Cinematography?

a. We have absolute control over camera positions and movement in three dimensional computer animation; we should make the cinematography a crucial component of our animation, not just an afterthought. b. The composition, lighting, and sequencing of our moving images have a huge impact on storytelling. c. Most of this work can crystallize during previsualization and the assembly of the three-dimensional animatics.