3D CGI

3D CGI Animation

CGI animation, is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The process of creating 3D animation can be sequentially divided into three phases: modeling – which describes the process of creating the 3D objects within a scene, layout and animation – which describes how objects are positioned and animated within a scene, and rendering – which describes the final output of the completed computer graphics. Through the combination of the above phases and a few other sub-phases, this completes the process of a 3D animation production.




The very first all 3d cgi animation film was Toy Story, released in 1995. 
The character models and animations were considered to be very complex for its time, with detailed lighting, various textures, and a wide variety of facial animations. After this film was made, several other films were created using only computers.

ADVANTAGES-  appears more realistic to the human eye.  It's a lot more you can do in 3d than in 2d. 

DISADVANTAGES-its time consuming and can take awhile to create the finished product and  If it isn't done properly it could be disastrous

The inventor of 3d cgi animation was a man called Frederic Parke who in 1972 made the first 3d animation of a face. 



Here is 3d cgi in action with the trailer of Toy Story.

2D computer graphics Animation

2D computer graphics

2D computer animation is the technique used to generate two-dimensional images on the digital background of a computer screen. The first film to use 2D computer graphics was Hummingbird made in 1967.  It was A ten-minute computer animated film by Charles Csuri and James Shaffer. Its a humming bird with a sequence of movements, it was Over 30,000 images comprising some 25 motion sequences were generated by the computer. 

Equipment needed for 2d computer animation is a PC, Digital camera, Scanner, Graphics tablet and then you'll need some animation software for the computer. You do not need all this equipment just a PC and animation software is fine if you have a low budget.


ADVANTAGES- easy to record and the product gives the illusion that the images ae talking and moving

DISADVANTAGES- it can be quite costly, requires high drawing skill

Here is an example of 2d animation.

Cell animation

CEL ANIMATION 

A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Every thing has its own frame such as the background and characters. 

the invention of this technique is often credited to  John Randolph Bray and Earl Hurd in 1914. 

cel animation allows some parts of each frame to be repeated frame to frame which saves a lot of time as you're not drawing everything out again 

Cel animation also removed the jittering aspect of animations as it allowed for each frame to be more exact.



ADVANTAGES- saves time, saves money and effort as you dont need to redraw everything, removed jittering effect.

DISADVANTAGES - requires a high drawing skill, very complex process which requires high skill, still needs to be photographed and put on film.

Walt disney took cel animation to a new level as they added in sounds to their animation.  the first one was steamboat Willie in 1928. 

this video is a history of cel animation .

STOP MOTION

STOP MOTION

Stop motion is a collection of still images that when played one after another give the illusion thats its moving.

to create a stop motion all you need is a camera, a subject and some imagination.

Advantages -  cheap to make, can create cool effects, its very film like

Disadvantages -  Very time consuming, Difficult to get consistent image quality so it looks like a continuous video instead of a series of images, require high artistic ability.

The first use of stop motion animation was by 2 Americans called  Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton in their movie called The humpty dumpty circus. In the movie toy acrobats and animals come to life.

here is an example of stop motion animation with lego, which is great to do stop motion cause you can move the legs and arms.

Some famous examples of stop motion animation is Wallace and gromit, he Tauntauns and AT-AT walkers in The Empire Strikes Back, and the AT-ST walkers in Return of the Jedi,. 

Flipbook

FLIPBOOK

a flipbook is a book that has drawn pictures on them and when you flick through them very fast they create a animates as they simulate a motion. To give off that effect they rely on persistence of vision which i talked about on my last two blogs. 

The first flip book appeared in September, 1868, when it was patented by John Barnes Linnett under the name kineograph ( which means moving picture).

advantages- cheap to make, can be added to, very easy to make.
disadvantages- very time consuming , requires a very high drawing skills and a good imagination, everything must be redrawn again on the next bit of paper 

 A flipbook is really easy to make all you need is a blank book and just draw the story out on it, it can be very time consuming as you need to redrawn the background and stuff on the new blank page but is very satisfying when finished. below is an example of how to make a flipbook.

here are two examples of flipbooks. when is the top 3 goals scored at the 2014 world cup and the other is a matrix style flipbook.

Zoetrope

 

Zoetrope (zoh-ee-trohp)

 The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. You look through the slits from the outside and  on the inside of the cylinder there is still images and when you spin the cylinder around it gives makes it look likes it animated and moving. The faster the it is spun, the smoother the animation appears. it gives off this effect due to something called Persistence of Vision which i described in the first blog.

It was first Invented by William George Horner in 1834 as a Daedalum and renamed a zoetrope (wheel of life) in the 1860’s by American toy maker William F. Lincoln. 

advantages - create and view things easily, its cheap

disadvantages- has moving parts which could go wrong, need a good level of art to make it look good.

to create your own zoetrope you will need a strip of paper with the animation drawn on it, you then need a cylinder/drum like object and you stick the paper around the bottom of it. you then need to cut slits of equal distance outside the drum, just above where the pictures are positioned. you then spin the drum around to see the animation. 

well known examples of a Zoetrope are a person riding a horse and person running as shown on the pictures

here is an example of how to create a zoetrope.

Thaumatrope

thaw-muh-trohp

The Thaumatrope is a was an optical toy that was formed of two disks with a picture on it attached to a piece of string or stuck in between a stick and when spun around the stick/string they formed the pictures together. The pictures appeared put together due to an illusion called Persistence of vision, the capability of the human eye to remember an image for a split second after it is replaced by the next one in the sequence. The eye keeps seeing each image shortly after they've disappeared so there fore they merge together.


The inventor of the Thaumatrope was an English man called John Ayrton Paris sometime during his life which was 1785 – 24 December 1856. Its not 100% that he was the inventor but he is widly credited as the inventor.

The advantages of a Thaumatrope is that they're very cheap and easy to make as they only require 2 piece of card and a string/stick. The disadvantage of the Thuamatrope is that is requires great drawing skills to actually make it look good or convincing. It is also very limited as you can only use two pictures instead of using many.

The first Thaumatrope was sold on April the 2nd 1825. They were sold in boxes of 12 or 18 for the price of seven shilling for 12 discs or half a guinea for 18. Soon after they came out pirate copies came out and were popular due to their price which was boxes of six discs for one shilling.

Famous examples of the Thaumatrope is the bird and the cage

Here is an example on to make a Thuamatrope