Computer-Assisted Animation: Techniques and Production
Animation: From Traditional Methods to CGI
Animation, or cartoon, as it is more commonly known, is a popular art form. Everyone enjoys watching a good cartoon, from children to adults. Although this art is so popular, there are few people who make this type of entertainment in our country. The main reason is that the cost of production is very high. With the popularity of computers and the increasing ability of these machines, computer-assisted animation has become a strong ally in the production of conventional animation. Thus, we have from the use of tools to improve and reduce the cost of production to fully computer-generated animations.
What is Animation?
Animation is a technique in which the illusion of movement is created by a series of photographs of drawings on successive frames of a movie. The illusion is produced with a film screening at a certain rate of frames per second (typically 24 frames/second).
Animation refers to the process of dynamic generation of a series of frames of a set of objects, where in each frame there is a change from the previous frame.
Traditional Animation
Traditionally, conventional animation is done by animating a sequence of drawings that are displayed at a certain rate (frames/second). The process was very artisanal because the drawings were made one by one. Some techniques are used to facilitate the process, such as the use of a large design to represent the scenario where the animation is built.
- In that case, only the characters or parts of the design to be changed are redrawn.
- The designs that are made with the difference between frames are made of a transparent celluloid that is placed on the design of the scenario.
- You can have multiple levels deep to form a design with multiple celluloid with different designs to compose the final image.
- This process also lets you create effects of approaching characters (zoom).
- In the traditional process, after the table (the scene with the characters) is made, it is then photographed with a movie camera that allows the frame-by-frame.
Typically, in film, animations are made at 24 frames per second to generate an animation of sound quality, thereby to produce a minute of animation, 1440 images are needed.
CGI – Computer Graphics
Computer Graphics, known as CGI, is a term that usually designates currently made from 2D animations on the computer until the computer platforms where they are generated animations. Usually, there is confusion about this term because it is often confused with image processing. CGI could be better defined as the production of images that are originally generated by computer modeling, 2D or 3D objects, and not only images that are processed or handled on the computer.
Real-Time Animation
Real-time is the name given to animations that are generated by computer as they are on the screen. As an example of real-time, we have games, simulation programs, and educational programs, where all the excitement is generated on the fly. Real-time animations are limited by the capacity of computers. A picture animation in real-time should be displayed on the screen at a rate of at least 15 frames per second; the illusion of continuous movement is not successfully obtained at lower rates.
Frame-by-Frame Animation
Frame-by-frame animation, as already seen, is a sequence of frames presented at a certain rate which causes the illusion of continuous motion. This technique is also used in computer animation, where each frame is generated by using some computer animation tool and subsequently recorded on film or video.