Animation CS 551 / 651

AnimationCS 551 / 651 Lecture 5 Classical Animation

Principles of Computer Animation • John Lasseter, "Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation", Computer Graphics, pp. 35-44, 21:4, July 1987 (SIGGRAPH 87). • Ollie Johnston and John Lasseter, Course 1 at SIGGRAPH 94, "Animation Tricks".

Comments from LasseterKeyframing • Computers are stupid • Worst case, keyframe require for every frame • John discovered that some degrees of freedom (DOFs) require more keyframes than others to look natural • You must start with a clear idea of the motion you desire • Plan actions with thumbnail sketches and plot timing on exposure sheet • Refer to sketches/timing frequently

Lasseter: 2-D vs. 3-D • Native computer character is 3-D • Sometimes makes it harder • A character’s hand may go through its body when seen from a certain angle • Sometimes makes it easier • Animation reuse: An animation may look very different when seen from different locations

Lasseter: Weight and Size • Rendering can make realistic-looking objects (marble, feathers, steel) • Good rendering benefits are lost if animation is poor • Physics matters – heavy things take longer to start/stop moving… • Proper timing/spacing of poses is more important than the poses themselves

Lasseter: Thinking Character • Every motion must exist for a reason • Mood • Personality • Attitude • You must convey the character’s thoughts to tell the story • Use anticipation

Lasseter: Anticipation • Lead with the eyes • Move eyes first, with lock-in of focus a few frames before the head • Head follows and leads the body by a few frames • More delay implies more thought required • Use this relationship as a tool • External forces cause opposite timing relationship

Lasseter: Moving Holds • Traditional 2-D animation permits “holds” • Reuse of one drawing for multiple frames • This is one way to control timing • In computer animation action dies immediately • Perhaps due to realistic rendering and smooth animations • Eye picks it up every time

Lasseter: Moving Holds • Have some part of the character continue to move in same direction during holds • Remember to coordinate realism of character to realism of motions • More realistic characters (rendering style and dimensions) require more realistic movements • This rule limits the straightforward reuse of human facial mocap for non-human 3D characters

Lasseter: Emotion • Character’s personality conveyed through emotion • Emotion dictates animation pace • Distinguish emotional state of two characters through contrast in movement • No two characters perform same action in same manner

Lasseter: Readability of Actions • To make sure an idea or action is unmistakably clear, the audience’s eye must be led to the right place at the right time • Timing • Not too slow or audience eyes wander • Not too fast or action is misunderstood • The faster the motion, the more critical it is to make the audience focus on it Harold Whitaker and John Halas, Timing for Animation, 1981

Readability of Actions • Staging • Audience can only see one idea at a time • Object of interest must be contrasted against rest of scene • Pick strongest and simplest technique ex: Still object vs. busy background

Lasseter: Readability of Actions • Anticipation • First action should not be brought to complete stop before starting second • Slight overlapping preserves flow • ex: Luxo Jr.

Lasseter: Story Tricks • Animation must be timed to stay slightly ahead or behind audience’s understanding • Ahead conveys suspense and surprise • Initial scene of Luxo Jr. where Dad is surprised by ball • Closing scene of Red’s Dream • Behind reveals the story to the audience before a character to convey character’s discovery

Lasseter: Ask Why • Why is this here? • Does it further the story? • Does it support the whole? • Change of shape shows a character is thinking • “It is the thinking that gives the illusion of life.It is the life that gives meaning to the expression”1 • “It’s not the eyes, but the glance – not the lips, but the smile”2 • Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Disney Animation – The Illusion of Life, 1981 • Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1932

Johnston Notes • Use attitudes and actions to illustrate ideas and thoughts, not words and mechanical movements • Squash and stretch the entire body for attitudes • Preserve volume • Useful for face too

Johnston Notes • Change of expression and dialog are points of interest – don’t move head too much • Concentrate on drawing clear, not clean • Everything has a function – know why • Let the body attitude echo the facial • Find best part of character’s pose to squash and stretch

Johnston Notes • The eye is pulled by the eyebrow muscles • Get a plastic quality in the face • Cheeks, mouth, and eyes • The audience has a difficult time reading the first 6 – 8 frames • Actions can be eliminated and staging “cheated” if it simplifies the picture you are trying to show and it doesn’t disturb the audience

Johnston Notes • Spend half your time planning your scene and the other half animating • How to animate a four-legged walk: • Work out acting patterns with squash and stretch in body, neck, and head • Animate the legs • Adjust up and down motion of body according to legs

Anticipation • Can be anatomical • Swinging your foot back before kicking • Device that attracts viewer’s attention • Staring off camera until character enters at that position • Can help convey mass. More wind-up or concentration implies increased scale

Staging • Contrast is powerful staging technique • Motion is one example • Original Disney characters were black and white (no grayscale) • Important motions had to be drawn in silhouette because limbs passing in front of others were not easy to see • Even when grayscale (and color) is possible, silhouette makes actions more visible

Follow through and Overlapping Action • "It is not necessary for an animator to take a character to one point, complete that action completely, and then turn to the following action as if he had never given it a thought until after completing the first action. When a character knows what he is going to do he doesn't have to stop before each individual action and think to do it. He has it planned in advance in his mind." Walt Disney

Ease-in and Ease-out • A facsimile of physics • First, second, and third order continuity • Remember challenges getting splines to interpolate endpoints

End of hand animation • Disney shuttered its last-remaining hand animation studio last year • Home on the Range is the last 2-D film • They sold all their equipment • Pixar bought all the 2-D animation desks! • India’s 2-D development is bigger than ever http://www.savedisney.com/news/se/killing_animation.asp

Recent Disney Hits • $84,355,863 - Little Mermaid (1989) $145,863,363 - Beauty and the Beast (1991) $217,350,219 - Aladdin (1992) $312,855,561 - Lion King (1994) $141,579,773 - Pocahontas (1995) $100,138,851 - Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)$99,112,101 - Hercules (1997) $120,620,254 - Mulan (1998) $171,091,819 - Tarzan (1999)$89,302,687 - Emperor's New Groove (2000) $84,056,472 - Atlantis: Lost Empire (2001) $145,794,338 - Lilo & Stitch (2002) $38,176,783 - Treasure Planet (2002) $85,005,561 - Brother Bear (2003)

Companies • Pixar • Disney • Sony Imageworks • Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) • Rhythm and Hues • Pacific Data Images(PDI) • Dreamworks SKG • Tippett Studios • Angel Studios • Blue Sky • Robert Abel and Associates • Giant Studios

Toy Story (1995) • 77 minutes long; 110,064 frames • 800,000 machine hours of rendering • 1 terabyte of disk space • 3.5 minutes of animation produced each week (maximum) • Frame render times: 45 min – 20 hours • 110 Suns operating 24-7 for rendering • 300 CPU’s

Toy Story 2 • 80 minutes long, 122,699 frames • 1400 processor renderfarm • Render time of 10 min to 3 days • Direct to video film

Stuart Little • 500 shots with digital character • 6 main challenges • Lip sync • Match-move (CG to live-action) • Fur • Clothes • Animation tools • Rendering, lighting, compositing

Stuart Little • 100+ people worked on CG • 32 color/lighting/composite artists • 12 technical assistants • 30 animators • 40 artists • 12 R&D

Final Fantasy • Main characters > 300,000 polys • 1336 shots • 24,606 layers • 3,000,000 renders (if only rendered once) • typically 5 render revisions • render time per frame = 90 min • Most layers per shot 500 • 934,162 days of render time on one CPU • they used 1200 CPUs = 778 days of rendering

Final Fantasy • Renderman (Pixar) used for rendering • direct illumination • many hacks to fake global illumination • Maya used for modeling • Hair • Modeled is splines • Lighting and rendering complicated as well

Production Team • Directors • Modelers • Lighting • Character Animators • Technical Directors • Render Wranglers • Tools Developers • Shader Writers • Effects Animators • Looks Team • Security Officer • Janitor • Lackey

Michel Gondry • Great director At Clemons 2005 Oscar Nominee, Best Writing,Best Lead Actress Palm pictures www.director-file.com/gondry

Michel Gondry • Lucas: Lucas with the Lid Off • Daft Punk: Around the World • Foo Fighters: Everlong • Chemical Brothers: Let Forever Be

Michel Gondry • White Stripes: Fell in Love with a Girl • White Stripes: The Hardest Button to Button • Beck: Deadweight

Michel Gondry • Bjork: Human Behavior • Bjork: Army of Me • Bjork: Bachelorette

Animation CS 551 / 651