Category - Computer animation

Realistic Eye Motion

A technology section covering many aspects of computer animation has been added at the Walt Disney Animation website.

The publications section features papers and talks on subjects ranging from CASE STUDY – Beauty and the Beast 3D Benefits of 3D Viewing for 2D to 3D Conversion to Realistic Eye Motion Using Procedural Geometric Methods.

The land where the Bong-tree grows

Since my “Computer modelled cat” post describing how I created the model using Animation:Master I have decided to do a short animation based on “The Owl And The Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear. This is the poem that starts: “The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat”.

I have now upgraded to the current version of Animation:Master. My favourite part of the computer program is creating models. There is a line in the poem that goes: “They sailed away, for a year and a day, to the land where the Bong-tree grows”. The Bong-tree is mythical so is open to interpretation. I thought it would be fun if the Bong-tree made a bong noise whilst bouncing like a spring.

Wireframe of the Bong-tree

The first step was to build the tree. The tree trunk was done by drawing one side of the outline in the modelling window of Animation:Master and using the lathe tool create a 3D tube. For the palm leaves I drew the complete outline and then filled it in with a network of four-point patches. The leaf was then copied eight times and positioned near the top of the tree trunk. Bones were added to the trunk and leaves to aid the animation.

The tree was animated with a combination of muscle and bone movements. If you are unfamiliar with the way this works there are some excellent video tutorials on the Animation:Master website that show the process in detail.

Select an area and move it down to start the bounce.

Having got the tree to bounce the way I wanted, I decided to place it on a desert island surrounded by sea. The island is the top part of a ball shape, coloured yellow and given some roughness to look like sand. The sea is a flat patch of blue that was given some roughness and sparkle to look like water. I animated the sea patch across the set to give the sea some movement. The sky is a picture of clouds on a vertical patch.

Once my test scene was rendered I imported it into Windows Movie Maker and added a bong sound using the technique described in my “Using Windows Movie Maker to assemble your animation” article. I also added a sound effect called “forest” either side of the bong sound.

Click on the pictures above for larger versions.

Above: Boing-tree test animation.

Wire-frame model of the cat.

A computer generated cat has emerged from my experiments with the Animation:Master program that I mentioned in my Computer animation revisited post.

I started with the head by creating a ball shape. A smaller ball was created for the snout and half pushed into the head. A ball was added for the nose and two balls for the eyes. Eyelids were modelled from half balls and positioned on top of the eyes. The ears are also created from half balls. The whiskers are long thin tubes that resemble drinking straws.

Final render of the cat.

The body started as a fat sausage shape that I pulled around until I was happy with it. The tail started as a long tapered sausage that was moved around to get the curve. The legs also started as long sausage shape that I gradually moulded until I got them to what they are now. An Internet search found me a diagram of a cat skeleton that I used as a guide to as to where the legs would bend.

Final render of the cat.

Colour is added by selecting an area on the model and giving it a name. Once named it can have various attributes associated with it such as a chosen colour. The nose and eyes have been given a shiny surface as you can see from the highlights.

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

I have just started a new animation project using a computer program called Animation:Master. I first used this program way back in 1994 and last used it in 1998. That was three computers ago and my animation from that time has found its way to computer heaven never to be seen again.

I was inspired to install the program on my present computer following a visit to the Martin Hash’s Animaton:Master web site last week. I was pleased to see that not only was the program still available but it has grown in scope over the intervening years.

I am using a version that I purchased in 1997 so it does not have anywhere near as many functions as today’s program but the basic modelling and animation functions are there. The recommended operating system for my copy of Amimation:Master is Windows 95 and NT so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it works on Windows XP. Just to be sure I have set it to run in “compatibility mode” for Windows 95.

Having got the program running I decided to do a bit of character modelling. That is when I realised that in my twelve year absence I had forgotten what buttons and keys to press to get things working, so it was just like starting over. There is an old saying that if all else fails read the instruction manual. It starts with a simple exercise of building a candle so that is where I began.

Amimation:Master project window

The modelling tools are similar in operation to a vector drawing program such as CorelDraw. You add lines by clicking the start and end points, building up the shape with multiple points. Then comes the clever bit, when you have your basic outline you click on a “lathe” button and it turns your outline into a 3D shape.

The candlestick has four separate components; the candle holder, the candle, the wick and the flame. As you create the parts you can add colour by selecting from a pallet. You can also add surface attributes such as shininess, called ’specularity’ in the program and brightness, called ‘ambiance’.

Candle exercise. The final render.

At any point you can do a final render to see the finished version. One difference I noticed from the computer that I was using twelve years ago is the speed of the final render. The picture of my simple candle model appeared almost instantly whereas it used to take several seconds.

This little test run has inspired me to carry on learning the program so I will keep you posted on how I get on. If you have tried computer animation then let us have your thoughts in a comment to this post.

Note: click on the pictures to see a larger version.

Windows Movie Maker interface

Windows Movie Maker is software for creating and editing video movies and is included in Microsoft Windows. The feature that makes it a useful tool for novice animators is the ability to add single pictures and play them back as a movie. You can also add sound effects and music and export your finished work to a move in WMV or AVI format.

The first step is to open the program:
1. From the Start menu, click All Programs.
2. Click Windows Movie Maker.

Set the frame rate by going to Tools > Options > Advanced > Default durations. A default duration is assigned to each picture s it is added to the storyboard or timeline. The shortest duration that can be set is 0.125 seconds. This will give a frame rate of 8 frames per second. This gives a reasonably smooth result and is ideal for a novice to try their hand at animation.

The next thing is to import some pictures. For my first try I imported the sequence of stills that I took for my Stop Motion Pro review. This is a 30 frame animaton of objects moving around my desk taken on my digital still camera and imported into the computer using the leads supplied by the manufacturer. You could also use a webcam to add pictures.

There are two methods of working; storyboard and timeline. The storyboard setting is good for adding individual pictures. The timeline view can be used for adding music and sound effects to synchronise with the pictures.

You can drag and drop your pictures onto the storyboard. There is a large preview window above the storyboard where you can view your pictures as a movie. You can add or remove individual frames. For example, after my sequence of pictures I added the same pictures in reverse order. This made the objects return to their original position. I repeated the sequence a few times to make a ten second sequence.

Music can be added by importing a tune of your choice and using drag and drop to add it to the audio timeline. Then click the play button and you see your movie with music.

Windows Movie Maker enables you to do other useful things like adding titles with various effects. I called my test movie “Office Desk” and chose the “Typewriter” animation effect to add it one letter at a time.

If your computer runs Windows it is well worth giving Movie Maker a try, especially as it is available at no extra cost.

If you found this article useful please let us know in a comment to this post.

The Animationizer in use

Stop-frame animation is a method Chris Neale has been using to create paper prototypes of website forms to explain them to his clients. To achieve this he has written some software for the Mac that will capture pictures from a webcam and convert them into a QuickTime movie.

Chris suggests that the software “might be helpful for artists looking for a simple tool to make animations with. And if you find yourself struggling to keep your kids occupied at Christmas, I can almost guarantee that this will save the day.”

The software is called The Animationizer and Chris has made it available as a free download from his Plain English Breakfast blog. There are also a couple of examples of the animations produced with it.

Stop Motion Pro interface.

Having mentioned the Stop Motion Pro software in my previous post about plasticine animation I decided to test drive the free version that  is available as a download from the Stop Motion Pro website. The latest Wallace and Gromit half hour special from Aardman, “A Matter of Loaf and Death” was filmed using Stop Motion Pro HD Studio. You would expect software of this calibre to be very expensive, but luckily for us home animators it comes in a range of prices to suit most pockets. The basic version is called “Stop Motion Pro Action!” and this does enough to satisfy the needs of a novice animator. It is compatible with Microsoft Vista, XP and Windows 7.

The first step was to download the software. It is a big file at 24,536 KB so took several minutes. Once downloaded it was just a matter running the file to set up the software. This went very smoothly and I was soon ready to make my first movie. When the program is loaded it pops up a box asking what you want to call your move and the name of the first scene. Having done this you are now ready to add some still frames.

There are various ways of feeding it with stills; a web cam, a digital still camera, a video camera or even a scanner. I had my digital still camera to hand so decided to use that. Some still cameras allow you to connect them to a computer, view a live image on the screen and record the still frame to the computer. Unfortunately my camera is not one of those so I had to settle for taking a series of pictures and then transferring them to the computer with the cables provided by the camera manufacturer. I set the camera to its lowest picture size of 640 by 480 pixels. This gave me room for thousands of pictures on my memory card.

For this test I rested the camera on my desk, held it down and clicked the shutter. I then moved a couple of objects and took another picture, and so on until I had a sequence of 30 frames. I transferred these to my computer ready to import into Stop Motion Pro.

You click on “Import” on the file menu and browse to the folder where you stored your pictures and select them. You then get an option to change the running order if you wish. When the pictures are loaded the first frame is displayed on the screen ready for you to run the movie. A click on the toolbar below the picture and the scene is played. No matter how long you have been doing animation it is always a thrill to see your work come to life on the screen.

Having got your pictures into Stop Motion Pro there is much more to do with them. A feature that caught my eye on the “Getting started” tutorial on the Stop Motion Pro web site was the ability to make a reverse copy of your action. You use a tool that copies the frames you select and pastes them after your first set in reverse order. The objects on my desk now moved forward and then returned to their original positions. I set the play to loop so that they went forwards and back continuously, what fun.

The basic version also enables you to paint on the frames so that you can create special effects such as explosions.

When your movie is ready you can export it to a AVI, WMV or MOV file and share it with your friends. The next version up called “Action! Plus” even has YouTube uploading built in.

The best feature of this program is the ability to preview your plasticine animation as you go along. To enable this you do need to have your webcam or digital camera set up to capture live frames on your computer. Stop Motion Pro adds you frame captures to your movie as you go along and you can play the animation created so far, at any point. This means that you can check on the speed and smoothness of your animation and adapt it if necessary. This feature makes it a great learning tool.

All in all it is a great piece of software and it is well worth trying the free trial version from the Stop Motion Pro website.

If you found this review useful please let us know in a comment to this post.