Digital Animation cover_rl SN US-UK_new:digital animation cover 4/23/08 9:30 AM Page 1 Aofn Nderewwca Csthleo Pnoglyiste ac hgnraicd.u Haete h as worked Dofi gaintaiml Taetciohnn osilmogpyl ehr,a fsa mstaedr ea ntdhe m porored wucidtieolny IDnacvliudd Felesi swcoherkr,s J obhyn: Lasseter, the Digital ABASICS A BASICS ANIMATION 02 Oint hAeVrA ’asn Aimcaadtieomn itait rleasn goef iinntceluredset: as a freelancer in commercial video and available than at any time in cinema history. Wachowski brothers, Rod Lord, National nimNIM The Visual Dictionary of Animation broadcast television, and his assignments The various tools available to the novice aAT have ranged from prop making through to and professional alike have also broadened Space Centre UK, Johnny Hardstaff, Onyx, tioION Basics Animation: Dan Lane, Marc Craste, Mainframe, Willie n Andrew Chong computer graphics and live-action video. the pallet of the animator so that the Scriptwriting Williams, Onedotzero, Halas & Batchelor 0 boundaries between media have blurred. Padawan to the legendary John Grace, Studio, Oskar Fischinger, Don Bluth, William 2 Basics Animation: he designed the interactive multimedia The development of digital animation Latham, Gareth Howell, Hayao Miyazaki, Drawing for Animation components of Animation Workshops – echoes the evolution of cinema, from The Crew of Two, Christin Bolewski, Zinkia D Digital Animation Basics Animation: a web-centred e-learning project, early experimental work produced by the Entertainment, Rooster Teeth Productions, Stop-motion Animation which delivered traditional core skills creators of the very technology through Al and Al and Michael Shaw. i g and techniques to new animators groundbreaking steps of individual films Basics Animation: i and designers. and film-makers, to the industrialisation t Producing Animated Films of a medium leading new genres of Covers subjects including: a He currently works at Loughborough Basics Animation: mainstream cinema. l adj.involving or n.the technique of filming University’s Animation Academy under Early mechanical developments, the first Performance and Animation A relating to successive drawings the direction of Professor Paul Wells, Digital animation also has a wider scope animated films, the foundation of modern facilitating various research projects from than the delivery of entertainment to computing, experimental animators, early n the use of or positions of models Basics Animation: computer to create an illusion of Animation Archives stop-frame animation to motion-capture. cinema and television audiences. Parallel special effects, the birth of computer games, i m development of technology has allowed first CGI in cinema, GUIs and SIMs, the first technology movement when the film Re-imagining Animation: animation to become a component part of digital games, the animator’s role, CGI a is shown as a sequence The Changing Face of the Moving Image modern life from medical instruments to aesthetics, character animation, computers t pre-school toys. for everyone, digitally animated shorts, digital i o animation in fine arts, photorealism, the Basics Animation: Digital Animation n Internet and animation, digital animation in looks at the history of the medium – cinema, digital animation in television, charting its progress with references to A traditional skills in CGI, digital worlds and specific examples, which demonstrate the n digital actors, digital tools for all, digital growth and development of the form over feature films, digital auteurism, media d the last 50 years. With contributions from crossover, aesthetic confidence, beyond r innovators and pioneers in the medium to cinema and television, machinima and return e present-day practitioners in the cinema, to core values. w game, and television industries, Digital Animationintroduces and examines some C of the key aspects involved in producing h digital animation. o n The Basics Animation g series also includes: Scriptwriting Drawing for Animation Stop-motion Animation Producing Animated Films Performance and Animation Animation Archives ava publishing sa [email protected] www.avabooks.ch £17.95 UK EDN (AVA) Basics Aimation - Digital Animation COVER CD408-94 / 4150 5th proof avadigan_SN_001-013_new:prelims 3/7/08 7:40 PM Page 1 Andrew Chong Digital Animation adj.involving or n.the technique of filming relating to successive drawings the use of or positions of models computer to create an illusion of technology movement when the film is shown as a sequence Basic Animation - Digital Animation TEXT CD308-25/4150 ~2ndproof BLACK C M Y K avadigan prelims 001-013:prelims 1/30/08 10:59 PM Page 2 An AVA Book Published by AVA Publishing SA Rue des Fontenailles 16 Case Postale 1000 Lausanne 6 Switzerland Tel: +41 786 005 109 Email: [email protected] Distributed by Thames & Hudson (ex-North America) 181a High Holborn London WC1V 7QX United Kingdom Tel: +44 20 7845 5000 Fax: +44 20 7845 5055 Email: [email protected] www.thamesandhudson.com Distributed in the USA & Canada by Watson-Guptill Publications 770 Broadway New York, New York 10003 USA Fax: +1 646 654 5487 Email: [email protected] www.watsonguptill.com English Language Support Office AVA Publishing (UK) Ltd. Tel: +44 1903 204 455 Email: [email protected] Copyright © AVA Publishing SA 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the copyright holder. ISBN 2-940373-56-6 ISBN 978-2-940373-56-7 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Design by Tamasin Cole www.tamasincole.co.uk Production by AVA Book Production Pte. Ltd., Singapore Tel: +65 6334 8173 ▶ Fax: +65 6259 9830 Email: [email protected] title U2 Vertigo Tour animator Cover image: Onedotzero Industries Pocoyo/Pocoyo™ © 2005 Zinkia Entertainment S.L. Basic Animation - Digital Animation TEXT CD108-85/4239 ~1stproof BLACK C M Y K avadigan prelims 001-013:prelims 1/30/08 10:59 PM Page 3 Basic Animation - Digital Animation CD108-85/4239 ~1stproof C M Y K avadigan_SN_001-013_new:prelims 3/7/08 7:12 PM Page 4 Contents 6 Introduction 12 How to get the most out of this book 14 Foundations 30 Pioneers 52 Development < 1960 1960–1980 1980–1990 16 Early mechanical 32 Experimental 54 The first digital games developments animators 56 The animator’s role 20 The first animated 36 Early special effects 62 CGI aesthetics films 38 The birth of 66 Character animation 28 The foundation of computer games modern computing 70 Computers for 42 First CGI in cinema everyone 44 GUIs and SIMs 72 Digitally animated shorts 74 Digital animation in fine arts 76 Photorealism Basic Animation - Digital Animation TEXT CD308-25/4150 ~2ndproof BLACK C M Y K avadigan prelims 001-013:prelims 1/30/08 10:59 PM Page 5 78 Maturity 104 Integration 146 Predictions 1990–2000 2000–2007 2007 > 80 The Internet and 106 Digital tools for all 148 Machinima animation 110 Digital feature films 152 Return to core values 84 Digital animation 112 Digital auteurism 156 Digital auteurism in cinema revisited 118 Media crossover 90 Digital animation in television 122 Aesthetic confidence 94 Traditional skills 134 Beyond cinema in CGI and television 100 Digital worlds and digital actors 160 Glossary 164 A timeline of digital animation 168 Conclusion 170 References and bibliography 172 Further resources 175 Acknowledgements 176 Picture credits Basic Animation - Digital Animation TEXT CD108-85/4239 ~1stproof BLACK C M Y K avadigan_SN_001-013_new:prelims 3/7/08 3:30 PM Page 6 Introduction Digital technology is the conduit for resurgence in animated features and animation in general. Technology’s increasing power and spread into all areas of modern life give the opportunity for animation to be used in a wide range of technologies and contexts. Personal computers and digital media devices have made the medium more accessible than at any other time. Marc Craste, Animation Director at Studio AKA, has suggested that: ‘For a while, at least, the limitations of all but the very highest end computer graphics seemed to outweigh its potential. But for those of us not particularly interested in pursuing photorealism, or unable to even if we were interested, these limitations could sometimes work to our advantage.’ Craste’s remark is important for three reasons, which are fundamental to anyone seeking to engage with digital animation, theoretically or in practice: ▶ New technologies may often offer new opportunities for expression, but the animator or creator, not the software, must determine the nature of the work. ▶ Technical dexterity is not always required to be very creative with technology, which appears to offer an extraordinary range of choices, tools or applications. ▶ Embracing new technology and its potential does not mean abandoning previous core skills and knowledge. The old and new must always be brought together to achieve the most persuasive and original developments in the form. Basic Animation - Digital Animation TEXT CD308-25/4150 ~2ndproof BLACK C M Y K avadigan_SN_001-013_new:prelims 3/7/08 3:31 PM Page 7 6 |7 The following pages will discuss how digitisation, new technologies and animation all combine to produce the end products which we know as digital animation. Digitisation Complex and heterogeneous media can By increasing the number of light bulbs at be integrated because the foundation of your disposal, the amount of information most digital systems is binary. In simple you can store and display increases terms binary, otherwise known as ‘Base 2’, exponentially. With two lights you may is a counting method based on values achieve four states: both off, off and on, on that can only exist in two states: 1 or 0. and off, both on. This may be expressed Computers are programmed and operated thus: 00, 01, 10, 11. Hence, two lights allow using binary languages. Hence, for you a 4-bit system. information to be handled by computers it Eight bits in set is called a byte. The byte is must first be expressed or converted to a the basic packet of information that digital form. computers deal with. In simpler terms, a computer is a machine The power and sophistication of the that can count to 1. machines available to the untrained, non- For a computer to deal with data it must technical user means that we never usually be translated into a form that can be see anything in a binary form; the closest we measured in 1s and 0s. This process is get is when a device crashes and text termed digitisation. warnings appear, or if we are adventurous enough to program a website and step into Consider a light bulb. It has two states: on or the world of HTML. These are examples of off. This represents the smallest measure of codes that let humans talk to computers. information a system can hold: on or off, 0 or 1. This is known as ‘bit’. A light bulb can It is important for the digital animator to have be used as a 1-bit information store, and knowledge of the fundamentals of digital because it is obvious when the state is on or technology so as to better harness the off, you could also say it has a simple visual potential of digital tools and media. display built in. ▶ title The Painter creator Hewlett-Packard Development Company LP/ 422 South Basic Animation - Digital Animation TEXT CD308-25/4150 ~2ndproof BLACK C M Y K avadigan_SN_001-013_new:prelims 3/7/08 3:31 PM Page 8 Introduction Animation The basic principle of animation can be defined as a process that creates the illusion of movement to an audience by the presentation of sequential images in rapid succession. An absolute definition of animation is not as straightforward as some texts may portray. On a practical basis, whether you work with pencils, clay, or pixels, the creation of movement is a form of magic – the techniques of which have been developed by the pioneers of film and are in a constant process of evolution and refinement by subsequent generations of animators. The physiology of the human eye has evolved to facilitate a wide range of requirements. Human vision has its highest resolution in the centre of its field of vision. A concentration of the colour-detecting nerves (cone cells) means you see well what you are ▲ looking at directly. The less receptive expanse of the retina remains sensitive to title movement, and even in environments of Machinima Island 2006 poor ambient light human sight is very animators sensitive to movement. Ricard Gras, Gareth Howell The development of visual illusion and and Alex Lucas moving images has held a particular fascination for audiences and film-makers alike. Even in our media-rich, image- saturated world, the first experiments in animation, such as flip books, still have the power to capture the maker and viewer alike. Animation technique has some fundamental elements, which are unchanging despite the sophistication of the technology used to make it. n o ati m ni a al git Di Basic Animation - Digital Animation TEXT CD308-25/4150 ~2ndproof BLACK C M Y K avadigan prelims 001-013:prelims 1/30/08 10:59 PM Page 9 8 |9 Computers Even before the computer first appeared, In an era of ubiquitous digital technology it is expectations and assumptions of such a difficult to imagine a time when computers machine’s capabilities and design had were the stuff of dreams and science fiction. existed. In the hundred years since The iconic image of a screen with a Charles Babbage built his arithmetic keyboard and mouse atop a box with slots calculating engine in 1822, moving and lights is only applicable since the mid pictures had developed from curios like 1970s. The historical facts of computer the phenakistoscope and zoetrope into a technology are at odds with public global industry and new art form. perception. Through the portrayal of the imagined The fundamentally screen-centric notion of future worlds in films such as Metropolis computers conflicts with the truth that with (1927) by Fritz Lang and Things to Come few exceptions, computers were (1936) by William Cameron Menzies, a programmed and used with an interface global public were offered a vision of based on rows of switches and lights machines with visual displays that could requiring laborious and expert effort to store and deliver information and control perform any task. However, the portrayal of mechanical processes. computer technology in cinema and popular fiction has always presented an image of The very aesthetic of electric or computer technology with assets and electromechanical devices – comprising capabilities beyond reality. keyboards, dials, switches, screens and the ability to perform multiple operations – This predictive power of film proves a was unlike anything that had come before. constant and recurring theme in the Fantasy and science fiction were responsible development of digital animation. for the foundation of video and computer- based moving images. k o o b s hi of t ut o st o m e h et t g o w t o H > n o cti u d o r nt I Basic Animation - Digital Animation TEXT CD108-85/4239 ~1stproof BLACK C M Y K