Computer animation is the art of creating moving images via the use of the computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animations (Computer Animation). It is created through the use of 2D and 3D computer graphics. This technique is becoming increasingly popular in the world of the film industry. Several animated features are now being created by the use of computers. Special effects are being created by computers as well.
Movie companies that are becoming famous for using computers are Pixar, Dream Works, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Square Pictures and Walt Disney. Dream Works developed the computer animated movies, “Antz”, “Shark Tale” and “Shrek” (1 and 2). Paramount Pictures created, “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius”, Square Pictures created, “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within”, and Walt Disney created the recent animated feature, “Dinosaur.” The most inventive and successful company is by far Pixar with their creation of “A Bug’s Life”, “Finding Nemo”, “Monster’s Inc.” and “The Incredibles.”(List of Computer-animated films)
In computer animation an illusion of movement is created by an image being displayed on the computer screen which is then quickly replaced by another image that is very similar but shifted slightly. One may wonder, how do these movies create images to look like smooth moving figures? The pictures must be drawn as 24 frames per second or faster. Some movies these days are putting 70 frames a second which makes it impossible for the eye or brain to process to notice the break between objects. Computer animation requires high frame rates to reinforce the realism of the picture. There is no jerkiness seen as the higher speeds due to “persistence of vision” (Computer Animation). Humans’ eyes and brains help out with computer animation, they automatically smooth out minor breaks because they store a picture for a fraction of a second and it creates the illusion of continuous movement.
After an image is sent to the screen to a back buffer, a computer can draw the image and make any changes needed before it is complete. Once the image is correct the computer tells the screen to draw from the back buffer either by copying the image from the back buffer to the primary buffer or making the back buffer the new primary buffer.
Some of the special effect used in these films are animation. For example, the penguin scene in Mary Poppins. Another example of this is transitioning and flashbacks. An
In the 1980’s animation hit it peak with feature films, animated television, commercial that was paying very well, bands, and music videos. Stop motion animation was being the star in animation. Cable television shows would hire stop-motion animators to create their logo entirely with stop-motion animations, one network that did this was MTV. Also, some music videos would be completely done with stop-motion animation. Stop motion animation was almost used everywhere. Will Vinton created an animation studio that would produce the most iconic character today like the stop motion of Noid and the California Raisins made in clay for a commercial. These characters would become bigger than the brands they were to promote. “ Films such as Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Dragon Slayer, and Robocop would be filled with stop-motion visual effects to the point that the lines between reality and the imagined were so well blurred, many people thought it just couldn’t get any
Animations is simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames. Cartoons on television is one example of animation. Animation on computers is one of the chief ingredients of multimedia presentations. There are many software applications that enable you to create animations that you can display on a computer monitor.
Kelly, Kevin. "A Brief History Of Stop- Motion Animation." Film RSS. N.p., 4 Feb. 2009. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Before speaking in full detail of the personal fondness that was acquired and progressed thought the series and the graphic details of it, it is important to address the technology that has made the motion picture possible. Computer Generated Imagery is defined as the “application of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, films, television programs, commercials, and simulators”. In simpler terms computer generated imagery is used in different works of art to create another world through the click of a mouse. Computer generated Imagery is commonly referred to as CGI when using three dimensional computer graphics to create special effects in films and television. Anyone from a professio...
If you know who Steve Jobs is you have to have heard something about Pixar. Pixar is a computer animation company that started in 1979. In 1986 it was bought by Steve from George Lucas for $10 million. When he bought the company it was only a small graphics group that was part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm (Gale Encyclopedia). At this time there were only about 44 people employed. In 1995 Pixar’s first movie came out called Toy Story. The movie was fully created with animation and made $29 million during the opening weekend of the movie (Computer Genius of Apple). The main character in Toy Story was originally made to be a ventriloquist dummy but then the CEO of Disney said that the dummy is “creepy” and so them they changed him into the famous talking cowboy doll that we all have come to know. They also made a movie called TinToy and that was there first movie to win an Academy Award. Soon after Disney bought Pixar in 2006 for $7.4
“Computers don’t create computer animation anymore than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.”-John Lasseter, brainyquote.com Lasseter was the type of person who believed animation was supported by the art and the technology, but it truly came from the artist and the story He lived by his quotes like these every day when he went to Pixar Studios to create his animations. John Lasseter created many of Pixar’s movies, used creating, imagining, and innovating to create films from the heart, and illuminated the world with his animations full of color and emotion.
Most movies today contain a bit of CGI (Computer Generated Images) to create effects such as magic, explosio...
Computer technology invades the film industry. The existence of computers have aided in the production of genres of film ranging from action movie special effects, to cartoon animation and claymation. Computer Generated Imagery, better known as CGI, assists filmmakers in many ways. An image can be made two-dimensional from a three-dimensional scene, camera angles can be altered to make a character seem larger and thus more important than its surrounding bodies, and colors can be brightened or neutralized, among other things (Parsons, Oja 1). Without the aid of computers, movies would not have the ability to be what they are today.
The first 2D animation was created in by Emile Cohl in 1908 called “Fantasmagorie”. The animated film was 70 seconds made with 700 images and 24 frames per second for making the ending according to Kieran Kane’s presentation “The History of Animation”. In 1928, Walt Disney used 2D animation to create the first Mickey Mouse cartoon “ Steamboat Willie”. The cartoon was also the first animated film to have a sound track in the background according to “ The History of Animation”. After this event, many companies like Walt Disney, Warner Bros, and Hanna-Barbera started creating cartoons and commercials with paper 2D animation in 1930s to 1970s; these were known as the “year of animation”. Now, most animations have the problem of consuming time
Animations are a series of drawings, computer graphics, or photographs of objects, like puppets and models, which are different from each to create a variety of entertainment for the audiences. Animations are what brings excitement and mystery, hooking the audience in through interest. It is a form of some sort of “magic” where things that aren’t real but from the imagination comes to life in front of people who live these mundane, ordinary lives, adding color to the eyes and mind. The creators of such amazing arts and creation are animators.
Computer Graphics is the bond between humans and computers. Computer graphics is a large field that branches into almost all fields of computer science; however its roots are young. Computer graphics has massively grown over the past 40 years and is now our primary means of communication with computer applications. Do to technological limitations in the 1950s, computer graphics began as a small, specialized field. The Whirlwind project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is marked as the origin of computer graphics (Machover 14).
Animation, like any other creative art, requires a successful animator to be: patient, talented, disciplined, and willing to work hard. Among the term animation are subcategories such as: character and effects. Character animation is the hardest, in that is requires the most skill. The animator must have a critical eye for every detail that goes into the final project. Character animation can also be broken up into its own subcategories such as: 2D, 3D, traditional, stop motion, and motion graphics. However, 2D and 3D are the most commonly pursued. Regardless if the project is generated by hand or by computer, the overall goal of the animator is to entertain. The animator must have both a clear concept of how to entertain the audience, and
Animation is a visual technique that creates the illusion of motion, rather than recording motion through live action. The technique is used mainly for motion pictures. Animation can be created by illustrators, filmmakers, video makers, and computer specialists. Animation is most popular in creating cartoon movies. Advertisers also employ animation to develop commercials for television. In addition, producers of instructional films may use animation to help explain a difficult idea or one that could not be shown in live action. Animation can also be combined with live action in a movie. Many animators continue to make many drawings by hand. Since the mid-1980's, however, computer assistance combined with hand-drawn animation has become standard in many movie studios. These methods created such feature-length animated films as The Lion King (1994) and The Prince of Egypt (1998).
Computer Generated Imagery is the special effects used in motion pictures to create a visual depiction of an illusion that can not be easily created in real life. Directors of major motion pictures have been using these technologies since the early days of the personal computer. Early on, when and special effects were in their beginning stages, it was difficult to make efficient and effective effects that are well accepted by the movie critics and the general public. An evolution of special effects and the introduction of computerized animation brought the standards for movie effects to a higher level. The development of new methods of Computer Generated Imagery for less money and more effective than in the past has allowed even fairly low budget movies to incorporate such technology. Today, movies use CGI to create special effects to replace thousands of extras, stunt people, and puppet like characters, as witnessed in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The evolution of special effects and Computer Generated Imagery technologies has taken the film industry to a whole new level.