1. SCA3103 - Introduction to Multimedia
Semester II 2003/04
LECTURE 9 THE USES OF ANIMATION IN MULTIMEDIA
Lecture 9

2. Objective What is an animation? Animation categories
Animation Special Effects

3. Animation
Such animation is made from a series of stills and relies on something called persistence of vision.
Persistence of vision is the phenomenon were an object on the eye’s retina remains for a brief time after viewing.
This means that a series of still images which vary slightly, if shown rapidly will give the illusion of movement.

4. Animation
If each of the eight pictures below were shown at the same point in rapid succession, the result would be a rotating arrow.
The pictures shown below are stills of the rotating Ford logo from the Ford Motor Company site.

5. Animation
TV gives the illusion of continuous movement by showing the stills at the rate of 30 frames per second.
Feature films are filmed at a rate of 24 frames per second but shown at a rate of 48 frames per second.
Today, most animation is performed by computer. Examples are Bugs, Toy Story, Jurassic Park and the BBCs Walking with Dinosaurs.
The computer will produce a wire frame of the scene, then apply textures and light effects before moving onto the production of the next frame, each of which may take hours or even days to produce.

6. Animation Categories Two categories : Traditional Animation
All frame in an animation had to be drawn by hand
Computer Graphics Animation
The use of computers to create animations.

7. Traditional Animation
Different techniques for creating animation by hand:
Key frames
Cell Animation
Rotascoping

8. Computer Graphics Animation
Two types of Computer Graphics:
Linear animation or 2D animation
Page flipping
Cell Animation
Object Animation or Path Animation
3D animation
Modelling
Animating
Rendering

9. Animation Special Effects : Morphing
Morphing is the effect in which one image transforms into another through a series of intermediate frames.
This is done by first creating or scanning the first and last images.
Then key points are specified, i.e. points on the original image which should become points on the final image.
The computer then produces the frames in between, with each successive frame becoming progressively more morphed into the last image.

10. Morphing
The creator can usually specify the number of intermediate frames to be produced as well the the number of key points.
Both the number of the key points and number of frames will impact on the time taken to produce the sequence of frames.
The diagrams on the next page show start and end frames and the intermediate frames produced by morphing software.

11. Morphing
Morphing software:
Photo Morph,
Hijact Morph
Elastic Reality

12. Animation Special Effects : Warping
Special effect that allows you to manipulate a single image.
Example:
You could stretch a facial feature to change a frown into a smile.
Warping software : Kai Super Goo

13. Advantages and Disadvantages of using Animation
Animation captures the imagination like no other tool, portraying actions and spatial relationships that are not readily visible in reality or that may not exist at all.
Advantages
Attracts and holds attention
Show otherwise invisible actions or physical processes
Increases retention
Allows visualization of imagined concepts, objects and relationships

14. Advantages and Disadvantages of using Animation
Requires extensive memory and storage space
Requires special equipment for a quality presentation
Cannot depict actuality like video or photography