Computer Animation

Animation is the production of consecutive images, which, when displayed, convey a feeling of motion. Animated images are almost magical in their ability to capture our imagination. By telling a compelling story, astounding with special effects, or mesmerizing with abstract motion, animation can infuse a sequence of inert images with the illusion of motion and life. Creating this illusion, either by hand or with the assistance of computer software, is not easy. Each individual image, or frame, in the animated sequence must blend seamlessly with the other images to create smooth and continuous motion that flows through time. Traditionally, animation was created by drawing images of the characters for each frame in the action. At the start of the production, the animator is given storyboards, which are sketches depicting the sequence of major actions and illustrating the expressions of the characters. The animator also works from a finished soundtrack, which determines the timing of the piece. In older animations, the background scenery was often stationary and the characters were painted on cels, pieces of clear celluloid that could be stacked on top of the background. Most hand animation is created with keyframing where a lead animator creates the key, or most important frames, and a second animator creates the in between frames. Regardless of the medium, the challenge for the animator is to create images that impart expressiveness and life to the character. The most basic computer animation tools assist the process of traditional animation by automatically generating some of the frames of animation. Animation tools have also been developed to composite together multiple layers of a scene in much the same way that layers of cels are used in hand animation. Other more powerful techniques make use of algorithms that render an image from a geometric description of the scene. These techniques change the task from drawing sequences of images to using computer tools to effectively specify how images should change over time. In addition to providing tools that give the animator new capabilities, the computer also creates new applications for animation. Computer animations can be generated in real-time for use in video games and other