digital sketchbook

Camberwell Show invitation

2006-06-25T12:05:00.000+03:00

This is it! July 11th, 2006 is the big day!

An overview of the process

2006-06-23T20:12:00.000+03:00

My animation has finally a title: "Recycled Love".

This project took a lot of effort and the use of different softwares in order to reach its final stage. The design and storyboards were presented in previous posts. So was the 3D process of modeling, rigging, animation and rendering.

Here, I will go over a few other software packages that were extensively used during the production, but mainly during the post production of “Recycled Love”.

The first two images show Corel Painter and Photoshop and how they helped give an illustrative look to the project. Painter was used because of its variety of brushes and paper textures. The sky was painted in a horizontal format for camera pans, using digital watercolor. It was either imported in After Effects were it was animated, or placed as a texture on a 3D sky plane in Maya and rendered with each scene's animated camera. Other textures were created in Painter as well; for example the witch’s hat. Everything would end up in Photoshop for some final touches and then imported into Maya.

Corel Painter - Sky image for camera pans

Photoshop was used in every step of the process

The next three images illustrate a part of the post production process with After Effects.

This image shows some of the frames used as layers in different compositions in After Effects.

Some image layers for After Effects

Here is a snapshot from After Effects, with all the layers in the bottom of the screen capture and the preview in the middle. I grouped each effect in a different composition, since I didn't want to end up with a huge number of layers in one single composition. That way, each comp (e.g liquify, sepia tone etc) could be moved and animated as a group and not through each individual layer.

After Effects process 1

Another snapshot from After Effects. The particles were used as a separate layer in this example.

After Effects Process 2

This last month has definitely presented its challenges to me. After rendering the whole project in After Effects and put it all together, I had a 2-3 weeks to create the sparkling particles of the broom and also start working on the music and sound effects. For the particles, I found that Particle Illusion was a great solution with many options. I experimented a bit with the type of sparkling dust; tried different colors, types of stars, speeds of the particles etc. I chose one of the simpler particle effects, since I didn’t want any shiny, colored sparks to attract all the attention. I wanted them to be a subtle addition to the picture.

Particle Illusion snapshots

After "mastering" :o) the particles, I had to create a title and a credit sequence for the animation.

Title sequence

Credit sequence

After the title and credits, it was time to edit everything and add music and sound efects. This was a bit intimidating for me, since I don't work with sound on a daily basis. Therefore, I had to figure it out from scratch. I had already been looking for a piece of music on the internet. After searching freeplay.com and fresh music, I ended up using "Moonbeams" from freeplay.com. I paid $50 for the license and also signed a contract for it! It has a jazzy, happy rhythm. I found many sound effects on free sound FX sites, but most of them I borrowed from the free sound library at work. Then I started playing with Sony Vegas, which I had never used before. It proved to be a fairly simple and straight forward software, so I decided to edit the sound there.

In the Vegas image below, there's the video clip on top and all the audio files are in the little blocks under it. There's the preview window on the bottom right corner and all the sound effects on the bottom left.

Vegas process 1

Here's a closer look on the audio tracks. The blue curve indicates the animation of the volume and the pink curve shows the keyframes between left and right stereo sound. This proved to be very useful, since if I had something moving from left to right for example, I could also animate its sound to follow that movement.

Vegas process 2

When all this process was over, I finally reached the last stage of the project: make the dvd's and send them to Camberwell. I exported the sound from Vegas, since I didn't like the compression it created on the video. Then I imported the sound in After Effects with the uncompressed TGA sequence, and created a few movies from there: MPEG2 and MPEG4 mainly. I also used the Sorenson Squeeze for better compression results.

And that is how this project was done :o)

Final Show logo and brochure

2006-06-23T20:11:00.000+03:00

The final show is called digiTales. We all voted on Cherry's design, which places more emphasis on the "tales". I think it's very playful and it stirs the imagination, moving away at the same time from the "digital" aspect of the show.

Final show logo designed by Cherry Leong

Colin volunteered to design a brochure with all of our projects. He did a great job putting everything together and so quickly too!

Final show brochure designed by Colin Eyre

Unit 4 Essay

2006-06-23T12:18:00.000+03:00

Artist's Statement

The path of digital art has been paved by the history of science and the history of art running on parallel tracks. This fusion of art and technology, and more precisely the field of non-photorealistic representation of CGI animation is the focus of my current work.

Trying to put my work in context, I have looked at the works of different artists and computer scientists like Daniel Teece, Sabine Hitier, Bruce and Amy Gooch, Barbara Meier and Fredo Durand. The variety of techniques with which each one of them approaches the subject of NPR, helps me define and contextualize my own work. Sabine Hitier especially, has been a great influence to me because she achieves a simple, innocent look in children’s animation through a technique that seems effortless; in reality, its simplicity lies only in its visual style, not in what went on behind the scenes.

Daniel Teece noted:

the goal of NPR (Non Photorealistic Rendering) is to combine the strengths of established computer graphics techniques with expressive clarity and simplicity of strokes on a piece of paper (Teece. 2003b:p5).

This is in fact the most intriguing aspect of NPR: the computer as a digital tool, whose main purpose has been to generate photorealistic imagery, can now mimic paint or pastel strokes in an animated sequence. Having this in mind, I am challenging the very medium of CG, trying to break free from its photorealistic history.

This idea could be explained with the following simple analogy: paints by nature do not recreate the effect of a photograph. They are meant to go beyond the obvious. However, the realist painters used this non-photorealistic material to create works that looked stunningly realistic, thus building a very valuable and respected skill. Through NPR I try to do exactly the opposite, but with the same motivation: to confront the fundamentals of CG, pushing the computer to perform on a level it wasn’t originally programmed to operate on.
Having worked in the field of animation, I have come to the conclusion that non-photorealistic rendering leads digital animation to a path of more convincing communication. This is because NPR images are not judged by how closely they mimic reality, the way photorealistic renders are evaluated. On the contrary,

NPR images are judged by how effectively they communicate. When using images to communicate the essence of a scene, simulating reality is not as important as creating the illusion of reality (Gooch & Gooch. 2001:p1).

I used to consider digital technology as a simple tool. Through my experience of using the various digital tools though, I have matured as an artist and I now treat the computer as a medium for creating, storing and presenting art in the digital format. ‘The work exclusively uses the digital platform from production to presentation and it exhibits and explores that platform’s inherent possibilities’ (Paul. 2003:p67). It is therefore exciting and challenging for me to express my artistic ideas through digital technology, creating at the same time images that look like the computer was a little if not at all involved in the creative process.

I have used this NPR technique to reach an animated, more illustrative look that would be almost impossible to achieve through the use of traditional media and at the same time impossible to achieve with a solely CG approach. I do not rely on the digital medium to automatically make artistic decisions for me though; I make them for myself and then try to tame the CG beast.

Reflection of Project

One of the primary objectives of this project was to examine how animation relates to children’s advertising. At the same time secondary issues, such as the impact of digital technology on animation and on children, the characteristics and distinguishing features of animation as a digital art form and new methods of conveying messages to viewers were identified.

My work explores the issues of stylization and communication in computer animation, toying at the same time with the idea of challenging a photorealistic medium. Traditional techniques can now be applied to computer graphics and lay emphasis on certain parts, while revealing specific subtleties in the pictures generated. Kids’ animated shows don’t require high level detail in the imagery. Their attention just needs to be directed to the desired parts.

Through the course of the two years, my research and exploration took me on an amazing journey. It all started out with journals on children’s advertising and how animated spokes characters are appealing to children and parents and what is the most effective way to present them. Calcott and Alvey suggest:

animated spokes-characters are both popular with the audiences and effective in advertising because they may serve as objects of nostalgia. People enjoy watching cartoons and associate positive feelings with them (Calcott, Alvey. 1991)

I felt I was on the right path. I had consciously chosen character animation as my medium and I could back my decision with valid arguments. Then, my interest shifted from the advertising aspect of the animation as such, to the social message that could define my project. My primary concern was the successful delivery of this message, using digital animation in a contemporary way that would appeal to children.

Subsequently, I focused on to Non Photorealistic Rendering and its impact on the animation industry. Through articles, online journals, and images studied, I was convinced that this technique was the most suitable one for my project, since NPR images are judged by how effectively they communicate the spirit of a scene and create an illusion of reality; not by how well they mimic reality. NPR frees up digital animators from the ties of the polished, 3D look. It serves both the striving to the creation of convincing character performances and also an expressive look, through an original human and computer interaction.

The outcome of this work is a short animated film with three constituent elements: A story for children, interaction between animated characters, and a new distinctive 2.5D look. The research carried out, dictated each one of these elements. I am satisfied with the way the project turned out, because the research steps are there to support it; nothing was created by luck.

It’s my intension to continue with this NPR technique, in order to reach an animated visual style that would be a true hybrid between CGI and hand drawn/painted images. I would like to research more the animated paint strokes on the 3D models, as well as learn more about the toon outline effects. I might try some scripting as well, since it really contributes to the creation of unique styles. I also plan to introduce more hand crafted elements in the mix. What if all the CG frames are printed on paper, paint brushes are applied on them with real natural media and then scanned back in the computer? The sky is the limit really. When the viewers wonder whether the animation was done by hand or digitally, then I will be satisfied!

Bibliography

Books:

-Gooch, B., Gooch, A. (2001), Non-Photorealistic Rendering, Natick, AK Peters Ltd
-Laybourne, K. (1979), The Animation Book, New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks
-Sibley, B. (2000), Chicken Run: Hatching the Movie, New York: Harry N. Abrams
-Paul, C. (2003), Digital Art, London, Thames & Hudson Ltd
-Solomon, C. (1994), The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings, 2nd ed. China: Wing Books
-Thomas, F., Johnston, O. (1981), The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, New York: Hyperion
-Vaz, M C. (2004), The art of the Incredibles , China: Chronicle Books

Articles:

- Callcott, M., Alvey, P. (1991), Toons sell… and sometimes they don’t: an advertising spokes-character typology exploratory study, Proceedings of the American Academy of Advertising annual conference, Rebecca Holman
- Besen, E. (2004a), The Drive to Realism: From Disney to Harryhausen to Landreth - Part 1, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 5 August, pp53-55, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2004b), The Drive to Realism-Part2: CG Takes the Wheel, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 7 October, pp52-55, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2004c), Make it real-Part 1: Off the Beaten Path, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 9 December, pp47-51, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005a), Make it real-Part 2: Marks in the Sand, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 11 February, pp60-63, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005b), Make it real-Part 3: 2D, Anyone?, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 1 April, pp39-43, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005c), Make it real-Part 4: The Missing Factor, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 3 June, pp47-49, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
· Desowitz, B. (2004a), A Talk with Disney Legend Joe Grant, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 1 April, pp36-39, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Desowitz, B. (2004b), Lorenzo: A Moving Painting with a Wild Tail, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 8 Part 12 March, pp28-31, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Goodman, M. (2003), Death of 2D: Rush to Judgment, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 8 Part 7 October, pp29-32, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- MacLennan Murch, S. (1997), 2D and 3D: Together for the Better, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 2 Part 5 August, pp27-28, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Moins, P. (2005), Annecy 2005: Animation Coming of Age?, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 4 July, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Oedekerk, S. (2002), A New Dimension In Animation, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 7 Part 9 December, pp9-11, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Patterson, J., Willis, P. (1994), Computer Assisted Animation: 2D or not 2D?, Computer Journal, Vol. 37 Part 10, pp829-839, Oxford University Press
- Singer, G. (2004), From Pencils to Pixels: Making the Transition, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 2 May, pp4-9, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Winder, C., Dowlatabadi, Z. (2002), Producing Animation: The 3D CGI Production Process, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 6 Part 10 January, pp32-34, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication

Conferences:

- Computer Animation, 2001. Seoul, S. Korea, (2001) Automatic In-betweening in Computer Assisted Animation by Exploiting 2.5D Modelling Techniques, Di Fiore, F. et al.
NPAR, 2002. Annecy, France, (2002) An Invitation to Discuss Computer Depiction, Durand, F., New York: ACM Press
- Graphite, 2003. Melbourne, Australia, (2003) Mimicing 3D transformations of emotional stylised animation with minimal 2D input, Di Fiore, F., Van Reeth, F., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003a) Sable: A Painterly Renderer for Film Animation,
Teece, D., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Sketchy Drawings-A Hardware Accelerated Approach for Real-Time Non-Photorealistic Rendering, Nienhaus, M., Dollner, J., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Polygon-based Pastel-like Renderign for Animation, Murakami, K., Tsuruno, R., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Real-Time 3D Sumi-e Painting, Kang, SJ., Kim, CH., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2002. San Antonio, USA, (2002) WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models, Kalnins, R. et al., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 1999. Los Angeles, USA, (1999) Non-Photorealistic Rendering: Computers for Artists Who Work Alone, Meier, B., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 1996. New Orleans, USA, (1996) Painterly Rendering for Animation, Meier, B., New York: ACM Press
- WSCG-International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision, 1995. Pilsen, Czech Republic, (1995), Computer Animation and Human Animators, Willis, P.

Films:

- Petit a petit, (2005), Directed by Sabine Hitier, Independent production, 2 min.
- Finding Nemo, (2003), Directed by Andrew Stanton, Pixar Animation Studios, 100 min.
- The Incredibles, (2004), Directed by Brad Bird, Pixar Animation Studios, 120 min.
- Ryan, (2004), Directed by Chris Landreth, National Film board of Canada, 14 min.
- Lorenzo, (2004), Directed by Mike Gabriel, Walt Disney, 5 min.

World Wide Web:

- Butz, A. (1998), CIS270: Animation, (Internet), Columbia University, Available from: http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~butz/publications.html
- The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts (2004), Lorenzo, (Internet), Available from: http://disneyshorts.toonzone.net/years/2004/lorenzo.html
- Barbagallo, R. (2004), Lorenzo, (Internet), Available from: http://www.animationartconservation.com/lorenzo.html
- Durand, F. (2000), The Art and Science of Depiction, (Internet), MIT, Available from: http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/
- Patterson, J. (1998), ‘Creative Pull’ of Style and Technology Together in An Animation Project, (Internet), Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content001.pdf
- Patterson, J. (1999), In-betweening, (Internet), Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content011.pdf
- Patterson, J. (2001), The Exploitation of Vertical Markets to Support Entertainment Products, (Internet), Department of Computing Science, Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content041.pdf
- Teece, D. (2003b), NPR-2D to 3D, painting and rendering, (Internet), Course Notes for Siggraph 2003, Available at: http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~mario/npr/projects/sigg03/

Animation for Scene4A done

2006-06-23T08:41:00.000+03:00

This shot was not planned from the beginning. The idea for this came after a critique I had from friends and colleagues. It goes right inbetween scene4 and scene5 (hence scene 4A!). It helps establish why the cat doesn't want the witch to get the dog. It wasn't clear before why he refused that. With this sequence, we see what he is thinking. He is afraid that all the witch's attention will be focused on the dog, while he will be left all alone again. When the thought dissolves, we come back to present time when he still has a negative attitude. Then, the witch reminds him of how he was abandonded among the trash once.

Animation of Scene10 done

2006-06-23T08:24:00.001+03:00

This sequence comes right after the witch's reminder to the cat (that he was abandoned once). The cat changes his attitude to the witch's satisfaction and turns towards the dog, getting ready to welcome him on board!

Animation for Scene09 done

2006-06-23T08:24:00.000+03:00

This shot will eventually be in sepia tone. It is part of the memory sequence, when the witch reminds the cat of how he found him abandoned on the cloud. The action is a playful ride through the clouds.

Final Show stuff

2006-05-27T23:57:00.001+03:00

Name Plate

Colin has designed the name plates that will go next to our projects in the final show. Here's my info:

Student Name: Maria Pavlou

Student Status: Online

Project Title: “Recycled Love”

Project Description: This short animation has two aspects: firstly, it can be considered as a social message spot about animal mistreatment and abandonment, targeted to both children and adults. Secondly, in its making it explores a new technique that breaks free from the standard, polished, three dimensional look and introduces a more illustrative approach.

Project Image:

Equipment and f2f assistance

I requested a TV set and a dvd player to show my project in the final show. I thought they would be easier to get and hangdle than a projector. Apparently not! I am still waiting to see if a TV comes our way, otherwise I'd have to change my plan. Not being there, worries me a little bit because this situation is beyond my control. I have to depend on others and if something goes wrong I won't be able to fix it. There is a reason I chose a TV and not something bigger and heavier: I didn't want to burden the student helping me to set this up. I am "buddied up" with Maria Mantikou, who thankfully is very helpful and willing to assist me in any way. So, I am relieved. I'm just waiting for that TV to show up!

Sound

I have been researching a lot of music styles lately, in order to find out which one suits my animation. I've gone from acoustic guitar to swing jazz and from piano tunes to Big Band comedy rhythms. I have to buy the rights to the music, since I intend to enter my animation to a couple of animation festivals and contests. I have a short list of 13 songs that I have to sort through and decide soon, since there is a lot of sound editing and sound effects to be done. Most of them are jazzy with a comedy element. I found 2 songs from the Freeplay site and 11 from Fresh Music. I might buy 2-3 different songs since I will probably piece different parts together. The ideal situation would be to have a composer write the music after the animation is complete. That way, all the moods and actions would be conveyed precisely. But, that would cost me a lot, plus I don't have the time for it. I would need another month or so. Therefore, I will go with the next best choice, which is to buy the tracks I need. The plan is that by the first week of June, I will be working on compositing and at the same time testing the various tracks on the rough edit of the animation.

Animation for Scene05 done

2006-05-27T23:57:00.000+03:00

In this scene, the witch is disappointed by the cat's selfish attitude and tries to remind him of how she adopted him. It's after this scene that we go back in time to discover that the cat was abandoned among the trash like the dog is now.

Animation for Scene04 done

2006-05-24T09:07:00.001+03:00

This is whe the witch realizes there's a dog abandoned up on the trash cloud. So, she approaches him and considers getting him but the cat refuses. She is disappointed and upset by the cat's attitude.

Animation for Scene02 done

2006-05-24T09:07:00.000+03:00

This is an introductory scene; we get to know who the characters are. They come from a distance, pause in front of the camera for a little bit as the clouds move by, they share a moment of affection and then take off.

Update on the final show

2006-05-23T11:06:00.000+03:00

DigiTales

This is the name of the show we are going for. We roughly have a month to put everything together. I am still waiting on an update about the TV set and dvd player. If they are hard to find, I might have to go for a computer monitor. And I thought a TV would be easier to find/handle than a projector! I am also waiting for the rights to my music. I chose a couple of pieces and I will probably have to pay a license fee, thankfully not too high.

The f2f students are allocating spaces for us all, so we have to help out any way we can. Colin is working on a template for the plates next to our projects. It will be in a simple format with our names, online/full time/part time course, project title and project description. We all have to agree on the template and after that the onliners have to prepare everyone's plate. Since I am not too familiar with vector based softwares, I will proof read all the project descriptions before we type them up.

Hopefully all this will happen in an orderly manner through the common room in BB.

Animation for scene08 done

2006-05-15T01:08:00.000+03:00

This is the sequence with which the witch reminds the cat of how she found him abandoned in the garbage and adopted him. After this, the cat feels guilty for not originally accepting to take the dog and changes his mind.

3D Vs 2D

2006-05-07T21:22:00.000+03:00

I am almost done with half the animation. I tend to render the sequences as I go along, so that I can fix things late at night, when all the animation curves start to look like spaghetti!

The next two images show the graph editor of maya, whith all the animation curves. The graph editor shows the value of each controler (hand, foot, head etc) Vs time. These images illustrate just 4 seconds of animation of the witch, which is still in a rough stage. So my job every day is to untangle all these animation curves and make them flow in an effective way.

This process of taking 3D outside the box and away from a polished look is really liberating. As I continue my research, I find that more and more artists are trying to achieve a combination of 3D and 2D every day. I wish I could attend NPAR 2006, a conference that happens once in two years and it’s about Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering. It takies place in a few days in France http://www.npar.org/2006/

I have fun animating this way, because even though the medium is still very technical, the result doesn’t show that. I am less worried about volume perfection and blowing things and characters out of proportion. I can squash and stretch them without them looking strange. I don’t worry about shadows either; the projected performance through this 3D/2D technique is of major importance to me.

There are some pitfalls in this whole procedure though and I found myself often getting trapped. Since I still work in a 3D environment, it is usually hard to give up 3D entirely. I almost feel that all the work put into it doesn’t show. If I were to render this in 3D it would be a totally different project! But that’s the beauty of it: pushing 3D further and further until the artist is of full control over the image. I feel I’m not there yet. I’m definitely working toward that goal! I want all the decision making to come from my brain, not from the computer’s. I catch myself going back to some scenes and trying to not hide too much information; show the whole dress or try not to cut the feet etc. But then I remind myself that this is not important. These parts will show up sooner or later in the animation. It’s the look and the performance that matter, not every bit of detail. I needed to detach myself from that. So I went back in and added more close-ups which made the sequence more interesting and made me realize I don’t have to look at the characters full frame all the time!

I know that after this project is over, I will continue to explore this technique. See where it takes me. This project only got my feet wet!

Animation for Scene11 done

2006-05-07T21:20:00.000+03:00

Since I cannot post a movie, here are some rendered frames from Scene11. This is the final shot, which is the longest and the hardest to do. That's why I completed it first, before I got tired down the road. Here, the cat is convinced by the witch to take the dog with them. Then they both welcome him on the broom. The dog is all excited and jumps on the broom which rocks back and forth in the air as the fly around a cloud. The dog loses his balance at some point and there's a funny little moment where he almost falls off the broom. At the end they fly toward the camera smiling.

I haven't done any compositing to this sequence yet. The next step is to work on a hand painted, moving sky and also create clouds for the background.

Animation for Scene07 done

2006-05-07T21:19:00.000+03:00

Since I cannot post a movie, here are some rendered frames from Scene07. In this scene the witch approaches the "trash cloud" to see what's going on. She realizes the cat is left there and in scene 8 she picks him up.

I haven't done any compositing to this sequence yet. The next step is to work on a hand painted, moving sky and also create clouds for the background.

Animation for Scene06 done

2006-05-07T21:17:00.000+03:00

Since I cannot post a movie, here are some rendered frames from Scene06. In this scene the witch reminds the cat of how she found him abandoned among the trash. She sees him and turns around for him.

I haven't done any compositing to this sequence yet. The next step is to work on a hand painted, moving sky.

Animation for Scene03 done

2006-05-07T21:16:00.000+03:00

Since I cannot post a movie, here are some rendered frames from Scene03. In this scene the witch and the cat pass by the "trash cloud", realizing there's a dog among the garbage. So they stop the broom and turn around.

I haven't done any compositing to this sequence yet. The next step is to work on a hand painted sky that's moving and also create clouds for the background.

Animation for Scene01 done

2006-05-07T21:15:00.000+03:00

Since I cannot post a movie, here are some rendered frames from Scene01. This scene introduces the witch and the cat as they fly happily through the clouds.

I haven't done any compositing to this sequence yet. The next step is to work on a hand painted sky.

Animatic frames

2006-04-26T19:53:00.000+03:00

This is the new "animatic". By "animatic" I mean a rough movie with blocked cameras and character movements. Unfortunately I can't post an avi file, so here are some screen captures from Maya and After Effects. Again, these are rough previews (not rendered or composited), played in a sequence so that I confirm there is continuity from shot to shot.

The story is the same as in the last storyboard:

The opening sequence takes us through the clouds. There are some funny signs up on the clouds. The witch appears with her cat. They are all happy. They pass by the "trash" cloud. She doesn't pay attention but then she realizes something is wrong. She stops immediately amd turns back. A dog is abandoned in all the garbage. She feels sorry for him and wants to take him onboard the broom. The cat, selfish by nature, refuses. Then she reminds him how she hound and adopted him. The memory sequence will most probably have a sepia tone, to show it was in the past. Well, the cat was abandoned the same way the dog is right now. Now the cat, all embarrassed, agrees to take the dog with them. The dog is all excited and jumps on the broom that rocks back and forth. They are all happy as they take off for a happy flight through the puffy clouds.

The whole thing will most probably be a minute and a half, with title and credits.

First shot for the witch

2006-04-16T14:53:00.000+03:00

After fixing some last minute technical details on her body, she is ready to go!
I'm glad that I was able to put the cat in a sitting pose. It was a big challenge for me. I had to redo his tail last week, because the previous setup was slowing me down. So I gave him an easier, straign forward FK setup for the tail which works great.

Opening Scene

2006-04-16T14:52:00.000+03:00

Here is the beginning of the animation. The shot starts with the camera flying through the clouds, until the witch shows up with her broom.

The first image shows the signs up in the clouds, adding some humor to the witches' everyday routine. This is going to lead to the trash disposal cloud.

The following image shows the "trash" cloud. This is where the dog is abandoned with his leash and bone still showing through the garbage. I might add a box next to the dog, to suggest he was carried and left there on purpose.

Cloud Tests

2006-04-09T21:10:00.000+03:00

The three characters are finally done! They are ready to be animated. So I started creating the set they will act in which is the sky and clouds.

The first image below shows some 3D cloud tests I did against a 2D background with hand drawn clouds. This is a very early step into the process.

Looking at the result above, I decided that I wanted to combine some spiral shapes onto the puffy clouds. As you can see in the following image, I use the 3D cloud with the toon outlines, plus some organic shapes created over it. There is a 3D preview on the left and then a test render on the right and bottom.

Facial expressions for the witch

2006-04-02T21:05:00.000+03:00

This image shows my progress with the facial expressions. The heads on the top show all the possible expressions she can take, including eye blinks. They are not too clear from a distance, but they work!

The second and third pictures, show a quick test of two different expressions. I decided to add a little bit of color on the eyebrows, so that the eye movements read more clearly.

I also indicate some of the controls I created for her hat, hair, face and dress. Again, this is a very long and technical process, but it pays off at the end!

Testing the rig - rough poses

2006-04-01T21:49:00.000+03:00

As I continue to add onto the witch's controls, I try to test if the rig roughly does what I have in mind. Will she be in a position to stay and perform on the broomstick?

Thankfully, I didn't face too many problems; just a few expected ones, especially with the "skin weights" on the dress. I fixed it and it works fine so far.

I will play with the size of the broom once the pets are imported into the scene. It needs to be bigger, that's for sure. Otherwise the cat and the dog won't fit on it.

I start work on her facial expressions now. Hopefully I'll be done in a couple of days.

Testing the rig and posing

Rigging the witch

2006-03-30T00:25:00.000+03:00

Here is the beginning of the witch's rig. It's similar to the one used for the pets but more complex. She needs extra controls for the dress, the hat and the hair and she will have a lot more facial expressions. She is really challenging and needs extra care so that I don't waste time troubleshooting her setup later on. I should be done with her next week. And then, it's animation time!

Facial expressions for the dog

2006-03-25T11:39:00.000+02:00

Here is the facial expression setup for the dog; it's just like the process used for the cat. I know before hand what expressions the dog must take (in combination with his jaw movement) and I modify his head to create each expression separately. All these faces can blend between each other and achieve new ones. The rest is in the ears and eyes that are controlled differently.

Rigging the dog

2006-03-19T21:16:00.000+02:00

Here is the beginning of the dog rig. The technique is the same used for the cat. He is almost done. I need to create the blend shapes for his facial expressions and then move the witch rig.

Below is an image of the dog's setup in the left column and the test renders on the right.

Some facial expressions for the cat

2006-03-16T23:07:00.000+02:00

This image shows some of the facial expressions the cat will have. In Maya, facial targets are set up that will be fed to the original face through "Blend Shapes". The face of the cat will blend between all these faces, through sliders. It's important to know what the story is before hand, so that modeling extra facial expression heads is avoided.

From left to right:smile, laugh, surprised, sad, tragic thought, sneer.

Their difference is not that big, because you can't see the rest of the face parts on the targets. Those are controlled through "set driven keys" and they make the face read much more clearer. The body language will also convey the cat's thoughts.

I know this is a bit too technical, but it's a huge part of the process. Fifty percent of the success of the project depends on this solely technical part. And this is what's challenging about digital art in general. A digital artist has to overcome several technical fears in order to succeed and learn to be patient. Otherwise the project will take its own course down the hill. It's all about being in control, facing the challenges and leading the way with an open mind and lots of troubleshooting solutions.

Rigging the cat

2006-03-11T22:27:00.000+02:00

I've had quite a challenging week. I am in the process of rigging my characters. To rig a character it means to setup all the controls so that the animator can move the character freely in 3D space. This is a very technical and intense procedure. If I'm not careful with this, I will have problems when animation time comes. So I invest a lot of time into deciding which is the best setup for the witch and pets.

A few weeks ago I tried the Full Body IK on the cat. This comes with Maya 7.0. It's awesome and it provides a lot of extra control, but I found a few points that I didn't like... for example, you have to name every single joint according to a naming list, plus I don't think it has the stretchy feature on the legs and arms (unless I missed that part!). So I decided to try the setup machine plugin, that is more flexible. The image below is from the beginning stages of the rigging. The only problem I found with this is that it slows me down a lot. It creates far too many joints in the skeleton than I need for the cat. So the animation process slows down. But at the same time it gives me a lot of control and flexibility. I will probably use this setup for the pets and something simpler for the witch. If I use this rig with her, I think my computer will explode!

Hopefully by the end of March, I will have them all rigged, or at least at a stage where I can plan the animation out. That will give me two months of animation and troubleshooting.

Spring

2006-03-11T21:35:00.000+02:00

This image is not relevant to my project, but it's something I worked on last week. I was asked to create an image for a new magazine that circulates every Sunday. The editor asked a few artists to interpret Spring.

Well, what does Spring mean to me? My first reaction of course, was flowers, green grass, butterflies and all those romantic ideas about rebirth and love. Then I took a walk to the shops on a sunny Saturday morning. The sales are over and the Spring/Summer 2006 collections are already in the shops. Women go in and out of the boutiques, holding bags full of summer clothes, even though the temperature is not that high yet... They are even trying on bikinis and sandals. They are buying beach stuff in the middle of February! That's when it hit me!

The struggle begins. No flowers, no romance, no birds singing... it's all about fitting in the bikini! When you live on an island with almost six months of summer, Spring comes in different colors and shapes! :o)

Quick cloud sketches

2006-03-11T21:34:00.000+02:00

Here are some quick thumbnails for the beginning of the story, which takes place entirely in the sky. We move through the clouds, before we even see the witch. This is to establish the location. So, we see that some clouds have signs on them, indicating rest stops, emergency phones etc. Just like when you travel on a big highway and you stop to refuel, have a bite and move on. That's when the witch will fly in and pass by the "trash/recycle" cloud where the dog is abandoned...

Is this it?

2006-02-28T23:55:00.000+02:00

Here are all three characters together, colored and textured. I think this is it! :o).

Thoughts and feelings

2006-02-27T01:20:00.000+02:00

I have been trying to texture the witch for four days now, and I spent a good amount of these four days thinking and going back to redo a lot of steps. Why? What is it that made it harder for me compared to the cat and the dog? As I am finishing up my day and getting ready to shut my computer down, I suddenly figured it out. And it made me think even more...

I found it hard to give up the 3D detail on the witch. It is a fairly complex 3D model; I created it following a tutorial on human anatomy and muscles. If I were to render it realistically it would look very good. That's what I'm afraid to give up. When I render it flat, I'm scared that all that work on the model will disappear. And it kind of did! I completely lost the detail on the face. If I were to remodel her, I would do a far less complicated model. That way I wouldn't be afraid of losing anything as far as quality goes.

Another reason I don't want to lose any detail on the face is the fact that I need her to have facial expressions. I will have a lot of closups on her and I have to make sure her expressions will read clearly. I have to work on this a lot.

Bottom line is, I realize it's hard to give up 3D. It's a challenge for sure, especially after working with this medium for so long. The non photorealistic rendering, is a completely different philosophy and I think it takes a lifetime of research and practice in order to master it. This is only the beginning and I have a long way ahead :o)

Witch - Color and textures

2006-02-26T12:59:00.000+02:00

As I am starting to texture the witch, I am looking into different fabric ideas for her dress. I like the 60's look, but I have to be careful not to overdo it, otherwise she will stand out, overshadowing the cat and the dog. There's a lot of testing to be done. Here are some fabric thumbnails.

Fabric thumbnails

The next image is a screen capture from Maya. The preview of the model is on the left and a test render is on the right. I'm working on different fabrics at the same time, trying to check which one is the most appropriate.

Trying on outfits!

The following image shows two different renders of the face. The one on the right is completely flat, just like the dog and cat were done. With this way, I lose a lot of detail on the face. So I did a semi-3D render. I added very little shadow to the light that is linked only to the face and knocked down the ambient color of the shader whick caused the flatness on the right render. This way the nose and wrinkles don't desappear.

Face: completely flat or with some shadow?

In this next step, I imported the cat and the dog in the same scene. I wanted to see them next to the three fabric choices I made.

Which fabric goes with the pets' color scheme?

Here are some painted textures that are used for the witch. They are all done in Painter and Photoshop. They all follow the UV layout of each model.

Some of the texture files/paintings used for the witch

This is a screen capture from the Hypershade window in Maya. It displays the shading network on the witch. All these represent the colors and textures of her dress, hair, hat, skin, socks, eyes, etc. It's a fairly simple network for Maya, since I am not going for a realistic look, which would require a much more complex shading network.

The Maya shading network on the witch

This is an almost final image of the witch. First, there's a closeup of the dress, which I thought looked cool on black! It gives me ideas for a new short animation that could have this almost neon, 2D look to it! I am still working on the outlines of the second image. I found out that the thickness of the outlines will have to vary depending on the shot: long, medium or close up. I'll have to adjust them per shot.

The dress and the texturing so far

Cat and Dog - WIP

2006-02-22T01:15:00.000+02:00

Here is an image of the cat and dog put together in the same scene. I'm checking their size relationship, color scheme, outline etc. The first three are previews and the last is a render. I'm happy to see that these images render really fast - a few seconds each. I have to check for this speed again when the witch is added in the mix. She is way more complicated, so the render time will go up. If I get a couple of minutes per frame, I'll be really happy :o)

Cat and Dog together

This next image illustrates a few of the textures painted for the cat and the dog. These were created in Painter and Photoshop and are following the UV layout of each model. Think of it as going to a taylor to get a suit made: he makes the pattern first on a piece of paper and then he cuts the fabric. This is kind of the same principle. I create the UVs for each polygon model, as clean as possible and then I paint over that layout. If I wrap this texture around the appropriate model, it fits perfectly. But If I put it on a different model, it won't work. It's custom made for that specific shape.

Cat and dog texures

I will work a bit more on the pets coloring, then move on to the witch. All three need to be textured by the end of February.

Cat with more wiggly outlines

2006-02-16T01:33:00.000+02:00

Here is another test of the cat, with more wiggly outlines. Maybe it's not obvious right away from the still images, but when it plays back it's visible.

The wiggly outlines were created in 3 steps; two in maya and one in After Effects.

1. Maya: water texture on the Line width Map of the toon paintfx outline, with animated waves
2. Maya: Blend shapes with minor changes applied to the body so that the silhouette is not a sharp, solid shape.
3. After Effects: the 3D render layer has an Effect>Stylize>Roughrn Edges filter on it.

The background was done as a test in Painter and Illustrator and then sanwiched all together in Photoshop. Eventually there will be movement in the sun and the clouds, done in Painter IX.

This is the first time I am involving all these softwares at the same time for the creation of one image and consequently an animation. Sometimes I have them all open simultaneously (plus Maya) and then my computer literally begs for mercy! I love how I can jump from program to program until I get an image I like.

Cat images

2006-02-12T19:58:00.000+02:00

Here are some tests of the cat. The first image is a render sequence around him, to see how he looks. His tail is sticking out because there are no controls for it yet. The second image demonstrates some frames from a walk test I did. I have to check how the 3D geometry deforms and how the outline follows the animation.

His texture is hand painted in Painter and Photoshop and the outline is an orange chalk line created in Maya. The outline wiggles a bit, but I'm now working on making it more animated. I will try to do that through the paint fx attribute editor or apply blend shapes to the model.

I am also working on the look of the background. I chose to work in Painter and Illustrator for that. I'm exploring a soft watercolor look. I will post some images later.

I am now experimenting with 3,4 different ways to "rig" this character, i.e to setup its controls for cartoony animation.

For the pets I have these options:

- Full Body IK - a new feature in Maya 7.0
- Advanced Skeleton - a character setup shelf for Maya
- The machine setup - a plugin for Maya
- Follow the instructions of the Maya learning tool "toony modeling and rigging"

For the witch I have the same options as above, plus one rig I have been using so far from Radiant Square, called Final Rig.

The next step is to check all these options and find the best method to go with. I know that if I spend the time now to make the best choice, my animation will go faster and more smoothly, without major problems. In the meantime, just to take a break from all the technical stuff, I will be texturing the dog and also trying to animate the pets' outline a bit.

cat turntable

cat walk test

The final show progress - 3

2006-02-10T16:05:00.000+02:00

We had another joint chat yesterday, on Feb 9th. All the issues that came up during Monday's chat were brought to the table so that the f2f students were aware of them. It was the biggest chat we had ever since we started, with 14 people! It was definitely interesting.

A major subject was the name of the show. Even though the voting showed that "Beyond 0 and 1" was the most popular, some people felt it wasn't reflecting the nature of our show, or the essence. The f2f students pointed out that we have to have a name soon, since it will appear on the sponsorship letters and it will look more professional if we actually have one. I suggested they go with a generic name, like "MADA 2006, final show" for the letters if it was that urgent, and the name could come later.

Jem and Colin wanted to dig deeper into the meaning of the name; a name that would reflect the unique circumstances under which this show is happening. They made really good statements. This show exists in different time zones and locations. It takes place, for us onliners especially, wherever we can find an internet connection; our workplaces, our homes, in the park, on the beach, wherever! So it's not bound within four walls. We need a name that will show all that, a memorable name that would also strike the sponsors.

I felt that the f2f students wanted to make a decision asap... so I suggested we wait another week max. Then Jem and Colin would input their suggestions and then we'll decide on our next meeting next Wed. We'll vote on BB this time. Jem created a couple of more threads on BB, to input comments and thoughts about the name. I think that's helpful. Hope we have a conclusion by next Wed, because some people were feeling we haven't accomplished anything in a month... so it will be a rewarding feeling to finally have a name and move forward with the sponsorship letters.

To summarize:

- In our Blackboard's Common Room, Jem has created several threads where we can input our ideas according to what is being done at the moment.
- Blackboard will be the only space which will allocate all information about the show's developments.
- Keep our original group discussions to allow flow of information and comunication.

French filmmakers

2006-02-08T17:29:00.000+02:00

I find french animation/cinematography to be the most influential, unique and fresh in the film industry. They have a very stylized look and they combine all animation techniques. The movie "the Triplets of Belleville", http://www.sonyclassics.com/triplets/, is a perfect example of french animation: it's well crafted with a captivating story, very different from american animation.

I mentioned two other french filmmakers in an earlier post, Sabine Hitier and Pierre Coffin. Even though their projects are different from each other, they still have that "french" touch! Sabine's rendering is new; it looks as if everything was hand painted with watercolors. Pierre's animations are funny and clever and they have a soft look to them as if they are plush toys.

Five young filmmakers, Olivier Staphylas, Marco Nguyen, Pierre Perifel, Xavier Ramonède and Rémi Zaarour, have created an animated short "Le building", which combines 2D, 3D and flash animation seemlessly. http://www.le-building.com/ It is very inspirational to see animations of this level :o) I paid extra attention to their camera direction. They used extreme angles, which made everything more dynamic, dramatic and much funnier. The 2D animation did not stop them from using these extreme angles as if the whole film was 3D animated.

The final show progress - 2

2006-02-08T14:05:00.000+02:00

We had our chat last Monday. The final show issues came up and it seems that most of us (onliners) feel left out from the whole process. It's nobody's fault really, it's just that the f2f people have a different agenda, plus they are still in unit 3. So it will take some extra effort and planning to make this work.

Everybody had something to say on Monday and we all brought important suggestions to the table. The most important ones were:

1. The wiiki page does not work, BB is preferred. It seems that people are having trouble editing the posts. The onliners are more familiar with the BB environment and it is more reliable. We are not rejecting wiki; it is useful for posting the latest info on the show but it is not accessible and flexible enough for daily communication
2. The small, mixed groups don't work that well. Maybe there should be an online, an f2f full time and an f2f part time. Then the reps from each group should "meet" and raise all the issues.
Face-to-face students have the advantage of being able to discuss the issues in person and that gives the impression that a lot is being achieved in these meetings. A lot is being achieved, and we feel that everyone is doing a fantastic job in London, but it is not involving all of us. It seems that the smaller groups may not have been very well attended and that suggestions from people who have not been able to be physically present at the plenary meetings have not had their suggestions aired to the whole group.
3. The large chats are good but the onliners feel out of it, not being able to contribute. The AV connection is not always the best, so we are just watching the meeting without really being involved.

Basically these were our main concerns. Jem wrote a letter to everyone summarizing all this, so hopefully all these suggestions will be considered.

3D dog - Work In Progress

2006-02-05T20:11:00.000+02:00

Here are a few rough images (work in progress) of the dog. Checking how he looks next to the witch and the cat. No textures, colors or lights yet.

Dog ear tests

Cat and dog together - checking their size.
I might make the dog a little bigger.

All three characters together.
Checking their size in relation to each other.

Cat Work In Progress

2006-02-02T00:29:00.000+02:00

Here are a few screen captures from Maya (no textures or lighting)

cat progress

witch with cat - size comparison

Final Show - logo ideas

2006-01-28T18:13:00.000+02:00

Here are some logo tests for the final show.

The name I picked is "pixel dialogues". I like the pixel idea Martha suggested, since it takes digital art back to its roots. Then the dialogue word comes from the interaction between the f2f and online students. The balloons are taken from a very popular art form, the comics.

The Final Show progress - 1

2006-01-28T16:38:00.000+02:00

MA Digital Arts Final Show 2006
Agenda 01

Date: 25/1/2006 (wed)
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Venue: Lecture Room (Next to Andy’s room)

Report:
1. Theme and rundown of previous final show
2. Documents and related materials for reference (e.g. website, budget plan, letters to sponsors, brochure, poster, etc.)
3. Date of final show 2006
4. Technical & financial support from college (e.g. equipment, helpers, financial estimate, etc.)

Discussion:
1. Division of labour

Person-in-charge: Close contact with college and all teams
Secretary: Minutes taking, writing letters / emails to sponsors, media & guests (e.g. art schools, college fellows, artists & designers…)
Treasurer: Book keeping, budget plan…
PR (media & guests): Searching for potential sponsors
PR (sponsors): Venue, setting, move-in & move-out, recording video, private view stuff…
General Management: Offline – Poster, brochure, leaflet, etc.
Promotion Team: Online – Website, viral marketing, etc. Online – Website, viral marketing, etc.

1. Venue (college or other galleries)
2. Theme & logo (theme should be confirmed but logo / design can be done later)
3. Sponsorship (list of potential sponsors)
4. Promotion (e.g. leaflet, poster, website, viral emails, any other suggestions??)
5. Deliverables (e.g. DVD, brochure, name card, any other suggestions??)
6. Guests & guest speakers in private view / opening ceremony
7. Insurance & storage of exhibits
8. Reimbursement method
9. Floor plans & requirement sheets of all students (to GM)
10. Duty list

Booking venue (if necessary): Person-in-charge
Budget Plan: Treasurer
Floor plan of the venue (with detailed measurement & design): GM
Layouts of promotional materials (offline): Promotion Team
Layouts of promotional materials (online, esp. website): Promotion Team
Minutes: Secretary
Letter to sponsors: Secretary
Letter to media (if necessary): Secretary
Letter to guests & guest speakers: Secretary
Sponsor list: PR (sponsors)
Media & Guest list: PR (media & guests)
Quotation of promotional materials & deliverables: Promotion Team
Confirmation of insurance & storage: GM
Booking equipments: GM
Contact list: Person-in-charge
Agenda of next meeting: Person-in-charge
What else??

Name of our show – MA Digital Arts Final Show 2006, Camberwell College of Arts.

1. Making Contact;
2. Pixel cube;
3. Pixel-dialogue-bonding-blending-border-contact;
4. Reflect blurring between the physical and the virtual;
5. Digital Odyssey;
6. Digital bomb;
7. Digitized Me;
8. Beyond 0 and 1;
9. Arts Revolution;
10. Virtual Reality Vs Realistic Virtuality;
11. The D works (digital, democratic, decent, demanding, whatever…);

My suggestions:

Pixel communication
Pixel connection
Pixel contact
Pixel intelligence
Pixel transmission
Pixel dialogues
Pixel chat
Pixel buzz
Pixel Xchange
Pixel factory
Pixel company
Pixel friends

Sponsor List:

IT:

Company & Contact Person:
IBM
Apple
Micro Anvika
Wannado
NECSony Entertainment:
Company & Contact Person:
HMV
Virgin

Bank and Insurance:

Company & Contact Person:NatWest

Arts Fund:

Company & Contact Person:
Arts Council England
Awards for All, Visting Arts
Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationBritish Council Airlines:
Company & Contact Person:
VirginEasyJet

Media:

Company & Contact Person
Channel 4
BBC
GoogleYahoo

Design and Production Companies:

Company & Contact Person:
MTV
Synola
Passion PicturesTomato

Others:

Company & Contact Person:
Agnes b
DieselExxonMobil

Guest List:

Bill Mitchell
Lev Manovich
Neil Leach
Richard Sennett
D-Fuse
British Design Innovation (BDI)
Tomato
Synola
MTVPaul Coldwell

Colleges:

LCC
CSM
LCF
Goldsmiths
Royal College of ArtsLondon Metropolitan University

Chat progress:

We had our second meeting in the common room last Thursday, but unfortunately we kept missing each other. I talked to Alex a little bit and emailed Claire, who sent us the following email:

Hello, sorry i missed you Maria and Alex , i discovered wewere in different chat rooms - when i found where youwere you'd gone. Anyway yesterday we webcast our 1st general meeting ofall f2f groups.Cherry will send you the minutes but for now we arefocussing on getting sponsorship for promotionalmaterial (tbc) and equipment/technical. We have agroup responsible for working on the sponsorshipangle: phoebe, peter, sarah b and claire - maybe luisatoo - i'm not sure. For next week we need to draft aletter and everyone chips in names of people to sendit towith a draft letter too if they want. Next weekwe will complile the letter in the meeting. Post everything on the wiki space:http://madigitalarts.wikispaces.com For next week also IMPORTANTLY everyone makes aname/identity and logo and posts it on the wiki. Also we all think of people to send press releases tooand get to plug our show. Phoebe has been in touch with Resonance 104.4FmM sophoebe and claire and anyone else who wants are goingto do a Clearspot radio show for an hour just beforethe PV. whenever we all think best-we thought June. Maddi knows some Channel 4 people she's going to pull. We have Peter and Maria (Maria M has experience ofthis position) as treasurers for all this money!!! I've probably missed something- but Cherry will send,or put on the wiki, the full stuff of it. We decidedto meet with webcast every Wednesday@2ish-4pm. And then it would be really good if we can allcontinue meeting in the common room chat room eachThursday at 1pm to air our thoughts,flesh things out. love Claire

MA Digital Arts Final Show 2006
Minutes 01

Date: 25/1/2006 (wed)
Time: 1:00pm – 3:30pm
Venue: Room 111, Wilson Road.
Attendance: Andy Stiff, Jem Mackay, Maria Pavlou, Colin Eyre, Cristina Buendia, Mark Hopkins, Peter Forde, Ren Yue, Claire Morales, Victor Sajowa, Madoka Nagata (Maddi), Manos Kanellos, Sarah Bell, Alan Wilson, Phoebe Jeebe, Balca Arda, Cherry Leong, Luisa Pew, Yu Shan Su (Monkey), Maria Mantikou, James Mylne, MIzue Miyazawa, Paul Sewter, Yuki Takaoka. (6 online; 18 face-to-face).

Report:
1. Delivering fliers of previous final show (04 – 05) and brief description of some production details of last year;
2.Details of the final show this year:
Date: 11/1/2006 – 15/1/2006.
Private view: 6:00pm, 11/7/2006.
Move-in: 5/7/2006.
Move-out: 17/7/2006.
3. DVD production quotation (by Maddi & Yuki):
1,700 pounds / 1000 DVD with case and silk screen (best quality);
Note: Half price for lower quality production.

Discussion:
1. Division of labour –

Person-in-charge : Close contact with college and all teams - Maddi
Secretary: Minutes taking, writing letters / emails to sponsors, media & guests (e.g. art schools, college fellows, artists & designers…) - Luisa (letter to sponsors) & Cherry (minutes taking)
Treasurer: Book keeping, budget plan - Peter & Maria Mantikou (render assist)
Sponsorship: Searching for potential sponsors - Claire, Peter, Phoebe, Sarah & Maria Mantikou (fund raising)
Identity: Designing name and logo of the show; image building - Victor, James, Belca & Paul

2. Further details of deliverables – DVD & brochure will be updated soon;
3. Sponsorship will be used to pay for all promotional materials (to be confirmed) and equipments for the show;
4. Privilege for sponsors - Company logos & ads will be shown on fliers, DVD & the official website;
5. Luisa and Claire will try to seek financial help from Paul Coldwell;
6. Media:
a. Resonance 104.4FM – getting an advertisement slot, a good chance of a programme, and also live phone in. (contacted by Phoebe);
b. Channel4 (confirmed and contacted by Maddi)
c. Getting Melvyn Bragg (a buffoon TV arts icon) on the South Bank Show to plug us.
7. Site visit of the final show venue will be taken place in next meeting;
8. Duty list

Agenda of next meeting: Maddi - 1/2/2006
Theme & logo design (upload onto http://madigitalarts.wikispaces.com/): All (esp. Identity group) - 1/2/2006
Sponsor list (upload onto http://madigitalarts.wikispaces.com/): All (esp. Sponsorship group)
Seeking financial help from Paul Coldwell: Luisa & Claire - 26/1/2006
Floor plans & requirement sheets: All
Contact 104.4FM: Phoebe
Contact Channel 4: Maddi
Letter to sponsors: Luisa
Minutes: Cherry - 1/2/2006
Site visit of Final Show venue - 1/2/2006

Next meeting:
Date: 1/2/2006 (wed)
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Venue: Room 111, Wilson Road.

Cats and Dogs Reference

2006-01-22T22:24:00.002+02:00

Here are some book pages I am referring to as I am getting ready to create the cat and dog in 3D.

In the following image, the top two pages are from "The Art of Animal Drawing" by Ken Hultgren and the bottom two are from "How to draw animals" by Jack Hamm.

The following image is from "The Art of Animal Drawing" by Ken Hultgren.

The next image shows cartoon animals and facial expressions, taken from "How to Draw Cartoon Animation" by Preston Blair.

This last image is from the "Cat" Eyewitness books series. It explores, among others, the attitudes and characteristics of cats.

Witch - 3D work in progress

2006-01-22T22:21:00.000+02:00

Another screen capture from Maya. A few details were added to her: finished the hat, the broom, added eyes and eyelashes, fine tuned the face and played around with the color of the hair.

Work in Progress

Inspirational artist - Kirsten Ulve

2006-01-22T00:49:00.000+02:00

I came across Kirsten Ulve's work about a year ago. I am so fascinated with this visual style, that I visit her site regularly to check what new images she has created. Her lines and shapes are simple, which make her technique so stylized. I read an interview of hers, during which she said that she first draws the illustrations and then works over them in Illustrator.

This is her site. She has an amazing portfolio.

http://www.kirstenulve.com/

Images by Kirsten Ulve

I think this is it...

2006-01-21T23:45:00.001+02:00

And yet, another storyboard :o)

As I was trying to finalize one of the previous ideas, mostly the birthday one, another story emerged. I kept wanting to make my animation smaller and more precise... I had feedback from friends who are artists and producers in the children's entertainment industry. A fresh pair of eyes always helps! My mind was always going back to one old idea, of how funny it would be to give a witch a dog! That's unusual! A heavy dog that would bend her broom probably.

So after a lot of thumbnails, one thing is for sure: this story is much smaller :o) The idea is to keep everything in the sky. I feel it's more magical that way, more playful. The clouds will be an important part of the story. There's some symbolism with the clouds (I will go over this in another post). The heroes are a witch, a cat and a dog.

The witch flies happily up in the sky with her cat. She is a little clumsy as a pilot, but they are having fun. There are a couple brooms with witches in the backround flying in a distance, just to indicate that this is a space where witches live and work. The clouds are white and fluffy and are little pieces of oasis in the sky; one cloud is where they can sit and relax, the one next to it could be where a broom-mechanic service the brooms, another is where they can get a cup of coffee. With all these, there's definitely a cloud for trash and recycling. So, that's where the dog is abandoned: among trash, old Xmas trees, broken toys, broken broomsticks etc. " A pet is for life, not just for Christmas/the holidays".

So, the witch sees the dog, stops immediately and considers taking him on. The cat refuses (cats have big egos) but she reminds him that this is exactly where she found him when he was a kitty. The cat is convinced and they both welcome the cat "on-broom". The dog is happy, his tail is moving left and right like crazy. As he jumps on the broom, he rocks it back and forth, the cat meows and tries to hang on, they keep losing their balance, but they thankfully manage to fly away in a distance with the witch's funny and clumsy flying skills.

This idea gives itself for a lot of comic relief in the sky, while remaining simple at the same time. It says a little bit of everything: compassion/protection for abandoned animals, sacrifice, remembering how good others were to you and returning the kindness, putting egos aside, offering unconditional love, pets are good company.

"Recycling trash" cloud

The new story

My drawing desk

Get the ball rolling for the final show

2006-01-19T16:27:00.000+02:00

We had our first chat today with my group. It's great to start this early and see there is a lot of energy, especially from the f2f students. The message board in the common room is starting to fill up with questions and suggestions. Here is a list of things I suggested we talk about starting next week (with this priority):

1. Name and logo of the show. It should indicate the collaboration of f2f and online students. It's the first time this is happening, so it would be good to suggest it with a unique name and logo.
2. Group rep. Who will be communicating with the other groups?
3. I know there is a list of the equipment we need on the 2006 board, but it would be good to have our group's list and give it to Andy asap. This way he can check what the university can provide and what not, so that we can move ahead with renting whatever we don't have.
4. When can we have a layout of the space? How will this work? How will we divide up the personal spaces?
5. Brochure and promotion material. Invitations.
6. Online show/website.

Unit 4 specifications

2006-01-16T23:30:00.000+02:00

Here are the assessment evidence for unit 4:

1. An essay. Two parts.
Part1: Artist’s statement, 500-750 words. Critical evaluation of our own work in context of current creative practice.
Part2: A reflection of our project, 500-750 words. Critical analysis of outcomes compared to intentions. A review of progress made and an outline for further development.
2. Update blogs with questioning, images, examples of work, reflections.
3. Final project. Presentation skills. Member of team for online exhibit.
4. Research material.
5. Online log documenting our role as a member of the team. Maybe this reflection could also go in the reflection essay (part2).

Here are my basic concerns:

1.The teams that we are members of will be discussing both the final show at Camberwell and an online show for all students? (full time, part time and online). So it's two shows we need to worry about, right?
2. What is expected of us in this group? How many days are required to resolve these issues? I need to schedule for this time.
3. I don't think I'll be doing a separate blog for the unit 4 evidence... The reason is that I don't want to break the flow of the project progress by redirecting you to another blog. I will label everything so that starting from the Unit 4 date and on, you know it all goes toward the assessment evidence, whether it's a reflection or work in progress, questioning or the essay etc. I think this would be ok....

Everything was clarified after the chat:

- We need to worry about one final show and that’s the one at Camberwell. Building up a website with all the final projects is optional and could also be presented to the final show.
- As part of the promotion of the show we may wish to build a website for all students.
- So, a dvd for the final show should be enough. The website would be a nice addition.
- Blogs will be assessed and we may wish to put them in as part of our final show.
- In the group chats, the f2f students should help us with setting up the space etc. We should have the floor plans of the exhibition space.
- Each group should have a group leader. The leader should supply Andy with the equipment that his/her group need.
- Engagement with the final show could be documented in our existing blog as long as we identify it.
- Essay part 1: define what your work is about and contextualize with other artists, who could be thinkers, writers or even scientists.
- The artist’s statement will be part of the show, telling the public who we are and what we are about.
- The artist’s statement could go next to our work but it needs to follow the same graphic style. Maybe a template in Word we could all use.
- Name and brief description beside each work at the final show.
- Priority: 1. equipment required 2. promotional issues-website-brochure etc.

New storyboards - two versions

2006-01-16T03:00:00.000+02:00

Here are some more storyboards, designs and props I've been working on during the weekend. They are not final.

There are two story ideas now:

1. The one I described in a previous post about the witch and her cat moving to a new house. She goes out to meet the new neighbors, taking them gifts like cakes and flowers. But, she doesn't get the expected response. Her gifts are rather unusual. She is a witch after all, trying to fit in. She's been ignoring her cat all this time, but he is the only one that can be by her side, rain or shine.

2. Another version of the story is of the witch having her birthday. She prepares for a party. Her cat is in her way all the time so she takes him out of the house, rather angry. She expects her guests, but nobody shows up. The cat again, is the only one that loves her no matter what.

This last version is mounted on a board at the moment and will undergo some serious changes tomorrow. If I manage to knock down the timing (around 30-40 sec of animation) and still be able to add some humor, I might go with this version. The first one feels too long now. The birthday story needs some editing, addition of humor, more rejection toward the cat, a couple of more outside shots of her house on top of the hill and a few other changes noted with red dots.

I will explain this more when I make the changes and preferrably when it's not 3:15 am!

The "new move" version

Some sets and props

The "birthday" version

Story refinements

2006-01-11T23:40:00.000+02:00

After brainstorming and getting feedback on my animation story, I have concluded to make the following additions/changes before I storyboard it. My goal is to have a clear storyboard this weekend.

- When the witch arrives at her new house, we see that she has a cat. He gets off the moving truck with all her belongings. She doesn’t seems to pay too much attention to him, since she only wants to settle in as quickly as possible and go make new friends.
- He follows her around as she takes the gifts to the neighbors. The cat tries to be with her, but she keeps ignoring him.
- She visits 3 houses with 3 different gifts. She rings the bell of each house. Every door bell sound is different, to reflect the personality of the person living there.
- She takes the weird cake to the first house. I don’t know how it will look yet, but it will be weird/scary or melting. The housewife at the door (we don’t see her, we look at the whole scene from the side) screams with fear or laughs at her (will decide that soon!) and shuts the door. More determined as she is, she runs to the next door holding a plant as a gift; a plant in a nice pot decorated with red bows. But it’s one of those cartoony “live plants” with mouth and teeth, looking kind of mean… The kid at the door cries and slams the door. Meanwhile her cat is watching her and following her every step of the way, but she doesn’t even look at him. She is determined to conquer the neighborhood with her charm. So, she goes to the third house, not holding anything this time. A man opens the door (still don’t see him, but we’ll hear him). She proudly waves her magic wand to give this guy the car of his dreams. As she is not very successful with these spells, she gives him a beat up, old and tiny car that’s falling apart. The man laughs at her and shuts the door to her face.
- With a dissolve we see her going back to her place, all sad and disappointed. She sits at the bench outside her house and watches the sunset. She is very tired and feels lonelier than ever.
- The cat never gave up. He followed her around the whole day. He is now by her side, trying to catch her attention. She tries to gently push him away. She wants to be alone. The cat insists. He is purring and doing all sorts of tricks to win her love.
- That is when she realizes that all she needs is right there: unconditional love and acceptance. How could she be so blind? She wipes a tear from her eyes and picks up the cat in her arms. They go into the house. The night falls on top of the hill. As we think the story’s ended, we hear her laugh out loud as she storms out the house on her broom, holding her cat in her arms, going for a night fly in the clear skies.

ALSO: check out this website. The animation look is fantastic. The spots also have some 3D elements that are rendered to look 2D. Thanks Luis!

http://www.esurance.com/home/tv.asp

Cat thumbnails

2006-01-11T23:34:00.000+02:00

Here are some quick little sketches of cats. I think I'll try to model in 3D the upper left.

kitties

Fun from across the Atlantic

2006-01-10T23:29:00.000+02:00

Last night I was chatting with my best friend Luis, who is an amazing illustrator who lives and works in Miami-Florida. We studied together and he has been a great inspiration to me ever since I met him. We were talking about my project among other things. Then I decided to email him the screen capture of my witch and get his opinion on it, since he is fantastic with character development.

I am really pleased to know that he loved my design, which means the world to me. And then, crazy and creative as he is, he painted her in photoshop; you can see the results below. You gotta love the hat! haha! I love this colorful direction that he took. I will keep my witchy hat of course. I just love the "summery" approach to her outfit. It shows she is not a mean old witch, dressed in black and purple. This is something I wanted to avoid all along: black, green and purple. In my original design I had her wear orange and red. I'll play more with these colors.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Painting by Luis Torroba

What if...

2006-01-10T11:41:00.000+02:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the story of my animation, taking into consideration all the feedback I got before Christmas. I needed to rethink the whole sequence, put a lot of personality into the characters, give them motivation. What would be the best way to do that? Should I change Sara's biography a little bit? What kind of symbols can I use to suggest a certain mood or change of moods?

Maybe I can change Sara's bio a little bit. Her story can be the same up to the point when she loses her mom and stays all alone. She loves having company and people around her, she loves to be accepted and needed. She still likes pets of course, but on the top of her list is to start a new life and try to make new friends. After all, who wouldn't want to have a sweet little witch as a friend? She
has moved around a lot, met a lot of people, tried new magic recipes for stomach aches and runny noses (hates to see the kids suffer in the long winter days). Now she feels it's time for yet another move. She is still searching for that friendly neighborhood she can call home. So, we catch her on what she is hoping to be her last move. It's a nice house on top of a hill, with a nice view of the city
and nice sunsets. She doesn't want to be disappointed again; she plans to go all the way and make new friends in the town. They have to know she is a witch who means well, that she is friend and they can depend on her for anything. She is full of energy and hope as she moves into her new home.

And that's where our story begins. She flies on top of the hill with all her belongings loaded on a moving truck that flies with the help of 4 broomsticks that act as its engine. She lands in front of the house, all excited and happy about her new place. She waves her wand and all her stuff magically disappear and find their place inside the house. She is singing and enters her house as the night
falls. Next morning she decides to mingle with the neighborhood. She knocks on doors to offer cakes and say a quick hello to the her new neighbors. But spontaneous and a little clumsy as she is, she scares the people away who close their doors to her face. She waves her magic wand in a desparate effort to impress them; she makes crazy cakes appear right before their eyes and other
wacky gifts, like a weird bike, or a huge bouquet of flowers... the possibilities here are endless. The end result is that all the neighbors reject her because she appears to be an unusual and maybe weird lady to their eyes.

This whole time she is going from door to door, a cat is following her, meowing and trying to catch her attention. But she is so busy with the neighbors, she totally ignores him. We see a lot of shots from the cat's point of view throughout the animation. At the end of the day when she is all tired and disappointed she returns home and sits all sad at the bench outside her house. She is watching
the sunset all alone, surrounded maybe by all the gifts she wanted to give to her neighbors. We see her from behind, which enhances the feeling of loneliness. The cat is following her the whole time. We see him approaching her, purring around her legs. She still ignores him, thinking about the sad day she just had. A few moments go by and she realizes she is not alone. They share a caring moment and we see her pick him up all sentimental and happy. The night falls on her house. We see her fly out of the house up on her broomstick, smiling and singing, with the cat enjoying the ride, sitting on her lap.

With this version that will be reworked in quick sketches as I'm working on the 3D models, I like the humor with the witch and the point that a pet offers unconditional friendship and companionship; there's no need to impress an animal or offer it expensive gifts. Just love it back and that's all it takes.

I have also been researching a lot about symbols... visual references/objects I can use probably in the background to suggest a mood or a secondary story. The colors I think will have a lot to do
with that. A sunset always relates to nostalgia and even sadness for a lonely person. A city shows the need for communication and cooperation with others. A circle with a dot in the middle symbolizes the sun, the hope. A circle with five circles around it (like a daisy) symbolizes the harmony within one's self. A spiral shape is creativity and the desire to move forward. A hill points out the opportunity for spiritual growth. A flower indicates good growth, beauty and fullfilment. There are a lot of icons that can be used to create impressions beyond the obvious. Icons and symbols taken from symbol encyclopaedias, most of them coming from the egyptians and other ancient civilizations. I will come to that right after I finish developing the story and the 3D models.

Monthly schedule:

January

- Finish the story and the storyboard.- Finish the 3D model of the witch and cat
- Make a list of secondary models (house, brooms, props etc).
- Experiment with the 2.5D look.
- Update the blog.
- Work with the group for the final and online show.- Update the log of my role in the team.

February

- Model all the 3D props- Rig the characters (setup so that they can move)
- Run some tests. Do an animatic.
- Render one sequence with 2.5 D.
- Fine tune any story problems.- Update the blog.
- Work with the group for the final and online show.
- Update the log of my role in the team.

March

- Start animation. Fix any technical problems.
- Start working on background elements. Use paintFx for background movements and secondary symbols.
- Update the blog.
- Work with the group for the final and online show.
- Update the log of my role in the team.

April

- Run some test renders.
- Work on cloth and paintfx.
- Start writing the Unit 4 paper.
- Will I go to Camberwell to set up a space or will I send a dvd?
- Update the blog.
- Work with the group for the final and online show.
- Update the log of my role in the team.

May

- Finish Unit 4 paper.
- Fix render problems.
- Work on the color scheme, make it communicate the message.
- Start working with music and soundfx.
- Update the blog.
- Work with the group for the final and online show.
- Update the log of my role in the team.

June

- Finish all the animation and render the final piece.
- One or two weeks should be dedicated to editing and sound.
- Turn in the unit 4 paper.
- Finalize the presentation. Prepare the dvds.
- Update the blog.
- Work with the group for the final and online show.
- Update the log of my role in the team.

Story notes and changes to be made

2006-01-08T22:37:00.000+02:00

Things to work on for the animation project in the next 2 weeks (based on the tutorial suggestions from Andy and Jonathan):

- A punch line/pack shot is not necessary for the end of the animation. If the story is clear, then there is no need for a slogan.
- Need more depth; hints of second and third story lines.
- Need for characters’ background stories?
- What are the characters’ personalities?
- Why do we care about this specific cat?
- Use hints within the visuals.
- Need to show a lot of detail in a short film.
- Use symbols that suggest other issues; symbols that are not obvious at first sight (painter example: Chagall).
- Use the inclusion of extra information that suggests other areas/issues.
- There are two issues here: 1. the NPR look and 2. the story line. Don’t let the computer make the decisions.
- Put more depth. Kids will get it.

Notes on story from the “Illusion of Life”, Chapter 14, pp. 365-392:

- Character personalities should be interesting and appealing to the audience.
- The things that the characters are doing are of an interesting nature.
- Have a positive statement; important enough to communicate.
- Must be able to tell the story in two sentences.
- Synopsis: reflect on the basic drives that hold the animation together and make it work.
- Main sequences: Introduction, Conflict, Peak of plot, Conclusion.
- Keep the audience pleased, but also excited, concerned and especially wondering what is going to happen next. Audience must be involved with the characters.
- A situation that is predictable will become dull.
- Characters need motivation.
- Develop the conflict; the characters should live their story, not talk about it.
- Find attitudes worth animating.
- The story will not progress as easily if the characters don’t progress too. The relationship needs constant development.
- The story is interesting when the characters have a real problem to solve.
- Make sure the story incident or situation is really interesting. The characters should motivate the story.
- Be sure the characters have an opportunity to come to life.
- Show the characters thinking.
- A strong situation has been established. The character comes into it with a definite and interesting attitude. Confronted with a problem, he develops his own personality, grows a little, shows who he is, makes his decision for action, then does it in an entertaining way.
- The animation should be believable but not realistic.
- It is always good to know how one character feels about another.

Biography of witch Sara:

She is from Europe. Her mom is from Norway and here dad is from France. Her mom, an aspiring dancer, moved to France many, many years ago to dance for the Grand Cabaret. Sara’s mom was also a witch; not a very skillful one though. Her heart and soul were devoted to dancing. In Paris, she met her husband, a famous warlock; famous not because of his magic but his animal shows at the circus.

This is how he met Sara’s mom: They were both performing for a foreign royal family visiting the palace as part of the welcoming ceremony; she was leading the dancing group and he was instructing his beloved animals that were doing all sorts of tricks on stage. Sara’s parents had for sure one thing in common: passion for their jobs, dancing and working with animals. They performed magic only when they had to and only for a good purpose; not to harm people. They had their jobs to keep them busy and also had each other. That’s what mattered.

Then came Sara. She grew up in France, spending most of her time either in the arena playing with her dad’s animals or backstage the Grand Cabaret , trying out here mom’s costumes and shoes.
But their harmony and peace was disturbed by the “Dark Magic Association”, a vicious and evil group of warlocks that would do anything to capture and harm animals; their skin, fur and tails were important ingredients for their evil magic spells and potions. Sara’s dad repeatedly denied joining their association and harming his beloved animals through a job he adored so much. But they never took no for an answer.

Then, it all came crumbling down: a mysterious “accident” happened to Sara’s dad one night on his way back from the circus. He was never found. Sara and her mom were devastated. They couldn’t risk their lives by staying in Paris. They knew that after this “accident”, many more incidents would follow. So, Sara’s mom joined a group of entertainers: dancers, singers, magicians etc, who were traveling and performing from town to town. That was their ticket out of Paris. Little Sara was with her all the time, helping her with her costumes and makeup. She had her dad’s dog and cat with her, a nostalgic memory of the happy days they had in Paris.

Sara had some magic powers also, but it was something they seldom used. Only their closest friends at the theater company knew about these magic powers that Sara and here mom had. And honestly, everybody would admit they weren’t that good at it.

At some point Sara’s mom retired from dancing. They gathered all their savings and moved to a nice, quiet town, far away. Sara was a happy, young woman with the bright eyes of her mom and the kind and selfless heart of both her parents. She couldn’t even hurt a bug, even if her life depended on it. She knew a little bit about magic, loved the costumes and the glamour of dancing but her true love were the animals. Oh, how she loved petting them and taking them for long walks, feeding them in front of the fireplace on the cold winter days. How she loved to sleep to the sound of her cat’s purring… she was truly happy.

But all good things come to an end. People get old and so do animals. She was left all alone in her wooden house up the hill with nothing but some old photos, some magic tricks that didn’t always work and her mom’s dancing wardrobe. A lot has changed in the little time over the course of time, but nevertheless the locals always saw Sara with fear and avoided her as much as possible. For who could ever invite a witch over for dinner; a witch who was surrounded by cats and dogs most of her life and must have looked a little weird and scary from a distance? Who knows what crazy magic she’s been doing on top of the hill?

What a shame… she was totally misunderstood. She was not accepted by the locals who are afraid of her or the other witches who consider her a failure since she doesn’t practice magic daily. Plus she is not that good at it. So, she is left all alone with no friends or family. She hasn’t even had the energy to go look for abandoned animals to take in and feel alive again. She lost her spirit and her passion. They died along with everything she ever loved.

Is there something that can make her feel alive again? Something that will awaken her from the deep sadness she has felt ever since she lost her loved ones?

3D work in progress

2006-01-08T17:06:00.000+02:00

My 3D character is almost done. Here is a screen capture from Maya. It still needs some work on her hat and also a broom. I'm working on story this week. So, she should be done by next week when I start working on the cat and also on the 3D/2D look of the film. My goal is to finish the story and hopefully the character models by the end of January. Then I will spend February modeling all the secondary props and tweaking the look.

3D work in progress

Toon cloth and more 3D modeling

2005-12-19T21:05:00.000+02:00

Here is a test I did with 3D cloth (used Syflex) rendered with a quick toon look. I'm glad to see it works. I can do the witch's cape this way. I hope it doesn't give me problems when I rig the witch. It will definitely slow down my computer because this will be simulated for cloth, plus it will have a toon outline. If it slows down the animation process, I'd have to find another solution.

toonCloth test

The next image is the work in progress of the 3D witch. The head is still rough. Each step is briefly explained below.

Work in Progress with the 3D witch

Cloth Simulation Test

2005-12-11T15:28:00.000+02:00

I started to experiment with Maya and Syflex, in order to decide how I will approach the making of the dress of my character. Syflex gives some amazing results, but at the same time it's complicated and slows down the whole process. A faster computer wouldn't be a bad Xmas present right now! I will continue with this test and also see how it renders with only outline. Maybe this technique is too complex for the rendering style I'm goinf for. We'll see :o)

The following images are just some screen captures of the rough character with a piece of cloth on the shoulders, responding to the model movement from point A to point B.

screen captures of cloth test

Some Images from the Animatic

2005-12-04T18:10:00.000+02:00

These are some images from the animatic that I prepared for the assessment on Dec. 5th. An animatic is a very, very rough cut of the animation with blocky models and quick sound fx, to see how the story flows before going into production. This is a good way to fix problems and mistakes before it's too late! This is the next thing I do: fix all the things I feel are not working right now.

The story is simple: a cat is wandering around, being kicked away by housewives with brooms (Tom and Jerry style where you can only see the feet). The cat gets terrified after meeting another lady with a broom - the third in a row - and tries to run away. But things are not always what they seem! She is a clumsy, cute witch who needs the company of a cat. She tries to feed him, but magically gives him dog food instead, by accident. She giggles with her mistake and finally gives him the right food. She opens her arms and welcomes him on her broom. They both take off in the clouds as the text comes up "When you least expect it, magic happens! Adopt a pet today".

Andy, Jonathan and David, the small movie that I have is in the Digital Drop Box since I couldn't post it here.

animatic Page1

animatic Page 2

Unit 3 Essay

2005-11-27T18:01:00.000+02:00

Non-Photorealistic Rendering in Animation

Introduction

Inspired by the numerous kids’ shows on TV nowadays, I have dedicated my research time on children’s animation. My exploration started by revolving around animated spokes-characters, how appealing they are to children and parents and what is the most effective way to present them. During the last few months, a lot of time was allocated for reading journals and articles; these text passages led me to the path of Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR). One of this field’s main characteristics is the ‘natural media emulation’ (Teece. 2003b:p4) in 3D graphics, which is a rather new and definitely fresh approach to computer animation - especially children’s animation. In simpler words, NPR has the ability to render 3D data as if they were hand crafted.

The more I investigate NPR, the more possibilities seem to arise. It’s like having a huge palette of all the existing coloring materials, from paints, to pastels to markers; each with its own set of parameters, line qualities and textures. The fascinating aspect of it all is that all these are available right there on the computer screen. NPR is an evolving area of CG, undergoing a lot of experimentation and changes. Consequently, there are always innovations and there is always room for the artist to play around with the tools and come up with a new look or workflow.

Trying to put my work in context, I have been looking at various artists and computer scientists like Daniel Teece, Sabine Hitier, Bruce and Amy Gooch, Barbara Meier and Fredo Durand. I place extra emphasis on the work of filmmaker Sabine Hitier, whose films exhibit an innocent approach to children’s animation. She proves that this rendering technique is a breath of fresh air in animation. As a result, this helps me contextualize my own work.

Essay

The path of digital art has been paved by the history of science and the history of art running on parallel tracks. This dates back to 1966 when EAT was founded (Experiments in Arts and Technology). It was the first time a ‘complex collaboration like that was formed, between artists, engineers, programmers, researchers and scientists’ (Paul. 2003:p16). This fusion of art and technology is in fact one of the main characteristics of NPR; the knowledge and talent of artists and scientists are interwoven and interdependent. ‘Several digital artists are also engineers by training’ (Paul. 2003:p22).

Daniel Teece noted:

the goal of NPR is to combine the strengths of established computer graphics techniques with expressive clarity and simplicity of strokes on a piece of paper (Teece. 2003b:p5).

The end result might not even demonstrate that a digital approach was adopted; there is a blurry line there. This is what makes NPR so fascinating. Paul states:

a work suggesting that it has been created through digital manipulation may have been created entirely by means of traditional techniques, while one appearing to be entirely hand made, may have undergone digital processing (Paul. 2003:p27).

Non-photorealistic rendering gives this option to the artists. What is intriguing to me is the fact that the computer as a digital tool, whose main purpose has been to generate photorealistic imagery, can now mimic paint or pastel strokes in an animated sequence. It almost feels like we are challenging the very medium of CG, trying to break free from its photorealistic history. This could be explained with the following rough analogy: paints and paintings by nature do not resemble the effect of a photograph. They are meant to go beyond what is obvious to the naked eye. However, the realist painters used this non-photorealistic material to create landscapes and portraiture that looked stunningly realistic, thus building a very valuable and respected skill. NPR does exactly the opposite, but with the same motivation: it confronts the essence of CG, making the computer perform on a level it wasn’t originally programmed to operate on. This is one of the key motivations that drew me to this rendering field.

As a practicing computer animator, I have come to believe that non-photorealistic rendering allows for more convincing communication. NPR images are not judged by how closely they mimic reality, the way photorealistic renders are evaluated. On the contrary,

NPR images are judged by how effectively they communicate. When using images to communicate the essence of a scene, simulating reality is not as important as creating the illusion of reality (Gooch & Gooch. 2001:p1).

This notion I believe, is ideal for children’s animation; creating the illusion of reality concentrates less on the process and more on communicating the content of an image. Fredo Durand also suggests that ‘non-photorealistic pictures can be more effective at conveying information, more expressive or more beautiful’ (Durand. 2002:p111).

My work explores these issues of stylization and communication, toying at the same time with the idea of challenging a photorealistic medium. Traditional techniques can now be applied to computer graphics and lay emphasis on certain parts, while revealing specific subtleties in the pictures generated. Kids’ animated shows don’t require high level detail in the imagery. Their attention just needs to be directed to the desired parts. ‘The level of detail in NPR varies between images and can be adopted across a single image to focus the viewer’s attention’ (Gooch & Gooch. 2001:p2). Sabine Hitier’s films do just that: she uses a wonderful, soft, watercolor effect that draws the audience right into the story and is also very appropriate for her sensitive subject matter.

Christiane Paul makes a clear distinction between 1. Digital Technology used as a tool to produce traditional art forms (photography, sculpture, prints) and 2. Digital Technology used as a medium to create new types of art (film, video, animation) (Paul. 2003:p8). A simple, yet powerful statement like this gave me food for thought; I realized that digital technology to me, is not just a simple tool any more - like I used to refer to it - but a medium for creating, storing and presenting art in the digital format. ‘The work exclusively uses the digital platform from production to presentation and it exhibits and explores that platform’s inherent possibilities’ (Paul. 2003:p67). It is therefore exciting to use digital technology as my medium for expression and at the same time produce art that looks more traditional, that looks as if the computer was only just a tool or not involved at all in the creative process!

As much as the digital medium is interactive and dynamic, the fact remains that it still raises questions about the issue of automated creativity and artistic inventiveness. ‘Can computer programs be expressive? Is it difficult to imitate the decisions of a real artist?’ (Gooch & Gooch. 2001:p3). These are arguments that I am just starting to look into. Would it be easier for example, to simply pick up a brush and do the art, rather than trying to teach a machine how to achieve the images I have in my head? ‘Simulating artistic expression is difficult. NPR cannot make a bad image good, but it can significantly enhance good images’ (Gooch & Gooch. 2001:p1). Consequently, an NPR artist needs to put serious thought into the subject matter, the composition of a scene and the purpose of the image. Only then can non-photorealistic rendering do its magic. Armed with the above and also with lots of patience, I am on a quest to find out if I can ‘convince’ the digital medium to follow my artistic lead.

Conclusions

Non-photorealistic rendering brings science and art together, concentrating more on conveying the content of an image. It challenges the inherent quality of CG, which is the creation of detailed, photorealistic pictures. This is in fact a goal among a lot of NPR artists and researchers: to break free from the obsession of a photorealistic image.

After studying the works of such contemporary NPR artists and scientists as Bruce and Amy Gooch, Sabine Hitier, Fredo Durand and Daniel Teece, I have found a deep context for my own practice. I discovered a lot of similarities between my work and Hitier’s animations. In her latest film, she deals with simple matters in an effortless yet sophisticated way that is responsible for its unique look.

It’s my intension to continue with this NPR technique, in order to reach an animated look that would be almost impossible to achieve through the use of traditional media, but at the same time feeling it would be impossible to achieve with CG. I do not rely on the digital medium to automatically make artistic decisions for me; I make them for myself and then try to tame the CG beast.

Glossary

- 2D/Hand Drawn Animation: It is the art of creating a sequence of drawings by hand, which when photographed and played back at a certain speed create the illusion of movement, the illusion of life.
- 3D/Computer Animation: It is the art of creating moving images via the use of computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation. 3D adds an extra dimension to animation, the depth, which creates accurate perspective.
- Animation: Comes from the word ‘animus’, which means ‘life or to live’. Therefore, breathing life into characters, not just making them move mechanically, is animation. Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. ...
- CGI: Computer Generated Image; a term denoting that computers will be used to generate the full imagery.
- CG: Computer Graphics. The term ‘CG’ and ‘3D’ are often interchangeable.
- NPR: Non-Photorealistic Rendering. One of the main characteristics of such rendering systems is that they try to emulate natural media, like oil and pastels. The goal of NPR is to combine the strengths of established computer graphics techniques with the expressive clarity and simplicity of strokes on a piece of paper.
- Photorealistic: Photo-graphy means ‘writing with light’. Photorealism has thus been sought by reproducing with high fidelity the physics of light transport and interaction between light and materials.
- Rendering: It’s the process of computing, pixel by pixel, one or more 2D images from 3D scene data, from the viewpoint of a simulated camera. The filed of rendering is concerned with the development of algorithms and numerical methods for the production of pictures given a scene description.

Bibliography

Books:

- Gooch, B., Gooch, A. (2001), Non-Photorealistic Rendering, Natick, AK Peters Ltd
- Laybourne, K. (1979), The Animation Book, New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks
- Sibley, B. (2000), Chicken Run: Hatching the Movie, New York: Harry N. Abrams
- Paul, C. (2003), Digital Art, London, Thames & Hudson Ltd
- Solomon, C. (1994), The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings, 2nd ed. China: Wing Books
- Thomas, F., Johnston, O. (1981), The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, New York: Hyperion
- Vaz, M C. (2004), The art of the Incredibles , China: Chronicle Books

Articles:

- Besen, E. (2004a), The Drive to Realism: From Disney to Harryhausen to Landreth - Part 1, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 5 August, pp53-55, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2004b), The Drive to Realism-Part2: CG Takes the Wheel, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 7 October, pp52-55, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2004c), Make it real-Part 1: Off the Beaten Path, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 9 December, pp47-51, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005a), Make it real-Part 2: Marks in the Sand, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 11 February, pp60-63, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005b), Make it real-Part 3: 2D, Anyone?, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 1 April, pp39-43, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005c), Make it real-Part 4: The Missing Factor, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 3 June, pp47-49, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Desowitz, B. (2004a), A Talk with Disney Legend Joe Grant, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 1 April, pp36-39, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Desowitz, B. (2004b), Lorenzo: A Moving Painting with a Wild Tail, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 8 Part 12 March, pp28-31, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Goodman, M. (2003), Death of 2D: Rush to Judgment, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 8 Part 7 October, pp29-32, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- MacLennan Murch, S. (1997), 2D and 3D: Together for the Better, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 2 Part 5 August, pp27-28, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Moins, P. (2005), Annecy 2005: Animation Coming of Age?, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 4 July, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Oedekerk, S. (2002), A New Dimension In Animation, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 7 Part 9 December, pp9-11, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Patterson, J., Willis, P. (1994), Computer Assisted Animation: 2D or not 2D?, Computer Journal, Vol. 37 Part 10, pp829-839, Oxford University Press
- Singer, G. (2004), From Pencils to Pixels: Making the Transition, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 2 May, pp4-9, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Winder, C., Dowlatabadi, Z. (2002), Producing Animation: The 3D CGI Production Process, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 6 Part 10 January, pp32-34, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication

Conferences:

- Computer Animation, 2001. Seoul, S. Korea, (2001) Automatic In-betweening in Computer Assisted Animation by Exploiting 2.5D Modelling Techniques, Di Fiore, F. et al.
NPAR, 2002. Annecy, France, (2002) An Invitation to Discuss Computer Depiction, Durand, F., New York: ACM Press
- Graphite, 2003. Melbourne, Australia, (2003) Mimicing 3D transformations of emotional stylised animation with minimal 2D input, Di Fiore, F., Van Reeth, F., New York: ACM Press
Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003a) Sable: A Painterly Renderer for Film Animation, Teece, D., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Sketchy Drawings-A Hardware Accelerated Approach for Real-Time Non-Photorealistic Rendering, Nienhaus, M., Dollner, J., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Polygon-based Pastel-like Renderign for Animation, Murakami, K., Tsuruno, R., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Real-Time 3D Sumi-e Painting, Kang, SJ., Kim, CH., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2002. San Antonio, USA, (2002) WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models, Kalnins, R. et al., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 1999. Los Angeles, USA, (1999) Non-Photorealistic Rendering: Computers for Artists Who Work Alone, Meier, B., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 1996. New Orleans, USA, (1996) Painterly Rendering for Animation, Meier, B., New York: ACM Press
- WSCG-International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision, 1995. Pilsen, Czech Republic, (1995), Computer Animation and Human Animators, Willis, P.

Films:

- Petit a petit, (2005), Directed by Sabine Hitier, Independent production, 2 min.
- Finding Nemo, (2003), Directed by Andrew Stanton, Pixar Animation Studios, 100 min.
- The Incredibles, (2004), Directed by Brad Bird, Pixar Animation Studios, 120 min.
- Ryan, (2004), Directed by Chris Landreth, National Film board of Canada, 14 min.
- Lorenzo, (2004), Directed by Mike Gabriel, Walt Disney, 5 min.

World Wide Web:

- Butz, A. (1998), CIS270: Animation, (Internet), Columbia University, Available from: http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~butz/publications.html
- The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts (2004), Lorenzo, (Internet), Available from: http://disneyshorts.toonzone.net/years/2004/lorenzo.html
- Barbagallo, R. (2004), Lorenzo, (Internet), Available from: http://www.animationartconservation.com/lorenzo.html
- Durand, F. (2000), The Art and Science of Depiction, (Internet), MIT, Available from: http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/
- Patterson, J. (1998), ‘Creative Pull’ of Style and Technology Together in An Animation Project, (Internet), Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content001.pdf
- Patterson, J. (1999), In-betweening, (Internet), Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content011.pdf
- Patterson, J. (2001), The Exploitation of Vertical Markets to Support Entertainment Products, (Internet), Department of Computing Science, Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content041.pdf
- Teece, D. (2003b), NPR-2D to 3D, painting and rendering, (Internet), Course Notes for Siggraph 2003, Available at: http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~mario/npr/projects/sigg03/

More story sketches

2005-11-19T17:06:00.000+02:00

Here is another sketchy storyboard, with a few changes from the previous one. The idea is basically the same: how a relationship develops between a witch and a cat. I won't go over it with detail; it still needs changes. I am currently working on them. This is just to show the thought process. Will post more of the story soon.

Preparation for the seminar

2005-11-14T23:01:00.000+02:00

Here is a description of my MA project and also some rough images that have already been posted previously on this blog. I am including them again, so that the 1st year online students, don't get lost navigating in this blog.

Project Title:

“Animation and children’s advertising”

Aims:

The project I have proposed to explore is about Animation in relation to Children’s Advertising under the contemporary technology advancements. To narrow this down and be more specific, I would like to:
- Research how cartoon spokes-characters, that are now a digital product, get presented to children.
- Find out whether cartoon characters are favored by both the parents and the children.
- Explore which form of animation is appropriate for children and what makes this technique so distinctive. Working on the PGPD essay, I have discovered the wonderful technique of Non-photorealistic Rendering which I believe is very appropriate for this project,
- Investigate how digital animation is different from its traditional format, how digital technology changed animation as an art form and consequently the artists.
- Experiment with the shapes and colors that are best suited for kids.
- Examine the methodologies with which a message is best conveyed; what would be the most effective way to write an animated spot for children and what element will carry this message. Humor, drama?

The visual part of the project will include:

- The design of a digital character for children of the ages 9-12, that will be used in an animated spot.
- The design of digital sets and props, using NPR techniques.
- The creation of an animated piece using the elements above; the visual project will be more of a statement on the research carried out rather than a simple ad for children.
- The creative writing of this animated spot, employing writing techniques for children’s animations.

Rationale:

Ever since I can remember, I have been fascinated with computers and how great they can be as a tool in an artist’s hands. The computer doesn’t do the Art for you; that comes from the heart. It is what oil paints are to the painter and the camera to the photographer. I love the endless possibilities that this tool has to offer. You almost have to tame it, before you actually use it as an expression medium. I want to keep on working with it and discover new methods for creating digital imagery with it, thus developing my personal style.

“Why animation?” you might wonder. Because from personal experience, not only children but adults also respond to it better than they do to static images.
It gets them involved with the characters, the dialogue, the moving colors. McBride argues that ‘Animation can actually take you as far, if not further, than live action’ (McBride. 1991: p.32). Calcott and Alvey also suggest:

animated spokes-characters are both popular with the audiences and effective in advertising because they may serve as objects of nostalgia. People enjoy watching cartoons and associate positive feelings with them (Calcott, Alvey. 1991)

Digital animation has the power and beauty of making everything look real if that’s in fact the desired visual style. But this could be a trap for the children because they believe what they see, they identify with it. This has happened a lot with the violent video games and has raised some serious issues in the industry. So, digital animation needs to be used with caution and where the project calls for its use. I choose not to go with the realistic look. I feel the more playful non-photorealistic look will communicate the message more effectively.

Callcott and Philips believe that ‘The personality, the physical characteristics and the humor are primary dimensions of spokes-character likability’ (Callcott, Philips, 1996). I plan to explore all these areas and go the extra mile with them.

Methodologies:

I first started with information on how to do research. Getting informed about the different research methods and constructing a research matrix, helped me put my thoughts and priorities in perspective. I continued with reading related articles and journals about animation, cartoon characters and the effect these have on children.

I continued with an extensive research of artists and scientists that work with non-photorealistic rendering. There is a lot of theory and technical aspects in this area that I found absolutely captivating. The research and the visual project are interwoven. They guide each other and feed information in each other.

One other thing to do is experiment with a few digital tools for specific effects that will enhance the final outcome of the project. For example: digital cloth, different paint FX in Maya and also the 2D/toon look I want to give to my animation.

Before I start actual production of the project, I will have a storyboard that will outline the action of the animation on paper before it’s transferred to the computer. This will save time later on. A digital edit of this storyboard that’s called animatic, would give a good idea of the timing of the piece.

Furthermore, I intend to go to as many exhibitions as possible, even if they are not directly related to digital art. Being exposed to any kind of art and being open minded, are some of the most essential aspects of practicing art, either traditional or digital.

Images

My piece will be a short animation targeted to kids. It's not going to sell a toy or a new cereal box. It has a social message, mixed up with the humor needed to triger the children's imagination. The animated spot willl be about animal protection/adoption; a sensitive subject nowadays. I went through numerous ideas and character sketches and I ended up building a story around a witch and a cat, with a little twist at the end... after all, are necessarily all witches evil or are they simply typecasted? I am still working on the story, but I have decided on the characters. Below there are some sketches of me trying to come up with designs of witches and pets/creatures.

Rough ideas and designs

The following image is a screen capture from my 3D software (Maya). It's a rough structure of the witch. She looks naked and a bit strange right now, becuase she is in low polygon resolution and she is also default grey! She will eventually have a dress, shoes, hair, props and textures.

3D character - Work in Progress

The next image was an idea for the final show. It would be nice to be able to set up a simple space where people could view this ad as if they were sitting comfortably in their own living room. I have a whole post dedicated to this.

rough 3D representation

Final Show - Rough ideas

2005-11-13T18:37:00.000+02:00

rough 3D representation

This is a rough idea about how I could set up the space for the final show. My goal is to make the viewers feel like they are watching this ad in the comfort of their own home, with pop corn and drinks. I can even have plush animal toys for the little kids to play with, since the animation is after all targeted to small ages and it is about animal protection/adoption. I can have leaflets on the floor explaining a little bit about the project and also information from the humane society on how a pet can be adopted.

All this will be possible in the case I can travel to London at the beginning of July. If I can't make it, I will probably mail a dvd and all presentation materials to Andy.

Unit 3 Essay: notes for the essay and quotes from two books

2005-11-13T12:56:00.000+02:00

Essay Requirements

Concise discussion paper which reflects your development as a practitioner in
digital arts, investigating a particular issue arising from or underpinning your
practice and which places your views in a pertinent (relevant) and informed
current context. (1000 - 1500 words)

Thoughts - Ideas - Structure

- My subject is NPR in animation. Most NPR research comes from scientists and engineers; great connection between arts and science. Like the EAT association in the 60’s.

- What’s so interesting/intriguing about NPR? The fact that it challenges the very medium of CG, a medium that was build to convey realistic images. It’s the same as realistic painting: paints are by nature not realistic. But there was an obsession of the realist painters to make a painting as close to reality as possible, thus challenging the inherent qualities of the paints. Now we do the opposite: we try to make CG look the opposite from was it was built to do by default; to create non photorealistic images.

- Start with an introduction. Then it’s possible to have embedded titles for each section, A conclusion would be needed at the end.

- The introduction could have these elements:

1. Explain simply what the research is about: “My research involves so and so…”
2. “The more I experiment with NPR, the more possibilities seem to emerge”. List what the endless possibilities could be: line quality, texture of paper, wiggly lines, color or monochromatic, simple or complex character performance etc.
3. A phrase from Jonathan’s paper that I liked: “In an effort to contextualize my work, I have been researching various artists and movements”. I will look at a few artists and scientists that have worked with NPR, namely Sabine Hitier, Daniel Teece, Barbara Meier, Fredo Durand.

- The main body of the essay could have the following parts:

1. Briefly define NPR. Put my work in this context, justify what I am doing.
-“Many computer graphics researchers are exploring non-photorealistic rendering techniques as an alternative to realistic rendering. Defined by what it is not, non-photorealistic rendering brings art and science together, concentrating less on the process and more on communicating the content of an image. Techniques that have long been used by artists can be applied to computer graphics to emphasize subtle attributes, and to omit extraneous information”. (from: http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gooch/book.html)
2. Discuss what other artists/scientists have argued that I find relevant to my work (Gooch and Gooch), thus putting me in context.
3. “As a practicing artist, I find that NPR allows more effective communication in the images created”.
4. “My work explores the challenging of the digital CG medium/ it’s interesting to see that this is a concern of a lot of CG artists working with NPR”.

- As a conclusion:

NPR brings together art and science.
After studying the works of such and such contemporary 3d artists “I have found a rich context for my current practice” (borrowed from Jonathan). Compare and contrast. I do this specific work, that is similar to so and so artist etc…

Quotes from the book “Non Photorealistic Rendering” by Gooch Bruce and Gooch Amy, 2001, A K Peters, Ltd. , Natick, MA

“In the past, imagery generated by artists has been used to provide information that may not be readily apparent in photographs or real life. Applying a similar goal to computer-generated images is the motivation of a new field of research in computer graphics called non-photorealistic rendering. The driving force behind computer graphics for the past 35 years has been photorealism. The quality of images created using a computer is judged by how closely they resemble a photograph. Images are rendered by running a physics-simulation which emulates the behavior of light inside the modeled scene. The term photorealistic rendering is used to describe this type of computer graphics technique. NPR images are instead judged by how effectively they communicate. When using images to communicate the essence of a scene, simulating reality is not as important as creating the illusion of reality. (end of page 1) NPR involves stylization and communication, usually driven by human perception. Knowledge and techniques long used by artists are now being applied to computer graphics to emphasize specific features of a scene, expose subtle attributes and omit extraneous information to give rise to a new field. NPR brings together art and science, concentrating less on the process and more on the communication content of an image. In photorealistic rendering it’s hard to neglect detail; in fact the highest level of detail is generally preferred even if this high level of detail makes the image cluttered or confusing. The level of detail in NPR varies between images and can be adopted across a single image to focus the viewer’s attention. (p.2) Non-photorealistic rendering is a field in its infancy; consequently, fundamental questions tend to arise quickly in any discussion of NPR. For example: Is it difficult to imitate the decisions of a real artist? Can computer programs have artistic inventiveness? Can computer programs be expressive? Can creativity be automated? One observation is that computers can attend to fine detail and repetitive tasks, but without a user, simulating artistic expression is difficult and, some researchers argue, impossible. The benefits of NPR are maximized when one thinks about the subject matter, the scene composition, and the purpose of the image. NPR algorithms cannot make a bad image good. NPR algorithms can significantly enhance good images. (p.3) “

Quotes from the book “Digital Art” by Christiane Paul

- Digital Revolution: a fast technological development of the digital medium in the 90’s (p.7).
- Hardware and software become more refined and affordable (p.7).
- Global Connectivity with the WWW (p.7).
- By the end of the last century, ‘digital art’ had become an established term.
- Name changes: ‘Computer Art’ in the 70’s, then ‘Multimedia Art’. Digital Art is now under the umbrella of ‘New Media Art’ (p.7).
- The history of digital art has been shaped as much by the history of science and technology as by art-historical influences (p.8). (keyword: consumer culture)
- A clear distinction in made in this book between: 1. art that uses the digital medium to produce traditional art and 2. art that uses the digital medium exclusively from production to presentation (pp. 8, 67, back cover)
- As the industrial age made its transition into the electronic era, artists became increasingly interested in the intersections between art and technology (p.16).
- EAT (1966-Experiments in Art and Technology) was a first instance of the complex collaboration between artists, engineers, programmers, researchers and scientists that would become a characteristic of digital art (p.16).
- The creation process of digital art itself frequently relies on complex collaborations between an artist and a team of programmers, engineers, scientists and designers (several digital artists are also engineers by training) (p.22).
- Digital Art projects often require audience engagement and do not reveal their content at a glance (p.23).
- The exhibition environment (for digital art) should be defined by what an artwork requires (p.24).
- As technology changes, there will be new ways of interacting with and relating to digital art (p.24).
- The expansion of digital technologies and their impact on our lives and cultures will induce the creation of even more artworks that reflect and critically engage with this cultural phenomenon (p.25).
- There are speculations that all forms of artistic media will eventually be absorbed into the digital medium, either through digitization or through the use of computers (p.27).
- A work suggesting that it has been created through digital manipulation may have been created entirely by means of traditional techniques, while one appearing to be entirely hand made may have undergone digital processing (p.27).
- In digital media, the potential for manipulation is always heightened to such a degree that the reality of ‘what is’ at any given point is constantly open to question (p.27).
- There is a clear distinction between: 1. Digital Technology used as a tool to produce traditional art forms (photography, sculpture, printing) and 2. Digital Technology as a medium to create new types of art (installations, film, video, animation). “The work exclusively uses the digital platform from production to presentation and it exhibits and explores that platform’s inherent possibilities” (p.67). “The art can present itself as anything ranging from an interactive installation with or without network components, software art written by the artist, purely internet-based art, or any combination thereof” (p.67).
- Among the forms that a digital artwork can take are installation, film, video and animation, internet art and software art, and virtual reality and musical environments.
- The digital medium’s distinguishing features certainly constitute a distinct form of aesthetics: it is interactive, participatory, dynamic and customizable, to name a few of its main characteristics (p.67).
- When it comes to the movie industry, cinema will in all likelihood continue to become an increasingly hybrid form that combines film footage with digital effects and 3D modeling, erasing the history of film that is grounded in the concept of ‘recording reality’. It remains to be seen if there will be a form of digital cinema that consists entirely of representational computer-generated worlds (p.96).
- The digital medium offers sophisticated possibilities of interaction which allow the audience to assemble and influence the story itself.
- Animation has continuously merged disciplines and techniques and still exist at the border of the entertainment industry and art world (p.110).

MADA project: Time Schedule for Unit 3 & Rough Schedule for Unit 4

2005-11-07T08:57:00.000+02:00

Unit 3

Week 7-13/11/05

- Update blog.
- Work on the story for the animation.
- Work on the 3D characters. Block the shape of the cat.
- Pinpoint the subject for the Unit 3 essay. Write ideas/paragraphs down.

Week 14-20/11/05

- Write the essay.
- Update blog with the essay.
- Prepare for the seminar with the 1st year online students.

Week 21-27/11/05

- Edit the essay if necessary.
- Work on the animatic for the animation.
- Try to block the animation in After Effects with rough 3D shapes.
- Update the blog. Find out how to post movies. Maybe use the Image board on Blackboard.

Week 28/11- 4/12/05

- Turn in the essay (28/11/05).
- Update the blog with more designs, animatics, story changes.
- Address final show issues. Describe the two options for the final presentation. Create in 3D how the space I will try to set up for the show might look. Add images to the blog.
- Prepare for the Dec. 5th assessment.

Week 5 - 11/12//05

- Have the assessment.
- Update the blog with suggestions from the assessment. Make necessary changes to the rough animation edit.
- Look at dvd’s and tutorials on Maya Cloth. Start experimenting with that; see how I can make my character’s dress.

Week 12 - 18/12//05

- Finish 3D models. Start work on UV’s.
- Continue with Maya Cloth and also Paint FX.
- Update the blog.

Xmas break

- Find the music for the animation.
- Make necessary changes in After Effects once the music is added.
- Update the blog.

Unit 4

January 2006

- Finish characters (modeling, UV’s, textures)
- Start character setup.
- Decide on facial expressions.
- Work on animatic as characters get finished. See how the edit flows and make changes.
- Read more about Maya cloth and Paint FX.
- Start testing the 2D look: outline, no outline, wiggly lines, shading or not etc.
- Keep the blog up to date.

February 2006

- Continue experimenting with the render look. Solve pending technical issues.
- Solve character rigging issues. Is cloth working or should I model the dress instead?
- Work on final show ideas. Is it feasible to build that space in the 3 days available?
- Blog.

March 2006

- Start animation! First the characters’ bodies and then the facial expressions.
- See how the cloth behaves with movement. Fix problems.
- Render tests.
- Update changes in After Effects.
- Indicate need for compositing layers. Break down shots into layers.
- Will there be Paint FX in the background?
- Update blog.

April 2006

- Continue animating characters.
- Should have a clear idea about the final show.
- Render longer sequences. Check for rendering times and possible problems.
- Trip to Spain for 3D conference.
- Blog.

May 2006

- Finalize animation.
- Update After Effects edit.
- Experiment with Flint for compositing.
- Finalize music.
- Blog.

June 2006

- Final decision on final show. If time permits for a trip to London, make reservations. If not, start preparing what will be sent to Camberwell.
- Do the final render.
- Work on the final composite.
- Do the final edit.
- Get help for audio and sound FX editing.
- Resolve pending technical issues.
- Update the blog.
- Trip to France for animation festival. Maybe get feedback on project from fellow animators?

July 2006

- Travel to London and setup space (July 6,7,8) It should be set up by July 11th.
- If the trip is not possible, send dvd & documents for the show & assessment.

3D images - Work in Progress 1

2005-11-07T08:45:00.000+02:00

Here are a few preview images of the rough model I'm working on. What you see is a low poly version, as I am still editing the model. This is the basic structure of the body. It will soon have clothes, shoes, hair and textures. 3D characters are modeled in this neutral pose with the arms extending out, in order to help setup the body for animation. After the model is finished and is in high resolution, 3D skeletons will be added in order to make it move. It's like creating a virtual puppet one step at a time!

3D character - Work in Progress

Snapshot from Maya

Final PGPD essay

2005-10-27T10:55:00.000+03:00

From 2D to 3D Animation:
Balancing Realism and Performance in Animated Films

Abstract

Instigated by the debate around the death of hand drawn animation, this paper investigates if a new method is emerging from melding 2D and 3D animation in the film industry. We examine whether or not this possible 2.5D approach helps reach the expected level of realism and character performance in contemporary animated films and if this is indeed the most efficient path to take.

The paper starts by referring to the history and techniques of 2D and 3D animation. It continues by exploring interesting concepts developed in modern films, such as the idea of felt reality and how to approach such a notion. We look at films by Chris Landreth and Mike Gabriel and discuss their approach to character animation and rendering. Two distinct 2.5D techniques (the automatic inbetweening Computer Assisted Animation and the Non-Photorealistic Rendering) are described in order to establish that the latter seems to be the next big step in the computer graphics field. Non-Photorealistic Rendering serves both the striving to the creation of convincing character performances and also an expressive look, through an original human and computer interaction.

Essay

The entire film, television and animation industry owe their very existence to a simple, yet remarkable illusion; a physiological phenomenon called the ‘persistence of vision’ (Laybourne. 1979:p28). This phenomenon occurs because the human eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after seeing it. If in that moment, ‘one image can be switched for another that is slightly different, then the eye is cheated into thinking that it has seen the first image move’ (Sibley. 2000:p26).

All types of animation are hence born from the same womb, from the passion of inventors and pioneers to breathe life into inanimate objects and characters. Whether hand drawn, computer or clay, ‘animation is the art of movement’ (Laybourne. 1979:p7) that can ‘exist in a multiplicity of media’ (Goodman. 2003:p30).

2D has been the dominant form of animation during the last century, with legendary creators such as Disney, the Warner Brothers, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and many more as the protagonists of a golden era. The first Computer Generated Images (CGI) were created in the 1950’s in the Bell laboratories and MIT. One of the earliest attempts to combine 2D and CG was the 1982 film ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, produced at Disney by John Lasseter who worked on the 3D backgrounds and Glen Keane who completed the 2D character animation. Next, in 1986, the short film ‘Luxo Jr.’ by John Lasseter and Bill Reeves represented a ‘breakthrough into a new realm of animation’ (Solomon. 1994:p306) by creating believable character animation solely in 3D. Back then, people in the industry believed that CG would not be the savior of the animation industry. For them, ‘Computer Animation represented another tool in the filmmakers’ repertory, like live action and drawn animation’ (Solomon. 1994:p307). But how is the situation really today? Things have surely evolved since Luxo Jr.

During the last decade or so, ‘the rise of the machines’ (Singer. 2004:p4) has eliminated the making of traditionally animated films. There has been an ongoing debate, especially since Disney closed down their California studio, whether or not 2D animation has indeed died as an art form, as it was overtaken by 3D computer animation. Among the issues raised, is why ‘2D and 3D animation should have to be opponents in a boxing match’ (Goodman. 2003:p29). Could they co-exist and be combined in order to give birth to a new animation technique?

‘CG draws from three older technologies: 2D animation’ that influences acting, ‘model animation’ (puppets or clay) ‘and live action’ that influence camera and lighting (Besen. 2004b:p52). Since 3D animation springs from other forms of animation, it therefore seems impossible to break the tie between them. 2D and 3D are ‘evolving internally on parallel tracks’ (Goodman. 2003:p30) and could therefore co-exist in the same marketplace as long as the film is well executed. Of course, in order to have a good film, ‘story will always be king’ (Oedekerk. 2002:p11). Goodman agrees by saying that a good film, if well executed ‘will be successful regardless the medium’ (Goodman. 2003:p30).

Some years ago, many animators ‘doubted that computers would be able to generate effective 2D character animation’ (Solomon. 1994:p303). This idea is no longer valid. Movies like ‘Finding Nemo’ and the ‘Incredibles’, have proven that computers can generate stunning character animation. Time has shown that audiences can be equally satisfied with a 2D or a 3D animated film, as long as the story is captivating, the execution is thorough and the characters are motivated. The consensus is that their differences could be lying in the evoked perception of reality and in the issue of acting performance.

The concepts of performance and realism in animation as the new technologies are emerging, are interwoven and of great importance. Ellen Besen believes that 2D can never be 100% realistic because ‘it’s clearly art and not live action’ (Besen. 2004a:p54). Drawing in 2D is tactile and intimate; it offers immediacy and teaches how to make key decisions (Besen. 2005a:p62). On the other hand, ‘CG has a unique quality to simulate photorealism’ (Besen. 2004b:p53) and it offers a ‘non-linear process: parts of the pipeline can be separated and worked on simultaneously’ (Winder, Dowlatabadi. 2002:p33). But as animator Charlie Bonifacio noted, ‘context is created by a decision making process and this is precisely where technology is weak’ (Besen. 2005a:61). CG has a degree of decision making built in it. How do these two approaches affect our perception of reality then?

Typically, any type of ‘animation is an exaggeration of reality’ (Patterson, Willis. 1994:p829). Even though 2D is ‘deliberately not consistent’ and ‘does not respect geometry unlike typical computer graphics’ (Patterson, Willis. 1994:pp829-830), the fact remains that all types of animation recreate reality, through mainly exaggeration and fantasy. A real performance is not necessarily connected to realism in design. There is a difference between something that looks real versus something that feels real. Disney would keep asking his animators for more realism. ‘The interpretation was that he meant convincing, rather than realistic, since Disney’s animation does not qualify as realistic’ (Durand. 2002:p111).

Consequently, ‘felt reality is subjective and malleable’ (Besen. 2005c:p47) and it ‘changes with audience’s perception and experience’ (Besen. 2004a:p53). The judgment of realism evolves with time and culture. In the original 1925 film ‘Lost World’ by Conan Doyle and O’ Brien, all the tricks are apparent compared to Spielberg’s 1997 version of the ‘Lost World’ (Durand. 2000:p4). Hence, it’s possible that in the future, we will reevaluate and criticize what feels realistic in animation today, regardless of the medium. It’s the perceived realism that leads to believability and not the objective one. As a result, both 2D and 3D, which can recreate and exaggerate reality, can equally achieve a good performance as long as it’s set up properly. But are there any advantages of any one technique over the other as far as a convincing acting performance is concerned?

Chris Landreth, creator of Oscar winning 3D animated short ‘Ryan’, strongly believes that CG offers an additional level of control in creating an original performance that 2D cannot reach: the elements of ambiguity and subtlety that lead to ‘internal conflict’ for the characters (Besen. 2004c:p49). Landreth reexamines some of the classical principles of animation, founded by the Nine Old Men of the golden Disney era.

First of all, he questions the principle of staging (‘the presentation of any idea so that is it completely and unmistakably clear’ (Thomas, Johnston. 1981:p53)) This approach of classical staging, ‘though emotionally clear, lacks the ambiguity that creates a realistic, original CG performance’ (Besen. 2004c:48). Landreth goes into such detail on the human body and face with the help of technology, that he reconsiders realism strictly on CG’s terms. ‘It’s this kind of detail that 2D animators leave out in order to make actions and emotions read more clearly’ (Besen. 2004c:p49). Late Disney animator Joe Grant, recognized this quality of 3D and added that ‘there’s something you can do with puppetry which you can’t do in line’ (Desowitz. 2004a:p38).

Secondly, Landreth challenges the principle of anticipation (‘precede each major action with a specific move that anticipates for the audience what is about to happen’ (Thomas, Johnston. 1981:p51)). He suggests that real anticipation is different from cartoon anticipation. This tells us that the face of a character, for example, could be showing something entirely opposite to what the action is conveying. As a result, Landreth went with the straight ahead animation method (‘the animators work straight ahead from the first pose in the scene without preplanning the action’ (Thomas, Johnston. 1981:p56)) and with a more realistic anticipation and staging approach, which shows the character’s internal conflict; thinking two thoughts at once. This in turn, raises the level of realism in the shot.

Having summarized Landreth’s perspective on CG performance, we now have the strong argument that realism and acting do reach a different level as digital technology is taking over. This understanding takes us back to the concept of felt reality: Landreth’s approach possibly leads to the conclusion that we perceive it better with CG. Bonifacio wonders: should the cartoon style animation only be created with 2D, since there is no need for subtlety or ambiguity in this style? If this is so, why are so many cartoony movies created in CG so successfully and not in 2D? (Besen. 2005b:pp41-42) This last ascertainment probably proves that detailed subtleties and ambiguity are necessary nowadays in the cartoony movies as well (‘Finding Nemo’ and the ‘Incredibles’). This might be the reason why adult audiences are drawn to this kind of entertainment more than ever: because of these movies’ level of detail and character acting, even though they are caricatured and recreated mostly in fantasy worlds.

These ideas about the induced ambiguity in 3D, do not necessarily mean that 2D is dead. Martin Goodman points out that ‘2D will die when we cease to appreciate art and the process of art’ (Goodman. 2003:p31). Bonifacio agrees and adds that ‘2D training is still important, because it slows the animators down and forces them to focus on making critical decisions’ (Besen. 2005a:p62), without relying on the default settings of the computer. Greg Singer however, underlines that CG gives the animators ‘more freedom to concentrate on performance’ (Singer. 2004:p5) and make those important acting decisions. Obviously, this hypothesis contradicts the belief that digital technology is making the decisions for the animators. At least, not any more.

It seems that these concepts could meet half way and offer a solution that combines the skills acquired from both genres; learning the classical principles in 2D and using 3D to achieve the needed subtleties, while reevaluating some of the traditional principles. This would make a nice blend of skills, with which the animators could easily switch between the two animation techniques, which could eventually influence each other into creating a third, brand new animation form.

This new form of animation is the area of 2.5D, a midpoint between 2D and 3D. This is the fresh approach that animators are seeking, including Joe Grant and Mike Gabriel, whose short story ‘Lorenzo’ demonstrates a successful marriage between the two.

2.5D can be achieved in two distinct ways: The first technique deals with animation that starts from hand drawn key poses but utilizes automatic inbetweening (automatic generation of successive drawings). Since the computer is involved in this automated process, the term ‘Computer Assisted Animation’ (CAA) is adapted (Patterson, Willis. 1994:p829), (Di Fiore et al. 2001:p192).

The second technique starts from 3D data and through the use of special renderers (software that generates a finished sequence of frames from a computer animated scene), it can achieve a painterly or a ‘toon’ look for a 3D animation. This is also known as Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) and ‘has expanded considerably as an area of research within computer graphics over the recent years’ (Teece. 2003b:p3).

Let us briefly explore the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques and investigate if a more realistic, animated performance is delivered through their application.

CAA ‘eliminates the time consuming aspects of traditional animation by introducing an automatic inbetweening solution’ (Di Fiore et al. 2001:p198). The computer is heavily involved in this process even though the first steps of the animation are in the hands of a 2D animator. This 2.5D system, apart from saving animators’ time, also helps them escape from the ‘tyranny of the pixel’ (Willis. 1995:p434) by introducing scale-free, vector-based programs that can ‘create convincing 3D-like animations starting from pure 2D information’ (Di Fiore, Van Reeth. 2003:p23).

Automatic inbetweening is fairly young and is still undergoing a lot of research and development. It is not broadly used to improve animated performance at the moment. But it’s a definite possibility for the future.

The second 2.5D method of NPR, has been around longer and has demonstrated more successful results. NPR exhibits a ‘movement toward more creative and expressive imagery in computer graphics’ (Meier. 1996:p478). One of its main characteristics is ‘natural media emulation’ (Teece. 2003b:p4). Rendering alone deals with purely automatic techniques and is traditionally not concerned with user interaction. Non-Photorealistic Rendering on the other hand, ‘mixes rendering aspects together with interaction issues’ (Durand. 2002:p112).

A lot of NPR systems have been developed during the last few years: Litwinowicz’s optical flow approach, Meier’s painterly renderer, Teece’s 3D expressive paint, Daniels’s Deep Canvas and Teece’s Sable just to mention a few (Teece. 2003b:pp9-19). What would have never been possible to create by hand, is now available as a great choice through NPR. The filmmakers have the alternative to create great performances with the look of a moving painting. One may wonder why use the computer if an artist can paint by hand every frame of an animation. If such a thing is attempted, then the animation will have ‘random changes from frame to frame’, thus not maintaining the coherence (Willis. 1995:p433).

Barbara Meier draws attention to the computer methods that try to mimic hand drawn animation; they apply ‘too much randomness that makes the animation noisy’ (Meier. 1996:p477). Therefore, in order to achieve frame-to frame coherence, NPR should be used carefully. She explains that by default, ‘computer rendering is automated and does not invite the viewer into the process’ (Meier. 1996:p477), a belief shared by Durand (Durand. 2002:p112). With automated rendering, it is difficult to obtain the level of abstraction that is evident in a good painting which doesn’t depict every detail, thus allowing the viewer to complete the picture. Fredo Durand points out as the computer graphics field gets closer to achieving photorealistic images as shown by the special effects in recent movies, it realizes that ‘there is more to images than realism alone’ (Durand. 2002:p111). ‘Non-photorealistic pictures can be more effective at conveying information more expressive or more beautiful’ (Durand. 2002:p111). He underlines that the absence of details in a picture weakens the audience’s pre-existing assumptions and can create a more spontaneous interpretation by the observer (Durand. 2000).

There is often the need to preserve and transfer to the big screen the style of the visual development art. This is not possible ‘neither with traditional ink-and-paint of every frame, nor with a typical CGI approach’ (Teece. 2003a:p1), (Desowitz. 2004b:p30). Consequently, the digital technologies are recruited in order to emulate natural media like oil and pastels, thus projecting the style of the original art work. This was in fact the goal of Mike Gabriel’s film ‘Lorenzo’, which was created using Teece’s Sable software. ‘Lorenzo is a moving painting that digitally captures the loose, dry, rough texture of a brushstroke’ (Desowitz. 2004b:p28) that through a much effortful process, it presents an ‘effortless look’ (Barbagallo. 2004:p8).

Durand stresses that ‘NPR techniques introduce a broader variety of styles’ (Durand. 2002:p112). Patterson also emphasizes that digital technology offers a range of stylistic capabilities that professional filmmakers need to be open to. He talks about the ‘creative pull’: the development of technology driven by the requirements of content integrity (Patterson. 1998:p1). The digital tools are available to assist the animators in every way; not to replace them. Meier argues that ‘NPR will allow simpler models and choreography and this may leave room for fudging the boundaries between the animation methods’ (Meier. 1999:p51). She hopes that the day when the computer becomes just another tool built around the artists’ needs and workflows, is not far; a tool that is neither too complex to use, nor does it simplify the important processes into a few button pushes.

The border between photorealism and non photorealism is fuzzy and the notion of realism itself complex. Durand states:

Turner, the 19th century painter, claimed that ‘my business is to paint not what I know, but what I see’. By 20th century, Picasso declared that ‘I do not paint what I see, I paint what I know’ (Durand. 2002:p113).

The Picasso statement conjures up the concept of felt reality presented earlier in this paper and confirms the fact that contemporary art deals more with our subjective reality and not the objective. This is what Landreth achieved in ‘Ryan’ by showing ‘physical distortions of the characters, inspired by Francis Bacon, therefore revealing their psychological state’ (Besen. 2004c:p48).

One can see that technology runs to the rescue and preservation of the original art and makes the ‘future look bright for hybrid productions’ (MacLennan Murch. 1997:p28). It’s obvious that as the animation industry is striving for the creation of performances that feel real, at the same time it wants to break free from the polished, 3D-ish look. It’s ready to push the technology in order to bring the artist’s vision and style to the screen.

With NPR, the strengths of two glorious animation worlds are combined into recreating reality: 3D offers subtlety and inner conflicts in performances, while 2D brings the unique brushstrokes of each filmmaker to life. In turn, this allows for a more exaggerated ‘simulated uncertainty’ (Nienhaus, Dollner. 2003:p1) and a more effective result at conveying information expressively.

Conclusions

This paper examined the history and techniques of 2D and 3D animation and discussed the future of animation; the issue of the demise of 2D and the overtaking of 3D. The two types of animation are equally capable of producing good character animation, but there are differences on their ability to generate convincing performances. 2D teaches the classical principles of acting, while 3D adds an extra level of detail. The outcome is the co-existence of both animation forms and their merging to create the category of 2.5D.

This new area is mainly characterized by two techniques: Computer Assisted Animation and Non-Photorealistic Rendering. The former, is an effort to automatically complete animated performances, but it is still a very young technique that needs further exploration. The latter, borrows the look of hand drawn lines and brushstrokes to convey information more expressively.

The quest for convincing animated performances, leads the animators to great levels of subtle details using 3D technology. These skills, combined with the NPR technique, take the animated films to the next level where believable acting, not just action, meet the more lively and energetic visual imagery; the imagery that does not depict every detail, thus allowing the spectators to interpret it their way.

Glossary

- 2D/Hand Drawn Animation: It is the art of creating a sequence of drawings by hand, which when photographed and played back at a certain speed create the illusion of movement, the illusion of life.
- 3D/Computer Animation: It is the art of creating moving images via the use of computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation. 3D adds an extra dimension to animation, the depth, which creates accurate perspective.
- Animation: Comes from the word ‘animus’, which means ‘life or to live’. Therefore, breathing life into characters, not just making them move mechanically, is animation.
Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. ...
- Action Vs Acting: Action in animation could be a mechanical move, like a walk or a jump. Acting has to do with the performance of the characters. The animators are the actors behind the scenes that have to go deep into their characters’ personalities and create convincing attitudes.
- Anticipation: One of the twelve principles of animation. The audience must be prepared for the next movement and expect it before it actually occurs. This is achieved by preceding each major action with a specific move that anticipates for the audience what is about to happen. For example, before a character runs, he crouches low.
- CAA: Computer Assisted Animation. It aids the production of cartoons and is a subset of Computer Animation.
- CGI: Computer Generated Image; a term denoting that computers will be used to generate the full imagery.
- CG: Computer Graphics. The term ‘CG’ and ‘3D’ are often interchangeable.
- Clay/Model/Puppet Animation: It’s one form of stop motion animation. It is also called ‘claymation’. The characters being animated and photographed one frame at a time (24 frames per second for film), are either made of clay, plasticine or other deformable materials.
- Coherence: Similarities which carry over from frame to frame.
- Inbetweens: Drawings between main, key character poses. Inbetweening is the generation of successive drawings.
- Nine Old Men: The nine supervising animators of the Animation Board at Disney in the 1950’s. Even if they were only in their thirties, Walt Disney joked about their responsibilities and their wisdom and affectionately referred to them as the ‘Nine Old Men’.
- Non-linear process: parts of the pipeline can be separated and worked on simultaneously.
- NPR: Non-Photorealistic Rendering. One of the main characteristics of such rendering systems is that they try to emulate natural media, like oil and pastels. The goal of NPR is to combine the strengths of established computer graphics techniques with the expressive clarity and simplicity of strokes on a piece of paper.
- Performance: How the characters perform in an animated film; their acting abilities.
- Photorealistic: Photo-graphy means ‘writing with light’. Photorealism has thus been sought by reproducing with high fidelity the physics of light transport and interaction between light and materials.
- Rendering: It’s the process of computing, pixel by pixel, one or more 2D images from 3D scene data, from the viewpoint of a simulated camera. The filed of rendering is concerned with the development of algorithms and numerical methods for the production of pictures given a scene description.
- Staging: One of the twelve principles of animation. It is the presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear. An action is staged so that it is understood, a personality so that it is recognizable, an expression so that it can be seen, a mood so that it will affect the audience.
- Stop Motion: Stop motion is an animation technique which makes static objects appear to be moving. It is central to the ‘claymation’ technique used on popular children's shows such as Gumby and to the puppet-based animation of such well-known films as The Nightmare Before Christmas (Tim Burton, 1993) and Chicken Run (DreamWorks/Aardman Animations, 2000).
- Straight Ahead Action: It’s one of the two approaches to animation. The animator literally works straight ahead from his first drawing in the scene. He simply takes off, doing one drawing after the other, getting new ideas as he goes along, until he reaches the end of the scene. On the contrary, with the second approach called Pose to Pose, the animator plans his action. He draws the main poses and the assistant animator draws the inbetweens.
- Vector-based: A series of mathematically defined lines and curves that can be scaled to any size without losing its crisp, smooth edges. Unlike bitmap images that are made up of dots or pixels and lose quality as they are enlarged, vector images represent shapes as a series of lines and curves that you can resize without loss of quality. Vector images are typically created in programs like CorelDraw, Illustrator and Freehand.

Bibliography

Books:

- Laybourne, K. (1979), The Animation Book, New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks
- Sibley, B. (2000), Chicken Run: Hatching the Movie, New York: Harry N. Abrams
- Solomon, C. (1994), The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings, 2nd ed. China: Wing Books
- Thomas, F., Johnston, O. (1981), The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, New York: Hyperion
- Vaz, M C. (2004), The art of the Incredibles , China: Chronicle Books

Articles:

- Besen, E. (2004a), The Drive to Realism: From Disney to Harryhausen to Landreth - Part 1, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 5 August, pp53-55, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2004b), The Drive to Realism-Part2: CG Takes the Wheel, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 7 October, pp52-55, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2004c), Make it real-Part 1: Off the Beaten Path, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 9 December, pp47-51, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005a), Make it real-Part 2: Marks in the Sand, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 11 February, pp60-63, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005b), Make it real-Part 3: 2D, Anyone?, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 1 April, pp39-43, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Besen, E. (2005c), Make it real-Part 4: The Missing Factor, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 3 June, pp47-49, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Desowitz, B. (2004a), A Talk with Disney Legend Joe Grant, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 1 April, pp36-39, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Desowitz, B. (2004b), Lorenzo: A Moving Painting with a Wild Tail, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 8 Part 12 March, pp28-31, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Goodman, M. (2003), Death of 2D: Rush to Judgment, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 8 Part 7 October, pp29-32, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- MacLennan Murch, S. (1997), 2D and 3D: Together for the Better, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 2 Part 5 August, pp27-28, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Moins, P. (2005), Annecy 2005: Animation Coming of Age?, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 10 Part 4 July, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Oedekerk, S. (2002), A New Dimension In Animation, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 7 Part 9 December, pp9-11, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Patterson, J., Willis, P. (1994), Computer Assisted Animation: 2D or not 2D?, Computer Journal, Vol. 37 Part 10, pp829-839, Oxford University Press
- Singer, G. (2004), From Pencils to Pixels: Making the Transition, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 9 Part 2 May, pp4-9, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication
- Winder, C., Dowlatabadi, Z. (2002), Producing Animation: The 3D CGI Production Process, Animation World Magazine, Vol. 6 Part 10 January, pp32-34, Los Angeles: Animation World Network Publication

Conferences:

- Computer Animation, 2001. Seoul, S. Korea, (2001) Automatic In-betweening in Computer Assisted Animation by Exploiting 2.5D Modelling Techniques, Di Fiore, F. et al.
- NPAR, 2002. Annecy, France, (2002) An Invitation to Discuss Computer Depiction, Durand, F., New York: ACM Press
- Graphite, 2003. Melbourne, Australia, (2003) Mimicing 3D transformations of emotional stylised animation with minimal 2D input, Di Fiore, F., Van Reeth, F., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003a) Sable: A Painterly Renderer for Film Animation, Teece, D., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Sketchy Drawings-A Hardware Accelerated Approach for Real-Time Non-Photorealistic Rendering, Nienhaus, M., Dollner, J., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Polygon-based Pastel-like Renderign for Animation, Murakami, K., Tsuruno, R., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2003. San Diego, USA, (2003) Real-Time 3D Sumi-e Painting, Kang, SJ., Kim, CH., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 2002. San Antonio, USA, (2002) WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models, Kalnins, R. et al., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 1999. Los Angeles, USA, (1999) Non-Photorealistic Rendering: Computers for Artists Who Work Alone, Meier, B., New York: ACM Press
- Siggraph, 1996. New Orleans, USA, (1996) Painterly Rendering for Animation, Meier, B., New York: ACM Press
- WSCG-International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision, 1995. Pilsen, Czech Republic, (1995), Computer Animation and Human Animators, Willis, P.

Films:

- Finding Nemo, (2003), Directed by Andrew Stanton, Pixar Animation Studios, 100 min.
- The Incredibles, (2004), Directed by Brad Bird, Pixar Animation Studios, 120 min.
- Ryan, (2004), Directed by Chris Landreth, National Film board of Canada, 14 min.
- Lorenzo, (2004), Directed by Mike Gabriel, Walt Disney, 5 min.

World Wide Web:

- Butz, A. (1998), CIS270: Animation, (Internet), Columbia University, Available from: http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~butz/publications.html
The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts (2004), Lorenzo, (Internet), Available from: http://disneyshorts.toonzone.net/years/2004/lorenzo.html
- Barbagallo, R. (2004), Lorenzo, (Internet), Available from: http://www.animationartconservation.com/lorenzo.html
- Durand, F. (2000), The Art and Science of Depiction, (Internet), MIT, Available from: http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/
- Patterson, J. (1998), ‘Creative Pull’ of Style and Technology Together in An Animation Project, (Internet), Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content001.pdf
- Patterson, J. (1999), In-betweening, (Internet), Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content011.pdf
- Patterson, J. (2001), The Exploitation of Vertical Markets to Support Entertainment Products, (Internet), Department of Computing Science, Glasgow University, Available from: http://circus.hku.nl/demo/layout/documents/content041.pdf
- Teece, D. (2003b), NPR-2D to 3D, painting and rendering, (Internet), Course Notes for Siggraph 2003, Available at: http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~mario/npr/projects/sigg03/

Project Images: rough designs and storyboards

2005-10-24T13:39:00.000+03:00

Here are some images from my project's work in progress. The theme of my children's ad remains the same as before: animal protection or animal adoption targeted to children. I wish to increase the awareness on this subject, since people are still not very sensitive towards it.

The first image shows some doodles from my sketchbook as I was trying to come up with ideas for the ad. I was trying to reverse the roles, put people in the animals' shoes.

Then I have some designs for animals and witches. I thought I'd try the interaction between a good witch and her cat. See what comes out of that relationship.

I went with the witch-cat combination and tried out some story ideas. I feel this storyline will be more intriguing to children: a magic wand, flying on a broom, a nice witch (reversing the typical image of an ugly, mean witch), a happy cat. The last storyboard is more refined, but it still needs changes. I'm playing with the idea of what happens when she waves her magic wand. I want her to be a bit clumsy but who always means well. So I'll work more on it this week.

As far as 3D goes, I almost have the witch ready and I'm also experimenting with the background. I don't know if I will go with simple or detailed background and colors. I might just play with different colors shapes, since the characters in the foreground will be rendered to look more hand drawn (or at least this is my goal!)

Anyway, I should have more by next week :o)

Rough Ideas

Rough ideas and designs

Rough story thumbnails

More story panels

More refined soryboard. Still needs some changes.

Notes on research papers, articles and books for the PGPD essay

2005-09-17T19:20:00.000+03:00

The first notes are from articles and papers written by industry professionals and animation critics on various animation sites. Then there are a lot of interesting notes from research done on Non Photorealistic Rendering and 2.5D animation by university professors and software developers.

“Pencils to Pixels – Making the transition” by Greg Singer

- Hulett of the Animation Guild: I think hand drawn animation will come back.
- 2D Vs 3D: line quality and tactile feeling Vs more freedom and concentration on performance.
- A #2 pencil doesn’t change as a tool. But technology does.
- Using reference from the 2D world to train 3D animators.
- O’Reilly of R+H: with 3D people have to get used to Z-depth, cameras and angles.
- Michael Sehgal of Dreamworks: The computer is just another tool. You have to be passionate about 3D in order to succeed.
- Frank Glastone of Dreamworks:
- We have to inspire the artist to approach their tasks not only technically but also artistically. Knowing a program doesn’t make you an animator.
- People from traditional backgrounds tend to bring those thought processes into 3D.
- Even though sketching, painting and sculpting are part of CG, only a small select group gets to do it; Visual development people use Photoshop and there will be applications for storyboard also.
- Background painters move into CG lighting. There’s a little more freedom in the computer. We can now light a scene like a cinematographer would.
- The people who love 3D will find a way to do it. It won’t die.
- Glastone talks about “Fishing”, a PDI watercolor looking short animation that was done in 3D. “We are just scratching the surface of what we can do”.
- 3D has benefits on the industry-more people can do this.
- The driving force behind any movie remains the story, not the medium.
- The visuals and tricks have to service the story, not become the story.

Slides of student Andreas Butz presentation

- What is animation?
1. Any kind of moving graphics
2. A sequence of single images.
3. The impression of movement.
- 2D Vs 3D: 2D is cartoon like and requires less computing power. 3D gives the impression of space. It needs high computing power. It has a 3D coordinate system. It uses a virtual camera and lights.

“Pencils down. Disney terminates traditional animation” by David Koenig

- Michael Eisner’s official decree: “2D is dead”.
- What Eisner is missing is that the most important factor in the success of an animated feature has always been its story.
- Koenig talks about “Lorenzo the cat”. He believes that it’s given a computer look which takes the life out of it, without any specific reason. (later on in these notes there is an extensive talk on “Lorenzo” and the reasons it was given a “computer look”. There are different opinions on the final outcome of this film)
- Motion capture: quasi-animated computer technique.
- Tom Schmacher admitted he didn’t know where animation would be in 5 years. Hand drawn, computer, motion capture?
- David Koenig believes Disney will never do hand drawn animation again, or at least not for a very long time.

“Death of 2D: Rush to Judgment” by Dr. Toon

- Why use “Vs” in making the comparison between 2D and 3D? Why do they have to be opponents?
- If we consider 2D and 3D to be children of cinematic technology, then clearly 3D has overtaken 2D as the nature of technology dictates. But animation goes beyond science; it is also an art form that can exist in a multiplicity of media.
- The decision to abandon 2D came from the top.
- Tastes and styles are cyclical in nature.
- Both 2D and 3D animation are evolving internally on parallel tracks: 3D evolves in texturing, depicting humans realistically etc. With 2D, every fresh animator who works with it brings something new to the table.
- A good film, if well written and executed will be successful regardless the medium.
- 2D will die when we cease to appreciate art and the process of art.
- Author says :” kick the fleshies out, I say, and fire up the Pentiums instead”. E.g. Scooby Doo should all be done in 3D, not with the help of live actors.
There should be no debate/battle between 2D and 3D. 3D should be recognized as simply as another style in a proud and popular art.

“The drive to realism: From Disney to Harryhausen to Landreth – Part 1” by Ellen Besen

- Why are we so obsessed with realism in animation?
- Film “Ryan”: it simultaneously reflects on the past and the future of realism in animation.
- The history of realism in animation goes back to 1832 with the magic lanterns.
- So realism is relative and it changes with audience perception and experience.
- Perceived realism leads to believability, not objective realism.
- In 1930’s while modern art was breaking away from realism, Disney marched toward it!
- 2D can never be 100% realistic; it’s clearly art and not live action.
- Model animation (like puppet animation) by Willis O’ Brien and Ray Harryhausen such as King Kong, opened the door to a new style of storytelling. Mythology could come to life.
- For a long time, classical and model animation existed side by side, each dealing separately with realism within the boundaries of their particular technology. Then along came CG and suddenly worlds collided. But whose approach would dominate? Would classical animators simply add the extra dimension, or would the model animators shine because their obvious superiority with 3D? How did this affect the development of realism?

“The drive to realism– Part 2: CG takes the wheel” by Ellen Besen

- How does the development of technology affect realism in animation?
- CG is not a record of reality but a recreation (concept mentioned in “2D and 3D: together for the better”)
- CG beast: how can we harness what we don’t understand?
- CG draws from 3 older technologies:
1. 2D animation. It influences performance in CG.
2. Model animation (stop motion). It influences camera and lighting in CG.
3. Live action. It influences camera and lighting in CG.
The end result is that current CG character animation looks, more than anything, like 2D animation with an extra dimension.
- Freed from the past, a new technology begins to develop its own syntax.
- CG’s unique quality is to simulate photorealism.
- CG humans are not looking real yet. The tools are not ready.
- Popular CG route: high realism in settings, non humans as start, cartoony approach for the humans. (Finding Nemo)
- Never has an animation technology been so enticing or threatening to the live action industry.

“Make it real – Part 1: Off the beaten path” by Ellen Besen

- Chris Landreth’s “Ryan”: People’s insides appear on the outside.
- In the “Incredibles” people’s insides or psychological states become a characteristic of their super powers.
- The 12 principles of 2D classical animation are still the strongest foundation.
- Landreth comes to animation from a side door and re-examines the use of gesture and exaggeration and the whole pose-to-pose approach. With 2D there has to be clarity of gesture and emotion from one pose to the next. But though emotionally clear, the lack of ambiguity actually gets in the way of creating realistic, original CG performance.
- Landreth went on with the straight ahead method
- He studied the structure of the human body. This kind of detail made him successful. On the contrary, 2D animators left out this kind of detail in order to make actions and emotions read more clearly.
- “Shark fin” patterns in finger movements.
- Ambiguity makes performances fell real.
- Real anticipation is different than the cartoon anticipation. (Citizen Kane example). This tells us that the face for example, can be at complete cross purposes to what the action is conveying. You have to overlap action not only in the poses, but also in different parts of the body. This makes the performance more real and makes characters more interesting, because it reveals internal conflict. (so he goes with the straight ahead method and with a more realistic anticipation which shows internal conflict).
- Landreth has given us in Ryan, an advanced thinking moment with his moving holds. This would be very difficult for a 2D animator.
- Polar Express:It suffered because of the “performance capture”. Same problems as rotoscoping.
- The author believes that the Incredibles would have better performance in 2D. Instead, the characters look manufactured.
- Animators in the 21st century: we can join Chris Landreth and do some trail blazing of our own.
- If we apply the Disney template with the classical principles directly to CG, then we won’t achieve realism. Landreth reconsiders realism strictly on CG’s terms.
- This opens up animation to an even greater range of emotional possibilities. This transition can move animation beyond the music and family films and into the wider world of film.

“Make it real – Part 2: Marks in the sand” by Ellen Besen

- Yes we love 2D. But will we be clinging to the past?
- 2D revived 20 years ago, after the “Black Cauldron”.
- Mocap and rework of data is the key to success for mocap that faces some challenges.
- Charlie Bonifacio (former Disney animation artist: with mocap the end result is performance robbed of meaning. Mocap is like rotoscoping – without context the line becomes arbitrary; the context of what came before and after.
- Bonifacio: technology is weak in the decision making process which creates context. It has a degree of decision making built in it. People with fine arts and 2D backgrounds help make these suggestions.
- This way the artist makes the decision for effect instead of letting the machine do what it does.
- Bonifacio agrees with previous paper that 3D has different levels of subtleties than most animators can achieve. Frank and Ollie (The nine old men of Disney) suggested the same thing. “How much subtlety does technology allow? Do people have the skill to access it?”
- Bonifacio: 2D training is still important because it slows you down and makes you focus on making critical decisions. (In previous paper Landreth succeeds in character performance coming from a different perspective and not sticking with the 12 principles. Also in the paper “From pencils to pixels” the author suggests that 3D frees you up and it makes you concentrate on performance. So, who’s right? Is somebody necessarily right or wrong? Or maybe the solution is to start with 2D training, move to 3D reevaluating/amending to the principles?)
- Bonifacio: drawing is important; it develops perception of axes etc. There is intuitiveness and an intimacy that naturally develops with 2D. Animating on computers instead, feels mechanical. This might change with the kids of new generation who experienced computers since they were born. But to us, drawing is immediate and it connects to our emotional history and physiology.
-2D: offers immediacy, perception, learning to make key decisions.
- But if students start with 2D because of the above reasons, is there a risk of locking them into a certain style, limiting what is expected of CG?

“Making it real – Part 3: 2D Anyone?” by Ellen Besen
The impact of new technology on performance

- What is the role of old and new technologies in performance-acting?
- Can Landreth’s example of overlapping different parts of the body be applied to 2D? (“different parts expressing different emotions with some parts being ahead of the others, rather than moving in emotional unison”)
- Bonifacio: “The acting style relates to what genre you are working in”. Disney Vs Warner: Disney has more subtlety because WB is very cartoony and broad school of acting. WB is more cartoony and therefore the animation technique more pose-to-pose. Any good animator would make good pose choices.
- The process is the same; the difference is only in the degree of subtlety.
- You can’t blame pose-to-pose for a bad performance. A pose for every accent of dialogue doesn’t work. These people are just badly trained.
- Illusion of Life: importance of staging – no ambiguity.
- Landreth: Ambiguity is very important.
- In the film “Ryan”, good ambiguity crates internal conflict with two thoughts at once. In “Polar Express”, bad ambiguity creates an uncertainty to the viewer of what the character is thinking.
- Stephen Barnes: By allowing for more subtlety in the animation, 3D opens the door to ambiguity, but it takes discipline and clarity to make it work. (subtlety leads to ambiguity). People say that 3D is more mechanical and too reliant on the default settings of the computer. He went with CG using the straight ahead technique and ended with a performance.
- Default settings = CG limited animation.
- Does the performance achieved in Ryan with Landreth’s newly discovered method contradict the philosophy of applying the classical principles? Barnes: maybe the medium and our understanding of it hasn’t matured yet.
- How do you feel about the levels of performance achieved so far in CG”
Bonifacio: Incredibles went one step forward.
- Is the most suitable application for CG-3D the cartoony approach?
- Do we really need 3D for cartoony styles like in the Incredibles or would we go back to 2D (since 2D is suitable for extremely detailed subtleties?)
- Bonifacio: 2D is in danger. But in 10 years when it comes back, who will know how to do inbetweens and cleanups?
- Bonifacio: another issue is the role of drawing. The drawing is a tool as the computer is a tool, thus they are both expendable. Do we really need to draw? (In a previous article Bonifacio says that drawing is immediate and connects to our emotional history and physicality going back to the cave paintings. Here he is just asking rhetorical questions).
- Bonifacio: 2D Vs 3D is like painting Vs photography of an older era.
Maybe the solution lies in 2D and 3D influencing each other.
- He talks about the performance, not an actual 2D-3D technique. (ie) The 2D classical principles can influence the 3D cartoony approach and Landreth’s ambiguity could influence the approach to performance in 2D.
- Bonifacio: 2D is not dying; it’s going through a fallow (inactive) period. When it comes back it won’t be just be pencil and paper. It will be saved by the very CG technology which is replacing it now. It would still be 2D but with styluses on tablets and perhaps digital paper that could still be flipped. And maybe we will be able to get those subtleties not achieved before, by zooming in and working on an eyebrow expression. (this approach is suggested later on by other artists and scientists who call it CAA: Computer Assisted Animation)
- Barnes: Will the technique be melding of the best of both 2D and 3D, capitalizing on the strengths of each?
- Future Scenario: new context that allow new reference points like a fruit salad; mix 2D and 3D for more creative possibilities.

“Making it real – Part 4: The missing factor” by Ellen Besen
Other elements that go into creating real performances

- A “real” performance is not necessarily connected to realism in movement and design. (A Cg realistic human looks real but so is an animated sack of flour)
- Issue about something that looks real Vs feels real.
- “Felt Reality” is subjective and therefore malleable (pliable, flexible)
- If the performance is set up properly, then it’s believable.
- Comparison is an essential part of how we communicate and understand things.
- Motivation makes a character compelling, more than the movement does.
- Matte Ferguson of Nelvana: The back stories make the characters rich and compelling.

“Annecy 2005: Animation coming of age” by Philippe Moins
- Animation is often accused of being superficial or completely juvenile. But the Hungarian film “The District!” that got the Cristal for best feature film, deals with real life without excluding humor or style. (yes, but does this make it a documentary?)
- It is clear that animation culture is no longer confined to a small circle of aficionados.

“2D and 3D: Together for the better” by Sean MacLennan Murch
How companies integrate 2D and 3D in order to get the best of both

- This paper is written before “The Prince of Egypt”. It’s how things seemed 7-8 years ago.
- What 3D does best: bringing inanimate objects to life, creating backgrounds and crowd simulations.
- What 2D does best: organic figures and animals.
- Digital realm has historically been to recreate reality. (same idea as in Drive to Realism – Part 2.)
- 2D animators focus on people’s perception of the world. So here we have the felt or perceived reality Vs reality. (same idea as in Make it Real – Part 4).
- “Animation is not a documentary that gives a dose of reality (Annecy paper above talks about the need to deal with reality in animation, so that animation is not juvenile.) “We go for the fantasy element”.
- Advantage of 3D: recycle backgrounds, relight them, do crowd simulations.
- As software developers and animators continue to work towards a more classical approach to digital animation, the future also looks bright for hybrid 2D/3D productions”.

“A talk with Disney legend Joe Grant” by Bill Desowitz
Making the short film “Lorenzo” and current 2D/3D debate

- The short film “Lorenzo” was animated by hand and then processed digitally with “Sable” (software).
- Experimentation: they did something very fresh and exciting by digitally capturing the look of the brush stroke.
- Joe Grant: “There’s certain subtlety (with 3D) and there’s something you can do with the puppetry, which you can’t do in line. There’s truth that come out of realism (refers to Ice Age). If Ice Age was done in line it wouldn’t be as funny.
- We are lacking good stories and ideas.
- Joe Grant had a 2D/3D story in the works at the time of this interview.( So we see a legendary 2D animator being excited about technology and the realism that CG brings)

“A new dimension in animation” by Steve Oedekerck
IMAX film in 3D (the type of 3D film you need special glasses to watch)

- In reality, 3D (viewed with special glasses) is an unbelievably powerful asset in a story based theatrical experience. It truly is the next level.
- Story will always be king.
- 3D used as an enhancement to storytelling is an exciting new frontier that has just begun to be explored.

“Producing animation – The 3D CGI production process” by Catherine Winder and Zahra Dowlatabadi
Overview of the 3D CGI production process

- The 3D CGI production process emphasizes the importance of pre production.
- CGI: merger between 2D animation and live action (similar statement found in “The drive to Realism – Part 2” that CG draws from 2D animation, stop motion animation and live action.)
- The main advantage to CG animation is that it is a non linear process. Parts of the pipeline can be separated and worked on simultaneously. (going back to “2D and 3D: Together for the better” we add to the advantages list the fact that a lot of things can be recycled in 3D and also crowd simulations can be carried out. Going back to Landreth, CG serves for ambiguity, which adds subtlety to the performance which leads to realism). Also another advantage is that revisions don’t require artists to start from scratch. This is a recurring pattern in CGI production, referred to as a “circular path”.

“Sable – A painterly renderer for film animation” by Daniel Teece
Presented at Siggraph 2003 – Talks about the short film “Lorenzo” and how he developed the software Sable to handle the paint brush look of the film.

- Strokes are highly expressive with dry and smooth edges.
- Early in the production they realized that neither traditional ink-and-paint nor typical CGI would preserve the original look of Mike Gabriel’s style. (This answers Koenig’s question in the article “Pencils Down” in which he wonders why Lorenzo was given a computer look that takes the life out of it. The creators and director of Lorenzo and Sable think the opposite of course: that the quality of the brush strokes was preserved with Sable).
- The goal of Sable was to keep the painting took while allowing the animated paintings to move in a coherent manner.
- How Sable works:
-It’s a painterly renderer that replaces a NURBS curve geometry set with brush strokes. The generated strokes are based on a library of scanned paint marks provided by the director.
- The animation is done by hand. Then a clip of this animation is used to match the performance and timing of the curve set rig (in the 3D software) with the original animation.
- Data goes to Inka (Disney’s inkline renderer) and from Inka to Sable. Sable can render directly or create a scene file that can be rendered externally.
- Benefits of Sable:
1. Animated paint strokes without strobing or popping.
2. Paint strokes are provided by the director. So the look of the original art is preserved.
3. Sable was able to be integrated with other tools in a digital production pipeline.
4. The animators were not concerned with the cleanup of the pencil lines and therefore were able to focus on performance.

“Lorenzo” from Animation World News

- It’s a five minute, black comedy film about a fat and sassy cat terrorized by its own tail into a fit ballroom dancing.
- Mike Gabriel hand painted all of the backgrounds for this 2D/3D hybrid in a bold color palette, using tempera paints and black construction paper. He was aided by Sable, a painterly renderer for expressive 3D brushstrokes, created by Daniel Teece.

“Lorenzo: A “moving painting” with a wild tail” by Bill Desowitz

- Lorenzo is a moving painting that digitally captures the loose, dry, rough texture of a brushstroke.
- It was produced with a groundbreaking, hybrid approach.
- Mike Gabriel wrote, directed, designed, storyboarded and background painted Lorenzo.
- From Joe Grant’s designs, Mike Gabriel was inspired and painted his version of Lorenzo with flat brush with little detail and no outline.
- With Lorenzo, the artist’s vision is brought to the screen in a pure way.
- Gabriel: “ I wanted to be able to see the brushstrokes on screen and to give everything a facile, effortless quality, even though we would paint things 50 times to make it look that way”. ( So, the effortless look needs way too much effort to achieve. Shouldn’t effortless be just that?”
- 3D approach to completing Lorenzo was rejected as too costly.
- Traditional ink and paint or CGI alone wouldn’t preserve the style, so Sable was born: a painterly renderer which had a way of mapping very rough paint strokes onto the pencil animation. (another explanation of Sable)
- Again, how Sable works: The 2D animation was scanned n the computer and used as a clip reference. A CG team put curves (3D placeholders) on the key drawings. Gabriel painted 18 different brushstroke styles. Using Sable they attached the brushstrokes to the curves.
- Benefits: 2D animators focused on performance without worrying about the rendering. The library of brushstrokes grew, giving flexibility in matching the paintings with the computer version. Sable utilized Gabriel’s backgrounds. This unique hybrid technique gives you more to think about when you watch Lorenzo.

“Lorenzo” by Ron Barbagallo
Animationartconservation.com

- Mike Gabriel created a cinematic tango of brisk color, music and timing.
- Producer Baker Bloodworth: The visual development art is not was the finished film looks like. But Mike’s style was so exciting that they wondered if it was possible to find a way to translate it to the big screen.
- Sable emulates the organic feel of quickly brushed paint as it seeps into black paper.
(This look of Lorenzo is achieved by a computer and a proprietary software and it was inspired by a hand drawn painting. So technology serves and preserves traditionally produced art. This takes us back to that 8 year old paper “2D and 3D:together for the better” that says that the future looks bright for hybrid productions. and we can also go back to the article “Making it Real – Part 3) in which animator Bonifacio suggests that when 2D animation comes back it will be saved by the very CG technology that is now replacing it. In this article Barnes asks if there will be a new technique that utilizes the best of 2D and 3D. Sable proves all this to be correct.)
- Lorenzo has a dry brush feeling which gives the impression of a painting move as if the characters were painted frame by frame.
- Why not hand paint every frame? Digital Effects supervisor John Murrah explains that this would cause a distracting and chattery look.
- Lorenzo never appears to the audience as a conventional CGI or 2D film. You feel like it’s painted right before your eyes.
- “ In many ways the visuals of Lorenzo seem effortless, but they are not” (like in the article “Lorenzo: a moving painting with a wild tail” in which Gabriel states that he in fact was going after this effortless look with too much effort!)
- Mike Gabriel: “I am matching emotion to the music - not action to the beat as if it is being scored post animation. I painted the backgrounds as if I were animating the backgrounds. Feel it first, then get that feeling onto page.”
- The level of madness in a specific shot is achieved only with straight ahead animation on ones (a different drawing for every frame of animation).

“NPR – 2D to 3D, painting and rendering”, by Daniel Teece
Siggraph 2003

- NPR = Non Photorealistic Rendering.
- NPR characteristics:
1. Natural Media Emulation (oil painting, pen and ink etc).
2. 2D/3D.
3. Brushes, strokes and marks. The brushes maybe based on hand painted textures or procedural textures.
- The goal of NPR: to combine the strengths of established computer graphics techniques with the expressive clarity and simplicity of strokes on a piece of paper.
- Some NPR rendering systems use solely a 2D approach: an image is fed to one end and another image comes out the other.
- For a long time, the non-interactive rendering systems (stroke renderers) have been the case until recently. The arrival of highly interactive 3D paintings and rendering tools for NPR (3D paint renderers) has changed the picture.
- A 2D paint system or post processor is to start with a reference image (photo or CGI render).
- Many NPR systems follow this mode of operation: They take an equivalent of the input image algorithmically (image processor) or interactively (paint systems).
- Animating strokes:
Problem: The algorithms used to place computer generated strokes or marks on a compositional plane, result boiling or sizzling artifact leading to the shower door effect: the painterly appearance seems to be coming from a patterned glass in from of the scene.
Solution: The desired solution is for the strokes or marks to follow the movement of the objects. The methods developed to achieve this goal vary in their use of 2D and 3D information and in the nature of user involvement in the creation of painterly images.
- Litwinowicz achieved impressive results in the animation of painterly image through the use of optical flow techniques, where existing strokes are moved for the following frames based on the optical flow information drawn from the source video. Advantage: the brushstrokes retain their canvas bound, 2D nature. Disadvantage: The results could shift from a desirable vibrancy to distracting noise.
- Danger: Strokes attached to 3D surfaces might make the image look like a photorealistic rendering of a painted object instead of moving paint strokes that represent solid surfaces.
- Silhouettes betray mathematical precision. (So, try to avoid them?)
- Painterly Renderer by Barbara Meier (1996) r: 3D stroke renderer. The results show soft, painterly silhouettes and the absence of a precise, computer generated look. The technique starts with 3D particles. Her research is very significant and is cited in many publications.
- 3D Expressive Paint system developed by Daniel Teece. It’s a 3D interactive painting system. The user controls the placement of each individual stroke. With this technique, the user can move around the scene with the objects that have 3D strokes. This system’s strongest point is interactivity. But it has limited animation support (deformations).
- Deep Canvas by Daniels (1999): a new system comes to fill in the gaps of 3D Expressive Paint. It’s a painting and rendering system for the creation of 3D painterly environments in feature film production. Artist’s brushstrokes are recorded in a script file, which is fed into Deep Canvas along with the geometry, in order to map the strokes onto the surface. The strokes are repainted from new angles.
- Sable by Daniel Teece: a 2D/3D stroke renderer. The workflow is designed to be driven by traditional animation. It’s a painterly renderer that replaces a curve set with brushstrokes.
- So, Daniel Teece with this presentation, refers to all the attempts to create NPR systems, starting with Litwinowicz and his Optical Flow system to Meier’s Painterly Renderer (optical flow information Vs 3D particles and strokes). Then he moved onto his own 3D Expressive Paint system which has similarities to Meier’s Painterly Renderer but is also highly interactive. Then he continues with Daniels Deep Canvas, which handles the weaknesses of 3D Expressive Paint, especially with animation. Then he finally presents Sable that is designed to be driven by traditional animation.
- Both Teece and Bill Disowitz (article : “Lorenzo: a moving painting with a wild tail”) state that neither traditional ink-and-paint nor typical CGI approach would preserve the style of the original art work.
- When trying to create a workflow for Lorenzo (before Sable), they utilized Deep Canvas, DigiPaint and Inka but the result was not very successful. So, a new texture-based model is introduced: textures taken from director’s strokes.
- Sable:
1. Scan brushstrokes to create library.
2. Geometry grown along base curve sets.
3. Use of stroke textures as REF in maya.
4. User matches the performance of the curve set rig with the 2D clip.
- Summary:
Sable animates strokes smoothly and efficiently. It matches the appearance of strokes. It integrates with other tools in the pipeline. The animators are able to work with a pencil.
- Conclusions: Combining Animation and NPR can be approached with 2D or 3D methods. The object space methods (Deep Canvas) have advantage in terms of maintaining frame-to-frame coherence, but care needs to be taken to ensure that the painterly style is preserved.

“Sketchy Drawings - A hardware accelerated approach for real time NPR”, by Marc Nienhaus and Jurgen Dollner
Siggraph 2003

- They presented an image-space rendering technique that uses texture mapping and fragment shading hardware to generate sketchy drawings of arbitrary 3D scene geometry in real time.
- They stress sketchiness by simulating uncertainty.
- In the future, they expect to mimic hand drawn lines.

“Polygon-based pastel-like rendering for animation”, by Kyoko Murakami and Reiji Tsuruno
Siggraph 2003

- They present a technique with pastel strokes on objects that is improved from creating only still images to creating animations also.
- To achieve this, they mimic the way we draw and paintbrush strokes in real life: breaking down the object into planes and the planes into rectangles and then drawing strokes following the direction of the rectangle surface meshes.
- Part of their technique is based on [Meier 96]. Reminder: so was Teece’s 3D Expressive Paint, which had similarities with Meier’s painterly renderer and it was highly interactive.

“Real time 3D Sumi-e painting”, by Shin-Jin Kang and Chang-Hun Kim
Siggraph 2003

- Sumi-e: black ink painting in Korea, Japan and China.
- Most research about Sumi-e painting in NPR has focused on 2D or 2.5D sumi-e brushwork simulation.

“ WYSIWYG: Drawing strokes directly on 3D models”, by Robert D. Kalnins, Lee Markosian, Barbara J. Meier, Michael A. Kowalski, Joseph C. Lee, Philip L. Davidson, Methew Webb, John F. Hughes, Adam Finkelstein (Princeton University and Brown University)

- WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get.
- This is a system for drawing stroke-based NPR styles directly on 3D models.
- With this system the artist can choose a “brush” style and draw strokes on the model.
- Sometimes photorealistic rendering may not be preferred. Thus a growing branch of computer graphics research focuses on techniques for producing non-photorealistic renderings from 3D models.
- The authors argue that NPR imagery may often reflect a designer’s judgments. So, there is a need for interactive NPR which will give designers flexible control over the look of a scene.
- With this system, there are 3 main categories of strokes: 1. silhouette and creases 2. decal strokes that suggest surface features (like a bottle label) 3. hatching strokes to convey lighting and tone.
- There are new NPR algorithms in this system that allow: 1. detecting and rendering silhouettes 2. synthesizing stroke styles 3. creating hatching 4. simulating natural media.
- Since the last decade, NPR has two categories: the production of stills and the production of animations. (temporal coherence for animations)
- The presented system belongs in the animation category and addresses interactive rendering.
- In the past, the designer had no direct control over the marks that were made.
- With this system, strokes are synthesized based on a user given style where the user specifies where particular strokes should be placed. The strokes are modified with changes in lighting and viewpoint.
- How the rendering works: Models are triangle meshes. A mesh is divided into one or more patches, each rendered with several shaders. One draws a “base-coat”, another handles the creases, a third draws silhouettes and a fourth applies hatching strokes.
- The designer can choose background color and a “base-coat”, i.e. a shader (eg. cartoon shader or solid shader).
- Decal strokes: painted straight on the model, e.g. bottle labels.
- Crease strokes: mesh edges that follow sharp features on the model. The crease endpoints are extended along the perspective tangents to accommodate sketching beyond the crease.
- Silhouettes are view dependent (like in Maya 7). Their number, locations and lengths, vary from one frame to the next.
- Hatching is used to convey tone and material form. As the camera approaches a hatch group, level of detail effects preserve the density.
- The greatest strength of this system is the degree of control given to the artist:1. choose brush style 2. choose paper texture 3. choose backgrounds 4. choose base-coat (what kind of shader) 5. choose the look and location of the marks.
- The weaknesses of this system are: 1. doesn’t work well with short strokes (pointillism) 2. The silhouette style applies globally 3. no support of shadows or reflections.

“Non Photorealistic Rendering – Computers for artists who work alone”, by Barbara Meier
Feb. 99, ACM Siggraph

- The author would like to empower individual illustrators and animators with affordable computer tools with which they could create good picture books or film festival animations.
- If NPR methods are presented right to artists, in a way that could be integrated into their existing process, then they would be interested in it.
- Only lately people who have visual arts training are using graphics software to create art. Before that, the people who were using it were the ones trained to use the software the way it was written.
- Looking forward to the day when the computer is just another tool that helps artists make an animation at home using the methods that seem more appropriate for each step of the way. (So, it seems that the computer has not reached the level of just being “another tool”. Maybe, as the author suggests, it’s still too complex to use; or maybe it simplifies an important process into a few button pushes. Developers should let the users help drive the development of the more sophisticated aspects of the software)
- To improve an individual animator’s tools the animator could feed the computer work samples or “teach” it to create a particular look ( So the ink and paint step could be less boring and a lot faster. This goes to Dr. Patterson’s system that does automatic inbetweening for 2D animators.)
- The author believes that NPR will allow simpler models and choreography and this may leave room for fudging the boundaries between the animation methods.
- An idea of blending all the best methods together maybe this: as the animators work in 3D, they could draw in by hand exaggerated motions or facial expressions. Maybe this will be much more expressive and effective.
- Let’s not wait for a quiet evolution of the computer tools. Let’s get appropriate tools into the hands of visionaries now.

“Painterly rendering for animation”, by Barbara Meier

- This method solves 2 problems for NPR: 1. the shower door effect (animation appears as if it was viewed through textured glass) 2. this technique provides for frame-to-frame coherence. The resulting frames do not randomly change every frame.
- Method: combination of using 3D particles, surface lighting information and rendering 2D brushstrokes in screen space.
- Real paintings have the ability/quality not to depict every detail, thus allowing the viewer to complete the picture.
The character of brushstrokes defines the character of a surface and how light is reflected from it.
- Computer rendering, by default, is automated and not inviting to the viewer.
- You can work with the computer lights and surfaces, but it is still difficult to obtain the level of abstraction that is evident in a good painting.
- When the computer methods try to mimic hand drawn animation, then too much randomness makes the animation noisy.
- The painterly renderer should not: 1. randomly change on every frame and 2. have the “gift wrapped” look of painted textures applied on geometry traditionally.
- Recently (of time of paper, 1996), there has been a movement toward more creative and expressive imagery in computer graphics.
- The author’s system found solution in generating a set of particles that describe a surface, depth sort the particles in camera space and render them as 2D brushstrokes in screen space using a painter’s algorithm.
- Steps of this method:
1. Tessellate surface into triangles and distribute particles within each triangle.
2. Specify and apply brush attributes. The brush image is a color image with Alpha. The use of reference pictures gives information about the color, the orientation and the size of the object. 3. Apply the brush image. 4. Animate parameters and randomness.
- This painterly renderer is well suited to the impressionist style. In the example of the apples, there is no concern about defining exact boundaries and instead, the overlapping brushstrokes create a rhythm.
- In the apples example again, the different looks were achieved by: 1. varying the brush image 2. the amount of jittering and 3. the brush size.
- In the haystacks example, there are layers of paint, each for a different purpose (shadow, highlights, reflected light etc)
- This method can eliminate complex modeling issues. The rendered images are coherent over time and do not exhibit random frame to frame changes. Brush strokes stick to animation surfaces, not the viewplane, thus eliminating the shower door effect.

“Automatic inbetweening in Computer Assisted Animation by exploring 2.5D modeling techniques”, by Fabian di Fiore, Philip Schaeken, Koen Elens, Frank Van Reeth

- This paper introduces a method for automatic inbetweening in computer assisted traditional animation.
- Definition of traditional animation: Traditional animation is an art form. It is the process of creating a sequence of drawn images which, when shown one after the other at a fixed rate, resembles a lifelike movement.
- The authors’ goal was to eliminate the time consuming aspects of traditional animation. They developed a computer animation process that assists the animator with an automatic inbetweening solution. The approach is based on a 2.5D modeling and animation technique, which they implemented as a multi-level software architecture.
- “Toon Rendering”, a subcategory of NPR, also offers solutions in the changing silhouette problem. But the authors identify two drawbacks in this technique (3D toon shading): 1. a lot of modeling and animation is required in 3D 2. the renders are “too” accurate. In traditional animation, animators do not mimic reality exactly; instead they like to exaggerate it, putting emphasis on specific expressive details that cannot exist in the real world.
- A cartoon head depicted with NPR techniques is compared with the same head but hand drawn. The conclusion is that the eyes on the hand drawn head are more expressive (since they are not geometrically/mathematically in the position that they have on the computer head)
- Comparison of traditional 2D animation Vs 3D computer animation:
3D: 1. Modeling 2. Animation 3. Rendering
2D: 1. Draw and animate at once (not separate like 1. and 2. above): keyposes, inbetween details, remaining inbetweens and cleanup. 2. Ink and paint (which relates to rendering of 3D).
- The solution presented in this paper is a multi-level 2.5D modeling and animation. This system is capable of animating characters and objects that transform on the x-y plane and also transformations outside the x-y plane (esp. rotations around an axis different the z).
- When rotating a drawing in the y axis: the outlines and silhouettes are changed.
- Thought: In this paper, 2.5D presents the technique of hand drawn frames with computer inbetweens. Other research deals with 3D animation, using NPR techniques to make it look like it was hand drawn. Different approach but the desired look is similar: too seem like the whole sequence was hand drawn.
- In this automated approach the manual “drawing” stays limited to modeling of the extreme frames. Once the extreme frames are generated, it becomes possible to automatically render snapshots of the 2.5D objects within the range covered by the extreme frames. (so, you can draw the extreme frames, model them in this system and let the inbetweens be done automatically).
- A “more 3D” support/approach is needed for animating characters with many sub-parts. So, the 3D skeleton is introduced. Each sub-object of the characters is attributed to a specific bone of the skeleton.
- In the future they plan to apply real time processing of stylus data for generating the underlying curves on the fly without paint-click-drag control points.

“Computer Assisted Animation”, by John Patterson and Philip Willis

- Computer Animation (CA) Vs Computer Assisted Animation (CAA):
- CA: core technology for multimedia and virtual reality.
- CAA: aids the production of cartoons and is a subset of CA. Core technology for multimedia only.
- Some believe that 2D is simply a limited version of 3D. But it’s the other way round. It is 3D that is simpler case computationally.
- Concepts: Animation exaggerates reality and is deliberately not consistent. 2D animation does not respect geometry, unlike typical computer graphics. (example of 2D head where animator chooses to be inconsistent with facial features.)
- Catmull was negative about CAA due to technological constraints of his time. But the authors of this paper believe that CAA has arrived with solutions that are not all based in conventional computer graphics.
- Staging is really the clear presentation of an idea which includes avoiding anything which might distract the viewer’s attention or placing characters, viewpoints, expressions etc, even the timing of a scene, so the viewer’s attention is engaged most directly.
- An interesting comment is that after a 2D film is complete, the individual hand drawn frames can be disposed!
- Multiplane camera: allows artwork to be placed in a number of well-separated planes to give a good feeling of depth. (so technology again, attempts to give a 3D feel to hand drawn artwork)
- Concept: The key point is that a photograph or live capture is a 2D representation of a 3D scene; it is not necessary to recover that 3D information to be able to manipulate the image or use the progressive transformations of it to make a movie sequence.
- Catmull argued that the 2D picture does not have the 3D information which the animator holds mentally. So it would be difficult to automate CAA. The key problem in 2D animation is how to automate inbetweening: the process of generating successive drawings of a figure which change consistently with our 3D intuition of how the drawings should change.
- Thought: An animator has knowledge of the 3D world around him/her. But there is no such information in the 2D drawing; therefore, automated inbetweening is difficult. This breaks down into two sub-problems: how silhouettes change and how various parts of the figure occlude (block off) themselves.
- Bones are used to drive the silhouette, but this process requires shape distortions for the overlying shapes.
- Referral to the “2.5D” term: as early as 1995, the date of the paper.
- Automated inbetweening works well with the pose-to-pose animation.
- Depth of field with the multiplane camera: a 3D graphics technology applied to 2D.
- CAA is a multimedia technology that is not restricted to cartoon animation, but it can be applied to any visual medium (e.g. morphing).
- 2D animation systems Vs 3D counterparts: distinctions between them will become blurred. (they use common techniques).

“In-betweening”, by Dr. John Patterson

- Inbetweening is the process of deriving intermediate shapes from keys and breakdowns.
- The author finds the solution of inbetweening in the 3D world.

“ ‘Creative Pull’ of style and technology together in an animated project”, by Dr. John Patterson

- This is a paper on digital technology and style.
- Creative Pull: Development of technology as driven by the dictates of the content.
- Issues of style and technology can be equally “pulled” by the requirements of content integrity. Technology issues can also be stylistic and vice versa.
- Metaphor for “creative pull”: “making the film while building the camera”. (things change and get invented on the fly).
- Digital technology offers a range of stylistic capabilities: But many professional filmmakers are not aware of these capabilities and therefore, dislike most forms of technology because they take creative control out of their hands.
- Short film: “Stalin’s fridge”, animated to music like Fantasia. Reference to “Citizen Kane”, like Landreth in “Make it Real – Part 1”.
- The idea for the look of this film is quasi realistic models r4endered in B+W.
- Make the staging more dramatic rather than being forced by the music.

“Computer animation and human animators”, by Philip Willis
(similar to “Computers for artists who work alone” by Barbara Meier)

- There is often a gap between what technology can deliver and what users want. This is because of technological constraints and also because technologists do not address the user needs.
- Visual designers are more visually aware than the software developers who win the prizes!
- Computer animation is dependent upon the animator’s vision; the user manipulates the objects directly.
- The author brings an example of a hand drawn face that doesn’t follow the “geometric” rules: both eyes maybe visible in a side view when one eye would be hidden in reality. There is a need for the animator to have direct control of the pictures. (same argument with di Fiore, that drawing the eyes on a turning head might not be geometrically correct, but are more effective and expressive. Paper: “Automatic inbetweening in CAA by exploiting 2.5D modeling techniques”).
- Animation can be Art rather than Craft.
- The computer graphics community, when moving to a new drawing technology (such as the computer), has thrown away 100 years of knowledge until 1987 when Lasseter (of Pixar) pointed out that traditional techniques could be applied to 3D computer animation.
- Recently there has been a renewal of interest in 2D computer animation. So, some lessons have been learned and some of the real problems are being addressed.
- Thought: Is the author raising an issue with “2D computer animation” about 2.5D? Or vector-based software? Or CAA? Or automatic inbetweening? Do they all fall in the same category?
- Coherence: similarities which carry over from frame to frame (term also used in Meier’s Painterly Rendering for animation).
- Introduced vector based programs that are scale free.
- The tyranny of the pixel is replaced by scale-free, vector-based programs.
- This 1995 paper states that a goal of computer animation has been to produce the inbetween frames automatically, but this has proved difficult. Papers by Patterson, di Fiore and Van Reeth prove that progress has been made on this subject.
- The inbetweening is not been a simple matter of interpolating between two pictures. It’s more of a circular interpolation than it is a linear one, as John Patterson realized.
- The animator has to figure out what he/she wants to do on paper first, then use the computer. Draw a clean image of it, scan it and vectorize it.
- Computer based libraries are a must in production. They can hold multiple character poses that can be accessed by many users.
- Computer-mediated 2D (like Computer Assisted Animation) started more than 10 years ago.
- Advantages of 2D Computer Animation: digital library.
- Disadvantages of 2D Computer Animation: have to have a clean drawing to scan before you start.

“Mimicing 3D transformations of emotional stylized animation with minimal 2D input”, by Fabian di Fiore and Frank Van Reeth

- This paper talks about the technique of computer assisted traditional facial animation.
- Aims: save 2d animators time from drawing facial expressions, maintaining the animator’s artistic style.
- Existing technique [Bregler at al. 2002]: Track the motion from traditionally animated cartoons and retarget it onto new 2D drawings. This way, by using animation as the source, similar new animations can be generated. But the choice of source and target key-shapes has to be good and drawn manually.
- NPR techniques (in particular Toon Rendering) are used to automatically generate stylized cartoon renderings. Starting from 3D geometrical models, NPR techniques can generate possibly stylized cartoon renderings depicting outlines with the correct distortions and occlusions. Despite the automatic generation, it requires heavy modeling and animation of 3D objects and in any case the results suffer from being too “3D-ish”, since the underlying 3D geometry is rendered too accurate.
- 3D Vs 2D animation systems: 2D systems have many constraints that limit the animators and 3D has the “3D-ish” look. So the authors suggest a 2.5D system: it distinguishes a modeling phase and an animation phase. It creates convincing 3D-like animations starting from pure 2D information.
- Thought: In the above definition of 2.5D, the animator starts with 2D information and with a 3D technique reaches the 2.5D. With NPR techniques, the animator starts with 3D data and with the help of toon rendering and/or painterly renderers it reaches 2..5 D. The final goal is to escape the 3D-ish look and make everything look hand crafted.
- A rigid 3D look is avoided through varying line thickness and the ability to have subtle outline changes that are either impossible or hard to achieve utilizing 3D models. (This was back in 2003. Now this is possible)
- FEC: Facial Emotion Channels: Break the facial expressions in individual parts (mouth, nose, eyes etc)
- So, they model a neutral version of the face and a set of emotional versions on the individual parts. So, the animator doesn’t have to model each expression manually. (This technique comes from 3D. “Blendshapes” in Maya for example)
- Facial expressions from different points of view. This is achieved by modeling characters in 2D from 8 different viewpoints to cover all rotation possibilities.
- The ideal solution would be to develop a tool that automatically generates all the FEC’s for all viewpoints and also takes into account the animators artistic input.
- Steps: 1. Model neutral front and facials front. 2. Model viewpoints neutral. 3. The rest is automated.
- This system bridges the gap between a purely 2D approach that constrains the animator’s freedom and a 3D approach with a realistic look. This 2.5D, computer assisted, automatic inbetween system uses FEC’s to achieve using the individual facial parts/emotions.

“The exploitation of vertical markets to support entertainment products”, by John Patterson

- Vertical marketing is the process of extracting additional revenue from derivative products branded by specific entertainment projects: games, toys, books, CD’s, DVD’s, videos.
- Vertical Marketing is a concept not so well understood in Europe, except by imitation. It’s well understood in the US and Japan.
- George Lucas is an innovator of the film industry and vertical marketing (began with Star Wars: toys, books, comics).
- With vertical markets, film budgets could be larger.
- Vertical markets aren’t the only device essential to restoring film production outside the US. distribution is the other key.
- The web is a useful medium for attracting attention (like the Blair Witch Project).
- Vertical markets amplify revenues on media projects and turn loss into profit. They are not understood in Europe and their formation is also discouraged.

“Chicken Run, Hatching the movie”, by Brian Sibley

- Claymation is a trick for the eye. It is all an optical illusion known as “persistence of vision”, which occurs because the human eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after seeing it. And if in that moment one image can be switched for another that is slightly different, then the eye is cheated into thinking that is has seen the first image move.

“The art of the Incredibles”, by Mark Cotta Vaz

- Teddy Newton: From the beginning, we all wanted the people to look like cartoon people instead of photorealistic people. In animation it really takes a bit of exaggeration to make something look convincing. The faces and attitudes Al Hirshfeld drew, were often more recognizable in the abstract than if they had been rendered out realistically.

“The History of Animation – Enchanted Drawings”, by Charles Solomon

- The first computer generated images were created in the 1950’s at the Bell laboratories and MIT.
- 10 years ago when the book was published: “many animators doubt that computers will be able to generate effective 2D character animation until they can experience emotions. But the coloring systems are doing pretty good and might replace the traditional ink and paint.”
- 1982: film “Where The Wild Things Are” made at Disney by Glen Keane and John Lasseter combined 3D backgrounds and 2D character animation.
- Bill Kroyev (former Disney animator): “Movement is not animation. I think of animation as a performing art. A computer can create action, not acting.
A good computer animator must first be a good animator who understands and employs the principles of acting, staging and timing. The computer simply becomes another tool.” (old ideas before the blossoming of good 3D character animation)
- Short film Luxo Jr. (1986) by John Lasseter and Bill Reeves hailed as “Steamboat Willie” of computer graphics, the film that represented a breakthrough into a new realm of animation.
- Gibson: “We hope that character animation will be the next frontier”. (for computer graphics)
- It has become increasingly obvious that computer graphics will not be the savior of the animation industry. Rather, Computer Animation represents another tool in the filmmaker’s repertory, like live action, stop motion photography and drawn animation. (This is how things were viewed 10 years ago. Today, CA seems to be taking over…)

First tests with NPR (Non Photorealistic Rendering)

2005-09-07T21:24:00.000+03:00

These are a few tests I have done using Maya and Photoshop.

The first image is a clean 3D render out of Maya using the Maya renderer with dome lights to give it a softer look. Then I started experimenting with different techniques, inspired by people who have produced NPR images (see previous post). The results had really jiggly lines as outlines and I didn't like them. I posted a still frame of this same guy in the past, in which he had oil paitning outlines that still needed a lot of tweaking. Then I decided to play around with Maya 7 that has some new rendering and shading features. I got hooked!

Original 3D render

This next image was produced solely in Maya 7 with a texture from Photoshop as a test. His outlines were created in Maya. They are paint effects strokes and they follow his body no matter the angle we see him from from. It's brilliant! The outlines can be more faded, the can jiggle, they can change color etc. They are fully animatable. In my test, I used a water texture to map the width of the outline. Then I animated the attributes of the water (waves, amplitude and frequency) that make the line jiggle throughout the animation. There are no lights in the scene. His shader has the ambient color to its maximum, so he appears flat and renders fast without lights. I also went to his render attributes and turned off "double sided" so that he only renders from the front. He has a quick painting texture on him. The same texture was converted to a black and white image and used as a transparency map, in order to emulate a natural medium like a color pencil for instance which would normally have some blank spots. Thus the paper will show through. But I had a problme here: wherever there was transparency, I could see through him all the outlines, for example inside his mouth. This was a weird x-ray image. I had to block the transparent parts so that I would avoid seeing the otherwise hidden outlines. So I fed a background shader into the default color of the transparency map. This created the render below, that I cannot use without compositing it first. The black areas do not appear in the final compositions because they are masked out with the alpha channel produced by Maya, which reads the original transparency fed into the shader. This is probably too technical to understand, but it works :o) It's the first draft of course, so there's a lot more to be done.

Render with outline and textured surface.
The darker parts on his body are replaced with
the background color in compositing.

The following 4 images were composited in Flint. In short, I took the sequence looking like the image above, straight out of Maya and placed them over the paper paper background through the alpha channel also created by Maya. This way, I had my transparent areas clean and no sign of the inner mouth outlines :o) Then I played with his outline more, using and edge detect on Flint which was then composited over him. Now I was able to make him a bit transparent, to fade his layer into the paper more, without fading away his outlines.

The next steps in this test are:

- to make his texture animate, as if it was hand painted frame by frame. This might require painting several frames by hand.
- to make the color pencil strokes go past his outline, like an artist's hand would do. Make it more loose.
- to experiment more with the outline: the look, the color, the opacity, the animation... is there really a need for an outline? Consider that possibility also.
- to test some hand painted shading. Will the image be too busy then?

Composition frame_01. The outline around him jiggles
and he is a bit see through, emulating natural media.
He was placed on paper texture for fun.

Composition frame_02

Composition frame_03

Composition frame_04

The following three orange frames are a quick test I did using solely Paint Effects in Maya. I was very pleased with the result, even though the images don't say much :o) but they have a good working process behind them.

The circle is a 3D sphere rendered flat with black outline like explained above. It has some airbrush strokes painted directly onto its surface using a wacom tablet and pen. The red lines could represent pencil/brush strokes representing its color and the black lines are some cross hatch shading. The color of the ball could be any solid color or painted texture. The red air brush strokes are fully animatable! They can move around and jiggle, like I wanted them, they can go past the outer outline. The background color has to be the same as the object at this point so that the red line has the same color when it moves outside the sphere. Otherwise it blends with the color of the background. The wonderful thing about the alpha channel in Maya, is that it can block out the background and later on in compositing, I can replace it with any image! The red lines can also accept maps that make them change width and look. Same thing can happen with the black hatch ink lines.

So, with this quick test that looks like nothing, I have opened up the possibility to hand paint my characters direclty in Maya and make the strokes move, having at the same time frame to frame coherence which is a big issue in NPR research (found that out from the papers I've been reading for the PGPD essay). There are still a lot of things to explore... I don't know how well these would deform once a character starts to walk and move around... it might look too mechanical or even strange. We'll see. It's the next thing I do, along with reading about Paint Effects in Maya.

Paint Effects image_01

Paint Effects image_02

Paint Effects image_03

What others have done with Non Photorealistic Rendering

2005-08-04T14:16:00.001+03:00

Doing research for my project and also for the PGPD essay has led me to these wonderful images that combine seamlessly the 3D and 2D worlds together.

They are from artists, scientists and companies who work with CG and then using proprietary software/scripting/plugins they give their work a hand drawn look.

There is an exception to the above: the animated short Lorenzo by Disney, which was animated by hand and then imported into Maya where its dry brush paint effects were created.

There are descriptions, artists' names and websites for all the images below.

Enjoy!

The following 5 images are from http://www.toonshade.com/ The artists here use a toon shader called Tomcat that provides strokes using the paint effects in Maya.

Modelled by Danny Mousses & rendered by Duncan Brinsmead

Yves Dalbiez

Eric Colin

Patrick Jean

Yves Dalbiez, Laurent Leuleu & Elise Garcette

The following 4 images are from http://www.sabinehitier.com/ The artist is Sabine Hitier. The first two are from her latest film "Petit a petit" which was featured in Annecy 2005. The last two are from her 2001 film "La révolte des haricots rouges". "Petit a petit" was solely done in Maya with a technique not yet revealed by Sabine since this film has not been released. She says it's a simple watercolor technique; but it took 8 months of research for it. For "La révolte des haricots rouges" she has posted her technique on her site; it was done in MAX.

"Petit a petit" by Sabine Hitier

"Petit a petit" by Sabine Hitier

"La révolte des haricots rouges" by Sabine Hitier

"La révolte des haricots rouges" by Sabine Hitier

The following 3 images are from the Disney animated short "Lorenzo". The concept belongs to legendary animator Joe Grant and it was nominated for a best animated short oscar this year. The designs, visual development and direction belong to Mike Gabriel. Lorenzo was animated by hand in Paris and then its dry brush look was develpoed in California by Dan Teece who adopted Gabrie's brushstrokes in a software called Sable. The basic idea behind Sable shown in the third image of Lorenzo below is:
1. The program captured Gabriel’s rough brushstroke style.
2. Then a set of NURBS curves were rigged to follow the pencil animation in Maya. The director's brushtrokes were then applied to these curves. This way the animation did not jitter like it would had the frames been hand painted.
3. Sable produces the final render.
Dan Teece presented Sable at Siggraph 2003 in San Diego. I was there but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to watch it :o(

More information available in these articles:

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?article_no=2042
http://www.magicalears.com/films/Interviews/A%20Talk%20with%20Disney%20Legend%20Joe%20Grant/index.php

"Lorenzo" by Mike Gabriel, Disney

"Lorenzo" by Mike Gabriel, Disney

"Lorenzo" by Mike Gabriel, Disney
Development of Sable program by Dan Teece

The following 6 images are from http://jonhandhisdog.com/myIBPortal/
The artist is Jason Schleifer, whose latest credits include Madgascar. This is a short film that Jason is developing in his free time. He is a very technical guy and writes amazing scripts for almost anything. When I asked him how he did it, this is the answer I got:

"the dog renders were done with a mel script I wrote that would do a vector render, then import the vector render as nurbs curves, place them in front of the camera, modify them a little bit, apply the correct paintFX stroke, and then do another render. Pretty crazy script, I'm tellin ya! :) "

"Jonh and his Dog" by Jason Schleifer

"Jonh and his Dog" by Jason Schleifer

"Jonh and his Dog" by Jason Schleifer

"Jonh and his Dog" by Jason Schleifer

"Jonh and his Dog" by Jason Schleifer

"Jonh and his Dog" by Jason Schleifer

The next 6 images are from a research paper that I first heard about in Spain last April, when I went there for a CG conference. The speaker was Barbara J. Meier, former Disney animator and now an instructor at Brown University.

Her site is: http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/bjm/

Here are the paper details, found in the above site:

"WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models" by
Robert D. Kalnins, Lee Markosian, Barbara J. Meier, Michael A. Kowalski, Joseph C. Lee,
Philip L. Davidson, Matthew Webb, John F. Hughes, Adam Finkelstein.
Princeton University and Brown University.

"WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models"

"WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models"

"WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models"

"WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models"

"WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models"

"WYSIWYG NPR: Drawing Strokes Directly on 3D Models"

The next two images are by Kyoko Murakami (Graduate School of Kyushu Institute of Design) and Reiji Tsuruno (Kyushu Institute of Design) from Japan. They are part of their paper "Polygon-based Pastel-like Rendering for Animation" presented at Siggraph 2003.

Reiji Tsuruno 's site is : http://hyoka.ofc.kyushu-u.ac.jp/search-cgi/faculty2_e.cgi?Key_8=Kyushu+University+KANSEI+Center+for+Arts+and+Science&ID=K002327

Kyoko Murakami and Reiji Tsuruno

Kyoko Murakami and Reiji Tsuruno

The following image is by Shin-Jin Kang and Chang-Hun Kim, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Korea University. This image is taken from their research paper
"Real-Time 3D Sumi-e Painting", presented at Siggraph 2003.

The paper can be found here:
http://kucg.korea.ac.kr/seminar/tech/src/PR-03-06.files/frame.htm#slide0001.htm

Shin-Jin Kang and Chang-Hun Kim

This next image is from my favorite director, Pierre Coffin of Passion Pictures and now director at Passion Paris. This was one of the first shorts he produced which I saw at Siggraph 98 in Orlando. Brilliant character animation and visual style! I believed he achieved this look by writing his own shaders.
His site is: http://pyer.3dvf.net/

The Pings, Pierre Coffin

The next few images were created by PDI geniuses when PDI was still not owned by Dreamworks. I believe these people are among the first pioneers of Non Photorealistic Rendering.

"Gas Planet" by Eric Darnell, 1992
His latest credits include Madagascar
http://www.tribute.ca/bio.asp?id=2069

"Gas Planet" by Eric Darnell, 1992

"Fishing" by David Gainey , 1998
http://www.awn.com/mag/issue4.11/4.11pages/4.11festivals.php3

"Bric a Brac" by Cassidy Curtis, 1994

"The new chair" by Cassidy Curtis

Here are a few more sites of research done on Non Photorealistic Rendering (or 2.5 D as others refer to it):
http://www.red3d.com/cwr/npr/
http://www-viz.tamu.edu/showcase/thswkimg/sketchy/slide2.html
http://www.tribute.ca/bio.asp?id=2069
http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~ago820/
http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/
http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/depiction.html
http://www.custodiev.org/

(Custodiev is a project I saw at the Cartoon conference in Spain. John Patterson of the University of Glascow has some very interesting puplications on their 3D/2D technique that I am now studying.)

Unit 3 - Pre-tutorial notes: the PGPD essay part 2 and notes on my animation project

2005-07-20T00:43:00.000+03:00

The PGPD essay – part 2

Research question:

I am researching the history and techniques of 2D and 3D animation, because of the increasing industry talk around the death of hand drawn animation, in order to find out a. whether 2D does indeed belong in the past or it’s patiently waiting for its renaissance and b. if a new art form has emerged from marrying the two.

Things to talk about/define:
- Definition of the types of animation.
- Definition of the environments they live in.
- Definition of what kind of debate surrounds them.
- Description of the genre – how and why were these types of animation selected for this paper? I chose to talk about 2D and 3D because there is an ongoing debate in the industry about a “competition” between the two; if 3D has dominated the market thus killing 2D and so on. This was initiated with the closing down of major 2D studios and the lay offs of hundreds traditional animators. Did this mark the end of an era?
- Placing these types of animation historically.
- Reflection of the role of the technology in this context.

Article and book readings:

I found online a lot of articles that deal with this issue from 1997 until now. They are fairly new, since this is a contemporary, ongoing debate. I also have books that cover the history of animation from Gertrude the dinosaur, through Disney and onto the latest CGI innovations. I might also refer to individual animators’ books, like Chuck Jones, Frank and Ollie, and the Pixar movies “making of” books. I will also look through my past conference notes, since there were extensive talks on new 2.5D techniques and on 2D Vs 3D comparison.

Then, I hope I can write a descent paper :o)

MADA project – animated short

Here are some rough thoughts on the subject of my animation.

- It’s going to be an approximately 30 sec. animation.
- The research behind it, beyond the animation part is the advertising to children. There are a lot of ethical issues involved here: the subject, the time the spots air, the content, the execution, the audio/sound effects, the disclaimers etc. Reading about all this almost made me feel that I’m committing a crime by advertising to children! The one way I felt comfortable approaching this issue was by researching the social ads option. This is not a very common way to approach children, compared to junk food, cereal and toys commercials. So, I decided to go with that: find a social issue that is kind of “left alone” and that is also close to my heart. And that is animal protection and/or animal adoption. Kids learn to either love or hate animals from a really early age depending on what the parents’ reaction is. So I would love to create a spot that would make the children think, but also the parents. This animation should not talk down to children and should be intelligent enough so it reaches the parents also.
- I plan to use humor and some bright colors; research shows that these two elements grab the children’s attention. My intention is to use both 2D and 3D techniques and this is the area I am experimenting with now. I watched a few lectures on different 2.5D techniques that people use, usually with methods they invent themselves. I’ll play around with that idea and see if I can come up with a look that I am most happy with. (these notes and websites can be found in the Cartoon Future post I have on the blog)
- I like the idea of turning the roles around, of using parody and revealing the ending with a surprise or a strong punchline. (these notes can be found on the sketchbook pages post on the blog). For example, make the children feel how it is to be an animal, make them get in their pets’ paws. Show them what it means to stand in line in the pound shop waiting for adoption or how miserable they are in a cage.

Things to think about during the summer - notes from Jonathan

1. Keep developing the project. Unit 3 finishes in December and I will need to have a "working prototype" of the project by then. By prototype I mean something that looks fairly close to my final piece. The goal is that I will have sorted some of the problems out and have a good idea of what it will look like. For the assessment at the end of Unit 3 they will need to see how things have developed and feel confident I am on target.
2. Think about the final show next July! Look through the issues of this year's show, like the light and sound pollution from neighboring works and installations. Is it a good or a bad thing? We all have to work together (f2f, part time and online students) to make this work. It should be interesting! We will be assessed on individual work, but also on how the group works together.
3. Think about the PGPD essay.

Ideas and doodles - Notes from "Creative Advertising" by Mario Pricken

2005-06-30T21:36:00.000+03:00

Here are some notes from the periodical "Digit" and the very inspirational book " Creative Advertising" by Mario Pricken which really isn't an ad book... it's a guide for every artist in any field.

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

page 6

page 7

page 8

page 9

page 10

The beginning of the PGPD essay

2005-06-26T12:58:00.000+03:00

Parts of the essay:

- Abstract
- The body of the essay
- Conclusion
- Bibliography

Useful points:

Look for a fresh subject. Raise a question; the paper should aim to answer that question. The conclusion should be based on the information found from the quoted texts (at least five). Try to advance the debate; don’t repeat what others have said about the subject. The chosen subject could be close to the research carried out for the MADA project but not directly related.

Steps to be taken:

- Find a research question
- Research the issue
- Write an argument – contextualize the addressed issue
- Arrive at justified conclusion
- Refer to 5 texts at least + bibliography

Process of formulating a research question:

- Find a broad subject area
- Narrow this to a specific topic
- Question that topic from several viewpoints
- Choose the question whose answer is the most significant

Broad subject area:

A. Ethical issues in children’s advertising
B. 2D animation Vs 3D

Narrow to specific topic:

A. What ere there moral issues involved in children’s advertising? Are rules being broken for the sake of sales and marketing? What areas/products are being used the most when targeting children?

B. Which technique is the most effective in movies and advertising? Which is the most popular? Does the gap between the two techniques lie in their aesthetic difference or the cost difference?

Question topic from different viewpoints:

A. Should advertising be completely prohibited from every kids zone? If no, should it be allowed but more controlled? Who are the most eligible to be influenced by TV ads, boys or girls? Should kids participate in the advertising process, make it more interactive? Would this educate them in order to be more aware of the marketing process?

B. Have children expressed a preference towards the one or the other technique? Can they distinguish between cartoon programs and cartoon advertising, either 2D or 3D? Would a technique in between 2D and 3D bridge the gap? Get the best of both worlds? Is 2D really dead or is it waiting for its rebirth? Will the big animation studios allow this to happen since 3D seems to be so profitable? So, is this art form controlled merely by the big guys’ wallet size?

Possible research questions:

A. I am researching the ethical issues in children’s TV advertising because of the increasing amount of ads and the concerns they raise during kids programs in order to understand whether all these rules and attention are justified or they are simply exaggerated reactions to Marketing.
B. I am researching the issue of the gap between 2D and 3D animation by contrasting the works of old Disney animators (or Chuck Jones) and Pixar animators (or John Lasseter) in order to find out whether 2D animation has died or it’s waiting for its renaissance.

ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN ON TV: book summary

2005-06-06T00:29:00.000+03:00

This post will be updated from time to time as I'm covering more chapters from this book.

ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN ON TV
CONTENT, IMPACT AND REGULATION
Barrie Gunter, Caroline Oates and Mark Blades
University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

The use of celebrities in children's advertising has mainly been investigated
with reference to cartoon characters and the danger of blurring the
boundaries between advertisements and programs (Kunkel, 1988b). Lawlor
and Prothero (2003) found that children identified celebrity endorsers as
powerful components in the persuasiveness of an advertisement.

He found children of all ages preferred cartoon endorsers, especially those with strong brand identities. Evidence on the influence of celebrity endorsers is mixed, with some studies suggesting the influence is greater among younger children who lack the necessary cognitive defenses and others finding the influence was equally strong between older and younger children (Gunter & Furnham, 1998).

For example, cartoon advertisements may be generally more memorable
than noncartoon advertisements, but this effect depends on whether the
advertisements are placed in a cartoon or noncartoon program. The placement
of cartoon advertisements in a cartoon program can impede children's
memory for the commercial messages, while placement in a
noncartoon program makes them stand out more (Gunter, Baluch, Duffy,
& Furnham, 2002).

On U.K. television, many advertisements for confectionery use fantasy
techniques, a good example being the Bassett's and Beyond series of advertisements.
Here, an animated young character, Ben and his dog Barkley,
have several adventures in a fantasyland where the landscape is constructed
from Bassett's products (chews, sherbet, lollipops). As a campaign, the fantasy
advertisements were successful, leading to an increase in both awareness and purchase (J. Ellyatt, 1999).

Special effects used in children's advertising include sound techniques,
speeded-up action, animated figures interacting with real children, and
"camera magic" (i.e., transforming objects, appearance and disappearance,
distortion, and so on). Such techniques gain children's attention and imbue
the products with excitement.

Advertisements for boys' products contained more cuts, loud music, and
boisterous activity. Those aimed at girls, by contrast, featured more fades
and dissolves, soft music, and quiet play. Marketers generally tend to use
boys (either real or animated) rather than girls when advertisements are
aimed at both genders. Girls will accept both girl and boy characters in advertising but boys will not accept girl characters (Ellyatt, 1999a).

The children had no problems in recalling advertisements that used special
effects and noted that such effects were often used to make a product look
better. A Kellogg's Frosties advertisement was cited as an example of endowing
a product with particular properties (Tony the animated Tiger is able to
score in spectacular fashion in a basketball game after eating Frosties) that
the children perceived as suggesting they too could have that ability after
consuming Frosties. The children's reaction to Frosties indicated that the
advertisement, at least in the children's eyes, was misleading as it implied
better sporting performance after eating the cereal.

Lewis and Hill (1998) pointed out that food advertisements in general are more likely to use animation, stories, humor, and the promotion of fun compared with other product ranges.

On a social level, advertisements contain representations of different aspects
of social reality. Repeated patterns of depictions of social groups and
social behaviors could shape youngsters' social perceptions and social attitudes
especially if they are exposed to these messages on a regular basis.

According to Szymanski (2002), the appeal that is most attractive to children
is simply fun.

Metaphors are used to create strong visual images that can stimulate the imagination and therefore aid recall of the product.

The traditional 30-second spot advertisement has been supplemented with other means of reaching children. The two most common methods are sponsorship and merchandising. These more subtle forms of advertising mean that children may often be unaware of the marketing messages.

Cartoon programs directly related to merchandising: many critics have labeled the animations as program-length commercials. Kunkel (2001, p. 376) noted that these "program-length commercials" allow advertisers to promote products directly within the body of the program, thus blurring the boundary between commercial and noncommercial content.

Testing 3D with 2D look

2005-06-03T01:01:00.001+03:00

I started to experiment with different ways of maybe achieving a 2.5 D to my 3D work. This means that I used a 3D model and tried to give it a 2D feel or look. There are different paths one can take in order to accomplish such a thing. Here's my first result as I was playing with oil paint and pastel paint effects outlines for my 3D models.

The first image illustrates a simple sphere in 3D with default color and light. The second image shows how that same sphere can be rendered to look almost like hand drawn; Things get more complicated once you move onto a more complex shape like the orange character. The part where geometry intersects, needs extra attentions and experimentation. Have in mind that the outlines are not hand drawn. The idea is to break the 3D look, the plastic look, using the same software that creates it, with a little help from scripts and plugins. If the outline process doesn't satisfy me, I will try a softer 3D look.

I like the direction this is going. It's too early of course to nail down the look. I'll keep playing around with the shaders and materials in Maya and also Paint Effects.

3D sphere

3D models with 2D look - test

Here are some sites that I found useful in researching this issue. The first three are personal sites of people working on 3D projects with a 2D feel. The fourth one is the site of an ispirational illustrator, whose animal drawings are very unique to me. The last one is the site of French director Pierre Coffin whose animal animations are very funny and well executed. His first work also includes 2D looking CG animation.

http://www.sabinehitier.com/
http://jonhandhisdog.com/myIBPortal/
http://jonhandhisdog.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=140&st=0
http://www.artstooge.com/artists/jasen/
http://pyer.3dvf.net/