Animation

Group 8

Raster animation
In computer animation, the term raster graphics refers to animation
frames made of pixels rather than scalable components, such as
vertices, edges, nodes, paths or vectors.
Storing images as pixels rather than vectors or vertices enables much
deeper and more realistic lighting and color because the computer
doesn't have to render each frame in real time as it does in a 3-D
video game.
However, because a fast PC can take 10 to 20 minutes to render one
frame, rendering an entire animation usually requires a network of
render nodes.

 Raster animation is the most basic type of computer animation.

It involves creating an image, and then using a computer to put
that image in motion.
Raster based animation frames are made up of individual pixels.
These pixels each contain information about the color and
brightness of that particular spot on the image.

Advantage
Advantages of Raster Animation
Compression Flash provides an easy way to change the files
compression (Right-click the raster file, select Properties)
Easier on the CPU Compared to vector animation, raster animation
takes less CPU time
Assurance You know exactly what your raster image will look like in
Flash, in the case of vector animation, youre handing that
responsibility over to the program
Smooth At the expense of CPU time, you can Allow Smoothing on
files that will be lightly resized (Right-click the raster file, select
Properties)
Faster Effects When filters or alpha is applied, a raster graphic will
perform faster then a vector graphic

Bitmaps and Scalable Vector Graphics

Raster animation doesn't only refer to 3-D graphics, although demand for 2-D animation in movies, TV, video games and commercials has
decreased since processing power has become affordable enough to render 3-D animations on a small budget. A raster image is simply
another word for a bitmap, or pixel-based image. In comparison, a vector image is a 2-D picture created in a scalable vector graphics editor
such as Adobe Illustrator or open source Inkscape. SVG files take up less disk space than bitmaps because they only store the paths that
delineate the shapes in a picture, whereas bitmaps store data for every pixel. Bitmaps store all the depth and subtlety of light that the
image resolution allows, while SVGs have simple, cartoonlike colors.
File Storage
The term raster image refers to the way the image is stored rather than how it's displayed. When your video card renders a frame of a
video game, you see the same pixels you'd see if you pre-rendered the frame using the same settings. The file read by the game stores the
image as an enormous array of vertices, and the video game contains software routines that move the vertices based on events in the
game. Video games sacrifice realism for smoothness during game play, but they often contain pre-rendered movies with fully realized
graphics. These scenes, stored as MPEG or a similar format, usually cause modern game sizes to exceed 1GB.
Traditional Raster Animation
Before 3-D animation became affordable, animated films and TV shows were mostly hand-painted, but video games used low-detail raster
animation to store graphics on a cartridge or disc. Video game artists in the 1980s and 1990s animated these character bitmaps using sprite
sheets, which enabled them to separate all the moving objects in the game. The game's software routines played the frames in each
object's sprite sheet independently of one another so that the game could react to the player's actions.
Modern Raster Animation
Many modern cartoons use raster animation to add color to hand-drawn animation cels. Each animation frame is either scanned into a
computer or sketched on a graphics tablet, and the entire animation is stored as a digital movie. Programming languages such as Flash,
HTML and Java include animation libraries that generate 2-D animations based on user input events, such as mouse clicks or keystrokes.
Like vector graphics, these generated animations can be scaled to fit any window, whereas pre-rendered raster graphics have a
predetermined resolution and become pixelated when scaled up.

Animation Languages
Artist-oriented animation languages
Full-featured programming languages for animation
Graphical languages dataflow network
Actor-based animation languages
Actor: a graphical object with its associated data and
procedures, including geometric description, display
attributes, and motion control.
Communication between actors: message passing

Animation (U), Chap 4, Interpolationbased Animation

CS, NCTU, J. H.Chuang

Specification of Animations
Formal specifications that describe animations can be divided
into three categories:
Linear-List Notations
High-Level Programming Language Notations
Graphical Languages

Linear List Notations

Each event is described by a beginning frame number, an end
frame number and an action event that is to be performed.
Action events may accept input parameters

For example
42, 53, B, ROTATE PALM, 1, 30
This instruction means......

SCEne Format (Scefo) specification can be considered a superset

of linear sets including groups and object hierarchies as well as
transformation abstractions using high-level languages
constructs.

High-Level Programming Languages

Notations

Values of variables can be used as parameters for

animation routines.
For example, ASAS is a LISP extension that includes
primitives such as vectors, colors, polygons, surfaces,
groups, points of view, subworlds, and lighting aspects in
addition to geometrical transformations operating on
objects
For example
(grasp my-cube); cube is current object
(cw 0.05); small clock-wise rotation
(grasp camera); camera is current object
(right panning-speed); Move it to the right

Graphical Languages
Graphical actions cannot be easily described by and/or
understood from textual scripts.
Hence, graphical animation languages describe animations in a
visual manner.
GENESYS, DIAL and S-Dynamics System are examples of such
systems.

Motion Specification
Click to edit Master text styles
Second level
Third level
Fourth level
Fifth level

Direct Motion Specification

Goal-Directed Systems

Kinematics and Dynamic

First bullet point here
Second bullet point here
Third bullet point here