Robots and People

Those of us in the Animation industry have always known that robots understand humans, just as much as animals and objects can think and talk. It seems that Scientists - sceptics that they are - have just gotten around to knowing it as well, and are now building robots that do understand us. Have a look at http://money.canoe.ca/News/Sectors/Technology/2006/11/25/2488865-ap.html, and don't forget to pass it on to any robots you know.

Although there are some people who feel that people don't understand people, and that is why the world is in such a state, perhaps robots can explain to the rest of us why we do what we do.

Of course, we (people) are a bit afraid that robots will one day take over the world. It seems that animated creatures are on the way to doing just that, as this year has seen an explosion of animated movies, probably the biggest release of any year. But why?
It could be that computers have reached a point where they can produce an animated movie that is comparable in cost and time to a live-action movie. This is the spin-off from libraries that allow characters created for one movie to be recycled for others. It could be that audiences are tired of the big action-packed kill-em-all movies. On the other hand it could be just market forces. A hit animated movie has great merchandising potential, which is rare for a live-action film.

Animated shorts are not missing out either. Waste you time looking at some animated jokes.

Stan

A Matter of Taste

Imagine going into a restaurant and saying to the Waiter "For starters I'll have a Bugs Bunny, followed by Pinocchio with some Bambi on the side, Ah yes, the Wallace and Gromit looks nice, I'll have that for desert".

The Waiter might think you are a couple of frames short of a cycle, but it could make sense if you suffered from synesthesia; a condition where the senses overlap so that words and pictures, get translated to tastes and smells.

It is a condition that quite a lot of people have. I play the guitar, and think of different keys as colours; F is green, while G is dark red. I have spoken to several musicians who also think like this, but have their own colours.
Now that recent developments allow computers to handle smells there seems to be a niche market here for movie makers.

A news article today announced that an animated movie 'Elephants Dream' is the first one to be made totally with Open Source (free) software.
This might seem a small step for a man but a giant step for a cartoon character. If movies can be made with legally free software then that opens a new entrance level to the industry.

Of course, there is much free software available, but most of it is not up to doing commercial work, and the time taken to learn it makes not worth the bother. Perhaps a new era has started, but in this business that's a daily occurence.

For those of you who do have time to spare, take a look at the National Film Board of Canada site http://www.nfb.ca/atonf/events/moreManchette.php?nav=6&v=h&lg=en&id=1228 for the 'Make the Pixels Dance' competition.

Stan

Tail Wags Dog Makes News

The downside of being a scriptwriter is that you mentally rewrite movies as you are watching them. Unlike a novel, a film script - as presented by the writer - is unlikely to survive in a recognisable form once it is handed over to the Producer.

This is because just about everyone working on a movie thinks the writing part is basically inspired day dreaming rather than a craft, and will add their two-cents worth if they get the chance. I once worked with a Producer who took a script credit just for changing the title!!!

Of course, there are movies that do not require much of a script. 'James Bond' is one that comes to mind. Everyone knows the story before they see it; it really a matter for the Special Effects dept to come up with the goods.

And as Animated movies have drifted away from simple storylines, there is more accent on SFX now, so it was with some interest I noted the article http://www.jeffpidgeon.com/2006/11/animation-glut-stories-is-there-glut.html which suggests the tide has turned, and that audiences have seen it all when it comes to 'All action No story' content.

But on the other hand another article at http://www.animationmagazine.net/article.php?article_id=6151 deal with Warner Bros merging its Special Effects dept with the main film units. The logic is that if SFX plays such a big part in action movies they are 'The Star', so there is a thin line between producing effects for a Production Company, and being the Production Company. The tail is wagging the dog, and it likely to continue.

Where will it end? The merging of Animation and Live-Action has passed the point where the audience is entertained simply by SFX. No doubt Production Companies looking for the next trend in blockbusters will - as a last resort - turn to looking for good stories. I can't wait.

Stan

Virtual Fantasy

Today I came across a news item at http://infolab.northwestern.edu/project.asp?id=40 . It is about news casting with computer generated characters.

Aparantly news items gathered by search engines are transcribed from written text to spoken text - as against simply reading the written text; Clever!!!

Even as I was reading the article it ocurred to me that it would be nice to scan in a novel and have it instantly turned into a movie.
But that is an obvious application. It would be pretty useful to have technical data spoken to you on how to operate your washing machine, or what your mortgage contract is actually saying.

Only last week I read of a handheld computer used by troops in Iraq that can do instant translations, so put them together and you could talk to anyone around the world using a nice looking version of yourself. It seems to me something that could put the Generals out of work.

I have always felt that animation can save the world, and it is certainly making inroads into crime. A recent article stated that video tapes of criminals caught on CCTV are now having their walks analysed by computers. We all have a walk cycle as unique as our fingerprints so it seems a good idea.

What else can be done? As CCTV cameras don't have sound they can't capture voiceprints, but that can't be too difficult to do.

A couple of years ago we ran a workshop called 'Kids Crack Crime' getting young teenagers to suggest ways of catching criminals, and making a short cartoon of it. The project went well, the group we worked with won the Guy Ritchie Award.

I look forward to 'Crime Watch' being shown with Computer generated presenters, with the crimes being re-enacted by avatars. We might soon be calling Reality 'Virtual Fantasy'.

Stan

Back to the Drawing Board

A couple of months ago I went to the Royal College of Art End of Year exhibition with some animation friends. We noted that there was much more traditional illustration and animation than in the previous years that had exploited new technology.

I wondered if 'Technology' has now been assimilated enough to the point where it is now taken for granted, and we could now get back to sweat and talent. I hope so because such work has more soul to it.

I was interested to note that this approach can still (and hopefully will continue) to be viable. The animated feature movie just released 'Romeo & Juliet - Sealed with a Kiss' is a full length feature animated by one man - Phil Nibblelink - made in 4 1/2 years using Flash animation. You can look it up at http://www.romeoandjulietfilm.com/

There is a growing call for movie makers to make their own movies, particularly for presenting Social problems. One site at http://www.google.com/educators/globalwarming.html is looking for ideas to solve global warming. If you are interested, a good place to start is Global Warming.

Stan

Computer Games

The first computer game I played was 'Lunar Lander' on a Mainframe machine in the late 1960s; we didn't have screens; you typed in coordinates for speed and distance, and it calculated your descent and how much fuel you had, then printed out the answer. It was played so much some colleges banned it.

My first games addiction was the Purple People Eaters on the BBC Micro; Mice weren't available then, so I got Repetitive Strain Injury like most games players of the time. I moved on to Lemmings on the Amiga, but when my PC came along I had passed my games phase, and apart from Freecel and Spider Solitaire, never play games.

But I was invited along to the London Games Festival earlier this month to hear discussions on Artificial Intelligence in Computer Games; the next 'big thing'. I wasn't all that impressed by what I saw or heard.

Being a scriptwriter I find Computer games lacking in plot, but the main point of the discussions was how to put more 'Emotional attributes' into the Avatars.

I suggested that Games developers were going along the same learning curve as Film makers had done many years ago, and that though good design in games is essential, it is parallel to having celebrities rather than good actors in roles.

I left the show feeling that it will be some time before Avatars can put emotion into acting, but I was wrong. Take a look at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/movies/15waxm.html?em&ex=1161144000&en=40ce02b6fecabbcc&ei=5087%0A

Without doubt this is the beginning of a new era in Computer Graphics and Movie making generally. It is not difficult to see that this technology will end up on the desktop within a year or two.

The merging of Games and Movies really is one giant step for Avatars; it just needs Surround Screens, Holograms, and Virtual Reality to catch up now.

In the mean time look at:
http://www.avatarist.com/
http://www.google.com/search?q=Motion+graphics
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=CGI+%2B+animation&btnG=Search

Stan

Animation Data Banks

When I started in Animation around 1958 life was simple in the Animation World. Animation fell into just a few categories of drawn, cutout, and model/puppet -which covered just about anything in 3D. There were some experimental techniques, but generally speaking you could see how any technique worked just by looking at it. Apart from the techniques, anyone from cameraman to editor could go to any studio in the world and all the equipment would be more or less the same.

Not so today; in fact two animators doing exactly the same type of work might well be using entirely different computer programs to do it, and the time taken to learn such programs would often mean they are stuck with their choice of program. As many programs come and go, it is worth spending time finding out what is likely to be around for the future.

As I am constantly looking for trends in animation I spend much time checking out links to the various animation categories. It can be quite frustrating at times, so I was pleased to come across the site at http://www.visualcomplexity.com/ which shows how Computer Animation can help out with visual search engines. The top image is an example of a visual data bank.

As far as I know, none have been applied to the 'World of Animation', but the potential is there, and if anyone gets around to doing it, much time and effort will be saved.

There are - of course - some good specialised Animation data banks. One of the best is:

http://www.awn.com/ and a subsection at http://schools.awn.com/

The big problem is that search engines have difficulty in searching for specific images. If you want a particular Bugs Bunny movie you can check out Chuck Jones, but the vast majority of animated movies don't get listed in a way that is easy to categorise. Until they do the best that can be offered is Animation Database and Animation Databanks

Stan

Pixilation

The first example of an animated film which still exists was an advert for matches; made around 1893. It used the pixilation technique of shooting real objects single-frame in 3D space as against drawings.
Until the advent of animation-cel (around 1915 I think), Pixilation was the main form of animation and primarily for Special Effects as in the 'Keystone Cops' films.

Wikipedia describes it as:
Pixilation (from pixilated) is a stop motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor becomes a kind of living stop motion puppet. This technique is often used as a way to blend live actors with animated ones in a film.

It is the simplest form of animation, and can easily be done using a digital camera with a single-frame button. But can also be done with an analogue movie camera just by clicking it on and off.
With children, the most common idea is to let them make a funny face for each shot.

This type of animation requires no editing and offers instant playback, but can easily be extending to give 'magical' effects such as people and objects appearing and disappearing, or moving around at a frantic pace.

This technique can be automated as 'Stop Frame' shooting, where the camera takes a shot at fixed intervals. Commonly seen in CCTV cameras, and scientific films where you see a flower growing in a few seconds though it actually took hours or days.

It is an ideal starting point for animation in schools, as once set up it requires no further attention.
A good site for learning basic techniques, including Pixilation is http://www.anim8ed.org.uk/resources_tech_pixil.asp

This site also gives instructions on setting up school projects using a variety of techniques.

More information on: Pixilation

Stan

Movement Notation

The name of Eadweard Muybridge is known to just about every animator; his books analysing motion in humans and animals have been the bible of the animation industry even today though they were published over a hundred years ago.

Dancers also use various forms of movement notation, and Choreologists work with Choreographers to record dance routines using such systems as the Labanotation and the Benesh method among others.

In 1958 Noah Eshkol and Abraham Wachman published a notation for describing movement based on a geometric concept, and was one of the systems used by NASA to see how astronauts would move in zero gravity.

When I started in animation I wondered if the two concepts of pictures and notation could be put together. On joining the Computer Arts Society ( www.computer-arts-society.org) in the early 1960s I met John Lansdowne, an architect who had an interest in ballet, and had created program that combined the ideas of pictures and notation.

His system had a set of numbered figures in various positions. By typing in the number sequence with the number of frames for each image you could create a dance sequence.
In those days you had to print out the images, but the concept was proved even though I am unaware of it ever being used seriously by dancers.

Things have moved on, and Motion Graphics allow movements to be recorded in real time. An example is at http://www.biomotionlab.ca/ which lets you to play around with some simple walk cycles.

If you want something better you might look at Poser 6 (http://www.poserworld.com/Home.aspx) which has libraries of figures ready to animate.

Muybridge would have been proud of his heritage.

Check out: Movement Notation

Stan

Doodling

All animators are doodlers. Typically they start at school and draw pictures in their notebooks when they should be listening to their teachers. People bored at meetings doodle, and graffiti is a form of doodling. It is one of our natural instincts that has never really been utilised for education.

There is a clear cut distinction between doodling and drawing, with doodling it is organic; a shape grows without real purpose. Quite often it is a letter or shape that exists, and it vaguely reminds you of something so you add a bit here and there, and then it takes on a form of its own.

I once wrote a book called 'How Do You Doodle' based on using letters, numbers, and simple shapes as starting points for children to create pictures. The numbers 0 - 9 can all be easily used as noses (www.makemovies.co.uk) As writing developed from pictures, it does not take much imagination to reverse the trend.

An interesting site is at http://www.zefrank.com/gallery/dtoy_gal/index.html which has some animated shapes you can doodle with. Although these are limited, they make a good introduction to animation for children.

Another fun site is at http://www.morphases.com/editor/ This doesn't require any drawing skill, but allows you to change the facial features around in many ways.
Although it calls itself Morphases, it isn't actually morphing in the way animation changes a picture from one shape to another. An introduction to the principles of animation can be found on http://cartoonster.com/ It is one of many sites that show basic techniques.

There are very many 'Morphing' programs used for Special Effects (SFX), but the idea was first popularised in Felix the Cat going back to the earliest days of animation. And of course the Aardman Animation creation 'Morph', the little clayman who could change himself into anything, and initiated the highly successful 'Creature Comforts' and all that followed.

Other Doodling sites: Doodle


Stan

Lip Sync

About thirty years ago when I was involved with computer animation at the Imperial College, one of the projects we looked at was creating automated lipsync.
In principle it was fairly easy; a set of lip shapes were matched to a set of phonemes in a look-up table, and you typed in the syllables and gave them a number of frames.

In those days there was no instant playback so if you got the timing wrong it took some time to check. But it wasn't practical for other reasons such as needing different shapes for different faces, also size, gender, age, and accent affect the shape of the lips.

I am not an animator but a scriptwriter, and my interest was the idea that one day I would be able to type in a script and both see and hear it played back. I thought it might always be a pipe dream, but I have recently seen some examples that come close to doing just that. One of the programs is http://www.reallusion.com/go/crazytalk/default.htm which allows you to record your voice and have it spoken by an animated character.

I recently looked up "lipsync for animation" and got a hit rate of over 300,000, so developments have moved on.
I haven't tested them but here's a couple examples here that you may like to look at to see the current state of the art.

www.thirdwishsoftware.com/magpie.html
www.lostmarble.com/papagayo/index.shtml

Also some other sites: Lip Sync


Stan