In this series, we'll cover....

• The history, goals, and principles of animation
• Procedural animation & physical simulation
• Cloth simulation
• Artist-driven animation (rigging, skinning, and posing)
• Data-driven animation (motion capture)

Animation

Animation brings things to life. It's a communication tool, used by storytellers to tell a story. Animation is an extension of modeling, especially when we look at deformations of characters that we can move around. The goal is to output a sequence of images, such that when we view those images sequentially, we get a sense of motion.

Historical Points in Animation

We've been trying to do graphics for the entirety of humanity.

One of the first examples of animation was drawn out in a cave, like this, from 3200 BCE.

In 1831, a physicist developed this Phenakistoscope - a spinning turntable that simulated a moving image.

Film was originally used as a scientific tool, rather than for entertainment. It was critical technology that accelerated the development of animation.

Edward Muybridge, "Sallie Gradner" (1878)

• In 1937, Disney released Snow White - the first hand-drawn, feature-length animation.
• In 1963, Ivan Sutherland developed the first digital-computer-generated animation.
• In 1968, Konstantinov developed ordinary differential equations to generate the shape/outline of a cat.
• In 1972, Catmull & Parko developed a computer animated face (identifying the points on a face, and attempting to render it).
• In 1973, Jurassic Park was released. At first, they attempted to use physical puppets; the actual film employed digital puppets (on rigs).