Unit 65 – Uses and Principles of Web Animation for Interactive

Media (Task 3-Investigate Animation Techniques)

The Optical Illusion of Motion (persistence of vision)

Dating back to the year 65 B.C., Persistence of Vision is where a range of graphics can sustain swift contact with your eye in more excessive timescales then it would take for just one image in which the images are joined together in order to produce an hallucination of movement within the motion picture. Normally, 2 frames operate at a frame rate of 24 meaning that 12 frames per second is assembled within one drawing. The main advantage of the persistence of vision is that you can be fascinated by the illusion of movement when viewing the motion picture within an image or an object etcetera. However, if the images are not properly put together the pattern of the illusion of the motion picture will not flow as expected.

For instance, the squid-led-bike (See below left) maintains constant looping that forms an illumination of movement within the object, so therefore it can visually maintains constant interaction from the people viewing it. Another example, taken from the Tech-Tut website (See beneath text) that demonstrates how graphics tends to turn blurry when watched for a long period of time.

Clay-MationThis technique represents one of the many forms of "stop motion" animation which is constructed from clay or Plasticine. All frames or still photographs are recorded on Film or Digital Media and it then replays the motion of images and objects in quick succession.

The term "clay animation" is where each object is formed in or clay or similar flexible material for example, Plasticine in which it is normally used on a wire skeleton called "Armature". The object within the animation is put on a set (Background) where the "Film Frame" is exposed and the object or characteristic is moved marginally by hand. This process is replicated for every new frame that you create so that it integrates the "Plasticine" features into an actual animation. The main advantage of claymation is that animation can be utilised in order to visualise the vibrant phenomenon or process that cannot be seen by the eye. However, the drawback of this is integrating with audio can be a bit of a problem if you do have enough background knowledge on how to put together Claymation Animation.

These images show samples of how "Claymation" is constructed as a still images & through animation.

Stop-MotionThe term “Stop Motion” varies with and without the hyphen where they are spelt properly but however the hyphenated one has in addition has a different meaning that is not related towards animation or a cinema. For instance, a certain device for filming is used for automatically stopping when something goes wrong. Stop Motion is more often than not confused with the time lapse method where still images of a live surrounding are taken at regular intervals and joined together in order to make a continuous film. It is an animation technique that is used to manually manipulate an object so that it appears on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames by creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using plasticine is called “Claymation” or "clay-mation". Not all stop motion requires figures or models; many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and other things for comedic effect. The main advantage of stop motion is that it is relatively easily to begin the stop-motion process for basic and simple animation. However, it is considered to be very difficult if you are looking to make a perfect animation, particularly with 3D models as well.

Computer Generation (Frame Rate)They mainly comprise of Frame Frequency which gives an indication as to the amount of images that are displayed within the movie per second. Frame Rates can also be measured in FPS (Frames Per Second) which primarily shows the number of frames per second. Certain computer facilities would use FPS for instance, the Adobe Flash Professional CS4 software enables users to construct their own animation and choose the frame rate that it is going to be played back as which is normally 24 fps but you can re-modify it up to 120 fps. Specifically, a movie played within a cinema would stand at a frame rate of 25 fps, whereas a standard animation would in general last up to 12 fps. The main difference in the speed of the frame rate mainly relies upon the rate that has been chosen for example, if you have allocated a frame rate any lower than 12 then the illusion of movement tends to be more slower meaning that the filming process becomes more long-winded, so therefore this will become more tedious towards the people viewing the movie.

Computer Generation (Frames)Is where the content can be displayed in what is called “keyframes” where this can be done through software applications such as, Adobe Flash Professional CS4. They are shown within different layers in what is called a Timeline menu where they can extended for as long as possible in order to make the hallucination of movement fit within the motion picture of the animation. You can also organise or add layers in which are displayed near the bottom-left of the timeline menu. The main benefit of having frames is that you can properly modify the positioning of all of the content within the animation. However, corruptions within the Flash software applications can occur if the content is not integrated correctly.

Computer Generation (Key Frames)

As mentioned within the previous slide Key Frames are individual pieces of content the represents as part of the whole animation. They can be identified as black dots in order to signify that something is included within the frames. You can create these be simply right-clicking on your mouse and choosing the insert keyframe option. The main advantage of having keyframes is that it makes it easier for users to identify what is contained within every frame. The main disadvantage of keyframes is that without the use of keyframes you would have to physically work out the position of every frame within the animation.

Computer Generation (Onion Skinning)Is to do with the way it displays the pattern of movement within the animation where all of the frames are shown as a faded overlay in order to see how every frame is developed throughout the animation itself. It can also help to visualise where you have placed all of the content that is included within the animation. The main benefit of onion skinning is that you are able to view the pattern of the illusion of movement within the animation. The main drawback of this is that without the use of onion skinning you would not be able to reflect on the sequence for the illusion of movement within the animation.

Computer Generation (Tweening)Is where there animation is utilised through 3 different tweenings which are Motion, Classic and Shape in order to form the hallucination of movement within the animation. It is normally displayed as pointed lines which are ascending horizontally across each layer that it has been applied to. The tweens can be produced by just right-clicking on your mouse and choosing one of the first 2 or 3 options displayed within the menu. The main advantage of tweening is that you can produce instant movement of all the content within the animation in so many different ways. However, without the invention of tweening it would be made more difficult to put together the animation.