Due Monday, April 23rd
The goal here is to try to understand how animation might help with visualization. However, to get there, I’d like people to learn about the art of animation, to appreciate how it should be done “right.” So yes, we’re going to watch (and read about) cartoons.
You need to read one of the “principles” readings, and the “animated transitions” (Heer) reading (at the bottom). The cutting article at the bottom is actually for the next assignment, but I include it here in case you want to read ahead.
The classic reference for the Principles of Animation is “The Illusion of Life” – a book about the history of Disney animation. It’s a coffee table art book – not necessarily something meant for either animators or computer scientists to learn from. But it is fabulous, and full of great examples from classic Disney films:
- Johnson and Thomas. Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. Several editions (Aberville Press, 1981 is the “original” I think). Chapter 3:The Principles of Animation. (26MB download)
Because so many artists wanted this book, it has been reprinted many times (I own 3 different reprints). Curiously, one of the editions is more focused on teaching artists. In this version, Chapter 1 is the principles (very similar to Ch3 in the original). The preface is a good introduction to animation pre-“Principles” (which is good for understanding them). And Chapter 2 is a great summary of how they made the movies (irrelevant for class).
- Preface – Early Animation (useful since you might realize why Computer Animation when done wrong is more like this than the good stuff in the next chapter)
- Chapter One – Principles of Animation (very similar to Chapter 3 above, but maybe a little more focused – this is the recommendation if you are going to pick one – warning, 44Mb)
- Chapter Two – Production (irrelevant for class, but fun and nice to look at – warning, 115Mb)
John Lasseter was a Disney animator who went to work with a small company of graphics hackers. The company grew and grew and grew and now everyone knows Pixar. His SIGGRAPH 1987 paper was a seminal work where he introduced the graphics world to the principles of animation. The basic content is the same as the Johnson and Thomas chapter, but its more condensed, and the examples are from Pixar films.
- John Lasseter. Principles of traditional animation applied to 3D computer animation. SIGGRAPH 1987. (acm site with PDF). Note, there are many summaries of this paper on the web. Here’s one by a well-known animator. But do read the original. (well, you’re even better off reading a Disney thing first, then reading this for historical context – if you’re interested ).
Now, you might wonder “what does this have to do with visualization.” One answer (and this is only one of several) can be seen in:
- Jeffery Heer and George Robertson. Animated Transitions in Statistical Data Graphics. InfoVis 2007. (project page – I strongly recommend watching the movie as it is well done. you might not even need to read the paper)
Note that this whole discussion is mainly relevant to ADDING motion to things, not necessarily visualizing motion. (in which case exageration and staging would be distortions). To get you thinking about showing motion, we’ll think about the opposite problem of animation:
- Cutting, J. E. (2002). Representing motion in a static image: constraints and parallels in art, science, and popular culture. Perception, 31(10), 1165-93. (online)
For Monday, April 23rd, you must read (at least) one of the Johnson and Thomas Chapters and the Heer paper. On the Piazza page (coming soon) (thanks Robert!) give your thoughts, both on the art of animation, as well as its relationship to visualization. Think about how the animation principles might be useful in presenting information – beyond just the examples of Heer&Robertson. The Cutting reading will be required as a separate assignment (but you might want to read ahead)