Many of you have already been given this assignment in another class (either Games or Visualization). But this stuff is so fun/useful that you’ll want to see it again.
The non-technical nature of this topic means we’ll treat it a little differently.
- The “reading” part of this assignment is to read one of the Illusion of Life versions (either Chapter 3 or the 1981 edition, or the preface and Chapter 1 of the newer version below), and the Lasseter paper. If you have already read these for a previous class, or if you are just into the topic, try to find another paper to read where these principles are applied in user interfaces or presentations or something (some ideas are below).
- There will be a “watching” assignment (yes, you get to watch cartoons) that is separate.
- Normally, with readings, I’ll ask you to do something written to let me know that you’ve read it. Here a lot of that will take place with the watching assignment.
- For this topic, there will be a “try it out” part coming (you’ll get to try to make animation).
Please do the reading before class on Monday, January 28th. Be ready to discuss it in class – it won’t just be me talking about cartoons!
The watching assignment will be announced separately and do later.
The readings:
You must read one of the Johnson and Thomas chapters and the Lasseter paper.
We’ll be discussing / trying to learn about the “traditional” principles of animation. Much of this was developed by artists at the Disney studio in the late 20s and 30s.
The classic reference is actually a “popular press” art history book about Disney Animation (its a coffee table book), that animators discovered – and then realized it was out of print. 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. 20+ years later, this paper is like the Disney paper in that its historically interesting as well as artistically/technically important.
- 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).
There are many papers that explore how the animation principles can be used to make user interfaces and presentations more appealing and effective, and try to relate it to psychology and education. (the disney folks did not consider this when they invented them). I searched for “animation principles in the user interface” and got a ton. Some that I think are notable :
- “Animation: from cartoons to the user interface” by Chang and Ungar. (circa 1993, but a first try). (acm DL)
- “Applying cartoon animation techniques to graphical user interfaces” by Thomas and Calder (acm DL). I haven’t read this one myself, but it is in a good journal.
- “On Creating Animated Presentations” by Zongker and Salesin. (acm DL – the project page is unfortunately gone). This is interesting, although I am not totally convinced about the actual system they built. I am not sure he used this for “Chicken, Chicken, Chicken, …”
