VisUal matEriALs

Title: "Cat Alarm"

Type: video

Date: October 25, 2007

Source: it is widely forward from the email

Reason: it is kind of 2D animation. The objects are flat and simple. They are made by the outline without color. When we see the cat is moving, it is sliding the frames quickly to form the movement.






















Title: "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces"

Type: video

Producer: J. Stuart. Blackton

Date: October 22, 2007

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation

Reason: It is regarded as the first animated film. I think it is funny as i can almost see the making process. For example, i can see the artist is drawing steps by steps to "move" the characters. Through the film editing, drawing process formed an animation.

Title: "Toy Story I"

Type: photo

Date: April 30, 2005

Source: http://dvd.blogs.sapo.pt/arquivo/2005_04.html

Reason: It is the 1st feature length animation with computer-generated imagery (CGI). It is the milestone of CGI films development.



















Title: "Ratatouille"

Type: photo

Producer: John Lasseter, Brad Bird

Date: October 23, 2007

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/news/1682430/

Reason: This is a 3D animation to work with computer animation. The scence, the rat, even other objects (cheese, water & plates) seem like so real. It can`t be finished by hand-drawing.


























Title: "One Man Band"

Type: photo

Producer: Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews

Date: 2005

Source: http://showcase.awn.com/showphoto.php?photo=1271&cat=631

Reason: This is the short CGI film made by Pixar. It doesn`t like the long film as Toy Story but a simple storyboard. I first saw it as cinema trailer, and wondered the effect just like computer games.

Key QuotEs

Computers and traditional animation
Though traditional animation is now commonly done with computers, it is important to differentiate computer-assisted traditional animation from 3D computer animation

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation





The Medium
But first things first: what is 3D animation? Most forms of animated film-making achieve their effect through essentially flat images either drawn on cels.

All film, is essentially an optical illusion, a trick of the eye, known as "persistence of vision". The human eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after seeing it.

Book: Cracking animation- The aardman book of 3D animation
Author: Peter Lord & Brain Sibley
Publication: Thames & Hudson
Pages: P.15





Computer-generated imagery

---> (3D computer graphic)
It is the application of the field of computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media.

Website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-generated_imagery





Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement.

Various other techniques can be applied, such as mathematical functions. Many 3D animations are very believable and are commonly use as special effects for recent movies.

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation






3D Computer Generated Imagery (3D CGI): From Pre-Production Through Final Film/Video Output
Perhaps the best way to understand CGI is to consider it a merger of two methods of filmmaking: 2D animation and live-action.

6 steps involved in setting up a 3D CGI project.
1. Design
2.Modeling
3.Rigging
4.Surfaces (texture and color)
5.Staging/workbook
6.Animation

Website: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&column=prodani&article_no=1005




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LiNks

WebsiteS

1. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0195037596/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-8995047-3233551#reader-link

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-generated_imagery

5. http://showcase.awn.com/

6. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/news/1682430/

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation

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BibLiogrAphy

1. Cameron and Kenderdine, Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage, (The MIT Press)
---> It focuses on the theory of new media culture. However, it has mentioned part of the Virtual Reality, which is immersion, interaction in the virtual world etc. That is what aninmation trying to do with. (e.g. the scence of Ratatouille)


2. Mark B. N. Hansen, New philosophy for new media, (The MIT Press)
---> It inroduces new media through affect and sensation, rather than techniques. Whereas my topic is not concern about the philosophy or theory. This looks irrelevant to my research.


3. Amy Standen, Adobe photoshop master class: Maggie Taylor`s landscape of dreams, (Peachpit)
---> This is about the Adobe Photoshop production. Its artworks are related to the digital Art but not animation. Its not useful for my research.


4. Peter Lord & Brain Sibley, Cracking animation- The aardman book of 3D animation, (Thames & Hudson)
---> This is easy to understand as it includes lots of examples and pictures. Although it mainly focuses on the clay animation, i can know more about the film-making. Clay animation relies heavily on the realistic object (Plasticine) rather than CGI.


5. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation
---> This is a reliable source. It shows the past, present and future of the animation. It also links to the history of film animation.


6. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation
---> This website deeply interpret the traditional animation. This is very useful to my topic as it shows the making process of taditional animation. Thus, i can know more the improvement for nowadays animation.


7. Website: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/news/1682430/
---> It is a good example to identify what computer- generated imagery is. This animation--> "Ratatouille" was produced by Disney Pixar studios and let us know more about the computer graph.


8. Website: http://www.flashmagazine.com/1453.htm
---> This website briefly shows the book review of "Hollywood 2D digital animation". I can only get a concise concept from it.


9. Website: http://www.dexigner.com/digital/news-g3394.html
---> Besides Pixar, Dreamworks is another animation making studio. The outstanding one is "Shrek". It can be another example of digital studio, but it focus on the profit-making side. It can be a reference or concept for my topic.


10. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar
---> Pixar is the famous animaton studio in the world. It owned by the Walt Disney company on 2006. This source is very useful as almost all the films it produced are animation.



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ReSeAch QuEstions

AnimatioN..........anImaTion...... aNiMation..........

with the help of animation, the characters are borned with life. We can see that every movement of them are so important. So right now, we should think about the movement & production beyond the lively characters.

1. Why there is a change from 2D animation to 3D animation?

2. How the computer animation works significantly in the animated evolution?

3. Can the animation (2D +3D) dominant the world of digital cinema?

4. How the animations influence our daily life? What is it position in the future?

---> to be continue............

"AnImAtion bOrn"

** Original Concept
At the very beginning I preferred to choose “Digital cinema” as my topic. Once I wanted to take Star Wars Episode I- The Phantom Menace to identify what the digital cinema is. As I like the Star Wars series and it was the film which highly used computer graphics. However, when I started the research, I found that there are lots of specific terms that I don’t really understand and familiar with. Thus, I define my final topic as “digital animation” at last. As I think animation just like the "kids version" of digital cinema.



** Digital Cinema ---> Animation ( final version)
Animation interests me a lot. As I start to get in touch with animation since I was small. We are familiar with lots of animations, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty etc. All these are made by Walt Disney. However, in the 20th century, 3D animation begins to combine with 2D animation..



** 2dimension V.S. 3dimension
I can see that there is an evolution from cartoon to animation. When we talk about cartoon, it is kind of 2D flat feature illustrations, we can call it as Traditional animation. It joins sequence drawings together and runs in the projector. The rapid motion seems like moving. To conclude, this method is hand made production.

When compare with the computer animation, the latter is likely in 3D creation. It highly replies on Computer-generated imagery (CGI), which is the computer animated film. It bases on the principle of cartoon which moves the images quickly and consecutively, but it also involves the computer generated graphic.

** The first CGI animation

The first animated feature length film which fully created by Computer-generated imagery is Toy Story I in 1995. The skill is not totally in mature and just like a new born baby. However, when compared to the 2D animation such as Snow White, it is a great advancement. I still remember when it was on show, so many children were attracted. Maybe they don’t concern about the technique, but I think it had taken the significant role. Once this technique being developed, much succeed come afterwards. For instance, Finding Nemo in 2003 gained $864,625,978 worldwide gross. These form the mainstream of the new animation.

I just like witness this “animation age”. Therefore, I would like to take a deeper look in this area and have a further discussion.

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ANIMAtion Frame~

Working in proceSS.......