Covers the tools of animation, the recording medium, the animation process and real systems. It enables the reader to create broadcast quality animation on an affordable budget. After reading the book, the reader will be able to make informed decisions regarding equipment, how to set up a professional studio and how to make animated videos.
Dr AIvy Ray Smith Executive Vice President, Pixar The pOlyglot language of computer animation has arisen piecemeal as a collection of terms borrowed from geometry, film, video, painting, conventional animation, computer graphiCS, computer science, and publishing - in fact, from every older art or science which has anything to do with pictures and picture making. Robi Roncarelli, who has already demonstrated his foresight by formally identifying a nascent industry and addressing his Computer Animation Newsletter to it, here again makes a useful contribution to it by codifying its jargon. My pleasure in reading his dictionary comes additionally from the many historical notes sprinkled throughout and from surprise entries such as the one referring to Zimbabwe. Just as Samuel Johnson's dictionary of the English language was a major force in stabilizing the spelling of English, perhaps this one will serve a similar purpose for computer animation. Two of my pets are "color" for "colour" and "modeling" "modelling", under the rule that the shorter accepted spelling is always preferable. [Robi, are you reading this?] [Yes, AIvy!] Now I commend this book to you, whether you be a newcomer or an oldtimer.
Driven by the demands of research and the entertainment industry, the techniques of animation are pushed to render increasingly complex objects with ever-greater life-like appearance and motion. This rapid progression of knowledge and technique impacts professional developers, as well as students. Developers must maintain their understanding of conceptual foundations, while their animation tools become ever more complex and specialized. The second edition of Rick Parent's Computer Animation is an excellent resource for the designers who must meet this challenge. The first edition established its reputation as the best technically oriented animation text. This new edition focuses on the many recent developments in animation technology, including fluid animation, human figure animation, and soft body animation. The new edition revises and expands coverage of topics such as quaternions, natural phenomenon, facial animation, and inverse kinematics. The book includes up-to-date discussions of Maya scripting and the Maya C++ API, programming on real-time 3D graphics hardware, collision detection, motion capture, and motion capture data processing. - New up-to-the-moment coverage of hot topics like real-time 3D graphics, collision detection, fluid and soft-body animation and more! - Companion site with animation clips drawn from research & entertainment and code samples - Describes the mathematical and algorithmic foundations of animation that provide the animator with a deep understanding and control of technique
Any questions you have about 2D or 3D animation in this new digital age are answered in this comprehensive guide for all budding digital animators, games artists and media production students. It is lavishly illustrated with inspirational colour throughout to show you what you can achieve. Whether you want to create moving digital imagery for TV, computer games, or new media you need to understand the production and creative processes, the constraints of each and how they fit together. Ensure you have all you need at your fingertips to compete in this fast-moving arena with this unique book and web package. www.guide2computeranimation.com provides the moving imagery outcomes of some of the animation discussed in the case studies chapter, where top FrameStore-CRC and 3 Ring Circus creatives give you their invaluable behind the scenes perspectives. In addition there are non-software specific 3D tutorials and direct links to a comprehensive range of related websites with further downloadable resources to make sure you stay up-to-date. Marcia Kuperberg is Deputy Head of the School of Media, Arts & Technology, West Herts College, UK. Contributions are also included from Martin Bowman, Rob Manton and Alan Peacock.
A compilation of key chapters from the top MK computer animation books available today - in the areas of motion capture, facial features, solid spaces, fluids, gases, biology, point-based graphics, and Maya. The chapters provide CG Animators with an excellent sampling of essential techniques that every 3D artist needs to create stunning and versatile images. Animators will be able to master myriad modeling, rendering, and texturing procedures with advice from MK's best and brightest authors. Divided into five parts (Introduction to Computer Animation and Technical Background, Motion Capture Techniques, Animating Substances, Alternate Methods, and Animating with MEL for MAYA), each one focusing on specific substances, tools, topics, and languages, this is a MUST-HAVE book for artists interested in proficiency with the top technology available today! Whether you're a programmer developing new animation functionality or an animator trying to get the most out of your current animation software, Computer Animation Complete: will help you work more efficiently and achieve better results. For programmers, this book provides a solid theoretical orientation and extensive practical instruction information you can put to work in any development or customization project. For animators, it provides crystal-clear guidance on determining which of your concepts can be realized using commercially available products, which demand custom programming, and what development strategies are likely to bring you the greatest success. - Expert instruction from a variety of pace-setting computer graphics researchers. - Provides in-depth coverage of established and emerging animation algorithms. - For readers who lack a strong scientific background, introduces the necessary concepts from mathematics, biology, and physics. - A variety of individual languages and substances are addressed, but addressed separately - enhancing your grasp of the field as a whole while providing you with the ability to identify and implement solutions by category.
Rapid advances in 3-D scientific visualization have made a major impact on the display of behavior. The use of 3-D has become a key component of both academic research and commercial product development in the field of engineering design. Computer Visualization presents a unified collection of computer graphics techniques for the scientific visualization of behavior. The book combines a basic overview of the fundamentals of computer graphics with a practitioner-oriented review of the latest 3-D graphics display and visualization techniques. Each chapter is written by well-known experts in the field. The first section reviews how computer graphics visualization techniques have evolved to work with digital numerical analysis methods. The fundamentals of computer graphics that apply to the visualization of analysis data are also introduced. The second section presents a detailed discussion of the algorithms and techniques used to visualize behavior in 3-D, as static, interactive, or animated imagery. It discusses the mathematics of engineering data for visualization, as well as providing the current methods used for the display of scalar, vector, and tensor fields. It also examines the more general issues of visualizing a continuum volume field and animating the dimensions of time and motion in a state of behavior. The final section focuses on production visualization capabilities, including the practical computational aspects of visualization such as user interfaces, database architecture, and interaction with a model. The book concludes with an outline of successful practical applications of visualization, and future trends in scientific visualization.
Do you have some experience and a reasonable knowledge of C++ and want to write your own computer games? Have you ever looked at a PC or Playstation (R) game with characters running and leaping through an exciting landscape and wondered how it was done? If so then this book will give you all the information you need to achieve this goal, whether you are a hobby programmer, student or even a professional wanting to add that third dimension to your website. Nik Lever takes you through the journey from the basics of 3D manipulation all the way to morph objects and sub-division surfaces. On the way you get Visual C++ project files to study and software that runs on the Windows desktop. The downloadable resources give you a full-featured development environment for 3D character animation, so even if you find some of the maths and the code hard to follow straight away you can still create your own games. The game engine (Toon3DCreator) provided free and fully functional on the downloadable resources, even has an ActiveX control that allows you to distribute your work on the Internet. All source code for Toon3D is included on the downloadable resources. You will also get an insight into the artist's problems; learn how to keep the characters interesting while not exhausting the game engine. Understand the complete picture and make the most of your skills to help you succeed in, or break into the computer gaming industry with this comprehensive guide to programming for real-time 3D character animation.