Character Animation in Depth with Cdrom, 1st edition
Authors: Doug Kelly
Venue:  (1998)

From the Book: Animation is a special form of that most human of arts, storytelling Animation is a special form of that most human of arts, storytelling. It is perhaps the furthest extrapolation of the hand gestures used by the fireside storyteller to draw pictures in the minds of the audience. Just as the storyteller uses a physical language to emphasize and embellish their tale, animation can use a variety of techniques to accomplish the same goals. An animator creates the illusion of motion with a series of images. Whether those images are created by the pen of a cartoonist, the knife of a sculptor, the posing of a living body, or the pixel manipulation of the computer artist, the principles of animation are the same. Every branch of animation can learn from every other. Computer generated imagery, or CGI, is the youngest shoot on the family tree, and therefore has the greatest amount to learn from the older forms. The last 30 years have seen great advances in CGI, from abstract light patterns on vector graphic displays to the photorealism of The Lost World and Dragonheart and character development of Toy Story. Older forms of animation were restrained by the limits of the physical materials they relied on, whether paper, cel, clay, or even the film itself. Now it is possible for CGI to overcome the limits of that materiality, to literally animate anything we can imagine, to make our dreams and fantasies live on thescreen. CGI animation development has thrived in the area of motion picture special effects, animating spacecraft and astronomic phenomena, energy weapons and the explosions they produce. These effects have pushed CGI to very high levels of cinematic realism, but they cannot tell an engaging story by themselves. People arent interested in watching special effects unless they advance the story line. Effects are window dressing, not premise. If CGI animation is to tell an engaging story, it must be a story about anthropomorphic characters: digital models of humans, creatures, artifacts, or even inanimate objects caricatured into the semblance of life. This is the highest and most difficult form of CGI: Character Animation. Character animation has always been the apex of any form of animation. Even in the most abstract of line drawings or the most minimalist of stop-motion cinematography, the creative workload of character animation is overwhelming. Each image must first be composed with the obsessively detailed care of any other animation. On top of this, the animator must give the characters that breath of life, the posing, timing, and expressiveness that will convince the audience that the characters are moving of their own volition. Character animation is a combination of talents so rare that Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times have published profiles of top animators. Salaries for lead animators have more than doubled in the last few years. Even considering the cyclical nature of the business, the prospects for CGI character animators have never been better. The viewing public has responded well to the use of CGI character animation, so advertising agencies, video game developers, and motion picture studios are pushing the demand for character animators. How long this market will last is anyones guess, but the current reality is that demand for competent character animators is far outstripping the supply. Training for CGI character animation has been almost exclusively on-the-job or by way of traditional animation approaches. Until very recently, the hardware and software necessary for CGI character animation have been prohibitively expensive, animation schools have been slow to offer courses including CGI, and there have been few books or videos on the topic. CGI Software And Character Animation Recent software development has made character animation tools affordable for even the beginning animator. The hardware necessary can be purchased for a fraction of the price of a good used car, and several software packages are priced for the hobbyist or student. Most of the programs reviewed here will continue to support you in growing an animation business all the way up to television and feature films. Many of these programs have already been used to produce character animation for film, television or games. The commercial success of these programs has helped build the demand for character animators who can use them. Some studios use a variety of software, while other use only one or two packages. You can refer to the Artist and Studio Directory in the appendixes for information about which studios use what software. If you have your heart set on working for a particular studio, youd do well to learn the software theyre already using. Who Needs This Book? This book is intended to bridge the gap between the CGI artist and the traditional animator. It is designed to introduce you to the vocabulary and techniques used by both approaches. If you are already an animator, you will learn the CGI software tools designed to support character animation. If you are a CGI artist, you will learn the essential techniques of character animation as they apply to CGI tools. If you are a beginner in both fields, I suggest that you complete the exercises in your softwares manuals before you start to work through this book. At the least, they will contain the technical information youll need regarding system requirements, software installation and troubleshooting. Many vendors also include tutorials that introduce you to the basic functions of the software. Vendors put a lot of time and effort into these user and reference manuals; if you never read them, youre not getting your moneys worth. Once you have worked through the materials that came with your software, you will be much better prepared for the projects in this book. If a vendor has included a particularly helpful tutorial with their manuals, Ill refer to it at the appropriate point. Theres no sense in my repeating whats been written elsewhere, Id rather provide you with original projects that go beyond the vendors manuals. If youre trying to use this book as a "manual" for pirated software, dont. Dont email me for advice about "cracks" or "warez," either; Ill just refer you to: http://www.spa.org/piracy/q a.htm. Throughout this book, each concept is reinforced with projects designed to build your expertise without overwhelming you. Completing all the projects will enable you to produce complete character animation, from storyboard to video or film. This book also shows you how to assemble a demo reel and look for employment as an animator or technical director. Whats Inside? This introduction is your guide to using this book to your best advantage. The path you follow through the projects will depend on what you already know, and what you want to learn. Whether you are a beginner, an expert CGI artist, or a traditional animator, you should read this chapter first. The bulk of this book is organized in pretty much the same order as an animation production. If you are new to animation, you would do well to read through this book in order from first to last. If you are more experienced, you may choose to skim over areas with which you are already familiar, and move on to the more challenging new areas. If you are a traditional animator making the transition to CGI, I recommend that you also read through this book in order, noting where the CGI process is similar to traditional processes and where it differs. The first chapter provides an overview of the production team, something especially useful to freelancers and beginners who have not yet been part of a larger studio. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 provide step-by-step development of the story, script, storyboard, soundtrack and timing sheets that are necessary before you can begin to animate the characters. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 cover character design and modeling, proceeding from general guidelines to specific procedures with advanced software and hardware tools like 3D scanners and digitizers. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 cover materials and maps, the tools youll use to control the surface appearance of your characters. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 introduce the principles of character setup, the critical process of articulating the character so the animator can pose it as intuitively and easily as possible. Chapters 14, 15, and 16 present the principles of character animation, keyed to the corresponding setups in the preceding three chapters. Each project closes with tips on practicing, sometimes recommending that you repeat the project (with interesting changes) and sometimes referring you to other activities that will help hone your skills. The next part, Chapters 17, 18, 19, and 20, wraps up with projects that teach you how to light your scenes, do titles and credits, compositing and move matching, and transfer your animations to the final output format. Along the way, and especially in Chapters 21, 22, and 23, youll find advice from professional animators about the business of animation. Youll learn what to expect from studio, freelance, or independent work, getting your career started, when not to take a job or project, and other maps through the minefield. As you might expect, at the back of this book youll find a glossary, index, and a number of useful appendices. Platform Wars Ive used just about every desktop computing hardware and operating system developed since the mid-80s, and I have no religious convictions about any of them. The only criteria I use for choosing a platform are current functionality, compatibility with colleagues, longevity, upgrade path, and vendor support.  Current functionality means the platform has to work right now, and do what you need to get your work done. Neither promises nor fond memories can cut it in the working world.  Compatibility with colleagues means you can share files, either across the cubicle or across the world (usually via the Internet). If you cant play well with others, you wont be invited to play as often.  Longevity means your system will still be productively viable for the three years it takes to depreciate into a boat anchor.  Upgrade path means you can put a third of the systems purchase price into it each year in the form of new parts, and thereby keep it from becoming a boat anchor for another year.  Vendor support means the system runs software that is commercially available without paying consultants or programmers to tweak it. Personally, I also like being able to run general business software. This enables me to focus my investment in a single machine, rather than creating CGI on one and doing bookkeeping and taxes on another. That said, Ive got a few words of advice about choosing hardware and software for character animation. The general trend in the industry is towards the Microsoft Windows NT platform. For good or ill, thats where the lions share of the market is headed, and thats where you will continue to find the broadest selection of software, hardware and vendor support. This trend does not mean you have to immediately abandon whatever investment you have made in another platform, it just means you should seriously reevaluate your hardware purchases any time you upgrade in the future. Vendor support becomes even more important, and you should make sure you buy or lease your system from a dealer who understands your needs. For example, if you need an SGI machine, MicroMadness (www.madness.net) in New York has character animators on staff who understand what you need, and can provide well-informed advice about software and hardware options. Vince Liggio, the owner, has been active and supportive in the character animation community, and understands the issues involved. There is still a large installed base of SGI and Mac machines in studios around the world, and as long as a colleague, client, employer or software publisher is still using a system thats compatible with yours, youre doing all right. Who knows, by the time all the forthcoming NT ports are shipping, there may actually be a new operating system that will give Microsoft a run for its money. Character Animation Software The following thumbnail software reviews are my opinions, based on my efforts to duplicate the character animation projects in this book with each software package. Your mileage may vary. If you have a markedly different opinion (and can back it up objectively), Id like to hear it! 3D Studio MAX Kinetix (www.ktx.com) currently holds the largest installed base for software capable of character animation. The combination of the base 3D Studio MAX program and Character Studio plug-ins makes a powerful toolset that is popular in game development and is making inroads in television and film production. The major disadvantage to MAX is that plug-ins are necessary for serious character animation. This is partially balanced by the large number of third-party developers who publish plug-ins for MAX. The base program has a fairly steep learning curve, but lots of help is available in the excellent MAX manuals, third-party books and videotapes, and a cornucopia of online resources. MAX (plus the necessary plug-ins) has a steep price for hobbyists, but is reasonable for shops or working professionals. Mastering MAX is a good step toward steady employment, and owning a copy can be the foundation of your own business. If you are looking for Hollywood-level employment, however, you will need to show competence with Softimage, Alias, or Houdini. Alias As of this writing, Alias|Wavefront, an SGI subsidiary, (www.aw.sgi.com) just released Maya, the next generation of the Alias family of software. This release will probably make most of this books references to Alias obsolete, as they refer mostly to PowerAnimator version 8. You can check my Web site (http://home.earthlink.net/~dakelly/index.htm ) for online updates, reviews and projects for Maya as they become available. Alias has been highly regarded for modeling, and the most common software combination Ive found in Hollywood-level shops is Alias for modeling and Softimage for animation. The new Maya may change that, but probably not overnight, especially considering the per-seat license cost. At present, Maya is only available on the SGI platform, although SGI is supposed to be manufacturing NT boxes in the near future. At the moment, an Alias/Maya seat is beyond the financial reach of most individuals, a steep investment for small shops, and still a significant cost of doing business for the large studios that rely on Alias|Wavefront products. On the positive side, the Alias development team is talented and well-funded, and work produced with Alias software has won nearly every major award from the Oscar on down. Chris Landreth, creator of The End and other award-winning character animations, is on staff at Alias, and with other staff animators has made a significant impact on the direction of software development. The basic Alias package includes a well-written, exhaustive 35-pound set of manuals, and online resources and classes fill in the few remaining gaps. There is very little character animation you cant do with Alias. Whether its suitable for your purposes is only a matter of finance and workflow preferences. Animation:Master Youll be able to judge Hash, Inc.s Animation:Master (www.hash.com) for yourself, since theres a demo version of Animation:Master 98 on this books companion CD-ROM. The most significant difference from other software is that A:M is entirely spline-based, it uses no polygons. This is a major advantage for characters that you want to squash, stretch and bend without the angular artifacts of polygonal models. There are several movie clips on the CD-ROM of films produced with A:M, including Fluffy, Balls Blocks, and Nightwalk. For pure character animation, A:M can challenge Softimage in most respects. The primary complaint of A:M users has been its instability, but the staff at Hash has been working on that. A:M is available on both Intel and PowerMac platforms, which makes it one of the few serious character animation packages still available to Mac users. The current entry-level price for A:M is $199, but educational discounts can reduce that to $139. Animation:Master is definitely the most bang for your buck for character animation. If you are just getting started in character animation, this is the software I recommend. Electric Image Animation System Electric Image (www.electricimg.com) just released EIAS version 2.8, unfortunately too close to this books print deadline for me to do it justice in a review. Judging from the development version I saw last August, they have made major improvements to the tools most needed by character animators, especially keyframe editing and joint setup. As with Maya, check my Web site for online updates, reviews and projects as they become available. Extreme 3D 2 I cant recommend that you use Macromedias Extreme 3D for character animation. Technically, the software is capable of rendering an animated character. Practically, the tools you need to model, set up and animate a character are either missing entirely or are simply too difficult to use. Character animation with Extreme 3D is harder than traditional puppet or cel animation, and thats defeating the whole purpose of CGI animation. If youre stuck with Macromedia products and you have to animate a character, there are a couple of things you can do to make your job less difficult. One of the most frustrating things about learning to use Extreme 3D is trying to figure out what the publisher decided to call a particular feature or function. I recommend that you read the manual with a highlighter or pen in hand and mark odd terms with synonyms and See Also references in the index. Also, Macromedia products do not play well with others. You will need to use only native Macromedia file formats, if you want to avoid nasty incompatibility problems. Last, using Extreme 3D makes it more important than ever to plan your work so you have a chance of getting it right the first time. Extreme 3D (and several other Macromedia products) are not at all tolerant of errors, and rather than a simple Undo, you will often have to start over when you make a mistake. Even if you got it free as part of a Macromedia bundle, Extreme 3D is no bargain for character animation. Houdini Side Effects Software (www.sidefx.com) publishes what is arguably the most powerful, top-of-the-heap character animation software available. It is entirely procedural, which means everything is controlled by variables and expressions and is therefore continuously editable. This has the great advantage of enabling you to change each detail, right up to the final rendering, without having to rebuild any other work. This is an invaluable benefit if you have micromanaging clients or impossible deadlines. The disadvantage is that all this power demands that you know what youre doing in order to control it all. Houdini is a program for the true power user. I do not recommend it as the first character animation software you buy, even if you can afford it. If you already have a working shop, your clients demand top-notch results, and youre comfortable with the theories behind CGI, then you should definitely consider Houdini. The open architecture of this software means that you can duplicate any feature of any other package with a little ingenuity on your part. If youre comfortable with off-the-shelf CGI software and want to stretch your mind in a more technical direction, Houdini is a wonderful learning tool. Its not impossible, or even difficult, for a new user to learn. It simply requires you to commit time to actually reading and understanding the manuals. The staff at Side Effects Software has done a laudable job in compiling the Reference and Tutorial manuals for Houdini. The text is phrased as simply as the subject matter permits, and jargon is defined clearly when it first appears. This documentation is like an outline for a Masters degree in computer graphics. At present, Houdini is available only for the SGI platform, although an NT version is in development. If your work (or your dedication to your hobby) justifies it, the premium price for Houdini is well worth it. This software is a literally unlimited tool for character animation or any other form of CGI. Imagine Impulse has been in the desktop graphics software business for a number of years. Its unfortunate that its management hasnt learned more from experience. The version of Imagine that I was provided to review for this book did not correspond at all to the documentation that came with it, and my subsequent inquiries to Impulse went unanswered. I have seen at least one example of character animation reportedly created with Imagine. However, since I could not duplicate even basic hierarchical setups with this software, I have to recommend that you avoid it. I wish I could say something more positive, as my first CGI animation experience was with Imagines predecessor, Turbo Silver, on the Amiga platform, and its sad to see a favorite tool fall by the wayside. Im sorry to see that Impulse hasnt kept up with the rest of the industry. Infini-D MetaCreations (www.metacreations.com) Infini-D is an adequate program for learning the basics of modeling, lighting, rendering, and simple hierarchical animation. However, its short on deformation animation tools, and therefore limits you to marionette-style characters with visible seams. The manuals are good, and the price is reasonable for hobbyists or students. This is an acceptable entry-level program for learning basic CGI and character animation on the PowerMac, but its not really suitable for a production environment. LightWave 3D NewTeks LightWave 3D (www.newtek.com) program for the Intel, Alpha, and PowerMac platforms is a staple of the game, TV, and film production environment. Its entirely suitable for character animation as is, but if youre new to the software you may find some of its approaches less than intuitive. Plug-ins are available that make character animation easier, but you can do just fine with the base package. In quality of rendering, LW can stand up to nearly any program, but in ease of use and availability of character animation functions its a little behind MAX, A:M, and Softimage. Since its also priced well below MAX and Softimage, it has more character animation bang for the buck than anything except Animation:Master. For a more detailed set of tutorials on character animation with LightWave 3D, I refer you to my first book, LightWave 3D 5 Character Animation F/X, to my regular column "The Character Shop," in LightWavin magazine, and to my Web site. Poser This program, also from MetaCreations, was one of the biggest (and most pleasant) surprises in this book. I originally had it pegged as a low-end form of 3D clip art, but it turns out to be one of the most easy-to-use and versatile education tools for character animation that Ive ever seen. The pre-built characters included with the program enable beginners to start animating a full humanoid without hassling with a setup first. The keyframe animation controls are rather rudimentary, but they get the job done. The lighting and rendering are simple and straightforward, and the end results can be exported to other software. This is a serious character animation learning tool and, at about $150 list, a bargain. If you received it as part of a software bundle, youre missing out if you havent tried it. The only disadvantage to Poser is that it achieves its ease of use through cutting off options, so once youve reached the limits of the software or models, theres no place to go. No plug-ins, no open architecture. However, by that time youll be ready for a higher level of character animation software. Ray Dream Studio 5 You might think of this program as Posers big brother. RD5, also published by MetaCreations, is a full-featured CGI package with all the tools youd expect of a polygonal modeler, keyframe animator, and versatile renderer. The manual, complete and colorful in the original Fractal Design style, is a very user-friendly introduction to CGI in general and, along the way, to the basic concepts of character animation. While not as versatile or powerful as MAX or Softimage, its certainly adequate for the hobbyist, small business or student, and at about $300 list is very reasonably priced. Softimage 3D Softimage (www.softimage.com) was a favorite of the character animation community long before Microsoft purchased it. This software is definitely in the CGI big leagues. It requires serious hardware (SGI or NT) to run it, and forget multitasking. Softimage takes over your system, fixes your screen resolution, and pretty much demands acceleration from officially approved video cards like Dynamic Pictures Oxygen series. If you dont have a serious accelerator card, you can go nuts waiting for screen refresh on complex character setups. Despite these drawbacks, Softimage is the character animation program of choice among working pros in top studios. For an example of whats possible, take a look at the clips from Steph Greenbergs short film, The Physics of Cartoons, Part 1, in the PHYSICS directory of the CD-ROM. You can do things in Softimage that are difficult or impossible in most other character animation programs, and that production edge is what sells a lot of Softimage licenses. The support, documentation and online resources are also superlative, and once youve mastered the program youll discover that Softimage animators are almost always in demand. According to several professional character animators who have worked with both programs, Animation:Master and Softimage are currently the best choices for character animation using complex constraint setups as described in Chapter 12. Considering the price difference, you might want to try A:M before you invest in Softimage. A major new release of Softimage, code named Sumatra, is currently in the works, but dont hold your breath. As with Alias Maya, major releases of software at this level of development are few and far between. Strata Studio Pro Stratas StudioPro (www.strata.com), now available for both Mac and NT, is acceptable as a general CGI animation program but falls a little short on character setup and animation tools. Judging from the level of documentation, support, and usability of features, this program seems overpriced and underpowered. At $1,495 list, you can get a lot more power and functionality with LightWave, or chuck the polygons and try Animation:Master for a fraction of the price. trueSpace3 As with Animation:Master, you can try out Caligaris (www.caligari.com) trueSpace3 with the demo version on the CD-ROM. TS requires plug-ins for morphing, but other than that its a pretty complete character animation package. One especially nice touch is the import and export compatibility with multiple object file formats like Wavefront OBJ, Kinetix 3DS and LightWave LWO. TrueSpace3 is available for Windows 95 and runs comfortably on NT as well. At $695 list, this program falls somewhere between LightWave and Ray Dream 5, and thats about where it falls functionally, too. About The CD-ROM The CD-ROM enclosed with this book contains all the electronic files you will need to complete the projects. You will also find examples of completed work from the projects for you to compare to your own efforts. In addition to scripts, storyboards, sounds, exposure sheets, models, backgrounds, images, and scenes, there are finished animations, artwork, software, and other samples from a number of vendors and artists. About Online Updates Software changes rapidly, so Im offering free updates to projects and files from this book as software development continues. When software developers announce a new feature or program, Ill do my best to update the relevant sections of this book online. Ill also provide links to various CGI resources on the Internet, including discussion groups, newsgroups, databases, and more, at http://home.earthlink.net/~dakelly/index.htm. Hardware And Software Requirements To complete the projects, youll need whatever hardware is necessary to run your software on the platform of your choice. Many of the projects use software written for the Intel platform, and equivalent tools for Alpha, PowerPC, or SGI hardware and operating systems may not be available. In each case, sample output from the project is provided on the CD-ROM so you can complete any dependent projects. So What Are You Waiting For? By now, Im certain youre eager to get started. When youve completed all the projects, or just have a few nice examples you want to show off, Id like to hear from you. You can reach me via email at dakelly@earthlink.net, or c/o Coriolis Group. Best of luck, and welcome to the wonderful world of character animation! Doug Kelly The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player