Page 142 - DCAP303_MULTIMEDIA_SYSTEMS

Multimedia Systems

notes 8.2.2 frame
A frame is a snapshot in time. If you were to take your favourite animated movie and pause the
playback for a split second, you would see one frame of animation. Imagine a bird in flight. If you
could stop this bird while it was flying along its course, you might see the wings folded slightly.
Maybe its eyelids are opening or closing, and maybe the beak is slightly open. If you paused the
playback a second later, the next frame would look different.
8.2.3 Cycle

Animation moves in cycles, and a cycle is a series of frames that make up an action. For example,
the cycle of walking can be made up of about eight frames. This cycle begins with the character
picking up his right foot with his right shoulder raised slightly. The cycle continues until frame
4, where the right foot is back on the ground. Then the same process happens with the left foot.
Finally, frame 8 ends with the left foot being put back on the ground. Cycles can be repeated, if
necessary, thus reducing the need for creating the animated frames from scratch.

When frame 8 of the walking cycle is finished, for example, just start over with frame 1. The
character can walk on forever, if you want. A complex animation, such as those seen in cartoons,
is made up of many individual cycles.
For example, the character moves to a specific spot (cycle 1). The character stands and acts as
though he or she is thinking about something (cycle 2). The character suddenly does an about
face (cycle 3). Finally, the character walks back the way he or she came (cycle 4).

8.2.4 storyboards
Now comes the question “How do we decide what we need and how it is organized?” This is
where the storyboard comes in. Storyboards are a series of small panels showing major scenes
of action in the animation. Through the use of a storyboard, lead animators could create sample
drawings of the scenes as they imagined them and write in the dialogue just below the storyboard
panes. Today developers of multimedia applications use similar processes to organize the action
before they begin actual development.

8.2.5 Keyframes
Lead animators would then take these storyboard scenes and create individual frames of the
animation at specific pivot points in the action. These points are called keyframes. Keyframes
are drawn where parts of the character’s body reach their full range of motion. For example,
an arm can bend only so far back before it breaks. If the character has reached that point in the
animation, then that frame of animation should be a keyframe. The same goes for head movements
and anybody appendages. These drawings create the templates from which other animators can
create the finished frames of the cartoon.

8.2.6 Backgrounds
So, you have created an animation. It looks fantastic, but it is just bouncing around on a blank
screen. Now you need to create a background, which is the environment you want to add to
your scene that helps set the mood for the animation. Backgrounds were painted in earlier
animated cartoons, but more and more of them have moved to using computer-generated
backgrounds.

Storyboards were brought into the mainstream of animation with the Walt
Disney studios.

136 LoveLy professionaL University