Myron P Smith
1974
Focal Press
When Lee Harrison III first conceived the idea for the animation systems now employed by Computer Image Corporation, digital technology was already an established technique. He felt, however, that it had some shortcomings. It was costly and slow, but most detrimental, he thought, was that it neglected the function of the artist. It worked in a medium which was strange and unfamiliar to animators. His answer to these problems was fundamentally one of simplification. It has come to be called the analog system, though it does not discriminate against digital techniques, and can and does employ them whenever appropriate. The analog system constructs an image by employing a series of co-ordinated analog electronic circuits, each of which is responsible for repeating only a part of the image. Each analog circuit operates continuously. That is, instead of producing a part of the image by means of a series of dots, it produces lines by moving an electronic beam over the surface of a cathode ray tube at an extremely high speed or drawing rate.
Fig 17.1: Scanimate computer system.
Fig 17.2: Caesar computer system: Caesar stands for Computer Animated Episodes by Single Axis Rotation, a system giving more complex visual images than Scanimate
What this means to the artist is that he does not program an analog or hybrid computer by using computer or engineering language. He modulates or modifies the images he watches by turning a knob. There is no delay factor in an analog system. The analog image is modified instantaneously and produced in real time, that is, the time it takes to watch it or film it. Because it is made of lines rather than dots, there is a fluidity to analog animation. The result of the analog approach has been to produce two hybrid animating systems or devices.
ANIMAC AND SCANIMATE SYSTEMS
The first system, called Animac, requires an engineer's knowledge to create the image, whether it be a character or an abstract. But once created, it can be animated without engineering know-how or computer language of any kind.
The second system, called Scanimate, can be operated without engineering knowledge by anyone after a half hour's instruction. Its input is any material or art form with which the artist is familiar - a photograph, a drawing, or a sculpture. In most cases, the input to the Scanimate comprises a backlighted high-contrast transparency bearing the static graphical material to be converted to dynamic imagery. A special high resolution television camera operating at a horizontal sweep rate of about 19 Khz and a vertical frame rate of 48 fps (when the output is being recorded on film) and 30 fps (when the output is being recorded on video tape), views the transparency, and its output is coupled to the input of the Scanimate computer.
In the Scanimate, the image from the television camera may be segmented into as many as five segments and each segment may be manipulated, in three dimensions, with respect to each other segment. The initial position, final position, type of animation between initial and final position and the rate at which such animation occurs can be set by the computer operator through the adjustment of a series of knobs on the Scanimate. This programs the computer. It should be noted that the operator and the creative director, if he is a separate individual, is continuously viewing the results of his work on a monitor, and if he does not like what he sees, he can change it until he is happy with the visual results. After this programming process is completed, and it usually takes only a few minutes per scene, there is a single switch labelled Initial-Final, which the operator simply flips to Initial and then back to Final and each of the segments goes through its complete animation and comes to rest at the predetermined Final position.
The image appears on the 5 in. cathode ray tube in a special monitor we have designed which has a line rate of approximately 19 Khz and is x-y scanned rather than TV raster scanned. This permits us to write images at a high rate on any portion of the CRT screen in rapid sequence.
Fig 17.3: Scanimate system. The camera at the left is picking up the graphics display while the computer operator seated at the right, is controlling the animation as he watches the display on the video monitor at the bottom centre of the picture.
Fig 17.4: A numeral which has been specially prepared by the Scanimate system for output on the video display.
Thus far, Scanimate has had a limited application in character animation and has been used primarily for what might be called computer graphics. The ability to animate or transform any graphic material by means of the Scanimate system, plus the ability of the graphics designer to photograph the image at any stage of transformation he desires, adds a new creative dimension for graphic artists and designers. From a single design, photograph, or object, complete dimensional control is possible instantly, so that this form of graphic origination can be applied to typography and printing, as well as interior and industrial design usage.
FUTURE SCANIMATE DEVELOPMENTS
A modification of the Scanimate system will be operational in the near future which will produce character animation in real time as the animator watches and modifies it. The overall advantages of both Animac and Scanimate, that is, the real capability, the direct control, and immediate variation by the artist, have already been described. But this by no means covers what is perhaps the most important feature - that is, that any kind of artistic input can animate the images. For example, the animator's voice or a voice recording can be used to produce synchronous lip movements in the animated character. The animator can wear a set of attenuators called an anthropometric harness attached to his body and, as he moves, the character moves or animates. This means an animator can choreograph as he watches the resulting animation. Music or sound of any kind can be employed to drive or animate the image or any component of it.
Currently, both Animac and Scanimate images are recorded in monochrome (i.e., black and white) film or videotape. Colour is presently being added by a conventional film printer or by colour keying electronically. The film method adds the laboratory process time to the completion of the finished film. But within a year, full-colour, real-time animation will be available with any Computer Image animation system.
Fig 17.5: Sequence 2 picture 1 intermediate transformation of same image.
Fig 17.6: Sequence 2 picture 2.
Fig 17.7: Sequence 2 picture 3.
Fig 17.8: Sequence 2 picture 4.
ULTIMATE AIMS
The long-range goal is to produce full-colour three-dimensional, full animation of the complexity of Fantasia or The Yellow Submarine, in a matter of days or weeks, rather than months or years. If this kind of time schedule for such ambitious production seems to bypass the artist or his creative contributions, please be assured it does not. It is still necessary with the Computer Image systems, as with any computer-animated systems for an artist or a group of artists, to provide the creative input. No computer can circumvent or substitute this. What it does do, once the creative input has been supplied, is to shorten the time from conception to the realization of the final product.
Fig 17.9: Picture 1 Scanimate design as it appeared on the light box and the display monitor before animation.
Fig 17.10: Sequence 2 Picture 1. Imagery for this sequence was produced without photography by the circuitry of the Animac computer. Pictures 1-4 show stages of transformation to final image.
So far, the chief user of Computer Image animation has been television, probably because it is a more voracious consumer of any imagery, no matter what its source. Animators and film producers with varying degrees of experience have used both systems to produce educational and training films, film titles, and film effects as well as television commercials.
Computer Image Corporation's next logical and inevitable step is the further development of full character animation. In fact, the capability is already available. It awaits only the creativity of the animator necessary to put it to use.
Fig 17.11: Sequence 1 Picture 3. Abstract transformation of same image.
Fig 17.12: Example of an animated character produced by the Computer Image Animac system. This character was being animated or choreographed by an animator wearing an anthropometric harness which caused the image whenever the animator moved. The photography was done in real time (ie., at standard 24 f.p.s. film speed).