Unit 31 - P3

Different Animation Formats

There are several different forms of animation formats including; Dynamic HTML, Flash, Shockwave, QuickTime, Realplayer and Silverlight. Each of these formats have their own traits that make them better than others in one way or another.

Dynamic HTML:

Dynamic HTML is when a website has a interactive format that allows the use of animations upon it, unlike a normal HTML page which is comprised of still images and text. This is good for displaying animations online because the animations are actually coded into the website it means that the user does not have to download any plugins to run the animations, whereas with flash and other forms of animation do require plugins. Another advantage to Dynamic HTML is that it loads on a users web page very vast.

Flash:

Flash is a form of animation created using Adobe Flash. This form of animation can be placed onto webpages and have take up around the same amount of memory as a animation posted on a dynamic HTML page. As mentioned before flash animations require the plugin to run the animations posted online. This plugin has to be updated every time that the flash program is updated meaning that the user has to spend time downloading these updates before they can view the animation. Though that is one of the downsides to flash there are also positives to the form of animation, such as the time and skill required to use flash. Flash is a easier form of animation to create than that of a dynamic HTML, this is why many animators prefer to use this instead of the more recent Dynamic HTML.

Shockwave:

Shockwave is produced by Adobe, the same company whom created Flash. Whereas flash was created to focus more upon the ideas of 2D animation Shockwave was created to look more into the ideas of 3D animations. With this being another Adobe product this means that the user must install a plugin should they want to view the animations. Although that is the only major disadvantage to this format of animation the animations created via Shockwave do have very fast rendering times meaning that the viewers don't have to wait to watch them.

QuickTime:

QuickTime is a piece of software that supports multimedia on both Mac and Apple platforms.

Advantages and Disadvantages to animated gifs

Advantages:

• Gifs allow the viewer to see a couple of seconds of a picture, some call it 'bringing a picture to life'.
• Can be used to give quick animated adverts to draw a viewers attention.
• Can be used during theatre productions to keep an audience impressed with a set design.
• Very easy to make, some websites allow you to make and download them for free.
• They are small in file size so make can be stored at once and even placed on websites.
• Most browsers support animated gifs.

Disadvantages:

• There is no sound available on them unlike some animations like flash.
• Also can not interact with the animations like in flash.
• Due to limitation on size they cannot have very complex animations.
• Hard to change the animation once they have been created.
• Only have 256 colours to use.

Unit 31 - P2 How is animation used

Explain the uses of animation

Education

Used to show students how animation works and used to give examples of animations for students who are taking animation as part of their study, animation would be used in study by showing the students how animations are made and what components are in them (for example; each individual frame). Another use of animation in education is during events like a school assembly on a presentation, animation would be used at this time so that the students would keep focused on what is being explained.

Advertisement

Animation is used in advertisements very much in the modern day, advertisements like posters can often seem dull so adding movement to them can make them more appealing to the eye, and an example of an animated advertisement would be a TV advert with cartoon characters like the old Popeye cartoon to get kids eating spinach. Other forms of adverts are the ones used in football fields of recent where a brand will hire one of the screens around the field to show an animation of their product.

Creative arts

Some people see animations as an art form this means that they can use animation to create something that can be displayed in a gallery of sorts. Some people use gifs as a way of showing a professional photo but having movement to it, this gives it a more lifelike feel to the image and attracts a lot more attention that a still image.

Entertainment

Animation is used all over the entertainment industry, most people associate animation with just animated movies like Avatar and toy story but it was used in times long before that is shows like morph and Sinbad. But animation is also used in other forms of entertainment like theatre productions, theatres use projection of animation on some opening curtains to give the audience something to look at before the show starts. Also amusement parks use animation on their rollercoaster simulators along with movement of the rides to create a lifelike rollercoaster ride with a fantasy twist which leads me onto my next point.

Simulation

Simulations are used to create a replica safe environment of real life crisis or simulation for other events like driving or flying planes. For example in the air force use simulations for test driving planes before they actually put pilots in the sky as well as simulating emergency landing situations to test the pilots on their skills in a life or death situation.  

Animation task 1 – P1
Define animation
Animation is an illusion created by passing many images through the eye at a high speed to make it look as if the images are moving. These image all have slight changes so if a man is waving in an video the images would each show the man’s hand in a different location moving from one side to the other.
Describe two forms of traditional animation

Edison Animation (Kinetoscope)
The kinetoscope was a way of viewing a short movie using lots of pictures that were taken in rapid succession these images are then places on a film and rolled through a series of spools that then circle round into a point where there is a viewing hole. Opposite to the viewing hole (on the other side of the film) there is a light source, this allows the viewer to see the image. The viewer then turns a handle and the film will run through creating the illusion that the images are moving. 

 

This diagram shows how the light travels through the film and into the viewing hole where the user can view the images.

Horner Animation

Horner animation is achieved by drawing many images (that change slightly much like Edison animation) on the inside of a circle and placing slits around the edges directly across from each images. When spun at a reasonable speed the images will look as if they are moving, this kind of animation is often looped to give an endless effect. 

This image shows the viewing slits on the exterior and the images displayed below them.

Computer animation
Computer animation is commonly done using Flash or Fireworks, both of these programs have frames which are used to achieve movement. The way that computer animation works is that each frame swaps in order at a high rate to create the illusion of movement. Each frame contains a slightly different image to the frame previous to it. Much like the two previous forms of animation described above. The images used on the frames are created by the ‘animator’ then using careful movements of each part of the image and constantly swapping slides animation can be achieved. 

This image displays the frames found in Flash. This particular image only shows
that there is one frame on this project

Morphing

This kind of animation is when one image is smoothly changed into another. An example of morphing would be the popular superhero The Incredible Hulk. Morphing is used in this to make a man turn in a monstrous mass of muscle. This effect is achieved by slowly changing the image to get either larger or smaller and change the colours and detailing until the other image is achieved.

Masking  
Masking on an animation is hiding an image using another image but allowing some view past the image on top. An example of masking is placing a "peephole" of sorts on the cursor location so that wherever the mouse moves the image behind is shown though it only shows a small amount of the image behind.

Tweening

Tweening is a basic form on animation such as a motion path. A motion path is the movement of an image in a set direction. When a tween is added to the animation it will create a set of frames for the tween to run on.