Post 05 - Additional Research

I have recently been looking into some other areas which involve animation and sources of relevance. Here is a link to a PDF on the making of Toy Story.

In it, there are sections which give information about the modelling and animation of the film. It describes the way in which each department tackles the work and who it would then be inherited by for the next stage.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article: 

"Animation on computer is completed through a series of refinements. The rough motion inherited from Layout at the start is refined and adjusted to include broad gestures necessary to convey the intended message. 

"Proceedings of the COMPCON Spring '96 - 41st IEEE International Computer Conference 1063-6390/96 (1996 IEEE, 465)

 The intended 'message' they speak of refers to the subtle and secondary motions. This way of working was briefly discussed in one of the 3D Animation sessions and included the notion that the audience needs to be told what to interrupt and understand from the scene (essentially conveying a clear notion).

"Another benefit of working on a computer is that the animators need not concern themselves with consistently drawing styles and proportions. At any point in time, an animator can see and hear their shot running in real time."

Proceedings of the COMPCON Spring '96 - 41st IEEE International Computer Conference 1063-6390/96 (1996 IEEE, 466)

This shows one of the benefits of using computer animation and that the need to be able to work in this manner goes back over the last couple of decades.

PDF link: http://people.uncw.edu/ricanekk/teaching/spring09/csc100/lectures/pattersone/TheMakingOfToyStory.pdf

This is an interesting source of information as it concludes by stating that it was feasible at the time (1996) to produce a full length motion picture completely from computers. I think that it is valid as it looks at the history of the first ever full length computer animated film and is still Pixar's most famous product. It shows the considerations animators must look at and the steps needed to complete a project such as Toy Story.

Next, I plan to look at more historical research, as well as some modern day developments, projects and examples.