p5 unit 31 computer animation

Explain how animations are used on web pages (e.g. buttons with rollover effects, adverts)

Introduction
In this blog I will be talking about how animations are used on a web page and adverts, I will be going into detail about where they are located and why they are used

Animations are used in lots of web pages and are saw all over the web. Animations can be used as animated buttons with rollover effects and adverts. Animated buttons with rollover effects are when for example there is a heading on a webpage and you hover over it, it will change how it looks depending on what the webpage wanted it to look like for example the writing could change colour or the text could be highlighted or the box might get bigger. Here is a video on how to create a rollover effect on Flash and also an example of what one would look like.

p4 unit 31 computer animation

Describe the software tools available for animation P4

  P4 – Describe the software tools available for animation

Layers
-          A layer is a separate element of an image.
-          When two images are seen together they appear as one image.
-          Works like original cell animation for hand drawn animations.
Frames
-          A frame is a single image within an animation.
-          Frames are played in a sequence at a specific rate, frames per second (fps). This creates an illusion of animation.
-          Key frames are special frames where and animation begins or ends.
Controls
-          Controls are tools available to the animator within the application (tool bar).
-          They are usually contained within a toolbox on the sides of the application.
Tweening
-          Creates movement.
-          Motion tweening.
-          Morphing.
-          The tween also has properties that can be altered such as the speed at which it is performed.
Buttons
-          These can be used to play the animation or to alter the sequence.
-          Examples of buttons you may use, Start, Play, and scene selection.
Symbols
-          Are reusable objects.
-          Examples of symbols are, Graphics, Buttons and Movie clips.
-          A copy of a symbol used in the movie is called and instance.
-          Each instance can have its own individual properties like, Colour, Size and function.
Libraries
-          Assets such as symbols and tweens are stored in libraries within the animation software. This allows them to be reused.
-          Reusing is helpful to the animator as it saves them creating it each time it is needed, it will also allow for exact copies of the orginal.

P3 - discuss the advantages and limitations of GIF's

Introduction

GIF's are the moving animations that are on Google images, they are there to get your attention when looking for another image, the main reason for them after they get your attention, is for you to click on them which then takes you through to another website full of animations when. in this blog I will be talking about the advantages and limitations of GIF's.

GIF (Graphic Interchange Format)
GIF files are known as being one of the main file formats for simple animated imaging used on the internet. This included animated logos, web banners, low budget adverts, low colour sprite games. Many websites support GIF allowing GIF files to be used in forums etc.

GIF's have 256 colours available which is why it’s best for simple shapes and text. By having simple shapes, the file size is reduced allowing a faster upload time. The file is also compressed which again means that the file size is reduced, but this doesn't affect the quality of the animation or image. GIF is also supported by most web browsers nowadays giving it more flexibility.

Advantages:  

1. Small file sizes.

2. Load fairly quickly when uploading or saving.

3. Compatible with most web browsers.

4. No plug-in needed to play GIF's.

Disadvantages:

1. You can't implement sound.

2. Hard to create detailed animations.

3. Very difficult to edit once created.

4. Flash doesn't support GIF files.


Dynamic HTML

DHTML is where the content of a website changes each time it's viewed by the audience. The webpage can change depending on where you are in the world, what time of day you access the website, security settings, previous pages viewed by the user.

DHTML is a collection of technologies that are used to create and animate websites. They use mark-up language, in most cases HTML, which is used for most of the pages elements, a client-side scripting, such as JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets for the layering the content and for the colours, fonts, etc., and the document object model, which is a m heading, section, paragraph, image, list, etc.

It allows authors to create effects for their page, that would otherwise be hard to achieve. for example DHTML allows them to animate text an images, they can add a ticker, which will refresh the page after a certain time, this is used on news websites and social websites, allows roll-over buttons and drop-down menu

Disadvantages:

1. Although you get a great deal of different utilities and tools to use, these come with a price, and can be quite costly. A well known DHTML creator is Adobe Dreamweaver.

2. Creating and editing your website involves lots of detailed coding. If you're not familiar with coding, HTML, CSS, you will find it difficult to create a nice looking, working website.

3. When writing code, if you don't check what is compatible with different browsers, then you could get right to the end and find it won't work, which will be a waste of time. For example, if your writing code for Netscape, then that won't work in Internet Explorer. 
 

Adobe Flash is used for working with vector graphics, animation, games etc. Flash is usually used for making web banners and other types of advertising. Because you use simple images, text and vector graphics, the file size is generally small. This allows content to be uploaded, download, and played quickly and without any problems.

In order for you to watch flash animations, you will need a plug-in called Flash Player, which these days, is incorporated in most, if not all, web browsers. Adobe flash is found almost anywhere these days, not only on PCs but also on Phones, Tablets, etc.

Advantages:

1. By incorporating flash into your website, you can make it more professional and trustworthy. It allows the viewers to interact within your website, watch videos and listen to audio.

2. Flash is a good way to advertise products, etc. By making web banners, posters, you can attract people to buy, look at your products, website, etc.

3. It allows you to quickly get your point across because you can create a video introducing your website or product fast and effectively.

Disadvantages:

1. Flash animated website won't show in the search bar because engines cannot index them.

2. Flash files don't work on Apple products such as iPads and iPhones.

3. There is a content capacity on a flash file which means that if you have too much data in the file, you will have to shorten or delete work in order to save it.

4. Adobe Flash is expensive to buy.

5. You can only view flash if you have flash player installed into your machine or browser. 

Shockwave Adobe Shockwave is a platform that allows you to implement animation and interactivity into webpages. In order to view any Shockwave objects, you must have the Shockwave Plug-in installed into your browser. Shockwave supports audio, animation, and video. It runs on Windows and Macintosh platforms. 

It is also used for interactive games. For example, the BBC website has a numerous amount of small interactive games that you can play. 

Advantages:

1. Many devices support Adobe Shockwave.

2. It allows you to create interactive games, animations, audio.

Disadvantages:

1. The file sizes are generally big, which means, when saving, uploading, downloading, you will find it take a fair bit of time.

2. To use Shockwave you must have the plug-in installed onto your browser/PC.

3. Adobe Shockwave cost a bit to purchase it. 

QuickTime Created by Apple, it's handles with video, imaging, sound and interactivity. QuickTime is capable of playing media on mobile devices, iPods, iPhones, TV. QuickTime allows to edit the movie and manipulate movie tracks. You can also combine two QuickTime movies into one movie and embed them into documents and presentations. If you have the internet, you can send files via e-mail, or upload them onto the web.

Advantages:

1. QuickTime is free to download and use.

2. Movie playback is high quality.

3. You can edit movie, sound clips with relative ease and embed them into documents.

Disadvantages:

1. QuickTime files are bigger than normal which can take up time if sending via e-mail or uploading to the web.

2. They don't supports some file formats.

3. Buffering times can be too long when watching a long movie.

Real player Real player is a cross platform program that is used for playing music and movies. Real player supports the most common types of format, this includes, MP3, windows media, MPEG-4. Real player is compatible with most Operating Systems and is also compatible with quite a few platforms. Real player is not pre-installed software, so you will need to download it from their website.

Advantages:

1. Fast and free to install.

2. Supports many formats and platforms.

Disadvantages:

1. Buffering takes a long time.

2. Pesters you will free software at the start of installation.

3. In order for movies to play smoothly you need a fast computer to keep up with the demand.

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser and cross-platform that allows you to write and run internet applications. Silverlight supports multimedia, graphics, and animation. Silverlight can also be used for video streaming. It competes between Adobe Flash and QuickTime player. Silverlight supports most browsers and can also be used on most Windows Phones.

Advantages:

1.It offers a cross domain support for applications.

2. It's free and easy to download.

3. Offers many tools and different utilities.

Disadvantages:

1. Requires a plug-in to view and material online.

2. Is a pain to learn how to use it.  

unit 31 computer animation (M1)

Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision is where the retina is taken into an afterimage for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second where the retina believes that it’s being tricked into motion perception. It also explains why the black spaces seem to disappear from the illusion. I will be explaining the persistence of vision. This is very important because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to perceive vision.

Persistence of vision is a theory in which when we show a number of images together within a short time period, it gives the illusion that the images are moving. Because our brain can only process a certain amount of information at any given time, when images are shown in a quick succession, we see it as if it's moving. In films, the frames per second are in the thousands, which in turn make the movie incredibly smooth. The minimum amounts of frames per second humans need in order to define the images as a movie is 24.

Although the movie won't be as smooth as it could, we still will consider it a movie or animation. There are other theories; for example, some scientists believe that it's caused by the Beta Movement, which the brain is assuming that there's movement when images are shown quickly one after another.

P1, P2 - explain the different types of animation, expalin the uses of animation,

Introduction
Animation is used in all types of film without us even knowing, animation has evolved from old obvious lighting effects and characters, to now where you cant even tell animation apart from the real acting. In this blog I will be discussing the different types of animation and what they do, I will then include the different uses of this specific type of animation and give examples of when they are used in the animation world, the different types of animation techniques are;

•       Flip Book
•       Cell Animation
•       Stop Motion
•       Cut out
•       Rotoscoping
•       Skeletal Animation
•       Flash Animation
•       CGI

Flip book
Flip book animation is where you get a little book and on every page you draw a picture and as you flick through the book all the little pictures show an animation, they take a while because you have to draw the same picture every time but with a little movement to create the animation. An example of this would be in the film 'Hot Fuzz' where Nick Frost shows Simon Peg his notebook and he has drawn a stickman getting shot in the head, this is a prime example of this type of animation as most people tend to just doodle in them. A use of this would be to get a feel of simple animation and this is the most common way of amateur getting used to animation.

Cell animation
Cell animation is where you originally have a background on a piece of paper and put a transparent sheet over the top with different pictures on or different characters, this is traditionally used for hand animation. this type if animation isn't really used anymore as we have got more advanced technology and better ways of getting the animation into our films. This is an easy way for amateur animators to get used to drawing over templates of animated pictures and getting used to adding effect to the original picture. The other use would be to add a cartoon effect to the picture like shown in the picture, they do this by drawing a basic layer, then adding over the top of it and they keep doing this until you have the cartoon effect that you want. this is a good way to add shadowing effect and adding in props to the picture.

Stop motion
Stop motion animation is where you use stop frames to make it look like the object is moving when it actually isn't, all you do is take a photo of the object and then slightly move it, take a picture, and repeat this until you have your object where you want it, it takes 24 frames to make 1 second of film, this type of animation does take a while but it one of the most effective. A use of where stop motion animation is used is in the films Chicken run and Wallace and Gromit, they use this method because they want to get the cartoon effect on the film. Film makers choose to use this method because although its time consuming the end quality is of the highest.



Cut out
Cut out animation is where you cut out pictures of props, IE, animals, people and houses, and take a photo from above them move the prop where you want it, you can use all types of materials for this; paper, card, fabric. this type on animation was the earlier of its type because it was so simple and easy to use, but it was very time consuming. an example of where cut out animation is used is in South Park, they use this type of animation because they want to use the cartoon effect that they get, the main reason is because they were fiercely in competition with family guy etc, so they wanted a different look, the way that they preform this type of animation is to film a real life scene then 'cutout' that scene and replace this with the cartoon version. 











Rotoscoping
Rotoscoping animation is where you trace over actual footage that you have filmed frame by frame, years ago they just used to put an image over the footage and paused it then got an animator to draw over it, like 'tracing paper'. This used to be a very popular type of animation but now as technology has moved on CGI is the new way, rotoscoping is used in a lot of films that we don't know about, for example in Lord of the rings, Gandalf is on his horse going to battle that is actually a drawn picture that has had layers of different pictures added to the original, then they add in a really picture, another example would be in Lady and the Tramp, most of the film is pictures that have been drawn.



Skeletal Animation
Skeletal Animation is where you get a three dimensional set of interconnected bones which freely move giving the object movement. this type of animation is normally used to recreate human movements. also this type of animation gives the 'hand' a better look and to make it more realistic to the real thing. In the film Night mare before Christmas they use Skeletal animation, they use this specific type of animation because it looks the best, and would be more suitable for this specific film because they want to get the exact movements to make the film that extra bit more realistic, although the film is an animation, they still want to get everything as if it was a real life film.


Flash Animation
Flash Animation is best known for its cartoons animations where, the main use is for people to draw and create pieces of art, but on a computer rather than on paper etc. it is mainly used for younger children to mess around with and used different colors and make pictures. The most common use for Flash animation is in kids TV programs because children are easy amused and if they saw a scene that have people talking they would be very interested, but if they saw some animated characters on the TV then they would find that more entertaining and watch it. Also because they are limited in the audience that will be interested in their TV shows then they wont have to spend much money on high tech equipment unlike the producers of avatar.



CGI
CGI stands for (computer generated imagery) this is the most common use of animation as it is the most advanced and is the best technology wise. it is used in art, printed media, video games and mainly films. CGI can be used in  2D images or even 3D graphics used for creating scenes or special effects. CGI is uses in almost every new film that comes out, the best thing out about CGI is most people don't even notice when it involved in films or TV programs, the best example would be, in Pirates of the Caribbean, Davey Jones, there are three stages to get his character to look how he does on screen, firstly they put loads of cameras/sensors all over his body that can track his every movement, the second step is to put that scene into an animated look, they then add in all of the detail and make the picture look realistic and add effects to give him a real life look.   







In my opinion i think that animation has transformed over the last ten years and will rapidly improve within the next ten years, but i think that CGI is the best and most used type of animation, this is because of its ability to apply normal features and change them into a cartoon version but make it fit in, in a normal film. also i think that as the animation world evolves they will be put into films and we wont even know about it because the technology is so advanced that they have the ability tro add scenes in to make them look realistic.