Computer Animation

Fundamentals
Animation Methods
Keyframing
Interpolation
Kinematics
Inverse Kinematics

Lecture 21 6.837 Fall 2001

 Conventional Animation
Draw each frame of the animation
 great control
 tedious
Reduce burden with cel animation
 layer
 keyframe
 inbetween
 cel panoramas (Disney’s Pinocchio)
 ...

ACM © 1997 “Multiperspective panoramas for cel

Lecture 21 Slideanimation”
2 6.837 Fall 2001
 Computer-Assisted Animation
Keyframing
 automate the inbetweening
 good control

 less tedious

 creating a good animation

still requires considerable skill

and talent
ACM © 1987 “Principles of traditional
Procedural animation animation applied to 3D computer
animation”
 describes the motion algorithmically
 express animation as a function

of small number of parameteres

 Example: a clock with second, minute and hour hands


hands should rotate together

express the clock motions in terms of a “seconds” variable

the clock is animated by varying the seconds parameter

Lecture 21 Slide 3 6.837 Fall 2001

 Computer-Assisted Animation
Physically Based Animation
 Assign physical properties to objects
(masses, forces, inertial properties)
 Simulate physics by solving equations

 Realistic but difficult to control

ACM© 1988 “Spacetime Constraints”

Motion Capture
 Captures style, subtle nuances and realism
 You must observe someone do something

Lecture 21 Slide 4 6.837 Fall 2001

 Keyframing

ACM © 1987 “Principles of traditional animation

applied to 3D computer animation”

Describe motion of objects as a function of time from a

set of key object positions. In short, compute the
inbetween frames. s(t)

Lecture 21 Slide 5 6.837 Fall 2001

 Interpolating Positions
(x i , y i ,t i ), i 0, , n
Given positions:
 x (t )  xi 
find curveC (t )    C (t i )   
such that
 y (t )   yi 

(x 2 , y 2 ,t 2 )
C (t ) (xu
0 , y 0 ,t 0 )
0

( x1 , y 1 , t 1 )

Lecture 21 Slide 6 6.837 Fall 2001

 Linear Interpolation
(x 2 , y 2 ,t 2 )
(x 0 , y 0 ,t 0 )

( x1 , y 1 , t 1 )
Simple problem: linear interpolation between first two
: 0 1  t   x1t
t 0=0 and t1=1 x (t )  x
points assuming
The x-coordinate for the complete curve in the figure:
 t1  t t  t0
 t  t 0 t  t x1 , t   t 0 ,t1 
x 
 1 0 1 0
x (t )  
 t 2  t x  t  t1 x , t   t , t 
t 2  t1 1 t 2  t1 2  1 2

Lecture 21 Slide 7 6.837 Fall 2001

 Polynomial Interpolation
(x 2 , y 2 ,t 2 )
(x 0 , y 0 ,t 0 )

parabola
( x1 , y 1 , t 1 )

An n-degree polynomial can interpolate any n+1

points. The Lagrange formula gives the n+1
coefficients of an n-degree polynomial that interpolates
n+1 points. The resulting interpolating polynomials are
called Lagrange polynomials. On the previous slide, we
saw the Lagrange formula for n = 1.

Lecture 21 Slide 8 6.837 Fall 2001

 Spline Interpolation
Lagrange polynomials of small degree are fine but high
degree polynomials are too wiggly. Spline (piecewise
cubic polynomial) interpolation produces nicer
t
interpolation. t t

x t 

8-degree spline spline vs.

polynomial polynomial

How many n-degree polynomials interpolate n+1 points?

How many splines interpolate n+1 points?
Lecture 21 Slide 9 6.837 Fall 2001
 Spline Interpolation
A cubic polynomial between each pair of points:
x (t ) c 0  c1t  c 2t 2  c 3t 3
Four parameters (degrees of freedom) for each spline
segment.
Number of parameters:
n+1 points  n cubic polynomials  4n degrees of freedom
Number of constraints:
 interpolation constraints
n+1 points  2 + 2 (n-1) = 2n interpolation constraints
 continuous velocity

n+1 points  n-1 velocity constraints (one for each interior point)
 continuous acceleration

n+1 points  n-1 acceleration constraints (one for each interior

point)

Lecture 21 Slide 10 6.837 Fall 2001

 Interpolation of Positions
Solve an optimization to set remaining degrees of
max quality C t 
freedom: min badness C t 
dof  dof

subject to constraints subject to constraints

badness C t   quality C t 
We want to support general constraints: not just
smooth velocity and acceleration. For example, a
bouncing ball does not always have continuous
velocity:

Lecture 21 Slide 11 6.837 Fall 2001

 Interpolating Angles
Given angles( i ,t i ), i 0, , n
find curve (t ) such that  (t i )  i

Angle interpolation is ambiguous. Different angle

measurements will produce different motion:

1
0

2
2

Lecture 21 Slide 12 6.837 Fall 2001

 Keyframing
K i x i , y i , i ,t i  , i 0, , n
Given keyframes

 x t 
 
K
find curve (t )    
y t K (t i ) K i
such that
  t  

Interpolate each parameter separately

Lecture 21 Slide 13 6.837 Fall 2001

 Traditional Animation Principles
The in-betweening, was once a job for apprentice
animators. We described the automatic interpolation
techniques that accomplish these tasks automatically.
However, the animator still has to draw the key frames.
This is an art form and precisely why the experienced
animators were spared the in-betweening work even
before automatic techniques.
The classical paper on animation by John Lasseter from
Pixar surveys some the standard animation techniques:
"Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D
Computer Graphics,“ SIGGRAPH'87, pp. 35-44.

Lecture 21 Slide 14 6.837 Fall 2001

 Squash and stretch
Squash: flatten an object or character by pressure or
by its own power

Stretch: used to increase the sense of speed and

emphasize the squash by contrast

Lecture 21 Slide 15 6.837 Fall 2001

 Timing
Timing affects weight:
 Light object move quickly
 Heavier objects move slower
Timing completely changes the interpretation of the
motion. Because the timing is critical, the animators
used the draw a time scale next to the keyframe to
indicate how to generate the in-between frames.

Lecture 21 Slide 16 6.837 Fall 2001

 Anticipation
An action breaks down into:
 Anticipation
 Action
 Reaction
Anatomical motivation: a muscle must extend before it
can contract. Prepares audience for action so they
know what to expect. Directs audience’s attention.
Amount of anticipation can affect perception of speed
and weight.

Lecture 21 Slide 17 6.837 Fall 2001

 Interpolating Key Frames
Interpolation is not fool proof. The splines may
undershoot and cause interpenetration. The
animator must also keep an eye out for these types
of side-effects.

Lecture 21 Slide 18 6.837 Fall 2001

 Interpolating Orientations in 3-D
Rotation matrices
Given rotation matrices Mi and time ti, find M(t) such
that M(ti)=Mi.

y
y x  
 
M   x  y  z 
x
 
z  
z

Lecture 21 Slide 19 6.837 Fall 2001

 Flawed Solution
Linearly interpolate each entry independently
Example: M0 is identity and M1 is 90-deg rotation
around x-axis
 1 0 0  1 0 0 1 0 0
    
Interpolate ( 0 1 0 , 0 0 1 )  0 0.5 0.5 
     
 0 0 1  0  1 0  0  0.5 0.5

Is the result a rotation matrix?

The result R is not a rotation matrix. For example,
check that RRT does not equal identity. In short, this
interpolation does not preserve the rigidity (angles
and lengths) of the transformation.
Lecture 21 Slide 20 6.837 Fall 2001
 Euler Angles
An euler angle is a rotation about a single axis. Any
orientation can be described composing three rotation
around each coordinate axis. We can visualize the
action of the Euler angles: each loop is a rotation
around one coordinate axis.

Lecture 21 Slide 21 6.837 Fall 2001

 Interpolating Euler Angles
Natural orientation representation: three angles
for three degrees of freedom
Unnatural interpolation: A rotation of 90-degrees
first around the z-axis and then around the y-axis has
the effect of a 120-degree rotation around the axis (1,
1, 1). But rotation of 30-degrees around the z- and y-
axis does not have the effect of a 40-degree rotation
around the axis (1, 1, 1).
Gimbal lock: two or more axis align resulting
in a loss of rotation degrees of freedom. For
example, if the green loop in previous slide
aligns with the red loop then both the rotation
around the blue loop and the rotation around
the red loop produces identical rotation.
Lecture 21 Slide 22 6.837 Fall 2001
 Quaternion Interpolation
Linear interpolation (lerp) of quaternion representation
of orientations gives us something better:
lerp q0 , q1 ,t   q(t )  q0 1  t   q1t

Quaternion Refresher
 a general
quaternion q consistsof four numbers: a scalar s
and av3-D 
v1 ,v 2 ,v 3
 vector  q  s ,v : 
 two general quaternions are multiplied by a special rule:

q1q2 s1s 2  v1 v 2  , s1v 2  s 2v1  v1 v 2 

 q cos( / 2), sin( / 2)a 
a unit quaternion 
can represent a rotationof radians around the unit axisa
vector  
a

Lecture 21 Slide 23 6.837 Fall 2001

 Quaternion Interpolation
The only problem with linear interpolation (lerp) of
quaternions is that it interpolates the straight line (the
secant) between the two quaternions and not their
spherical distance. As a result, the interpolated motion
does not have smooth velocity: it may speed up too
much in some sections: qt  qt 
q0 q1
keyframes lerp slerp

Spherical linear interpolation (slerp) removes this

problem by interpolating along q0 sin the  lines
1  tarc t   of
instead
 q1 sin
slerp q0lines.
the secant , q1 ,t   q(t )  ,
sin  
where   cos 1 q0 q1 
Lecture 21 Slide 24 6.837 Fall 2001
 Articulated Models
Articulated models:
 rigid parts
 connected by joints
They can be animated by specifying the joint angles (or
other display parameters) as functions of time.

qi qi (t )

t1 t2 t1 t2

Lecture 21 Slide 25 6.837 Fall 2001

 Forward Kinematics
Describes the positions of the body parts as a function
of the joint angles.

1 DOF: knee 2 DOF: wrist 3 DOF: arm

Lecture 21 Slide 26 6.837 Fall 2001

 Skeleton Hierarchy
Each bone transformation described relative to the
parent in the hierarchy:

x h , y h , zh , qh , f h , s h
hips
qt , f t , st ...
left-leg
r-thigh

qc
r-calf

qff , f r-foot

Lecture 21 Slide 27 6.837 Fall 2001

 Forward Kinematics
x h , y h , zh , qh , f h , s h
Transformation matrix for a sensor/effecter
vs is a matrix composition of all joint
qt , f t , st
transformation between the sensor/effecter
and the root of the hierarchy.

qc
y

vs
qff , f vs x
z

vw = T(xh, yh, zh )R(qh, f h, s h ) TR(qt , f t , st ) TR(qc ) TR(qff, f ) vs

 
vw=S  xh , y h , zh , h , h ,  h ,t , t ,  t ,c ,ff ,   v s =S pv s
                 
 p 
Lecture 21 Slide 28 6.837 Fall 2001
 Inverse Kinematics
Forward Kinematics
 Given the skeleton parameters (position of the root and the
joint angles) p and the position of the sensor/effecter in local
coordinates vs, what is the position of the sensor in the world
coordinates vw.  
S p vs
 Not too hard, we can solve it by evaluating
Inverse Kinematics
 Given the the position of the sensor/effecter in local
coordinates vs and the position of the sensor in the world
coordinates vw, what are the skeleton parameters p.
 S p
Much harder requires  
solving the inverse of
the non-linear function  
p? such that S p v s  vw 0
   
2
minimize S p v s  vw
 We can solve it by root-finding
p
 We can solve it by optimization

Lecture 21 Slide 29 6.837 Fall 2001

 Kinematics vs. Dynamics
Kinematics
Describes the positions of the body parts as a function
of the joint angles.
Dynamics
Describes the positions of the body parts as a function
of the applied forces.

Lecture 21 Slide 30 6.837 Fall 2001

 Next Time
Dynamics

ACM© 1988 “Spacetime Constraints”

Lecture 21 Slide 31 6.837 Fall 2001