Animation

Animation for the Feedback pilot was a combination of traditional key frame animation and performance animation by a live actor in a motion-sensitive suit. Before I fly off into a technical discussion, let me go over the basic differences between these two methods of creating animation.

Computer-based key frame animation is similar to stop-motion animation. In stop-motion animation, the animator has a physical set with clay characters. When the animator wants the character to move, they pose the character by physically moving the clay, take a picture, move the clay a little more, take another picture and so on. When these pictures are joined together, they create the illusion of spontaneous motion.

It is very similar on the computer, but instead of having physical characters made of clay, the animator has digital characters created in the virtual space of the computer. The advantage of computer animation over stop-motion is that the computer can calculate the movement between poses, so the animator has only to set “key” poses and the computer will interpolate between these poses to create a smooth movement. The frame, on which one of these “key” poses is set, is called a “key” frame.

The way in which a computer will inherently move between two positions over time (i.e. between two key frames) is by defining a straight line between them and moving along this line.

While this smooth interpolation is very precise, it doesn’t mimic the natural world very well. In the natural world there are many forces acting at any one time, from gravity to wind to friction. These forces created slight deviations in our motions, some almost too slight to be perceptible, but they are important for our perception of reality.

Our main characters in this scene are human and there is an enormous amount of nuance in the slightest human movements. Creating realistic motion through key frame animation requires more and more intermediately poses to be set in between the key poses to create these subtleties. Developing an eye for these subtleties requires practice

So, to create motion using key frame animation is extremely difficult and time-consuming, and requires a tremendous understanding of performance (action, intention, anticipation, action and reaction), motion (the ways in which the body moves) and anatomy (and the ways in which the body can’t move). It takes years to gain an understanding of these concepts.

These are all qualities that are intrinsic to actors (meaning, of course, both actors and actresses), but are especially refined in mime artists and physical theatre performers.