Assignment 1 Task 1(Techniques)

Techniques

In the past there were many different techniques of creating the illusion of moving image before computer animation overtook the industry. This blog will look into some of these techniques.

Persistence Of Vision: The Persistence Of Vision theory states that the human brain subconsciously stores images for around 1/25^th of a second.

Thus meaning when slightly different images are shown in rather quick succession, the mind recognises them as moving fluidly.

This theory is also used to create optical illusions.

However…

This theory, in the early 1900’s, was debunked and two further persistence of vision theories emerged: ‘The Phi Phenomenon’ and ‘Beta Movement’

The Persistence Of Vision theory was debunked due to the fact it only explains why black slides (on early projected film/animation) weren’t recognised by audiences. And this illusion only works down to 16 frames per second, If The frames went any lower, it just became an irritating, distracting flicker.

The Phi Phenomenon: The Phi Phenomenon is an optical illusion where motion between different objects viewed in quick succession gives the impression of movement. This theory was explored by Max Wertheimer in the early 1900’s.

This theory, essentially, creates the illusion of motion between images that progressively differ.

The Phi Phenomenon Link

However, if the images are alternating and the frequency of that alternation exceeds a certain speed visual persistence overtakes the Phi Phenomenon and we will then begin to see both images at once instead of a moving image.

Beta Movement: This theory is very similar to the Phi Phenomenon theory but the objects move slowly. A good example of this is the old game ‘Snake’ which was popular on older cellular devices.

Beta Movement Link

The persistence of vision led on to Stop frame as many early animators realised if pictures were placed strategically with precise timing then the illusion of stop motion was created, hence pictures were beginning to be used to create what we now know as films, as opposed to a singular object which was common for persistence of vision theories.

Stop Frame

Stop Frame is a type of animation in which each individual frame is manipulated, then when they’re played together in fairly quick succession, the images appear to move. This is different to live action as a moving image camera automatically captures movement frame by frame.

A Zoetrope is a good example of understanding this.

Zoetrope Example

Pros	Cons
More Control	Difficult to get correct speed
Can animate inanimate objects	Time consuming
Can create more surreal story lines	Fluid Motion
Can make difficult subjects easier to tackle	Difficult to visualise
Create Interesting Effects	Need to create separate audio track

Many studios such as Aardman and Disney work with stop frame, however there are different kinds of stop frame. Aardman, for instance, are well known for their Claymation, with films like Wallace And Gromit and Early Man, This involves a long process of creating sets and characters out of clay, then after each scene/picture they slightly move the characters and set if necessary. And Disney are more known for their drawn scenes, this is where each scene is drawn individually and shot, A good example of this is SteamBoat Willie.

Other Stop Frame animations include:

Puppet Animation: this is where Puppet figures interact in a constructed environment.

Cut Out Animation: Stop-motion animation where 2D pieces of cutout material, like paper or cloth, are moved.

ETC

Stop frame relied on one thing heavily, that being frame rates, frame rates are essentially the timing between images in moving images. If the frame rate was too low or too high the end product would look dodgy. Hence frame rates were essential.

Frame Rates

Cinema and Television images appear to be singular moving images, however they’re actually composed of a series of still images. The Frame rate is the amount of frames that the viewer sees per second when a film or program is screened.

Typically UK television screens at 25 frames per second, whereas American television screens at 30 frames per second.

It’s a whole other story for films, as they typically screen at 24 frames per second, but can vary widely, for instance The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug was shot and screened at 48 FPS.

Lots of people, believe films should be shot at 60 FPS as they look best at this frame rate, however most films aren’t, simply because it’s easier to film at 24 FPS because you won’t have to film as much footage as opposed to having to film a larger amount of footage for 60 FPS productions.

24 FPS vs 48 FPS