Emerging Technologies – 3D Scanning and Printing Compared to other methods of Animation
In the essay I will be comparing the new method of 3D scanning and printing (example shown through bears on stairs) to other methods of animation. This essay will go into detail on the different forms of animation; considering how efficient they are and the quality they allow, compared to different methods. I will be using a wide range of reference to ensure that I create an accurate and fair final conclusion decided whether 3D Scanning and Printing has a future, or if it is simply inefficient.
What is 3D Printing and how does it work?
‘(noun) the action or process of making a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model, typically by laying down many thin layers of a material in succession’. 3D printing is essentially the process of creating digital objects in physical form. This method is used in animation context to 3D print each frame of an animation to make the physical frame by frame sequence of an animation.
Bears on Stairs
Creative agency DBLG (based in London) and Blue Zoo created the “Bears on Stairs” a short animated clip using a series of 3D modelled and printed bears to create a traditional stop motion animation, ”made the same way animations were made long before computers had anything to do with animation”1. The idea was to 3D model a character, animated it digitally, then 3D print each individual frame to create a physical sequence that can be used to create a traditional style stop-motion animation.
The idea was to “relive the Bear scratching up against a tree and move him to a never ending staircase”. The animation took around 50 models in total, taking up to 4 weeks to create. This makes the animation as efficient and effective as any other professional animation of its size. “The original ursine has a very short run time of 2 seconds”2. However, due to the clever design of the animation, the final product is able to run on a constant flowing cycle.
This animation was created by taking a virtual 3D modelled bear animation and bringing it to reality with 3D printing. Using replacement modelling to take photos and create a sequence that flows to make a physical animation. By creating various iterations of the same 3D model, slightly modified, it allows for a smooth animation to be created.
Process of replacement modelling: start with the first 3D model in the sequence, take a photo and replace the first model with the next model in the sequence (in the exact same position) and take a photo. Process is carried out for every model in the sequence and then put together in order in video processing software (such as Adobe Premier). This allows for the series of photos to be turned into a flowing animation which makes the bear appear to be climbing the stairs.
Sony Bravia
“The Sony Bravia Play-Doh Rabbits advert was developed at Fallon, London, by creative directors Juan Cabral and Richard Flintham and agency producer Nicky Barnes.”4 The advert runs for 90 seconds and shows “Play-Doh rabbits hopping to a central point where they turn into an enormous purple wave. The wave then turns into a sea before a whale’s tail emerges”5, which then turns into a giant red rabbit.
Early version of this process used using physically sculpted models in a processual process replacing models with the next model in the sequence (replacement modelling). Project was for a TV advert. The Sony Bravia TV advert using hand modelled rabbits animated using stop motion animation, is a prime example of the traditional style of stop motion animation, compared to DBLG’s modern method of 3D modelling the bear animation on a computer before 3D printing the sequence and then using the printed models for stop motion animation.
“The Sony Play-Doh advert was the third advert featuring the “Color like No Other” tagline”.4 “The Bravia advert is made up of stop frame / motion animation, in which objects are moved by very small amounts between individually photographs frames – a very long and arduous process. Over a period of three weeks. “4 A big difference between the Bravia advert and the Bear on stairs is that 40 animators were required to make the Bravia advert. The animators were responsible for: “189 2ft bunnies, 150 1ft cubes, a 30ft giant rabbit and a 10ft x 20ft purple wave – all made from 2.5 tonnes of plasticine.”4 This was the very first time that many animators had worked together on one scene.
Traditional Animation
Traditional animation is the process of hand drawing each frame of the animation on a physical medium. This was the most common method of animation until computer generated animation (2D vector and 3D animation) took over. Famous examples of traditional animation include; “Atlantis, Curious George, Hercules, Peter Pan, Beavis and Butthead, and many more.”6 In this essay I have included an example of a hand drawn animation sequence which would be used to create the animation. “Original Disney films are a perfect example of this kind of animation. Flip-books are a basic version of how traditional animation works: sequential drawings screened quickly one after another to create the illusion of movement”7
Traditional animation is created by animators using transparent paper to draw onto using coloured pencils, frame by frame. Often animation will be tested it rough sketches before creating the main frames. This is to prevent time being wasted as traditional animation is expensive and time consuming. This is why animators these days prefer more modern methods such as 2D vector/3D animation on a computer.
3D Animation
‘3D animation works in a completely different way than traditional animation. However, they both require an animator to understand the same principles of composition and movement’7. The skills required to be a 3D animator are very different to those required to be a traditional animator or vector-based animation. Drafting is very important when it comes to traditional animation, whereas it isn’t a necessity when 3D animating. 3D animation has been described to being ‘more similar to playing with puppets rather than drawing’7.
3D animation is often referred to as CGI/CG, and is made by generating images using computers. The series of images generated form the frames of the animation. 3D animation uses techniques similar to those used with stop-motion animation, ‘as both deal with animating and posing models, and still conforms to the frame-by-frame approach of 2 animation’7 but animators have a lot more control over their animation when animating in 3D due to the digital work-space.
The process of 3D animation is more similar to other forms of animation than people may believe. The biggest difference is that the character is digitally 3D modelled using software such as Autodesk Maya, rather than being physically drawn or modelled (often constructed with clay). For the 3D animation to work, the animator must create a ‘skeleton’ that allows them to move the model and position the models into main key frames. With 3D animation only the key frames are required as the computer is able to ‘calculate and perform an interpolation between those frames to create movement’7. These generated frames can then be modified to create the perfected finished product. Often the animator/’s will modify the curves to make the animation flow the best it possibly can.
The final process of the animation is where 3D animation differs the most from other forms of animation. Once the animation is finished, the computer will render each frame individually. This process allows for a very good quality animation (TV/Game worth), however, it can often be very time consuming, especially if it is a long, high quality animation.
2D Vector-Based Animation
2D vector-based animation is the modern equivalent of traditional, hand drawn animation. Instead of being hand drawn on paper it is hand drawn on a computer in software such as; Adobe Photoshop, TV Paint, or Toon Boom Harmony. These examples of software used for 2D animation all have differences in the way they work, but all can be used in their own way for their “powerful drawing capabilities.”7 Below I have included an example of how vector based animation is created using different vectors moved between frames to create a flowing animation.
One major difference between 2D animations is the efficiency of how each animation has to be done. 2D animation is done in 2’s, meaning a new drawing is done per 2 frames. Whereas, 3D animation works in 1’s, meaning each frame the animation changes. This means more work is necessary for 3D animation. As well as this, when animating in 2D the character is only visible from one side meaning the other side doesn’t need to be drawn by the animator, cutting down on time drawing the scene. Whereas, with 3D animation the entire character has to be created and animated per frame due to it being in a digital space.
Conclusion
To conclude, in my opinion the method of 3D Scanning and Printing, carried out during the bears on stairs project, is a modern and effective method which I believe could quite easily have a future in the animation industry and in some cases replace other methods currently viable in the industry, especially with smaller projects. I believe this due to the quality and speed that the animations are able to be made with this method. This method was proven to be efficient through the bears on stairs project, as it proved that the animation can be created the same speed (for the length) as any other stop-motion animation. The quality of the animation is also clearly shown through this project as well, as the final animation is so perfectly created that even professionals wouldn’t be able to tell that the animation isn’t rendered digitally.
However, I do understand the downsides of this method. One being the long and expensive process of 3D printing the animation once it is created, which I don’t believe has been taken into a great deal of consideration by many animators with it being a new method. As well as this, the regular 3D animation process is already being carried out for this process to be viable, therefore many people will query why not just render it digitally, instead of carrying out 2 processes; 3D printing and stop-motion animation, to get the same result.
Finally, I disagree that 3D Scanning and Printing (to animate) is an effective method for big companies creating large animations as it is an expensive and time consuming process, despite the bears on stairs project competing for time scale with other animation methods. I don’t believe that this will be possible on a bigger scale and multiple characters and objects in one scene will lead to a lot of 3D printing and relocating to be done, versus simple rendering the scene (render time isn’t really effected by the amount of objects in the scene). Despite this, I would agree that 3D Scanning and Printing is a viable method of animation for smaller projects as it does allow for nice clean, high quality animations to be created fairly efficiently. I would also recommend this method for animators who enjoy stop-motion animation but dislike hand modelling their models and prefer digital 3D modelling.
Bibliography
https://dblg.co.uk/projects/bears-on-stairs/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLUAbkRUvVQ
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2007/sony-bravia-play-doh/
http://www.sky.com/tv/channel/skycinema/gallery/top-50-traditional-animations
https://www.bloopanimation.com/types-of-animation/
Key:
1 = Time
2 = Wired
3 = DBLG
4 = the Inspiration Room
5 = Tech Radar
6 = Sky
7 = Bloop
Bailey Brian 