Animation traditionally is done by

Animation traditionally is done by hand-
drawing or painting successive frames of an
object, each slightly different than the preceding
frame. In computer animation, although the
computer may be the one to draw the different
frames, in most cases the artist will draw the
beginning and ending frames and the computer
will produce the drawings between the first and
the last drawing. This is generally referred to as
computer-assisted animation, because the
computer is more of a helper than an originator.
____ In full computer animation, complex
mathematical formulas are used to produce the
final sequence of pictures. These formulas operate
on extensive databases of numbers that define
the objects in the pictures as they exist in
mathematical space. The database consists of
endpoints, and color and intensity information.
Highly trained professionals are needed to
produce such effects because animation that
obtains high degrees of realism involves computer
techniques for three-dimensional transformation,
shading, and curvatures.
____ High-tech computer animation for film
involves very expensive computer systems along
with special color terminals or frame buffers. The
frame buffer is nothing more than a giant image
memory for viewing a single frame. It temporarily
holds the image for display on the screen.
____ A camera can be used to film directly from
the computer's display screen, but for the highest
quality images possible, expensive film recorders
are used. The computer computes the positions
and colors for the figures in the picture, and
sends this information to the recorder, which
captures it on film. Sometimes, however, the
images are stored on a large magnetic disk before
being sent to the recorder. Oncethis process is
completed, it is repeated for the next frame. When
the entire sequence has been recorded on the
film, the film must be developed before the
animation can be viewed. If the entire sequence
does not seem right, the motions must be
corrected, recomputed, redisplayed, and
rerecorded. This approach can be very expensive
and time consuming. Often, computer-animation
companies first do motion tests with simple
computer-generated line drawings before selling
their computers to the task of calculating the
high-resolution, realistic-looking images.