Animator Magazine - Animation:Master review

Animation:Master is a 3D computer animation program that works on the PC, Mac and Silicon Graphics platforms. David Jefferson reviews the PC
version.

Fifi - modelled by David Jefferson.

Animation:Master is a development of Playmation from Hash Inc., USA. It has very powerful features and is capable of producing film resolution animation with the
appropriate hardware.

It is a rendering program which means it is capable of photo-realistic results. The first stage of the animation is produced in a wire frame form which enables any
movement to be previewed quite quickly, final rendering can take many hours, depending on the resolution set and the number of frames. It is usual to leave the
computer to render over night.

Animation is produced by creating a character as a 3D model and then moving the character in a series of key frame positions. The program will fill in the
inbetweens to the number of frames specified by the animator. Animation is created in two stages: firstly each character is animated with movements described as
skeletal, muscle and spine motion. This gives a comprehensive range of possibilities such as walking, talking, size changing and most other things you can think
of. Once the action is determined the direction section is entered where the camera moves, lighting and choreography are determined. Taking a simple example,
a characters walk-cycle may be repeated in any direction thus enabling the character to walk around the 3D set as required. The program is supplied with a video
which has numerous examples of animation plus a tutorial to get you started with the program. There is an impressive animation made for the Childrens
Television Workshop by the Will Vinton Studio. This features carpentry tools dancing around to music. The Will Vinton studio is well known for its claymation
productions and its California Raisins advertisement. At one stage the program was marketed as Will Vintons Playmation.

Fifi.
The learning curve on all 3D computer animation programs is steep. To get the best from it you must be prepared to spend many hours of practice. However, the
results are very rewarding and I believe it is the best reason for owning a computer. When I was at the Annecy Animation Festival in France I went to a special
exhibition of computer animation demonstrating the state of the art developments. As a newcomer to the world of computer graphics I believed this degree of
sophistication would be beyond the pocket of an amateur, because of the high cost of equipment involved. You can imagine my delight when I discovered
Playmation would produce all the effects of these multi-thousand pound packages on my humble desktop PC. I believe that programs like this will do for computer
animation what desktop publishing has done for the preparation of magazines.

The PC version of A:M runs under Windows so anyone familiar with the Windows concept will find it easy to get started. Most operations can be achieved with the
mouse although keyboard equivalents exist. A number of example characters are supplied with the program so you can use these to try your hand at animation
right away. They also demonstrate the correct way to build characters or you can even modify existing characters to make them your own.

The user manual starts with a tutorial which takes you through the basics of the program. The first stage is Sculpture where the character is built. The Sculpture
screen is divided into three sections: the Control panel along the top and the left and right view windows below. You are encouraged to learn-by-doing by creating
a vase in several easy stages. Once built, you see it first as a wire-frame structure. It is a spline based program which produces characters with smooth flowing
curves, unlike some modellers that make up the character with triangular patches. You can get a better idea of how the finished character will look by clicking the
Quick Render button. The vase is shaded in grey tones very quickly. The three-dimensional vase can be viewed from any angle by clicking various buttons, you
can even go inside by using the zoom control.

Ted appears in the A:M manual.

Because it is spline based modelling only a few tools are needed to create any shape you can imagine. There is a lathe tool to turn a profile spline into a regular
3D shape. The other method of building a character is to add extra splines. I often start with a lathed shape and add extra splines. A spline is a line with a control
point at each end, it can be curved or straight. The curve of a spline can be controlled to the finest degree.

It is usual to create a complex character in parts and assemble it in another module called Character. When building a figure you might start with the hips and add
the chest, then the upper arm, lower arm, hand and so on until the figure is complete. Each time you add a part a joint is created between the two rather like a
multi-directional hinge. Each hinge can have the limits of its movement defined: if you take an elbow joint as an example it will bend forward but not backwards.
You can set these limits in Character so when you come to animate the figure it will only move in the way you choose. If this sounds complicated do not worry
because the program is supplied with ready- made figures for you to practice on.

Ted showing a method of producing lip-sync dialogue.

The surface of the character can be treated in various ways, the simplest being to select a colour and texture. More complex surfaces can be created by adding a
material or adding a 2D picture called a decal. Various materials such as wood grain are supplied, and others can be created by changing attributes such as
roughness, mirror and transparency. A decal is a picture created in a paint program or copied with a scanner. This picture is wrapped around the character rather
like a rubber sheet. If the character stretches, the picture stretches with it. A recent example of this is the flying carpet in Disneys Aladdin, the pattern was added
with a single complex painting which moved and stretched with the carpet. As far as I know Disney did not use the A:M software to produce this effect but it is well
within the capabilities of the program.

A:M can skin over the joints in a character. Often 3D characters are built like robots with the joints clearly visible. In A:M the skin on one part joins to the skin of the
other. For example where the upper arm meets the lower arm the skin can be continuous, when the elbow joint moves the skin stretches across the gap giving the
appearance of a continuous limb.
When you are ready to begin, simply select one of the ready-made figures. On the other hand if you have constructed your own character and added surface
colour and detail it is time to make it move. You have control over every frame of the animation but you can use the power of the program to produce your in-
between movements. There are three different types of motion available: Skeletal motion offers the ability to move, rotate, and scale entire segments easily and
quickly; Muscle motion lets you move the individual control points of an object; Spine motion lets you easily move control points via a flexible spine.

Skeletal motion will raise an arm or swing a leg in a walk action. Muscle motion may be used to create a smile or lift an eyebrow. Spine motion can be used to
make a tongue wag or a neck bend. With a combination of these tools your character can perform any action you can imagine. When you have created a
movement it can be stored and used whenever a similar movement is required. You could have a figure walking with one set of movements whilst talking with
another set of movements. Since the action can be viewed at any angle and any distance the same movement will seem fresh each time it is repeated.

Left: Scene in wire-frame mode modelled by David Jefferson. Right: Scene when rendered with Animation Master.

A technique called Inverse Kinematics can be used to animate skeletal motion. The problem with the traditional way of making skeletal motion is one of starting at
the wrong end. For example, if you wanted the character to brush her hair, and her hand was by her side, you would start at the shoulder, rotate the upper arm to
an approximate position, then move the forearm from the elbow joint, only to find she could not quite reach her head without adjusting the upper arm again. The
problem is reduced with inverse kinematics. Instead of working from the shoulder out, you click on the tip of the finger and drag it to where you want it, causing all
the preceding joints to be positioned automatically.

The final stage of creation is Direction. This is like being on a movie set. You have a camera, lights and actors. You assemble your cast of characters and tell them
what to do. The cast members and their actions may be ones you have created or picked from the existing library supplied with the program. Upon opening
Direction you are presented onscreen with a top view of the studio floor represented by a grid. To place the camera click the add button, click the spot where you
want to place it then click the camera button. Characters and lights are added in similar fashion. You add a target to tell the camera where to point and a click of a
button lets you look through the camera viewfinder. Everything is represented in wire-frame at this stage for speed of drawing. When everything is set you can test
the action by having a run through in wire-frame form. This is saved to disk for repeated playing, rather like watching a line test.

When everything in the scene is the way you want them to be, move on to Render. This is where the surfaces are put on the wire-frame models, with lighting,
shading, and shadows. A:M will render at any resolution you choose up to film resolution. Obviously the higher the resolution the longer the pictures will take to
render. The speed of rendering depends on the complexity of the picture and the power of the processor. It compares favourably with other PC rendering
programs. A:M is a true rendering program producing photo-realism if required. The rendering speed I get with A:M compares favourably with other PC rendering
programs I have tried. It will render single frames as 24-bit TGA files or movies in the native format of the machine in use; FLI or FLC on the PC, Quicktime on the
Mac and Silicon Graphics movie format on the SGI.

There are many other features too numerous to deal with in this review such as channels for modifying the actions, motion blur, alpha buffers and network
rendering. The program has a great deal of power but every part has default settings so you do not need to be an expert to get started.