Chapter 4: A HISTORY OF COMPUTER ANIMATION ... - Vasulka.org

Chapter 4 : A HISTORY OF COMPUTER ANIMATION 3/20/92 10
in miniture 3D sets (fig . 23.2) . The first puppet animated films,
such as Ladislas Starewicz's mechanical insects (1911) and Edward
Roger's War in Toyland (1912), introduced a host of inovations . The
basic issue of figure movement is solved with an internal
armature, a metal skeletal structure with articulated joints that
can be moved into various positions, and around which wooden (or in
later years rubber or plastic) characters are built . Techniques to
change facial expressions including the use of flexiable facial
masks by Starewicz (fig 23 .5), and the idea of multiple heads for
a finite set of facial expressions-Starewicz is said to have as many
as 200 different heads for major characters (fig . 24) . Three
dimensional computer animation is often simply virtual puppet
animation .
By and large the content of this early fare was the cartoon
character, already well stablized in the newspaper . It is not
surprising therefore that the early evolution of this character was
initially dominated by newspapermen . The trickfilm and lightning
cartoonists no longer provided leadership, perhaps because the
comic strip artists brought with them not only the characters but
also the narrative . In fact, the cartoon influences date from before
the arrival of the cartoonists ; as early as 1906 Porter had adapted
Winsor McCay's Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend . In New York, Bray's
studio motive was a series of Colonel Heeza Liar shorts (1913) ; San
Francisco cartoonist Bud Fisher's Mutt and Jeff was adapted to the
screen (1913), and in New York Max Fleischer introduced Ko-Ko the
Clown (1914) . Finally, at the end of the decade, Pat Sullivan and
Otto Messner created Felix the Cat (1919), a character developed
23 .2 Puppet animation . The tradition of animating 3D objects is as
old as animating 2D drawings and a major archology of computer
animation . Classical puppets often include articulated skeletons,
hinged jaws for lip syncing, and facial features which are subjected
to variance .
23 .5 Facial masks are an early puppet concept easily adapted to
computer animation . These vector graphic templates were made by
painting lines on an actor's face, and shooting still coplaner
photographs of the actor making different expressions . These are
then digitized . Because the number of quadralaterials in each mask
is the same, the masks may be computationally interpolated or
blended to animate from one expression to another . (Courtesy Pierre
LaChapel and Philippe Bergerson .)
24 . Catagorical sets of body parts, such as replaceable heads and
hands, facilitate the work of the puppet animator .