Computer Animation, 3rd Edition

Computer Animation, 3rd Edition

by Rick Parent
Released October 2012
Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN: 9780124159730

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Driven by demand from the entertainment industry for better and more realistic animation, technology continues to evolve and improve. The algorithms and techniques behind this technology are the foundation of this comprehensive book, which is written to teach you the fundamentals of animation programming.

In this third edition, the most current techniques are covered along with the theory and high-level computation that have earned the book a reputation as the best technically-oriented animation resource. Key topics such as fluids, hair, and crowd animation have been expanded, and extensive new coverage of clothes and cloth has been added. New material on simulation provides a more diverse look at this important area and more example animations and chapter projects and exercises are included. Additionally, spline coverage has been expanded and new video compression and formats (e.g., iTunes) are covered.

  • Includes companion site with contemporary animation examples drawn from research and entertainment, sample animations, and example code
  • Describes the key mathematical and algorithmic foundations of animation that provide you with a deep understanding and control of technique
  • Expanded and new coverage of key topics including: fluids and clouds, cloth and clothes, hair, and crowd animation
  • Explains the algorithms used for path following, hierarchical kinematic modelling, rigid body dynamics, flocking behaviour, particle systems, collision detection, and more

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Preface
    1. Overview
    2. Organization of the Book
    3. Acknowledgments
  7. About the Author
  8. Chapter 1. Introduction
    1. 1.1 Motion perception
    2. 1.2 The heritage of animation
    3. 1.3 Animation production
    4. 1.4 Computer animation production
    5. 1.5 A brief history of computer animation
    6. 1.6 Summary
    7. References
  9. Chapter 2. Technical Background
    1. 2.1 Spaces and transformations
    2. 2.2 Orientation representation
    3. 2.3 Summary
    4. References
  10. Chapter 3. Interpolating Values
    1. 3.1 Interpolation
    2. 3.2 Controlling the motion of a point along a curve
    3. 3.3 Interpolation of orientations
    4. 3.4 Working with paths
    5. 3.5 Chapter summary
    6. References
  11. Chapter 4. Interpolation-Based Animation
    1. 4.1 Key-frame systems
    2. 4.2 Animation languages
    3. 4.3 Deforming objects
    4. 4.4 Three-dimensional shape interpolation
    5. 4.5 Morphing (two-dimensional)
    6. 4.6 Chapter summary
    7. References
  12. Chapter 5. Kinematic Linkages
    1. 5.1 Hierarchical modeling
    2. 5.2 Forward kinematics
    3. 5.3 Inverse kinematics
    4. 5.4 Chapter summary
    5. References
  13. Chapter 6. Motion Capture
    1. 6.1 Motion capture technologies
    2. 6.2 Processing the images
    3. 6.3 Camera calibration
    4. 6.4 Three-dimensional position reconstruction
    5. 6.5 Fitting to the skeleton
    6. 6.6 Output from motion capture systems
    7. 6.7 Manipulating motion capture data
    8. 6.8 Chapter summary
    9. References
  14. Chapter 7. Physically Based Animation
    1. 7.1 Basic physics—a review
    2. 7.2 Spring animation examples
    3. 7.3 Particle systems
    4. 7.4 Rigid body simulation
    5. 7.5 Cloth
    6. 7.6 Enforcing soft and hard constraints
    7. 7.7 Chapter summary
    8. References
  15. Chapter 8. Fluids: Liquids and Gases
    1. 8.1 Specific fluid models
    2. 8.2 Computational fluid dynamics
    3. 8.3 Chapter summary
    4. References
  16. Chapter 9. Modeling and Animating Human Figures
    1. 9.1 Overview of virtual human representation
    2. 9.2 Reaching and grasping
    3. 9.3 Walking
    4. 9.4 Coverings
    5. 9.5 Chapter summary
    6. References
  17. Chapter 10. Facial Animation
    1. 10.1 The human face
    2. 10.2 Facial models
    3. 10.3 Animating the face
    4. 10.4 Lip-sync animation
    5. 10.5 Chapter summary
    6. References
  18. Chapter 11. Behavioral Animation
    1. 11.1 Primitive behaviors
    2. 11.2 Knowledge of the environment
    3. 11.3 Modeling intelligent behavior
    4. 11.4 Crowds
    5. 11.6 Chapter summary
    6. References
  19. Chapter 12. Special Models for Animation
    1. 12.1 Implicit surfaces
    2. 12.2 Plants
    3. 12.3 Subdivision surfaces
    4. 12.4 Chapter summary
    5. References
  20. APPENDIX A: Rendering Issues
  21. APPENDIX B: Background Information and Techniques
    1. B.1 Vectors and matrices
    2. B.2 Geometric computations
    3. B.3 Transformations
    4. B.4 Denevit and Hartenberg representation for linked appendages
    5. B.5 Interpolating and approximating curves
    6. B.6 Randomness
    7. B.7 Physics primer
    8. B.8 Numerical integration techniques
    9. B.9 Optimization
    10. B.10 Standards for moving pictures
    11. B.11 Camera calibration
  22. Index

Product information

  • Title: Computer Animation, 3rd Edition
  • Author(s): Rick Parent
  • Release date: October 2012
  • Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
  • ISBN: 9780124159730