CTAN-497Lgenerative Animation

CTAN-497LGenerative Animation

Instructor: David Bazelon

Contact:

2 units

Student Assistant:Marryann Landlord,

Meeting Time: Mondays, 7-9:50 p.m.

Lab Hours:Mondays, 9-11:50 a.m.

Room: RZC 117

Course Objectives:

Procedural automation and simulation models have never been more relevant, creating everything from hordes of lumbering creatures to ever-expanding fractals. From crowdcharacter animation to abstract performance pieces and interactive games, Generative Animationoffers an introduction tocurrent animationtechniques that leverage these self-driven systems.We will paint a picture of how Computer Graphics (CG) creators are re-imagining the short history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into tools for character and abstract animation and what avenues are left unexplored.Largely a technical class,time will be spent in Massive software, a popularproponent of autonomous animationsimulation which links fuzzy logic to CG.With an introduction into particle simulationeffects, Maya and Houdini software will further leveragethe class’ self-propelled animation techniques before veering into abstract and stylized motion graphics.Lectures will touch uponenvironment modeling, predictive simulations, engineering proof-of-concepts, and interactive performance art. Rounding out the class will be frequent examples of generative animation in popularmedia and how the enormously challenging goals of smarter simulationscontinue to inspire today.

Pre-Requisite:

CTAN 452, Introduction to 3D Computer Animation

Attendance:

Be on time, and come to class.

ATTENDANCE WILL BE TAKEN 10 MINUTES AFTER THE START OF CLASS. Attendance and participation are vital as many weekly assignments will be both introduced and started during the class. You will be marked tardy after ten minutes and absent after 60 minutes. Three or more unexcused absences are grounds for failing the class. Three tardies equals an absence. If a student is to be absent from a class (barring an emergency) the instructor must be notifiedpriorto the absencevia phone call or email.

Grading:

Weekly assignments will involve students getting both comfortable with procedural techniques and bridging out to experiment where they choose. Most assignments will come with prepared instruction sheets to help supplement the limited texts. Extra credit assignments will offer students additional chances to delve into deeper concepts and will count towards a maximum of 25% to their final project grade. Lab time is available to all students for extra assistance and collaboration.

Weekly assignments 55%

Final Project 35% (+extra credit)

Participation 10%

Final Project:

Students will be given a list of techniques covered in class of which their final project must encompass 3. Projects can range from narrative and experimental pieces, supporting animations for future projects, scientific and engineering models, and performance displays. Expectations are that projects are between 5 and 30 seconds in length and at least 50% of animation or performance be produced by procedural methods. Final grading will be 25% for each technique successfully executed (total 75%), an additional 25% for creative use of techniques, and a bonus 25% for completion of extra credit assignments (total 125 out of 100 needed for an A). Project proposals will be due by the 12th week of class and will be viewed together during the allotted finals period.

Weekly Schedule

Week 1(Janary8th):Introduction to generative animation and procedurality,solid-state machines versus simulation, expressions for abstract animation and FX vs. AI for character animation, fuzzy logic and Operations Research, first look at Massive,placingcharacters, importing cameras, lights, and simulating. In class demo: place people in a stadium scene and render.

Assignment #1: Complete Massive placements worksheet.

Assignment #2: Add characters toa street scene.

Extra Credit: Re-doassignment #2 using cached animation along with an active sim and render.

Week 2(January 15th):Martin Luther King’s Birthday, no class

Week 3(January 22nd):Maya instancing and set driven keys, AI in chatterbots and ELIZA, cognitive vs. behavioral, ‘is fooling the user enough?’. In class demos: set driven key an ‘ELIZA’ solid state machine, create a particle fountain and falling snowflake-filled scene. Assignments #1and 2 due.

Assignment #3: Complete particle worksheet.

Assignment #4: Use set driven keys to make a pull-string dancing puppet toy.

Extra Credit: Create a particle fireworks effect.

Week 4(January 29th):Boids and the 3 rules of flocking, using goals and turbulence in Maya. Sprites vs. instances. In class demos: goal driven flocking, create a tornado sprite effect. Assignments #3 and 4 due.

Assignment #5: Create 3-10frame cycles in Maya for instances to run across a terrain.

Assignment #6: Create a Maya curve flow lightning effect.

Extra credit: Revisit flocking.

Week 5(February 5th):Massive brain basics, revisit fuzzy logic and environmental modeling in Sim City vs. Avatar. In class demos: use brain to make primitives zoom along a terrain, follow a sound and use lanes,create a simple bird agent. Assignments #5 and 6 due.

Assignment #7: Complete Massive brain worksheet.

Assignment #8: Make agents go through an obstacle course.

Extra Credit: Utilize keyboard massive inputs.

Week 6(February 12th):Mazes, memory, and game play, robot mice, engineering proof-of-concepts, Massive flocking, avoidance, and navigating a scene. In class demos: create a spider walking agent, use bird agent to make a sound driven flocking simulation. Assignments #7 and 8 due.

Assignment #9: Make a lemming agent run and fall off a cliff.

Extra Credit: Create an environment using a Massive brain.

Week 7(February 19th): President’s Day, no class

Week 8(February 26th):AI in movies, cultural aspirations and fears of robots, a look at classic arcade games. In class demos:agents for arcade game, massive dynamics, and rendering. Assignment #9 due.

Assignment #10: Complete Massive dynamics worksheet.

Assignment #11:Create agent for pre-built arcade game.

Extra Credit: Re-do Massive flocking using vision.

Week 9(March 5th): Motion capture overview and history, Pantograph, Polygraph, Rotoscope, and Mocap, making loops, Turbosquid. In class demo: MotionBuildercharacterize rig and import motion. Assignments #11 and 12 due.

Assignment #13: Make your own looping animation clip.

Extra Credit: Add a prop to your loop.

Spring Recess (March 11th-18th)

Week 10(March 19th):Expressions and coding, Mel scripts, making Maya gui’s, adding to the shelf editor. In class demo: write a script to move instances into a time-lapse, rapid speed scene. Assignment #13 due.

Assignment #14: Complete Mel scripting worksheet.

Assignment #15:Script to add leaves to a tree.

Extra Credit: Export animated geometry into a sprite-ready .obj sequence.

Week 11(March 26th):Mel scripting continued, screensavers and simple motion graphics, fractal basics. In class demos: create a Mel pipe dreams animation, create a Mel flashing disco man. Assignments #14 and 15 due.

Assignment #16: Mel looping movement.

Assignment #17: Generate a simple fractal.

Extra credit: Building generator script.

Final Project: Draft proposal.

Week 12(April 2nd):Houdini basics, nodal operation software. In class demos: Houdini snowflakes scene, pre-installed effects. Assignments #16 and 17 due and pitch Final Project proposals.

Assignment #18: Complete Houdini basics worksheet.

Assignment #19: Create dust impacts scene.

Extra Credit: Render effect in Houdini.

Week 13 (April 9th):Houdini continued, examples of visual effects through the years, fractals revisited. In class demos: create an interactive ink blot pattern box, make a fractal with Houdini. Assignments #18 and 19 due.

Final Project: Continue working.

Week 14(April 16th):Cognitive AI, qualia, Chinese rooms, and zombie worlds. In class demos: Massive and Maya, import and utilize looping animated clips into finished crowd simulations.

Final Project: Continue working.

Week 15(April 23rd):AI and art in the future. In class demos: rendering and export techniques in Massive, Houdini explosion effect.

Final Project: Continue working.

Study Days (April 28th-May 1st)

Final Project and Presentation (May 7th, 7-9 p.m.):

Final Project Due: Students must present a completed and fully rendered generative animation of length 5-30seconds, resolution 512 x 512 or higher, and QuickTime or AVI file. Alternatively, real-time performances are also acceptable if the accompanying animation meets the above criteria and can go over 30 seconds in length. Documentation and evidence of techniques used must be presented in a PDF format and submitted for grading. All files must be uploaded to the server prior to the final class.