CS 460 Computer Graphics

Animation and Fractals

Animation is a series of images that represent discrete instances of time close enough that the brain (remember mock-banding?) is fooled into sensing motion. Animation has been around since someone put together a flip book. Movies use a camera to record photographic images. The original animated features used multiple layers of hand drawn cels that were painstakingly registered for each movie frame. Computers assist in today's animated features. Disney (cartoons/animated features) and Lands(King Kong) brought the technique to the video/film realm.

Fractals are a way of compressing a complex shape into a relatively simple mathematical equation. Based on fractional dimensions where the image defined at an arbitrary level of detail. This whole branch of mathematics was developed in the 1950s (Mandelbrot at IBM). Good for simulating a scrolling background without having a design repeated.

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G. Hill Price