Disney has Developed a Software That Makes it Easy to Animate Characters

Have you ever wanted to create your own cartoon characters and bring them to life right in front of your very eyes but always thought you lacked the skill to do it? Well, thanks to experts at ETH Zurich that may soon be possible for anyone to do, regardless of their skill level.

Thanks to new software that’s been developed long gone are the days when cartoons are drawn on paper and made to move by overlaying page after page. Researchers at the Computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH Zurich created the software to make it easier and more enjoyable to people to be able to be their own characters to life. Loic Ciccone, a doctoral student in the lab and lead author of the study said, ” We want to make it quick and easy to create animations – without compromising on quality.” So, that’s what they did.

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Some of the more advanced animation techniques such as keyframing offer a very high level of precision, but the process is complicated. This problem has been overcome by Ciccone and team by integrating a special tool called “MoCurves” into the software.  These MoCurves are what allows the user to adjust very precisely how the animation moves.  Each MoCurve represents the movement of an animated item. The user can then move the mouse accordingly in which to define the movement. If they decide they want the animation to lift its foot, for example, they would create an extra MoCurve for this movement and adjust it as necessary.

Testing has already taken place with the software and after undergoing just a brief, 15-minute introduction, five users who were unfamiliar with the software took the plunge. In just one hour the test subjects were able to create several different motion sequences, proving just how easy the software is to pick up and use. Like Ciccone says, “Our easy-to-use software gives anyone and everyone the ability to tell animated stories.”

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