This article will address the topic of information technology for sports management and will attempt to provide

an overview of how information technology (called IT) is changing the nature of management practices in sport. The discussion of IT applications in the profession can be done in a few broad areas: 1st How the tools of today's "technological revolution" can be applied to the administration of sport. 2nd How developments such as the Internet and world wide web help in specific management functions such as training and marketing 3rd How e-commerce can make participation in sports more available through lower priced equipment and lastly, 4th The digital divide: and underlying condition that keeps some from participating fully in the benefits in the IT revolution. The Technological Revolution We are living in the midst of one of those very unusual occurrences that come along once every few generations: a society wide paradigm shift. Introduction: The close of the last millennium has seen a fundamental change that is moving society the age of industry to the age of information. The currency in this new society that is being formed is information and the medium of exchange is called IT (and sometimes computer technology - CT). IT is simply the tools and methods used for the identification, organization and manipulation of facts that we call data. IT has become the engine that is driving all sectors of today's economy be it industry, government, education or indeed, sports. The most important piece of equipment that lies at the heart of the whole IT process is the computer. The computer and the software that it runs is an essential element in the new societal paradigm and it is a key to success for the modern sports manager. It is THE piece of equipment that allows the sports administrator to maximize the return on scarce resources whether this is people, facilities and equipment or finances. In turn, it is also perhaps the single most important tool to the sports administrator to extend the reach of sport and recreational programming to as many potential participants as possible. Just as money has been the currency and a source of power in the old paradigm, information is the currency and a source of power in the new paradigm. No where is the old saying "that knowledge is power" more true than in a society where information or data is the force that drives the new economy. The secret to managing knowledge and information is in the development and maintenance of computer databases. A database is nothing more than an organized collection of common records that can be searched, accessed and modified. Database software is very widespread as most standard office computer software packages will typically have a simple database program in addition to word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications. There is, however, a far more powerful and useful kind of database for sport managers than the one that comes in the standard software suite: the relational database. A relational database is a data management system that stores information in a series of tables consisting of rows and columns of data. When the operator conducts a search, a relational database allows the individual to match data from one table with data from a second to produce a third table or a report.

An illustrative example is that of an individual charged with overseeing a complex sports competition, the details of which have been entered into a relational database. The time for a scheduled event can be pulled from one table, a roster that has the names of qualified referees who can officiate the event from another table, their availability from a third table resulting in a report that lists all of the personnel who can undertake the officiating task at the appointed place at the appointed time. This task which could take hours of manual manipulation from paper records can be done in a fraction of the time from digital records. Similar event management software can assist the sports manager with a myriad of other tasks associated with the competition ranging from facility scheduling, equipment set up and knock-down, or even ordering soft drinks for the concession stand. From the foregoing the value of using IT tools can be readily seen for the organization of a competition. These tools are even more important for the day-to-day operation of the sport organization as can be seen by the kinds of sport program information that can be contained within these databases: First are athlete specific information such as team rosters that include biographic information including name, sex, age, contact information and even clothing sizes for team uniforms. The same database may also contain details on medical conditions, performance history, or other participation characteristics of the athletes. Another common use is the development of rosters of program support personnel such as officials, timekeepers, drivers, or medical staff. Aside from details such as their addresses, a database of this type might also contain information about availability and reliability. For example, do they actually show up when they volunteer? Money is always an issue for today's sport management professional. Databases are particularly useful for tracking donors or potential donors whether and they contribute money or in-kind services. In addition to the expected biographic information will be other keys to successful fund rasing such as the source of their motivation or affiliation and the frequency with which they give. Databases are also essential for other types of administrative information. Examples include accounting and business records, employee files, equipment inventories or facility maintenance records. The organizational marketing information system (MIS) is also typically a database program in which are tracked information such as season ticket sales, gate receipts or merchandising sales. It is particularly useful if different software applications interface with each other seamlessly which is to say, "do the programs talk to each other?" Can, for example, the data entered in the MIS resulting from ticket sales be imported directly to the accounting program? To be effective, databases can and should be regularly updated to record changes. Bear in mind that the passage of time presents a more comprehensive picture of most activities and the ability to record change and make sense of it is essential for long term survival. Further, there is nothing so constant as change, particularly in sports organizations, and a well thought out and maintained database is a great way to develop and maintain an "institutional memory"; a record of those changes and the impact they have had on the organization. As great as databases are for effective sport program management, the real power of information technology comes when individual computers are tied together through the medium of a network. This is truly a case where there are synergies created as in 2 + 2 = 6. A computer network simply is the hardware and software required to connect two or more machines together so to allow the sharing of data and other resources. Most larger enterprises, use computer networks to link together their operatives in a common computing environment. All of the permeations and configurations available

to the sports administrator are clearly beyond the scope of this presentation except to note that the most common configuration of these kinds of networks are of the client - server variety. This type of network is has a main server that houses most of the information and database files. The individual operatives access the server through their desktop terminals or workstations which are called clients. Aside from sharing data, a network can share other resources as well. For example, a network can have any number of computers sharing a very good quality printer instead of a using a number of mediocre workstation printers. A powerful server can substantially increase computing speed and effectiveness throughout an organization. So what are the key issues to be addressed when considering the acquisition and implementation of an organizational IT system? First and foremost, once the decision is made to introduce IT systems to the organization, the table of organization and staffing patterns will need to change. The new IT system cannot simply be "layered on" to the existing structure; it must be imbedded into the organizational processes. The adoption of a IT strategy and associated changes in procedures usually means extensive training for the staff. The next consideration is that of hardware. What is the computer system configuration and computing capacity that the organization will need? Capacity should not be underestimated as a relational database can consume huge amounts of memory. So do other strategies that enhance organizational effectiveness such as moving data files off the hard drives of individual work stations and onto a file server on a computer network. Another crucial decision revolves around operating software. Standard vendor prepared software packages are usually developed on the basis of the lowest common denominator for a group of potential clients. It is not uncommon that only about 80% of an organization's needs are met by an off-the-shelf product. So the sport administrator is left with the choice of writing their own software programs or adapting organizational operating procedures to some degree around the software package. The former can be hugely time consuming, very expensive and the end result is not always assured. Generally, the more extensive the modification required for a software product, the more expensive the product becomes and the more difficult it will be to accommodate software upgrades from the vendor. The Internet It is important to note that computer networks need not be limited to a single site or facility. Wide Area Networks (WANs) can link together sports administrators located throughout a country. For example, all of the regional offices of a national sports governing body such as the National Football Association can be linked together regardless of their geographic location. All of the operatives so linked can share administrative and programming information and communicate with each other cheaply and efficiently through the medium of e-mail. The computer network with which the public is most familiar is the Internet and the World - Wide Web, known simply as "the Web", is what most people think of when we say the "the Internet". While the Internet has been around for decades going all the way back to ARPAnet in the 1960s, the Web is a comparatively new innovation first introduced in the mid 1990s. It is a digital medium which presents information in text, audio and graphics in a simple hyper-text computer language readable by a browser. This medium has simply exploded and today there are more than 15 million web addresses called Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), many with hundreds of individual pages on their sites. Thousands or applications for new URLs are received every week.

The ways that the Web has changed society are almost too numerous to mention. Suffice to say it has become an extremely important medium of communication, education and commerce and its importance in these areas will only continue to grow in the future. In terms of communication, for example, USA Today which is the closest thing a national newspaper in America, gets more than three million visits per day. Some 60% of these visits are to its sports pages. In terms of education, the concept of "distributed learning" or "distance education" gains more adherents with every passing day. Through the U.S. Sports Academy, for example, one can do the entire course of study for an accredited Master of Sport Science degree through the Web without leaving their home. The same possibilities exist at the undergraduate level through the International Sports Academy. But most significant at this juncture is the marketing and commerce applications of the web. There are virtually no professional sports teams in the United States that do not have a Website and most are linked together through networks of Websites coordinated through the various league offices. Just how tight these linkages are is driven in part by agreements between the league teams on activities such as revenue sharing for media broadcasting rights and merchandise sales. The Web is currently used by professional sports teams in ways that the developers of this technology never envisioned. For example, there are no English language radio broadcasts in Montreal for the Montreal Expos professional baseball team. Fans wanting hear the play-by-play in English can only do so by calling up the team's Website and listen to it coming across as an audio feed. Another example of how deeply the Internet has penetrated professional sports is how some pro hockey teams now require their players to have e-mail addresses as a means to interact with both the team administration and their fans. These examples lie at the heart of how the Internet will affect sports in the future: through the changing of the way that the sports fan will consume the sport product. Where in its infancy sport marketing did not extend much beyond putting out a sign on the side walk saying "Game Today", now sports teams have well developed and extensive Websites to more effectively market to their customers. The trend in this regard is also clear. What will emerge is networks of teams and users bound together by a common interest and driven in part by advances in information technology. These developments are not limited to the upper end of the sports hierarchy. Compared to the extremely high cost of traditional television broadcast, the comparatively low cost of "webcasting" will bring to sports fans events that could never before be seen on traditional broadcast media. A simple example of how this can occur is an annual sailboat race from Mobile to Tampico across the Gulf of Mexico. Last summer the skipper of a local boat participating in the event took photos every four hours with a digital camera of the race activities and uplinked them by a satellite phone to his own website. Thus his friends in the community, or anyone else in the world who stumbled onto the website, could participate in this event as they never could before. Sports events of a distinctly local flavor without the mass appeal that make them economical for television broadcast can so be distributed through the web to anyone with an interest. The web is not constrained by the limited availability of broadcast channels and high production costs. And while bandwidth is currently an issue for the web, this will resolve itself in the near future with the introduction of broadband technologies. E-Commerce It is also appropriate to briefly examine how the web will change the sale and distribution of sporting goods which is central to running sport programs. The relative cost for sports equipment can be an issue for the profession, particularly in terms of trying to broaden the appeal of sport to the greatest number of participants. E-commerce through the Internet holds the potential for containing costs for sports equipment as illustrated by the following example.

A good example: In the traditional model of manufacture and distribution through a sporting goods store, it is not uncommon for a tennis racquet which cost $40 to manufacture to be marked up as much as 300 to 400% to as much as $160 as it moves through various wholesalers and retailers in the distribution chain to a tennis player. With an ecommerce arrangement whereby the manufacturer can reach the player directly without going through middlemen, the mark-up in distribution can be reduced to as little as 50% of the traditional retail price resulting in a sale price to the end user of about $80. Very simply, the more middle men in a distribution chain, the greater the benefit derived to the end user from using e-commerce distribution. E-commerce is well on its way to becoming a force in the world economy as it serves to remove barriers both natural and artificial. The barriers that will vanish include those of time and space as well as national borders both physical and ideological. That this will occur is underscored by the fact that this year e-commerce will employ more than 2 million people and create a turnover in excess of $500 billion. By next year, the turn over is expected to pass $1 trillion. The Digital Divide{disadvantage} In closing I would be remiss if I didn't call attention to one important problem: technological tools can be expensive, which has resulted in what we call in the United States the "Digital Divide". In the U.S., approximately 60% of American adults are connected to the Internet and are on-line. These users are largely from the upper and middle class and have the financial wherewithal to purchase computers and Internet services. It is a matter of great concern that the very people who stand to benefit the most from economies to be realized through information technology as outlined earlier in my discussion on e-commerce are the ones least able to afford it. It is the economically disadvantaged that are currently being left out of the IT revolution. This Digital Divide also transcends national borders. While 60% of American adults are connected to the Internet, only about 5% of the global population can make that claim. Some areas, Africa for example, are almost totally disconnected and can only be considered disadvantaged as a result. Herein lies the challenge for the future. IT applications in sports management is dramatically changing the way that we do business. Thinking through how we can use this kind of equipment and these tools greatly enhances outcomes. The bottom line is that these IT tools are rapidly becoming a necessity for the sports administrator at whatever level in the sports hierarchy they are working.

Further information: Animation and Computer-generated imagery

An example of computer animation which is produced in the "motion capture" technique Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images produced by exploiting the persistence of vision to make a series of images look animated. Given that images last for about one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina fast image replacement creates the illusion of movement. Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics, although 2D computer graphics are still used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time renderings. Sometimes the target of the animation is the computer itself, but sometimes the target is another medium, such as film. Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to the art of stop motion animation of 3D models and frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations. Computer generated animations are more controllable than other more physically based processes, such as constructing miniatures for effects shots or hiring extras for crowd scenes, and because it allows the creation of images that would not be feasible using any other technology. It can also allow a single graphic artist to produce such content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or props. To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer screen and repeatedly replaced by a new image that is similar to the previous image, but advanced slightly in the time domain (usually at a rate of 24 or 30 frames/second). This technique is identical to how the illusion of movement is achieved with television and motion pictures. For 3D animations, objects (models) are built on the computer monitor (modeled) and 3D figures are rigged with a virtual skeleton. For 2D figure animations, separate objects (illustrations) and separate transparent layers are used, with or without a virtual skeleton. Then the limbs, eyes, mouth, clothes, etc. of the figure are moved by the animator on key frames. The differences in appearance between key frames are automatically calculated by

the computer in a process known as tweening or morphing. Finally, the animation is rendered. For 3D animations, all frames must be rendered after modeling is complete. For 2D vector animations, the rendering process is the key frame illustration process, while tweened frames are rendered as needed. For pre-recorded presentations, the rendered frames are transferred to a different format or medium such as film or digital video. The frames may also be rendered in real time as they are presented to the end-user audience. Low bandwidth animations transmitted via the internet (e.g. 2D Flash, X3D) often use software on the end-users computer to render in real time as an alternative to streaming or pre-loaded high bandwidth animations.

Contents
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1 A simple example 2 Explanation 3 History 4 Methods of animating virtual characters 5 Creating characters and objects on a computer 6 Computer animation development equipment 7 The future 8 Detailed examples and pseudocode 9 Movies 10 Amateur animation 11 Film studios 12 See also o 12.1 Animated images in Wikipedia 13 References 14 External links

[edit] A simple example

Computer animation example The screen is blanked to a background color, such as black. Then a goat is drawn on the right of the screen. Next the screen is blanked, but the goat is re-drawn or duplicated slightly to the left of its original position. This process is repeated, each time moving the goat a bit to the left. If this process is repeated fast enough the goat will appear to move smoothly to the left. This basic procedure is used for all moving pictures in films and television.

The moving goat is an example of shifting the location of an object. More complex transformations of object properties such as size, shape, lighting effects often require calculations and computer rendering instead of simple re-drawing or duplication.

[edit] Explanation
To trick the eye and brain into thinking they are seeing a smoothly moving object, the pictures should be drawn at around 12 frames per second (frame/s) or faster (a frame is one complete image). With rates above 70 frames/s no improvement in realism or smoothness is perceivable due to the way the eye and brain process images. At rates below 12 frame/s most people can detect jerkiness associated with the drawing of new images which detracts from the illusion of realistic movement. Conventional hand-drawn cartoon animation often uses 15 frames/s in order to save on the number of drawings needed, but this is usually accepted because of the stylized nature of cartoons. Because it produces more realistic imagery computer animation demands higher frame rates to reinforce this realism. The reason no jerkiness is seen at higher speeds is due to persistence of vision. From moment to moment, the eye and brain working together actually store whatever one looks at for a fraction of a second, and automatically "smooth out" minor jumps. Movie film seen in theaters in the United States runs at 24 frames per second, which is sufficient to create this illusion of continuous movement.

[edit] History
See also: Timeline of computer animation in film and television CGI was first used in movies in 1973's Westworld, a science-fiction film about a society in which robots live and work among humans, though the first use of 3D Wireframe imagery was in its sequel, Futureworld (1976), which featured a computer-generated hand and face created by then University of Utah graduate students Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke. The third movie to use this technology was Star Wars (1977) for the scenes with the wireframe Death Star plans and the targeting computers in the X-wings and the Millennium Falcon. The Black Hole (1979) used raster wire-frame model rendering to depict a black hole. The science fiction-horror film Alien of that same year also used a raster wire-frame model, in this case to render the image of navigation monitors in the sequence where a spaceship follows a beacon to a land on an unfamiliar planet. In 1978, graduate students at the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab began work on what would have been the first full-length CGI film, The Works, and a trailer for it was shown at SIGGRAPH 1982, but the film was never completed. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan premiered a short CGI sequence called The Genesis Wave in June 1982. The first two films to make heavy investments in Solid 3D CGI, Tron (1982) and The Last Starfighter (1984), were commercial failures, causing most directors to relegate CGI to images that were supposed to look like they were created by a computer. Another Star Trek movie - 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - features a little-known use of CGI that would prove to be a major stepping stone for the technology in years to come. The dream-like sequence where Kirk and his crew (in a commandeered Klingon starship) travel back in time features computer-generated images of the crew's faces "morphing" into

one another. Although the images look like clay sculptures, they represent the antecedents of the photo-realistic morphing that would become popular in the early 90s, and the ILM team responsible would be sought out by James Cameron three years later (see below). The first movie to feature photo-realistic CGI integrated seamlessly into scenes was The Abyss (1989). A five minute sequence featuring an animated water tentacle or "pseudopod" was created using groundbreaking new algorithms design by ILM, and supervised by Denis Muren for James Cameron's underwater action movie. It featured reflection, refraction and a short "morphing" sequence, taking on the facial forms of actors Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Although Cameron's subsequent movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, would be the one that brought CGI to the attention of the masses, it was The Abyss that represented the true technological milestone, and the foundation upon which the modern CGI industry would be built. 1991 could be considered the breakout year for the new CGI technology. Two huge hits, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Beauty and the Beast, both made heavy use of CGI. These successes marked Hollywoods transition from stop-motion animation and conventional optical effects to digital techniques. Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. In 1993, another affirmation of CGI came from Jurassic Park where CGI dinosaurs were integrated into hydraulically-controlled life-sized puppets shot on-set. The palette of tools available from CGI was becoming larger. In 1994, CGI was used to create the special effects for Forrest Gump. The most noteworthy effects shots were those that featured the digital removal of actor Gary Sinise's legs. Other effects included a napalm strike, the fast-moving Ping-Pong balls, and the digital insertion of Tom Hanks into several scenes of historical footage. In 1993, Babylon 5 and SeaQuest became the first television series to use CGI as the primary method for their visual effects (rather than using hand-built models). It also marked the first TV use of virtual sets. That same year, Insektors became the first full-length completely computer animated TV series[1]. Soon after, in 1994, the hit Canadian CGI show ReBoot aired. In 1995, the first fully computer-generated feature film, Disney-Pixar's Toy Story, was a resounding commercial success. Additional digital animation studios such as Blue Sky Studios (20th Century Fox), DNA Productions (Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.), Omation Studios (Paramount Pictures), Sony Pictures Animation (Columbia Pictures), Vanguard Animation (Walt Disney Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment and 20th Century Fox), Big Idea Productions (Universal Pictures and FHE Pictures), Animal Logic (Warner Bros.) and Pacific Data Images (Dreamworks SKG) went into production, and existing animation companies, such as The Walt Disney Company, began to make a transition from traditional animation to CGI. Between 1995 and 2005 the average effects budget for a widerelease feature film skyrocketed from $5 million to $40 million. According to one studio executive, as of 2005, more than half of feature films have significant effects. However, CGI has made up for the expenditures by grossing over 20% more than their real-life counterparts.[2]

In the early 2000s, computer-generated imagery became the dominant form of special effects. The technology progressed to the point that it became possible to include virtual stunt doubles. Camera tracking software was refined to allow increasingly complex visual effects developments that were previously impossible. Computer-generated extras also became used extensively in crowd scenes with advanced flocking and crowd simulation software. Virtual sets, in which part or all of the background of a shot is digitally generated, also became commonplace. The timeline of CGI in film and television shows a detailed list of pioneering uses of computer-generated imagery in film and television. CGI for films is usually rendered at about 1.46 megapixels.[citation needed] Toy Story, for example, was rendered at 1536 922 (1.42MP). The time to render one frame is typically around 23 hours, with ten times that for the most complex scenes. This time has not changed much in the last decade, as image quality has progressed at the same rate as improvements in hardware, since with faster machines, more and more complexity becomes feasible. Exponential increases in GPUs processing power, as well as massive increases in parallel CPU power, storage and memory speed and size have greatly increased CGI's potential. In 2001, Square Pictures created the CGI film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which made headlines for attempting to create photo-realistic human actors. The film was not a box-office success. Some commentators have suggested this may be partly because the lead CGI characters had facial features which fell into the uncanny valley. Square Pictures produced only two more films using a similar visual style Final Flight of the Osiris, a short film which served as a prologue to The Matrix Reloaded and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, based on their extremely popular video game series. Developments in CGI technologies are reported each year at SIGGRAPH, an annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, attended each year by tens of thousands of computer professionals. Developers of computer games and 3D video cards strive to achieve the same visual quality on personal computers in real-time as is possible for CGI films and animation. With the rapid advancement of real-time rendering quality, artists began to use game engines to render non-interactive movies. This art form is called machinima.

[edit] Methods of animating virtual characters

In this .gif of a 2D Flash animation, each 'stick' of the figure is keyframed over time to create motion. In most 3D computer animation systems, an animator creates a simplified representation of a character's anatomy, analogous to a skeleton or stick figure. The position of each segment of the skeletal model is defined by animation variables, or Avars. In human and animal characters, many parts of the skeletal model correspond to actual bones, but skeletal animation is also used to animate other things, such as facial features (though other methods for facial animation exist). The character "Woody" in Toy Story, for example, uses 700 Avars, including 100 Avars in the face. The computer does not usually render the skeletal model directly (it is invisible), but uses the skeletal model to compute the exact position and

orientation of the character, which is eventually rendered into an image. Thus by changing the values of Avars over time, the animator creates motion by making the character move from frame to frame. There are several methods for generating the Avar values to obtain realistic motion. Traditionally, animators manipulate the Avars directly. Rather than set Avars for every frame, they usually set Avars at strategic points (frames) in time and let the computer interpolate or 'tween' between them, a process called keyframing. Keyframing puts control in the hands of the animator, and has roots in hand-drawn traditional animation. In contrast, a newer method called motion capture makes use of live action. When computer animation is driven by motion capture, a real performer acts out the scene as if they were the character to be animated. His or her motion is recorded to a computer using video cameras and markers, and that performance is then applied to the animated character. Each method has its advantages, and as of 2007, games and films are using either or both of these methods in productions. Keyframe animation can produce motions that would be difficult or impossible to act out, while motion capture can reproduce the subtleties of a particular actor. For example, in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, actor Bill Nighy provided the performance for the character Davy Jones. Even though Nighy himself doesn't appear in the film, the movie benefited from his performance by recording the nuances of his body language, posture, facial expressions, etc. Thus motion capture is appropriate in situations where believable, realistic behavior and action is required, but the types of characters required exceed what can be done through conventional costuming.

[edit] Creating characters and objects on a computer

3D computer animation combines 3D models of objects and programmed or hand "keyframed" movement. Models are constructed out of geometrical vertices, faces, and edges in a 3D coordinate system. Objects are sculpted much like real clay or plaster, working from general forms to specific details with various sculpting tools. A bone/joint animation system is set up to deform the CGI model (e.g., to make a humanoid model walk). In a process called rigging, the virtual marionette is given various controllers and handles for controlling movement. Animation data can be created using motion capture, or keyframing by a human animator, or a combination of the two. 3D models rigged for animation may contain thousands of control points - for example, the character "Woody" in Pixar's movie Toy Story, uses 700 specialized animation controllers. Rhythm and Hues Studios labored for two years to create Aslan in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which had about 1851 controllers, 742 in just the face alone. In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, designers had to design forces of extreme weather with the help of video references and accurate meteorological facts. For the 2005 remake of King Kong, actor Andy Serkis was used to help designers pinpoint the gorilla's prime location in the shots and used his expressions to model "human" characteristics onto the creature. Serkis had earlier provided the voice and performance for Gollum in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

[edit] Computer animation development equipment

Computer animation can be created with a computer and animation software. Some impressive animation can be achieved even with basic programs; however the rendering can take a lot of time on an ordinary home computer. Because of this, video game animators tend to use low resolution, low polygon count renders, such that the graphics can be rendered in real time on a home computer. Photorealistic animation would be impractical in this context. Professional animators of movies, television, and video sequences on computer games make photorealistic animation with high detail. This level of quality for movie animation would take tens to hundreds of years to create on a home computer. Many powerful workstation computers are used instead. Graphics workstation computers use two to four processors, and thus are a lot more powerful than a home computer, and are specialized for rendering. A large number of workstations (known as a render farm) are networked together to effectively act as a giant computer. The result is a computer-animated movie that can be completed in about one to five years (this process is not comprised solely of rendering, however). A workstation typically costs $2,000 to $16,000, with the more expensive stations being able to render much faster, due to the more technologically advanced hardware that they contain. Pixar's Renderman is rendering software which is widely used as the movie animation industry standard, in competition with Mental Ray. It can be bought at the official Pixar website for about $3,500. It will work on Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows based graphics workstations along with an animation program such as Maya and Softimage XSI. Professionals also use digital movie cameras, motion capture or performance capture, bluescreens, film editing software, props, and other tools for movie animation.

[edit] The future

One open challenge in computer animation is a photorealistic animation of humans. Currently, most computer-animated movies show animal characters (A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Ice Age, Over the Hedge), fantasy characters (Monsters Inc., Shrek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4, Monsters vs. Aliens), anthropomorphic machines (Cars, WALL-E, Robots) or cartoon-like humans (The Incredibles, Despicable Me, Up). The movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is often cited as the first computer-generated movie to attempt to show realistic-looking humans. However, due to the enormous complexity of the human body, human motion, and human biomechanics, realistic simulation of humans remains largely an open problem. Another problem is the distasteful psychological response to viewing nearly perfect animation of humans, known as "the uncanny valley." It is one of the "holy grails" of computer animation. Eventually, the goal is to create software where the animator can generate a movie sequence showing a photorealistic human character, undergoing physically-plausible motion, together with clothes, photorealistic hair, a complicated natural background, and possibly interacting with other simulated human

characters. This could be done in a way that the viewer is no longer able to tell if a particular movie sequence is computer-generated, or created using real actors in front of movie cameras. Complete human realism is not likely to happen very soon,[citation needed] but when it does it may have major repercussions for the film industry.[citation needed] For the moment it looks like three dimensional computer animation can be divided into two main directions; photorealistic and non-photorealistic rendering. Photorealistic computer animation can itself be divided into two subcategories; real photorealism (where performance capture is used in the creation of the virtual human characters) and stylized photorealism. Real photorealism is what Final Fantasy tried to achieve and will in the future most likely have the ability to give us live action fantasy features as The Dark Crystal without having to use advanced puppetry and animatronics, while Antz is an example on stylistic photorealism (in the future stylized photorealism will be able to replace traditional stop motion animation as in Corpse Bride). None of these mentioned are perfected as of yet, but the progress continues. The non-photorealistic/cartoonish direction is more like an extension of traditional animation, an attempt to make the animation look like a three dimensional version of a cartoon, still using and perfecting the main principles of animation articulated by the Nine Old Men, such as squash and stretch. While a single frame from a photorealistic computer-animated feature will look like a photo if done right, a single frame vector from a cartoonish computer-animated feature will look like a painting (not to be confused with cel shading, which produces an even simpler look).

[edit] Detailed examples and pseudocode

In 2D computer animation, moving objects are often referred to as sprites. A sprite is an image that has a location associated with it. The location of the sprite is changed slightly, between each displayed frame, to make the sprite appear to move. The following pseudocode makes a sprite move from left to right:
var int x := 0, y := screenHeight / 2; while x < screenWidth drawBackground() drawSpriteAtXY (x, y) // draw on top of the background x := x + 5 // move to the right

Computer animation uses different techniques to produce animations. Most frequently, sophisticated mathematics is used to manipulate complex three dimensional polygons, apply textures, lighting and other effects to the polygons and finally rendering the complete image. A sophisticated graphical user interface may be used to create the animation and arrange its choreography. Another technique called constructive solid geometry defines objects by conducting boolean operations on regular shapes, and has the advantage that animations may be accurately produced at any resolution. Let's step through the rendering of a simple image of a room with flat wood walls with a grey pyramid in the center of the room. The pyramid will have a spotlight shining on it. Each wall, the floor and the ceiling is a simple polygon, in this case, a rectangle. Each corner of the rectangles is defined by three values referred to as X, Y and Z. X is how far left and right the

point is. Y is how far up and down the point is, and Z is far in and out of the screen the point is. The wall nearest us would be defined by four points: (in the order x, y, z). Below is a representation of how the wall is defined
(0, 10, 0) (0,0,0) (10, 10, 0) (10, 0, 0)

The far wall would be:

(0, 10, 20) (0, 0, 20) (10, 10, 20) (10, 0, 20)

The pyramid is made up of five polygons: the rectangular base, and four triangular sides. To draw this image the computer uses math to calculate how to project this image, defined by three dimensional data, onto a two dimensional computer screen. First we must also define where our view point is, that is, from what vantage point will the scene be drawn. Our view point is inside the room a bit above the floor, directly in front of the pyramid. First the computer will calculate which polygons are visible. The near wall will not be displayed at all, as it is behind our view point. The far side of the pyramid will also not be drawn as it is hidden by the front of the pyramid. Next each point is perspective projected onto the screen. The portions of the walls furthest from the view point will appear to be shorter than the nearer areas due to perspective. To make the walls look like wood, a wood pattern, called a texture, will be drawn on them. To accomplish this, a technique called texture mapping is often used. A small drawing of wood that can be repeatedly drawn in a matching tiled pattern (like wallpaper) is stretched and drawn onto the walls' final shape. The pyramid is solid grey so its surfaces can just be rendered as grey. But we also have a spotlight. Where its light falls we lighten colors, where objects blocks the light we darken colors. Next we render the complete scene on the computer screen. If the numbers describing the position of the pyramid were changed and this process repeated, the pyramid would appear to move.

[edit] Movies
CGI short films have been produced as independent animation since 1976, though the popularity of computer animation (especially in the field of special effects) skyrocketed during the modern era of U.S. animation. The first completely computer-generated television series was ReBoot, in 1994, and the first completely computer-generated animated movie was Toy Story (1995). See List of computer-animated films for more.

[edit] Amateur animation

The popularity of sites such as Newgrounds, which allows members to upload their own movies for others to view, has created a growing community of what are often considered amateur computer animators. With many free utilities available and programs such as

Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, which are included in the operating system, anyone with the tools and a creative mind can have their animation viewed by thousands. Many high end animation software options are also available on a trial basis, allowing for educational and non-commercial development with certain restrictions. Several free and open source animation software applications exist as well, Blender as an example. One way to create amateur animation is using the GIF format, which can be uploaded and seen on the web easily.