ANIMATION SIMULATION AND AUTOMATION The cognitive convergence 3

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AUTOMATION:

Of all the creations on earth, humans are by far the most innovative, but no doubt the laziest. Ordinarily, people don’t like to work. And it is as a result of this desire to subterfuge work that a lot of tools and machines have been invented in order to reduce the time spent on working everyday. But as if that is not enough, people still want to keep away from the machines themselves that they also devised ways of controlling them automatically. In fact, it is this method of not manually controlling any of these devices that is called automation. According to the Longman English dictionary, automation is a technique where mechanical processes are subject to some degree of automatic control, without human intervention. 

THEN AND NOW

Although the word automatic comes-up almost in all our every day speech, it isn’t as modern as some might think. Today, automation is not limited to industrial use alone, now people talk about Automatic cars, Appliances, Toys and so on. But several thousands of years ago, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Chinese, to mention a few civilizations, made mechanical toys too which operated with little or no human intervention, some were operated using Air (Pneumatic) and others Water (Hydraulic). In fact, the word automation was derived from the Greek word, Automatos, which means Self Acting.

In the past, Engineers and Artisans have to manually carry out most of their engineering procedures, relying heavily on only blueprints drawn on the paper and other medium. Even till date they still do, but with the evolution of 3D printing technology some are gradually breaking free from that reliance. Now those models can be printed directly from the computer using the 3D printer or Automated Robotic Arms. The Automobile and some manufacturing industries have come to see the benefits of this automated approach and had adapted it to their manufacturing process, because of its speed and cost-cutting advantages in the long run. 

A Modern Automated Car Manufacturing Plant in Korea

ARTISTS’ ROLE

Today, automation has gone beyond an industrial or an Engineering procedure alone, now artists too have roles to play. It should be noted that the days of semi- automatic push start buttons (PSB) and other analogue controls are winding-up. Now modern control systems are geared towards Soft-Touches; mostly incorporating the Human Machine Interface (HMI), Virtual Reality (VR) technologies, or any other forms of digital controls to trigger events. These interfaces can be in forms of a LCD, LED or Head Mounted (HMD) displays that can even be operated from any location using our Smart phones, Tablets or the PC with the help of the internet. Whilst, it is the artists function to design the right interactive Graphics User Displays that will have the right look and feel, similar to the ones closest to the analogue version originally designed by the Engineers. When an artist clearly understands what each LED Colour, Buttons and symbol stood for in the physical model, then he will be able to correctly incorporate Graphics, texts and Animations when designing the Graphics User interface, (GUI).

MODELING:

3D printing technology has also made automation come closer to the artists, when I use the word artist, here; I refer to 3D artists only. The process of creating a truly believable 3D model on a digital interface is more involving than those of creating the physical model by hand, though it also requires the mastery of general drawing and sculpting as well. However, the results in Virtual environments are not as immediate as that of the real world; all the wire frames making up the model must have the right dimensions and should also look good and convincing at every given angle, in the virtual 3D space. It requires several tweaking and finesses before creating a satisfactory output.

A 3D Artist at work

This Visual creative approach no doubt requires a lot of cognitive ability, which incidentally is at the arsenal of the 3D artists; it is neither at the disposal of the scientists nor engineer, except for those that can think like them,  because this is another form of Art, not Computer science or Mathematics. But in reality, such Automatic inventions were produced by the combined geniuses of the Computer Scientists, the Mechanical, the Electrical - Electronics, the Material Engineers and those in others technical fields too, it however takes those with a truly cognitive ability, like the 3D Artists to maneuver the application in a Virtual Space, because it is an Artistically challenging feat. The truth is that not even all Animators can build a functional 3D model, but any 3D model builder can animate. In future articles on TOONY TITBITS, we shall highlight some of the differences between, Modeling, Animation and Rigging. Meanwhile, I implore those who presently do not know and are truly interested in the world of Animation, to find out more on the internet.

FUTURE TRENDS

In future, I look forward to when our Houses, structures and more of our favourite cartoon characters too would be 3D printed. But no doubt, with era of the Internet of things (Iot), the possibilities are endless; the actual computer Model can be built in Africa while the real objects printed in America, with technological convergence, there are no physical boundaries.

In fact, I still expect more collaboration from those in the Business communities, the artists, the scientists and also the engineers. But till then, I keep my arms crossed.

Regards!

GO GUY

goguyone@gmail.com

References:

CODE – By Charles Petzold (Microsoft press)

Computer Graphics for designers and artists  - By Isaac Victor, Judson Rosebush

VIRTUAL REALITY -  Howard Rheingold

The Animators Survival Kit – Richard Williams

Khan Academy – Youtube.com - Welcome to Pixar in a Box

* End Notes

Please note that this article does not give a thorough analysis of everything relating to each of the Topics, it only serves as a mere guide for anyone that wants to understand the differences and similarities between our Subject matter.

They are based just on the opinion of the writer and he would not be responsible for any misinformation herein. Please your generous comments can also help improve this article.