Antics—Graphic animation by computer

The paper describes the Antics computer animation package—the first such package to be developed entirely by an animation studio specifically for use by animators and graphic designers in film and television production. Input is by drawing tablet and keyboard, controlled by an interactive program that converses in simple ordinary language and needs no technical knowledge to use. Output is full-colour raster-scanned images of quality equal to painted cel artwork, in a format suitable for direct recording on colour film or videotape. Animation is done with a range of 40 effects and controls whose possible combinations are unlimited in scope, giving unprecedented richness and flexibility, yet remaining simple to use—suitable for almost all kinds of graphic and diagram animation, for many kinds of cartoon character animation, and even for some kinds of 3-dimensional ‘solid’ perspective animation. Compared with conventional techniques, Antics offers a saving of around 50% on cost and up to 90% on time. The package is in FORTRAN for maximum portability.