Science of cartoons

AT one time or another, just about every parent has plopped a kid in front of the television to watch cartoons while Mom or Dad goes to make dinner or take care of some other household chore. A new exhibition at the California Science Center shows that, as it turns out, cartoons can be used for more than buying 15 minutes of time -- they’re also a great way to teach children about science, technology and the art of animation.

Simply titled “Animation,” the 6,000-square-foot exhibit uses characters from popular Cartoon Network shows such as “Dexter’s Laboratory,” “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” and “Codename: Kids Next Door” as a setting to illustrate how cartoon and live-action film animation is created.

“Animation is a topic that everybody likes, but more importantly for us, it’s also a topic that lends itself to exploring areas such as visual perception, geometry, scaling up and down, physics and computer rendering,” says David Bibas, CSC’s technology program curator. “We also have some extraordinary full-body experiences that really explain both the process and the concept.”

As an example, Bibas cites an area of the exhibit where visitors can move and jump about a large floor grid as a camera takes a series of 14 digital photos. In an animation technique known as pixilation, the still photos are shown quickly in sequence to give the appearance of motion.

“Why do we see static images move when shown in sequence?” Bibas asks rhetorically. “We used to think that it was the retina retaining the image -- what was called persistence of vision -- and that the brain fused the succession of images into something that moves. What we now know is that we’re wired for the perception of motion, and the brain fills in the gaps.”

Another full-body experience demonstrates that animation isn’t just for cartoons. In an area called Dexter’s Lab, visitors can leap into the air as a 180-degree bank of cameras takes pictures in quick succession. When played back, the images create the hovering “bullet-time” effect seen in the “Matrix” and other movies. “The results, when shown on a big screen, are cool and often quite funny,” Bibas adds. “By understanding how the effect is done, it removes some of the mystery but without distracting from the magic.”

ON a smaller scale, visitors can also learn about the principles of physics as they attempt to animate something as simple as a bouncing ball by using a computer to correctly arrange pictures of balls based on their shapes. To animate a ball so it looks realistic, it should stretch out, squash down and then stretch out again as it heads toward the ground, hits it and then leaves the ground.

“Physics is one of the foundations of being an animator, and when I was studying animation, one of the first things I learned is how gravity works and how weight works,” says Craig McCracken, the creative force behind “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” and “The Powerpuff Girls.” “When you’re animating an object, you have to make it look like it exists in our world.”

McCracken was also one of the animators consulted by the exhibition’s creator, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, as it was developing the content. One of the exhibit’s main themes is the process of animation, from concept to finished product. To make sure it got the steps right, as well as the look and feel, OMSI sent a design team to Cartoon Network’s Burbank studio to observe the animators.

“The exhibit attempts to give visitors a behind the scenes look at the studio and to show what it takes to become an animator,” says Ray Vandiver, OMSI’s vice president of new project development.

With the help of a videotape lesson from a Cartoon Network animator, prospective animators of all ages can design their own characters. Using scenes from “Codename: Kids Next Door,” they can do everything, including perform voice-overs, play foley artist by crumpling paper, ringing a desk bell or employing other sound effect devices at the appropriate moment.

“A lot of people are confused about the animation process -- they assume all of it is done on computer, and you just push a button and a cartoon comes out,” says McCracken, who also served as Cartoon Network’s executive creative consultant. “Making cartoons is still a creative process, and you still have to start with an idea and putting drawings on paper.”

weekend@latimes.com

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‘Animation’

Where: California Science Center, 700 State Drive, Los Angeles

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Ends Dec. 31.

Price: Free (some attractions at the Science Center have admission fees); parking, $6.

Info: (323) 724-3623; www.californiasciencecenter.org