An Integrated Environment to Visually Construct 3D Animations

Abstract

In this paper, we present an expressive 3D animation environment that enables users to rapidly and visually prototype animated worlds with a fully 3D user-interface. A 3D device allows the specification of complex 3D motion, while virtual tools are visible mediators that live in the same 3D space as application objects and supply the interaction metaphors to control them. In our environment, there is no intrinsic difference between user-interface and application objects. Multi-way constraints provide the necessary tight-coupling among components that makes it possible to seamlessly compose interactive and animated behaviors. By recording the effects of manipulations, all the expressive power of the 3D user-interface is exploited to define animations. Effective editing of recorded manipulations is made possible by compacting all continuous parameter evolutions with an incremental data-reduction algorithm, designed to preserve both geometry and timing. The automatic generation of editable representations of interactive performances overcomes one of the major limitations of current performance animation systems. Novel interactive solutions to animation problems are made possible by the tight integration of all system components. In particular, animations can be synchronized by using constrained manipulation during playback. The accompanying video tape illustrates our approach with interactive sequences showing the visual construction of 3D animated worlds. All the demonstrations were recorded live and were not edited.