Supporting interactive animation using multi-way constraints

Abstract

This paper presents how the animation subsystem of an interactive environment for the visual construction of 3D animations has been modeled on top of an object-oriented constraint imperative architecture. In our architecture, there is no intrinsic difference between user-interface and application objects. Multi-way dataflow constraints provide the necessary tight coupling among components that makes it possible to seamlessly compose animated and interactive behaviors. Indirect paths allow an effective use of the constraint model in the context of dynamic applications. The ability of the underlying constraint solver to deal with hierarchies of multi-way, multi-output dataflow constraints, together with the ability of the central state manager to handle indirect constraints are exploited to define most of the behaviors of the modeling and animation components in a declarative way. The ease of integration between all system's components opens the door to novel interactive solution to modeling and animation problems. By recording the effects of the user's manipulations on the models, all the expressive power of the 3D user interface is exploited when defining animations. This performance-based approach complements standard key-framing systems by providing the ability to create animations with straight-ahead actions. At the end of the recording session, animation tracks are automatically updated to integrate the new piece of animation. Animation components can be easily synchronized using constrained manipulation during playback. The system demonstrates that, although they are limited to expressing acyclic conflict-free graphs, multi-way dataflow constraint are general enough to model a large variety of behaviors while remaining efficient enough to ensure the responsiveness of large interactive 3D graphics applications.