Evolutionary controller synthesis for 3-d character animation

Abstract

Three dimensional computer animation has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Computer animation now has an important role in entertainment, education, and simulation. For computer animation of characters, the role of the animator has unfortunately stayed similar to that of a stop motion animator, rather than like a film director. Research in computer animation has tried to address this by giving higher levels of control to the animator, but these methods often result in lack of fine control over the animated characters. This is inadequate because fine control is essential to both aesthetics and the ability of the animator to direct a meaningful narrative. This dissertation presents methods of articulated figure motion control which attempt to bridge the gap between high level direction and low level control of subtle motion. These methods define motion in terms of goals and ratings. The agents are dynamically-controlled robots whose behavior is determined by robotic contr...