A survey of computer animation

Abstract

A survey on computer animation is presented with three specific goals: - To clarify what people understand by computer animation. - To separate the different aspects of computer animation and underline its main problems. - To present the different solutions given to these problems.

Several classifications for computer animation systems are first given according to different criteria. After that, the report is basically divided into two section according to the historical classification of computer animation systems: computer assisted animation where traditional animation is just helped by the use of computers, and modelled animation where the use of computers is essential in different aspects of the animation process. Special emphasis is placed on motion specification and generation. Finally, special attention is paid to human body animation because of the great interest of this specific field of computer animation and the peculiarity of its problems. Hardware aspects and postprocessing have only been taken into account in the classification section but have not been studied.