Computer Animation, 3rd Edition

Chapter 1

Introduction

Computer animation, for many people, is synonymous with big-screen events such as Star Wars, Toy Story, and Avatar. But not all, or arguably even most, computer animation is done in Hollywood. It is not unusual for Saturday morning cartoons to be entirely computer generated. Computer games take advantage of state-of-the-art computer graphics techniques and have become a major motivating force driving research in computer animation. Real-time performance-driven computer animation has appeared at SIGGRAPH¹ and on Sesame Street. Desktop computer animation is now possible at a reasonable cost. Computer animation on the Web is routine. Digital simulators for training pilots, SWAT teams, and nuclear reactor operators are commonplace. ...