Practical Algorithms for 3D Computer Graphics, 2nd Edition

6

Computer animation

This chapter starts with an introduction to the most commonly used approach to

3D computer an imation , i.e., keyframe in-betweening (tweening). It shows how

this is used for the animation of rigid body behavior and illustrates pos s ib ilities

for the extension of the keyframe approach to cover the more complex topic of

character animation. Following the discussion on character animation we will

proceed with an explanation of a techn iq u e often used for character animation,

namely inverse kinematics or IK for s h or t. IK has applications in non-ch ar acter

animation but it is probably its association with articulated models (i.e., charac-

ters) that an imator s would find it most useful. Finally there is a discussion and

a few ...