Introduction

This paper will look at the various methods of control that have been applied to the computer animation of articulated figures. An articulated figure is defined as an animal or mechanism that contains several rigid body links connected by rotational joints. This type of figure becomes difficult to animate purely by hand because of the large number of links that need to be positioned at each time slice in the animation.

Computer graphics practitioners have sought methods for many years that reduce the amount of work required by the animator to specify complex figure motion. In this search, many have proposed systems that make the animator more of a director than a choreographer. The goal seems to be to tell the character to "walk over there, pick up the mallet, hit the mouse on the head with it", rather than to sculpt the motion of the character from frame to frame.

This paper will look at the artistic and technical differences between manual control and automatic control of the animation. An implementation of an interactive, direct manipulation character-positioning program will be introduced.