Showing papers by "Ronald M. Baecker published in 1969"

Picture-driven animation

Abstract: "Animation is the graphic art which occurs in time. Whereas a static image (such as a Picasso or a complex graph) may convey complex information through a single picture, animation conveys equivalently complex information through a sequence of images seen in time. It is characteristic of this medium, as opposed to static imagery, that the actual graphical information at any given instant is relatively slight. The source of information for the viewer of animation is implicit in picture change: change in relative position, shape, and dynamics. Therefore, a computer is ideally suited to making animation "possible" through the fluid refinement of these changes."

Interactive computer-mediated animation

Abstract: The use of interactive computer graphics in the construction of animated visual displays is investigated. In interactive computer-mediated animation, movies are formed from direct console commands, algorithms, free-hand sketches, and real-time actions (such as mimicking a movement or rhythm with a stylus or a push-button). The resulting movies can be immediately viewed and altered. In picture-driven animation, the animator may sketch and refine (1) static images to be used as components of individual frames of the movie, and (2) static and dynamic images that represent movements and rhythm. These latter pictures drive algorithms to generate dynamic displays. Since each such picture determines critical parameters of a sequence of frames, a single sketch or action controls the dynamic behavior of an entire interval of the movie. The dissertation also outlines the design of a multi-purpose, open-ended, interactive Animation and Picture Processing Language. APPL is a conversational language which accepts free-hand sketches, real-time actions, and actions and algorithms that control interactive dynamic displays.