ISBN: 3540669396
TITLE: Artificial Animals for Computer Animation
AUTHOR: Tu, Xiaoyuan
TOC:

1. Introduction 1
1.1 Motivation 1
1.2 Challenges 2
1.2.1 Conventional Animation Techniques 3
1.3 Methodology: Artificial Life for Computer Animation 4
1.3.1 Criteria and Goals 4
1.3.2 Artificial Animals 4
1.3.3 From Physics to Realistic Locomotion 5
1.3.4 Realistic Perception 6
1.3.5 Realistic Behavior 7
1.3.6 Fidelity and Efficiency 8
1.4 Contributions and Results 8
1.4.1 Primary Contributions 9
1.4.2 Auxiliary Technical Contributions 12
1.5 Thesis Overview 13
2. Background 15
2.1 Physics-Based Modeling 15
2.1.1 Constraint-Based Approach 15
2.1.2 Motion Synthesis Approach 16
2.2 Behavioral Animation 19
2.2.1 Perception Modeling 20
2.2.2 Control of Behavior 21
2.3 The Modeling of Action Selection 21
2.3.1 Defining Action 22
2.3.2 Goals and Means 23
2.3.3 Previous Work 24
2.3.4 Task-Level Motion Planning 26
2.4 Summary 27
3. Functional Anatomy of an Artificial Fish 29
3.1 Motor System 29
3.2 Perception System 31
3.3 Behavior System 31
4. Biomechanical Fish Model and Locomotion 33
4.1 Discrete Physics-Based Models 34
4.2 Structure of the Dynamic Fish Model 34
4.3 Mechanics 36
4.3.1 Viscoelastic Units 36
4.4 Muscles and Hydrodynamics 39
4.5 Numerical Solution 40
4.5.1 System Matrix Assembling and the Skyline Storage Scheme 42
4.5.2 Algorithm Outline and Discussion 45
4.6 Motor Controllers 46
4.6.1 Muscle Motor Controllers 47
4.6.2 Pectoral Fin Motor Controllers 50
5. Modeling the Form and Appearance of Fishes 53
5.1 Constructing 3D Geometric Fish Models 54
5.2 Obtaining Texture Coordinates 54
5.2.1 Deformable Mesh 56
5.3 Texture-Mapped Models 57
5.4 Coupling the Dynamic and Display Models 59
5.5 Visualization of the Pectoral Motions 61
6. Perception Modeling 65
6.1 Perception Modeling for Animation 65
6.2 Overview of the Artificial Fish's Perception System 66
6.3 Vision Sensor Modeling 67
6.3.1 Perceptual Range 67
6.3.2 Occlusion 68
6.3.3 Functionality 69
6.4 Computing Visibility 70
6.4.1 Visibility of a Point 70
6.4.2 Visibility of Another Fish 72
6.4.3 Visibility of a Cylinder 73
6.4.4 Visibility of Seaweeds 73
6.4.5 Discussion 73
6.5 The Focusser 74
6.5.1 Focus of Attention in Animals 74
6.5.2 Design of the Focusser 75
6.5.3 Summary78
6.6 From Perception to Behavior 79
6.6.1 An Example: Collision Detection 79
6.7 Synthetic Vision Models 81
7. The Behavior System 85
7.1 Effective Action Selection Mechanisms 85
7.2 Behavior Control and Ethology 86
7.2.1 The Intention Level 87
7.2.2 The Action Level 88
7.2.3 Summary88
7.3 Habits 89
7.4 Mental State 89
7.5 Intention Generator 92
7.5.1 Why Hierarchy? 93
7.6 Intention-Guided Perception: Control of the Focusser 94
7.7 Persistence in Behavior 95
7.7.1 Behavior Memory 95
7.7.2 Inhibitory Gain and Fatigue 95
7.7.3 Persistence in Targeting 96
7.8 Behavior Routines 96
7.8.1 Primitive Behavior: Avoiding Potential Collisions 97
7.8.2 Primitive Behavior: Moving Target Pursuit 98
7.9 Artificial Fish Types 101
7.9.1 Predators 101
7.9.2 Prey 104
7.9.3 Pacifists 109
7.10 Discussion 112
7.10.1 Analysis 112
7.10.2 Summary115
8. Modeling the Marine Environment 117
8.1 Water Current 117
8.2 Seaweeds, Plankton and Air Bubbles 118
9. The Graphical User Interface 121
9.1 Initialization Panels. 121
9.2 Manipulation Panels 121
9.3 Control Panels 124
9.4 Discussion 125
10. Animation Results 127
10.1 "Go Fish!" 127
10.2 "The Undersea World of Jack Cousto" 128
10.3 Animation Short: Preying Behavior 130
10.4 Animation Short: Schooling Behavior 132
10.5 Animation Short: Mating Behavior 133
11. Conclusion and Future Work 135
11.1 Conclusion 135
11.2 Additional Impact in Animation and Artificial Life 136
11.3 Impact in Computer Vision and Robotics 138
11.4 Potential Applications in Ethology 138
11.5 Other Artificial Animals 139
11.6 Future Research Directions 140
11.6.1 Animation 140
11.6.2 Artificial Life 142
12. Epilogue 143
A. Deformable Contour Models 149
B. Visualization of the Pectoral Motions 151
B.1 Animating the Pectoral Flapping Motion 152
B.2 Animating the Pectoral Oaring Motion 152
C. Prior Action Selection Mechanisms 155
C.1 Behavior Choice Network 155
C.2 Free-Flow Hierarchy 156
D. Color Images 157
References 162
Index 171
END
