Collaborative animation over the network
Amaury AubelProceedings Computer Animation 1999
Sign up for access to the world's latest research
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Abstract
The continuously increasing complexity of computer animations makes it necessary to rely on the knowledge of various experts to cover the different areas of computer graphics and animation. This fact, which can be noted in many areas of scientific working, leads to increasing effort being put into research concerning cooperative working over the internet. However, it still requires substantial effort and time to combine different animation techniques in a common virtual environment. When trying to perform collaborative animation over a network, we often face the problem of having to combine animation systems and applications based on different software and hardware and using incompatible data structures. We present an approach, based on a client-server architecture and employing a VRML-based language as common interchange format, that allows inhomogeneous systems to be easily incorporated into a collaborative animation. The applications can be freed from employing plug-ins or libraries to link into a common animation platform; they keep a local copy of the global scene and only need the ability to export the internal data representation into the so called "PaVRML" language, the language we use use to exchange data and synchronize the clients. This approach does not only allow a number of practitioners to share their know-how within a common animation without requiring the huge amount of work necessary to port their application to a common platform. It also makes it often possible in the first place to combine the capabilities of different animation systems into a single complex animation. Additionally, we investigate solutions to optimize the network load for real-time applications. In this paper we present preliminary results and discuss the future developments of this ongoing work.
Related papers
A World-Wide Web based distributed animation environment
Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 1997
In this paper we describe the design of a distributed animation system built using the Java language, a Parallel Virtual Machine platform, and the WorldWide Web. We focus on two aspects. One is the design of a platform to support distributed 3D animation, the other is the improvement of the efficiency of the parallel computing. Due to the collaborative and distributed nature of the Web, the Web browser is integrated with the distributed computing system like a Parallel Virtual Machine. The model emphasizes the separation of interface and function. It provides a very friendly and portable interface to manipulate the PVM console and the 3D animation system. To improve the efficiency of the parallel computing, we propose a new load balancing strategy, called global distributed control to balance the load in the network processors. The algorithm not only has the ability to dynamically adjust to the load imbalance, but also has the fault tolerance ability. It performs the best when it is compared with three traditional load balancing schemes. Q 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.
The GATI Client/Server Animation Toolkit
1993
This paper presents GAT!, an animation server that provides for, distributed, potentially collaborative, real time interactive animation in two and three dimensions. The system supports a high level animation language based upon a commands/event paradigm. Examples are given of how the toolkit is being used in a distributed, collaborative geometrical modeling environment. GAT! runs on unix platforms supporting the X-ll windowing environment and using the XS Graphics Libraries.
Object Oriented Animation on the World Wide Web
1995
This report describes our attempt to add animation as another data type to be used on the World Wide Web. Our current network infrastructure, the Internet, is incapable of carrying video and audio streams for them to be used on the web for presentation purposes. In contrast, object-oriented animation proves to be efficient in terms of network resource requirements. We defined an animation model to support drawing-based and frame-based animation.
Concurrent Algorithms and Data Types Animation over the Internet
1998
We present a distributed algorithm animation system called Catai (for Concurrent Algorithms and data Types Animation over the Internet). Among the features of this system are a low e ort required for animating algorithmic code, and the possibility of embedding animation clients in standard Java-enabled Web browsers. We believe this to be a good compromise between two di erent viewpoints: the programmer's perspective, which typically includes the goal of animating e ciently and unobtrusively a given algorithmic code, and the user's perspective, which can bene t from interactive, easy-to-use, distributed and cooperative interfaces.
Using collaborative interactive objects and animation to enable dynamic interactions in collaborative virtual environments
… Graphics and Social …, 2004
ANIMATION: a system for animation scene and contents creation, retrieval, and display [4672-10]
2002
There is an increasing interest in the computer animation. The most of the current animation software tools are described by Richard Parent in . The driving ideas behind animation in general and computer animation in particular are presented in . More and more animations are available in various places on the Internet. The increasing availability of potentially interesting materials makes the search extremely difficult especially when the search is by the animation contents. This work is devoted to analyzing the syntax contents of the animations. In the paper we present the ANIMATION system -a system for animation scene and contents creation, retrieval and display. The system is based on MPEG-4 standard . MPEG-4 is an ISO/IEC standard developed by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). These standard makes interactive video on CD-ROM and Digital Television possible.
Animation toolkit based on a database approach for reusing motions and models
Multimedia Tools and Applications, 2007
As animations become more readily available, simultaneously the complexity of creating animations has also increased. In this paper, we address the issue by describing an animation toolkit based on a database approach for reusing geometric animation models and their motion sequences. The aim of our approach is to create a framework aimed for novice animators. Here, we use an alternative notion of a VRML scene graph to describe a geometric model, specifically intended for reuse. We represent this scene graph model as a relational database. A set of spatial, temporal, and motion operations are then used to manipulate the models and motions in an animation database. Spatial operations help in inserting/deleting geometric models in a new animation scene. Temporal and motion operations help in generating animation sequences in a variety of ways. For instance, motion information of one geometric model can be applied to another model or a motion sequence can be retargeted to meet additional constraints (e.g., wiping action on a table can be retargeted with constraints that reduce the size of the table). We present the design and implementation of this toolkit along with several interesting examples of animation sequences that can be generated using this toolkit.
ANIMATION - a system for animation scene and contents creation, retrieval and display
2002
There is an increasing interest in the computer animation. The most of the current animation software tools are described by Richard Parent in [5]. The driving ideas behind animation in general and computer animation in particular are presented in [6]. More and more animations are available in various places on the Internet. The increasing availability of potentially interesting materials makes the search extremely difficult especially when the search is by the animation contents. This work is devoted to analyzing the syntax contents of the animations. In the paper we present the ANIMATION system-a system for animation scene and contents creation, retrieval and display. The system is based on MPEG-4 standard [3, 4]. MPEG-4 is an ISO/IEC standard developed by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). These standard makes interactive video on CD-ROM and Digital Television possible.
Using GASP for Collaborative Interaction within 3D Virtual Worlds
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2000
In this paper, we present Gasp, a General Animation and Simulation Platform, whose purpose is to animate autonomous or userdriven agents, and we explain how it can be used for Collaborative V i rtual Reality. First, we explain its architecture, based on the notion of simulation objects or agents associated with a calculation part the behavior. Then we describe how i t is possible to distribute e ciently our agents upon a network in order to share the amount of calculation between several computers. Finally, as the visualisation of a simulation is also a simulation object, we show that our architecture allows us to distribute several visualisations upon a network to share a 3D interactive simulation between several users.
Distributed open inventor: A practical approach to distributed 3D graphics
1999
Distributed Open Inventor is an extension to the popular Open Inventor toolkit for interactive 3D graphics. The toolkit is extended with the concept of a distributed shared scene graph, similar to distributed shared memory. From the application programmer's perspective, multiple workstations share a common scene graph. The proposed system introduces a convenient mechanism for writing distributed graphical applications based on a popular tool in an almost transparent manner. Local variations in the scene graph allow for a wide range of possible applications, and local low latency interaction mechanisms called input streams enable high performance while saving the programmer from network peculiarities.
Related papers
CATAI: Concurrent Algorithms and Data Types Animation over the Internet
Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 2002
We present a distributed algorithm animation system called Catai (for Concurrent Algorithms and data Types Animation over the Internet). Among the features of this system are a low e ort required for animating algorithmic code, and the possibility of embedding animation clients in standard Java-enabled Web browsers. We believe this to be a good compromise between two di erent viewpoints: the programmer's perspective, which typically includes the goal of animating e ciently and unobtrusively a given algorithmic code, and the user's perspective, which can bene t from interactive, easy-to-use, distributed and cooperative interfaces.
Development Methods and a Scenegraph Animation API for Cluster Driven Immersive Applications
2009
This paper presents a scenegraph animation application programming interface (API), known as the Animation Engine, which was constructed for software developers to easily perform smooth transitions and manipulations to scenegraph nodes. A developer can use one line of code to enter the property, end state and number of frames to describe the animation, then the Animation Engine handles the rest in the background. The goal of the Animation Engine is to provide a simple API that integrates into existing applications with minimal effort. Additionally, techniques to improve virtual reality (VR) application performance on a large computer cluster are presented. These techniques include maintaining high frame rates with 4096 × 4096 pixel textures, eliminating extraneous network traffic and reducing long model loading time. To demonstrate the Animation Engine and the development techniques, an application known as the Virtual Universe was created. The Virtual Universe, designed to run in a six walled CAVE, allows users to freely explore a set of space themed environments. The architecture and development techniques for writing a stable immersive VR application on a large computer cluster, in addition to the creation of the Animation Engine, is presented in this paper.
VIRTUS: A collaborative multi-user platform
Proceedings of the fourth symposium on Virtual reality …, 1999
VRML is a file format for the description of dynamic scene graphs containing 3D objects with their visual appearance, multimedia content, an event model, and scripting capabilities. It is designed to be used on the Internet and on local system and to be used as an exchange file format. Although equipped with sophisticated techniques for user interaction the current VRML standard still lacks direct support for sharing virtual worlds that can not only be visited but also manipulated by multiple users distributed over the network. Several multi-user technologies have been developed in the past and some use VRML as the rendering and interaction vehicle. This paper gives a short review of design considerations for distributed virtual environments and approaches taken so far in the development of multi-user technologies. We present the design and implementation of VIRTUS, a multi-user platform that allows multiple geographically separated users to enter and manipulate shared VRML scenes.
An object-oriented framework for the integration of interactive animation techniques
ACM Siggraph Computer Graphics, 1991
We present an interactive modeling and animation system that facilitates the integration of a variety of simulation and animation paradigms. This system permits the modeling of diverse objects that change in shape, appearance, and behavior over time. Our system thus extends modeling tools to include animation controls. Changes can be effected by various methods of control, including scripted, gestural, and behavioral specification. The system is an extensible testbed that supports research in the interaction of disparate control methods embodied in controller objects. This paper discusses some of the issues involved in modeling such interactions and the mechanisms implemented to provide solutions to some of these issues,
TBAG: A High Level Framework for Interactive, Animated 3D Graphics Applications
1994
We present a paradigm and toolkit for rapid prototyping of interactive, animated 3D graphics programs. The paradigm has its roots in declarative programming, emphasizing immutable values, first class functions, and relations, applying these concepts to a broad range of types, including points, vectors, planes, colors, transforms, geometry, and sound. The narrow role of modifiable state in this paradigm allows applications to be run in a collaborative setting (multi-user and multi-computer) without modification.
Towards large scale voice activated dynamic and interactive internet based animation and modeling
2004
Multimedia communication over the Internet has gained popularity in recent years. An efficient means of communication is vital for multimedia movies to reach consumers who can use voice commands to interactively modify XML based animations and movies depending on their subjective need. However, the initial modeling of an XML based multimedia movie is low level, time consuming, and not suitable for large scale multimedia animation and modeling. In this paper, we integrate the concept of dynamically modifiable XML scripts and the TANDEM language -a high level XML based Internet multimedia modeling language to transmit asynchronous, nondeterministic, and deterministic events to model and communicate web based multimedia streams over the Internet -to model dynamically modifiable Internet based interactive multimedia animated movies. The integration has been illustrated using a realistic example.
Advanced real-time collaboration over the internet
Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology - VRST '00, 2000
In this paper we present our Networked Virtual Environment (NVE) System, called W-VLNET (Windows Virtual Life Network), which has been developed on the Windows NT Operating System (OS). This paper emphasizes the Real-Time aspect of this NVE system, the advanced interactivity that the system provides and its ability to transfer data across the Internet so that geographically distant users can collaborate with each other. Techniques for communication, scene management, facial and body animation, and general user interaction modules are detailed in this paper. The use of VRML97 and MPEG4 SHNC is overviewed to stress the compatibility of the system with other similar Virtual Reality systems. The software provides realistic virtual actors as well as sets of applicable high-level actions in real-time. Related issues on obtaining actor models and animating them in real-time are presented. We also introduce a case study to show an example of how the system can be used.
Animation on the web
Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on 3D Web Technology - Web3D '15, 2015
The main motivation of this paper is to provide a current state and a brief overview of animation on the web. Computer animation is used in many fields and it has seen a lot of development in the recent years. With the widespread use of WebGL and the age of powerful modern hardware available on small devices, 3D rendering on the browser is now becoming commonplace. Computer Animation can be described as the rendering of objects on screen, which can change shape and properties with respect to time. There are many approaches to rendering animation on the web, but none of them yet provide a coherent approach in terms of transmission, compression and handling of the animation data on the client side (browser). And if computer animation has to become more accessible over the web, these challenges need to be addressed in the same "minimalistic manner (requirement wise)" as every other multimedia content has been addressed on the web. We aim to provide an overview of the current state of the art, while commenting on the shortcomings pertaining to current formats/approaches and discuss some of the upcoming standards and trends which can help with the current implementation.
Modeling interactive 3D and multimedia animation with an embedded language
Proceedings of the Conference on Domain Specific Languages on Conference on Domain Specific Languages 1997, 1997
While interactive multimedia animation is a very compelling medium, few people are able to express themselves in it. There are too many low-level details that have to do not with the desired content-e.g., shapes, appearance and behavior-but rather how to get a computer to present the content. For instance, behaviors like motion and growth are generally gradual, continuous phenomena. Moreover, many such behaviors go on simultaneously. Computers, on the other hand, cannot directly accommodate either of these basic properties, because they do their work in discrete steps rather than continuously, and they only do one thing at a time. Graphics programmers have to spend much of their effort bridging the gap between what an animation is and how to present it on a computer. We propose that this situation can be improved by a change of language, and present Fran, synthesized by complementing an existing declarative host language, Haskell, with an embedded domain-specific vocabulary for modeled animation. As demonstrated in a collection of examples, the resulting animation descriptions are not only relatively easy to write, but also highly composable.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.