Research For Implementation Of Group Animation In Computer 3D Animation

3D Animation is an important field in computer application. With rapid development of software and hardware, 3D animation has been applied to various fields, especially in film industry, advertisement, games and multimedia. Group animation has got more and more concern and become a focus in computer graphics. Nowadays, the application of group animation has widely affected films, games, virtual reality, simulation of people flow in public areas, hazard prevention, traffic management etc. This paper focuses on the implementation of group animation in artistic creation.Due to the complexity of controlling group behaviors, group animation has always been a challenge in computer animation. The main work in artistic creation is“key frame”technique. This traditional method cannot achieve realism when simulating autonomous agents’behaviors, especially when numbers of characters grow, the calculation of simulation for behaviors among characters and between characters and environment increases geometrically. When characters’animations change, the workload mounts up to almost the same as reproducing the animation. Therefore, it’s important to find an efficient implementation for group animation creation, meanwhile emphasizing both representation and realism.This paper discusses in details the methods of producing artificial intelligent lives and provides insightful research for structure design and implementation of group animation in computer 3D animation. We design and implement a group animation system based on autonomous agents which has much utility value. The system is coded with Mel and runs on Maya which is widely applied in the industry. The system can simulate ordinary group behaviors effectively.The main work in this paper includes:(1) A group animation model based on autonomous agents is designed. This paper does systematic research for implementation of group animation in computer graphics, especially for demands and features of group animation’s representation. Starting from artistic creation and based on the cutting-edge artificial-life theory of group animation, this paper designs a group animation model based on autonomous agents. The model divides motion animation of characters into three layers: goal setting and strategy, steering behaviors, and locomotion.(2) A perceptive model applicable for simulating many kinds of living things is presented. Aimed at the feature of artistic creation, the perceptive model is simple and effective. The perceptive ability of simulated characters is important for massive group animation’s creation. A perceptive method which puts importance on visual and tactile perception is designed, taking the feature of characters’perception into account and based on the research for perceptive abilities of living things. The algorithm not only simulates the perceptive ability of living things, but also reduces the number of potential perceptive living things and increases the running efficiency of animation.(3) A behavior-management method used to simulate many kinds of living things is presented. An animated behavior model is designed after studying the behavior theory by Reynolds and Steering. The model integrates particle system and animation system, utilizing existing resources effectively and assuring animation’s realism.(4) Based on group animation creation model, a practical group animation plug-in called steering studio, coded with Mel on Maya platform, is implemented. This plug-in can simulate group behaviors of living things in 2D and 3D environment with high practicability and operability.