Scene behavioral composition interface using motif widgets

Interactive animation systems for a long time have been mainly used for reviewing motions or adjusting a few control parameters of a predefined behavior process. The present paper extends the potential of interactive systems to the modeling of complex scene behaviors. Three editing levels, step, style, and sequence, are supported from the interface structured using a set of motif widgets. Complex scene behaviors are modeled based on two types of constraints: passive and active. Passive constraints are the ones that must be satisfied to produce collision-free motion in an environment. These constraints are automatically handled by the system, and served as the basic layer for modeling behaviors at higher levels. Active constraints are the user inputs to the animation process. The inputs which are independent of the main action course are incorporated into the control process any time. The ones which are not are maintained in queues until a suitable transition time comes. The system has been used as a test-bed for exploring various scene dancing behaviors