REALISM: reusable elements for animation using local integrated simulation models

The REALISM animation system encapsulates behavioural control mechanisms within the objects in a scene, offering a single interface to both modelling and animation. Libraries of actors allow creative skills to be focused on scene development and not individual object control. The progress of an animation sequence is defined by a controlling script. Individual object behaviour is defined by rules and constraints, themselves dynamic entities that can modify their own behaviour during the animation. Each element controls its own destiny which is guided but not dictated by the script. To reduce the communication overhead caused by the inter-object dialogue necessary for collision detection, a two stage process is implemented. This consists of a bounding volume check as the first stage, and objects communicating to resolve collisions as the second stage. The algorithm ensures that the workload is distributed evenly throughout the objects, guaranteeing a maximum limit to the workload per object