The ALVW system

Abstract

This paper describes the ALVW system, a high-level interface for producing smart behavior-based 3D Computer Animation. The system allows the design and simulation of virtual worlds, environments and their inhabitants. Once the simulation of the virtual ecosystem is run, the results are transferred to a commercial 3D program, where a realistic animation can be produced based on the transferred data. The concatenation of all these processes allows us to produce a realistic 3D Computer Animation showing what happens in the artificial ecosystem, using the best of both worlds: behavior-modeling techniques plus all the capabilities of existing 3D software. As a pilot project, we have developed Kukasim, a simulator that models a cockroach living in a kitchen, and produced a four-minute 3D animation based on the simulation data obtained from it.The aim of the work presented in this paper is to contribute to the development of smart computer interfaces, mainly for 3D animation, but open enough to be useful in an ample range of different applications.