Abstract
One of the biggest problem in computer animation is the enormous amount of specification necessary to produce an animation sequence. Our animation language, SOLAR, is designed to enable us to specify animation easily and efficiently. SOLAR achieves this through the use of object-oriented paradigm and abstractions. Supports for high-level abstractions and adaptive motion are provided through its class-inheritance and message-passing mechanisms. Five kinds of abstractions are supported, i.e. structural, motion, functional, character and world modeling. Together, they provide good support for programming animation. All interactions between graphical objects are achieved through its messagepassing mechanism. This paper describes the main features of SOLAR and its implementation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
R.M. Baecker - “Picture-Driven Animation”, AFIPS Conf. Proc., Vol 34, Spring Joint Computer Conf 1969, pp 273–288.
I.F. Chang - “Sharing Information via Intelligent Public Information System (IPIS)’, (Keynote address), in Proceedings of ‘South East Asia Regional Computer Conference’, Thailand, 1986.
T.S. Chua, W.H. Wong and K.C. Chu - “The Design of an Animation Package for Public Information Applications”, in Proc of Inter-Faculty Symposium on ‘Computer Graphics and Image Processing’, NUS, Sep 87.
T.S. Chua, W.H. Wong and K.C. Chu - “SOLAR - a Structured Object- Oriented Language for Animators”, Technical Report No 39, Institute of Systems Science, Nov 1987.
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 6 (8), Aug 1986.
O. Dahl and K. Nygaard - “Simula, an Algol-based Simulation Language”, Comm. ACM, 9, 1966, pp 671–678.
T.J. O’Donnell and A J. Olson - “GRAMPS - A Graphics Language Interpreter for Real-Time, Interactive, Three-Dimensional Picture Editing and Animation”, Computer Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH), Vol 15, No 3, 1981, pp 133–142.
S. Feiner, D. Salesin and T.F. Banchoff - “DIAL: A Diagrammatic Animation Language”, IEEE CG&A, Sep 82, pp 43–54.
R. Finkel, R. Taylor, R. Bolles, R. Paul and J. Feldman - “An Overview of AL, a Programming System for Automation”, Proc of 4th Int’l Joint Conf on AI, 1975, pp 758–765.
J.D. Foley, V.L. Wallace - “The Art of Natural Graphic Man-Machine Conversation”, Proceedings of IEEE, April 1974.
A. Goldberg and D. Robson - “Smalltalk-80: The Language and its Implementation”, Addison Wesley, 1983.
J. Hendler - “Enhancement for Multiple Inheritance”, SIGPLAN Notices, 21(10) Oct 1986, pp 98–106.
C. Hewitt - “Control Structures as Pattern of Message-Passing”, Brown RH (ed) Artificial Intelligence: an MIT Perspective, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 443–465, 1979.
S. C. Johnson, “Yacc - Yet Another Compiler Compiler, Comp. Sci. Tech. Rep. No. 32, 1975, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey.
M. E. Lesk - “Lex - A Lexical Analyzer Generator”, Comp. Sci. Tech. Rep. No. 39, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, October 1975.
L.I. Lieberman and M.A. Wesley - “AUTOPASS: An Automatic Programming System for Computer Controlled Mechanical Assembly”, IBM Journal of Research and Development, 21(4), 1977, pp 321–333.
N. Magnenat-Thalmann, D. Thalmann, M. Fortin and L. Langlois - “MIRA-SHADING: A Language for the Synthesis and Animation of Realistic Images”, Proc Computer Graphics Tokyo ’84, pp T2–2, 1–13.
N. Magnenat-Thalmann, D. Thalmann and M. Fortin - “Miranim: An Extensible Director-Oriented System for the Animation of Realistic Images”, IEEE CG&A, March 85, pp 61–73.
N. Magnenat-Thalmann and D. Thalmann - “3-D Computer Animation: more an Evolution than a Motion Problem”, IEEE CG&A, Oct 1985, pp47–57.
N. Magnenat-Thalmann and D. Thalmann - “Computer Animation: Theory and Practice”, Springer-Verlag, Tokyo, 1985.
N. Magnenat-Thalmann and D. Thalmann - “Special Cinematographic Effects with Virtual Movie Camera”, IEEE CG&A, Apr 1986, pp 43–50.
R.N. Nagel - “State of Art and Prediction for AI and Robotics”, in ’Robotics and AI’, Ed. by M. Brady et al, NATO ASI Series, Vol Fll, 1984, pp 3–45.
OOPSLA ’86 Proceedings, September 1986
C.W. Reynolds - “Computer Animation with Scripts and Actors”, Computer Graphics, 16(3), Jul 82, pp 289–296.
Hidemaru Sato - “Standardization of Computer Animation Commands for Computer Animation System”, Frontiers in Computer Graphics, Proc. of Computer Graphics Tokyo ’84.
M. Shaw - “The Impacts of Abstractions Concern on Modern Programming Languages” Proc of IEEE ’68, 1968, pp 1119–1130.
B. Shimano - “VAL: A Versatile Robot Programming and Control System”, COMPSAC 97 Conference Proceedings, 1979, pp 878–883.
B. Singh, J.C. Beatty, K.S. Booth and R. Ryman - “A Graphics Editor for Benesh Movement Notation”, Computer Graphics, 17(3), Jul 1983, pp51- 62.
R.H. Taylor, P.D. Summers and J.M. Meyers - “AML: A Manufacturing Language”, Int’l J. of Robotics Research, 1(3), 1982, pp 19–41.
] J. Wilhelms - “Towards Automatic Motion Control”, IEEE CG&A, 7(4), Apr 1987, pp 11–22.
D. Zeltzer - “Towards an integrated view of 3-D computer animation”, The Visual Computer, Springer-Verlag, 1, 1985, pp 249–259.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Chua, TS., Wong, WH., Chu, KC. (1988). Design and Implementation of the Animation Language SOLAR. In: Magnenat-Thalmann, N., Thalmann, D. (eds) New Trends in Computer Graphics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83492-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83492-9_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-83494-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-83492-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive