Procedural animation

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A procedural animation is a type of computer animation, used to automatically generate animation in real-time to allow for a more diverse series of actions than could otherwise be created using predefined animations.

Procedural animation is used to simulate particle systems (smoke, fire, water ^[1] ^[2] ), cloth and clothing, rigid body dynamics, and hair and fur dynamics, as well as character animation.

In computer and video games it is often used for simple things like turning a character's head when a player looks around (as in Quake III Arena) and more complex things, like ragdoll physics, which is usually used for the death of a character in which the ragdoll will realistically fall to the floor. A ragdoll usually consists of a series of connected rigid bodies that are programmed to have Newtonian physics acting upon them; therefore, very realistic effects can be generated that would very hardly be possible with traditional animation. For example, a character can die slumped over a cliff and the weight of its upper-body can drag the rest of it over the edge.

Even more complex examples of procedural animation can be found in the game Spore wherein user-created creatures will automatically be animated to all actions needed in the game from walking, to driving, to picking things up. In the game Unreal Tournament 3 bodies who have gone into ragdoll mode to fake death can arise from any position into which they have fallen and get back on their feet. The as-yet-unnamed Indiana Jones game from LucasArts shown at E3 2006 features character motions that are animated entirely in real-time, with characters dodging, punching, and reacting to the environment based on a new engine called euphoria by NaturalMotion.

[edit] References

^ Miguel Gomez, "Interactive Simulation of Water Surfaces" in "Game Programming Gems", ed. Mark DeLoura. Charles River Media, 2000, p 187-199, ISBN 1-58450-049-2
^ Greg James, “Operations for Hardware-Accelerated Procedural Texture Animation” in “Game Programming Gems 2” ed. Mark DeLoura, Charles River Media, 2001, p 497, ISBN 1-58450-054-9