Summary

This paper describes Menv, a modelling and animation environment
developed at Pixar. Menv includes a set of interactive 3-D modelling
and animation tools to aid animators in concentrating on the
high-level aspects of their work.

Problem

Animators need an easy-to-use tool to allow them transform their
vision in to a computer generated, 3-D animation.

Methods Used

1. Give animators maximum high-level control while the computer takes
care of the details (e.g. the exact positions and orientations of all
polygons).
2. Use a procedural language (ML) to model geometry parametrically, as
opposed to databases of geometric data.
3. Animation defined via cue sheets, which give values for the
parameterized models at key frames and define interpolation between
frames.

Key Ideas/Contributions

1. The ML modelling language.
2. Software and tools for interactive modelling and animation.

Questions/Flaws

The authors identify one shortcoming of their work: the modeler is
primitive and needs further development.