Summary:

This paper details the state of the art computer animation system that was
in use at Pixar at this point. It also explores how modular tools and a
focus on what features allow animators to be most productive can greatly
increase the ease of use of an animation system.


Problem:

The main problem addressed by this paper is, how can one build a computer
animation system so as to maximize its usefulness for animators and
minimize the difficult task of rewriting and improving it.

Method:

When constructing the Menv system, the programmers focused on features
that would be most essential to animators and give them both control of
and feedback about their animations. The system was built in a very
modular way to allow addition of tools as well as upkeep to be as painless
as possible. A high level custom programming language, ML, was designed to
power some of the animations and model generation.

Key Ideas:

Focusing on the needs of animators can make the task of animating more
efficient and less painful. It is possible to give animators
near-real-time feed back on the effects of their changes. A custom high
level language can be very powerful in simplifying model generation and
some forms of animation motion.

Contributions:

The Menv system it self is an impressive contribution, but more
importantly this paper shows that an animation system can be designed in
order to make the task of computer animation easier and faster. The shear
flexibility and power of the ML language is also a significant step in
simplifying model generation. Many of the individual tools are also
significant contributions as they are integrating cutting edge technology
into the animation system.

Questions:

I am curious about how and how much the Menv system improved upon its
precursor (which was written for Lucas Films) as well as which, if any, of
the tools presented here had not yet been described in theory in other
papers.