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Computer animation in interior and industrial design
Corn/ha. & G~ph~cs Vol. 9, No. 4, P0. 449.-453, 1985 Printed in Great Britain.
0097-8493/85 $3.00 + .00 © 1986 Pergamon Press Ltd.
Graphics Art
COMPUTER ANIMATION IN INTERIOR A N D INDUSTRIAL DESIGN PETER P. COMNINOS Department of Computer Science, Teesside Polytechnic, Borough Rd., Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS1 3BA, England Traditionally, designers communicate their designs to have been doing just that, at Teesside Polytechnic, other designers, architects and clients through drawings using the CGAL animation environment. Figures 1, 2 and models. Both these methods are reasonable com- and 3 are sample frames from a walk through sequence promises to having to build a prototype but are severely by Julie Thompson. Her final project involved a conversion of the Middlesbrough's Old Town Hall into a limiting and inflexible. Representing a design by a set of drawings has a combined Urban Studied Center and Community Linumber of disadvantages. Designers, engineers or ar- brary. Figures 4, 5 and 6 are sample frames from a chitects frequently have problems in understanding walk through sequence by Chris Hines. His final project fully the three-dimensional implications of a design involved the remodelling of spaces within Commerce before it is built or manufactured. Although they are House, an old Victorian building in Middlesbrough. all trained to think in three dimensions their primary Figures 7, 8 and 9 are sample frames from a walk means of communication is in terms of two-dimen- through sequence by Glenn Allen Johnson and Matsional orthographic projections, such as plans and ele- thew Gerard Wright. They both worked on a joint vations. Interpretation of such drawings is frequently "Living Room" project for which they designed a teleambiguous and thus may lead to expensive mistakes vision set, a set of speakers, an audio-visual control in the construction or manufacture process. When unit, a gas fire, a settee and a lighting unit. communicating a design to a client, a designer may All the animated sequences were generated using resort to more realistic, but also more expensive, draw- the GCAL animation environment which has also been ing representations such as axonometric, oblique or successfully used for the production of a number of perspective projections. Frequently the client may wish animated sequences for television. to view the product or interior from a different angle The animation environment consists of the CGAL or with a different degree of detail, in which case new animation system and the CGAL # l animation landrawings must be made at considerable cost in terms guage. of time and money. The system is the animators' tool kit, which comConstructing a model of the proposed product or prises of an animation language, object modelling tools, interior again has a number of disadvantages. It is very movement definition tools, a lighting set, a camera and costly, especially if the model has moving parts, and various image synthesis and playback facilities. it is usually difficult to modify a part of the model The animation language forms the core of the system without having to rebuild the entire model. Frequently and provides the animator with a precise and elegant models are unsatisfactory as they cannot be viewed at way of anotating 3D computer animated sequences the appropriate scale and in the case of interiors and which in turn can be translated into a series of frames buildings it is difficult, if not impossible, to move by the animation system. through them in order to understand and appreciate CGAL stands for Computer Graphics and Animatheir architectural space and evaluate the spatial re- tion Language. In the tradition of modern high level lationship of the design. languages, like LOGO, CGAL is not just an animation The majority of these problems can be overcome by language but it provides a system environment, This using geometric modelling and computer animation environment is a user friendly universe in which the techniques. Construction of a computer model of a animator can experiment with colour, space and product, interior or building allows the designer to movement. In this environment the user can generate quickly evaluate, modify and reevaluate his/her design three dimensional scenes and subsequently develop, in a progressive refinement cycle, thus leading to better debug, execute and playback scripts for 3D colour anand more cost-effective designs. Once the model is imation. built, the designer can, through computer animation The CGAL system provides the user with a work techniques, walk around a proposed product or inte- space, a program script editor, an incremental script rior, simulate the movement of any moving parts of compiler and a script interpreter. The language used the model, experiment with different colouring and to communicate with the system, called CGAL #1, is lighting schemes, perfect the design and finally produce a high level procedural language, which is conversapresentation quality renderings and animated se- tional, attribute examining, and provides the user with quences demonstrating the functionality of the design. extensive polygon and object generation and manipFinal year interior and industrial design students ulation capabilities. CAG g:4-H
449
P. P. COMNINOS
450
The CGAL #1 language provides the user with a large set of instructions which allow the user to: I. Define planar Generalized Polygons. 2. Define 3D Objects by: 2.1. Explicitly describing the facets defining the object. 2.2. A Translational Sweep of a generalized polygon. 2.3. A Rotational Sweep of a generalized polygon. 2.4. A General Sweep of a generalized polygon along a Flight Path. 2.5. Lofting two generalized polygons. 2.6. Creating a Lamina out of a generalized polygon. 2.7. A Deformation of an existing object (e.g. by a pulling operation). 2.8. A Combination of two or more existing objects into a new object. 2.9. Generating a Terrain model. 3. Transform 3D-objects about: 3.1. The Object Space Origin. 3.2. The Eye Space Origin. 3.3. The Local Origin of the object. 3.4. The Local Origin of another object. (This capability allows the user to simulate mechanisms of very large degrees of freedom. The number of degrees of freedom is only limited by the memory available.) 4. Edit various object Attributes: 4.1. The Colour of an object or a facet of an object. 4.2. The Transparency or translucency of an object or a facet of an object. 4.3. The Surface Reflection and Texture characteristics of an object. 5. Control the Lighting of the Scene. The user may: 5.1. Set the light source type to point, parallel, directed or spot light. 5.2. Change the colour and intensity of a light SOUrCe.
5.3. Change the decay factor of a light source. 5.4. Position and point a light source to any desired point. (Currently the system supports 12 light
sources.) 6. Control the Camera. The user may: 6.1. Set the camera position and orientation. 6.2. Change the focal length of the hypothetical camera lense. 7. Make enquiries on various attributes of the objects in the scene, the light sources, the camera or the state of the animation system. 8. Generate and run scripts and play-back these scripts in real time. (Only wire-frame pencil tests can be played back in real time.) 9. Produce shaded raster images of the scene. This is a very brief description of the CGAL #1 system. The user is provided with 369 instructions; a number of which invoke interactive editors with their own instruction set. The CGAL system has been implemented in standard Pascal and consists of 45,500 lines of Pascal code. CGAL could be mounted on any machine supporting standard Pascal and having a virtual memory organization. The current implementation is running on a PRIME 9750, and it supports the following graphic devices: 1. Sigma GOC (4 bits/pixel). 2. Sigma ARGS (16 bits/pixel). 3. Benson drum plotter. 4. Hp flat-bed plotter. 5. Summagraphics digitizer. 6. Imlac Dynagraphic refresh type display.
Acknowledgements--Theauthor is grateful to the Interior and Industrial Design students who have worked on the animated sequences from which the illustrations of this paper are drawn. Most of all, the author would like to express his gratitude to Peter Hardie, a Senior Lecturer of the Design Department, for his collaboration in teaching these students Computer Graphics and Animation.
Comput.er animation in interior and industrial design
Fig. I
I/IllU
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
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452
P.P. COMNINOS
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Computer animation in interior and industrial design
Fig. 7
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Fig. 8
Fig. 9
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0097-8493/85 $3.00 + .00 © 1986 Pergamon Press Ltd.
Graphics Art
COMPUTER ANIMATION IN INTERIOR A N D INDUSTRIAL DESIGN PETER P. COMNINOS Department of Computer Science, Teesside Polytechnic, Borough Rd., Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS1 3BA, England Traditionally, designers communicate their designs to have been doing just that, at Teesside Polytechnic, other designers, architects and clients through drawings using the CGAL animation environment. Figures 1, 2 and models. Both these methods are reasonable com- and 3 are sample frames from a walk through sequence promises to having to build a prototype but are severely by Julie Thompson. Her final project involved a conversion of the Middlesbrough's Old Town Hall into a limiting and inflexible. Representing a design by a set of drawings has a combined Urban Studied Center and Community Linumber of disadvantages. Designers, engineers or ar- brary. Figures 4, 5 and 6 are sample frames from a chitects frequently have problems in understanding walk through sequence by Chris Hines. His final project fully the three-dimensional implications of a design involved the remodelling of spaces within Commerce before it is built or manufactured. Although they are House, an old Victorian building in Middlesbrough. all trained to think in three dimensions their primary Figures 7, 8 and 9 are sample frames from a walk means of communication is in terms of two-dimen- through sequence by Glenn Allen Johnson and Matsional orthographic projections, such as plans and ele- thew Gerard Wright. They both worked on a joint vations. Interpretation of such drawings is frequently "Living Room" project for which they designed a teleambiguous and thus may lead to expensive mistakes vision set, a set of speakers, an audio-visual control in the construction or manufacture process. When unit, a gas fire, a settee and a lighting unit. communicating a design to a client, a designer may All the animated sequences were generated using resort to more realistic, but also more expensive, draw- the GCAL animation environment which has also been ing representations such as axonometric, oblique or successfully used for the production of a number of perspective projections. Frequently the client may wish animated sequences for television. to view the product or interior from a different angle The animation environment consists of the CGAL or with a different degree of detail, in which case new animation system and the CGAL # l animation landrawings must be made at considerable cost in terms guage. of time and money. The system is the animators' tool kit, which comConstructing a model of the proposed product or prises of an animation language, object modelling tools, interior again has a number of disadvantages. It is very movement definition tools, a lighting set, a camera and costly, especially if the model has moving parts, and various image synthesis and playback facilities. it is usually difficult to modify a part of the model The animation language forms the core of the system without having to rebuild the entire model. Frequently and provides the animator with a precise and elegant models are unsatisfactory as they cannot be viewed at way of anotating 3D computer animated sequences the appropriate scale and in the case of interiors and which in turn can be translated into a series of frames buildings it is difficult, if not impossible, to move by the animation system. through them in order to understand and appreciate CGAL stands for Computer Graphics and Animatheir architectural space and evaluate the spatial re- tion Language. In the tradition of modern high level lationship of the design. languages, like LOGO, CGAL is not just an animation The majority of these problems can be overcome by language but it provides a system environment, This using geometric modelling and computer animation environment is a user friendly universe in which the techniques. Construction of a computer model of a animator can experiment with colour, space and product, interior or building allows the designer to movement. In this environment the user can generate quickly evaluate, modify and reevaluate his/her design three dimensional scenes and subsequently develop, in a progressive refinement cycle, thus leading to better debug, execute and playback scripts for 3D colour anand more cost-effective designs. Once the model is imation. built, the designer can, through computer animation The CGAL system provides the user with a work techniques, walk around a proposed product or inte- space, a program script editor, an incremental script rior, simulate the movement of any moving parts of compiler and a script interpreter. The language used the model, experiment with different colouring and to communicate with the system, called CGAL #1, is lighting schemes, perfect the design and finally produce a high level procedural language, which is conversapresentation quality renderings and animated se- tional, attribute examining, and provides the user with quences demonstrating the functionality of the design. extensive polygon and object generation and manipFinal year interior and industrial design students ulation capabilities. CAG g:4-H
449
P. P. COMNINOS
450
The CGAL #1 language provides the user with a large set of instructions which allow the user to: I. Define planar Generalized Polygons. 2. Define 3D Objects by: 2.1. Explicitly describing the facets defining the object. 2.2. A Translational Sweep of a generalized polygon. 2.3. A Rotational Sweep of a generalized polygon. 2.4. A General Sweep of a generalized polygon along a Flight Path. 2.5. Lofting two generalized polygons. 2.6. Creating a Lamina out of a generalized polygon. 2.7. A Deformation of an existing object (e.g. by a pulling operation). 2.8. A Combination of two or more existing objects into a new object. 2.9. Generating a Terrain model. 3. Transform 3D-objects about: 3.1. The Object Space Origin. 3.2. The Eye Space Origin. 3.3. The Local Origin of the object. 3.4. The Local Origin of another object. (This capability allows the user to simulate mechanisms of very large degrees of freedom. The number of degrees of freedom is only limited by the memory available.) 4. Edit various object Attributes: 4.1. The Colour of an object or a facet of an object. 4.2. The Transparency or translucency of an object or a facet of an object. 4.3. The Surface Reflection and Texture characteristics of an object. 5. Control the Lighting of the Scene. The user may: 5.1. Set the light source type to point, parallel, directed or spot light. 5.2. Change the colour and intensity of a light SOUrCe.
5.3. Change the decay factor of a light source. 5.4. Position and point a light source to any desired point. (Currently the system supports 12 light
sources.) 6. Control the Camera. The user may: 6.1. Set the camera position and orientation. 6.2. Change the focal length of the hypothetical camera lense. 7. Make enquiries on various attributes of the objects in the scene, the light sources, the camera or the state of the animation system. 8. Generate and run scripts and play-back these scripts in real time. (Only wire-frame pencil tests can be played back in real time.) 9. Produce shaded raster images of the scene. This is a very brief description of the CGAL #1 system. The user is provided with 369 instructions; a number of which invoke interactive editors with their own instruction set. The CGAL system has been implemented in standard Pascal and consists of 45,500 lines of Pascal code. CGAL could be mounted on any machine supporting standard Pascal and having a virtual memory organization. The current implementation is running on a PRIME 9750, and it supports the following graphic devices: 1. Sigma GOC (4 bits/pixel). 2. Sigma ARGS (16 bits/pixel). 3. Benson drum plotter. 4. Hp flat-bed plotter. 5. Summagraphics digitizer. 6. Imlac Dynagraphic refresh type display.
Acknowledgements--Theauthor is grateful to the Interior and Industrial Design students who have worked on the animated sequences from which the illustrations of this paper are drawn. Most of all, the author would like to express his gratitude to Peter Hardie, a Senior Lecturer of the Design Department, for his collaboration in teaching these students Computer Graphics and Animation.
Comput.er animation in interior and industrial design
Fig. I
I/IllU
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
451
452
P.P. COMNINOS
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Computer animation in interior and industrial design
Fig. 7
?
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
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