Keyframe animation packages?

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Ellery Chan (echan++at++harris.com)
Mon, 03 Feb 1997 14:23:10 -0500

Can anyone recommend a good animation package with flexible camera
controls? I need to be able to script fly-throughs (to eventually
end up on video) and would like the ability to control the camera
view direction independently of the camera's direction of travel.
For example, we want the ability to be traveling forward and looking
forward, then smoothly pan the view over to the side (of the road, say)
and back again to the front.

I've looked at a couple of the popular vis sim packages, but their
camera control is limited to attaching the camera to an object in
the scene, and possibly attaching the look-at point to another object.
However, our scenes currently have no moving objects. Also, I haven't
warmed up to the modeling interface that requires moving a grid around
in 3-space to intercept my mouse clicks.

It seems to me that an ability to specify keyframes for the camera
motion would be very useful. Is there a package that does this in
a way that can be exported to Performer, and/or that will load models
in the same formats that Performer uses? (We currently are using
OpenInventor .iv format for our models.) Since we use Performer to
view our models interactively, it would be nice to have compatible
tools to put them to video.

-- 
"Perhaps if we increased the Mnemonic Device to 650 volts..." --Dave
Barry
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 Ellery Chan, Harris Corporation | Net:  echan++at++harris.com
 150 S Wickham Rd, MS W2-7758    | Tel:  407-984-6506
 Melbourne, FL  32904            | Fax:  407-984-6353
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