Wyvill, BrianWyvill, Geoff2008-02-272008-02-271987-01-01http://hdl.handle.net/1880/46232The animation of 3D computer generated models is a rapidly growing part of the animation industry. One of the major criticisms that traditional animators have of this art form is the apparent inability to generate characters that can make the dynamic shape changes seen in hand animation. Recent work with SOFT objects, which change shape as they move, has proved to be a promising method for producing such characters. Specifying such changes is a complicated task which has received little attention in the literature largely because it is difficult to represent such objects using existing techniques. The SOFT objects presented here are represented by a surface constructed around a set of key-points and lines. This paper summarises previous work on SOFT objects and introduces some new field functions for their representation. Some methods are presented for describing the animation of SOFT objects, by determining the motion of the key points using both mathematical descriptions and physical simulations.EngComputer Scienceunknown1987-255-0310.11575/PRISM/31252