Subject: Re: LW4.0 and physics , an open letter to NewTek
From: [email-masked] (Kevin Bjorke)
To: Ernie Wright <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 95 18:07 PST

Ernie Wright <[email-masked]> writes:

> Naturalistic
> motion paths can be calculated as an energy minimization (Luxo Jr.), but
> it's extremely compute-intensive and a lot more complicated than f = ma.

NO WAY.

Luxo was animated by hand. NO minimization equations were used, NO
procedural animation was used, it was all the skill of the animator
(in this case, John Lasseter). This is The Pixar Way. Later, some
academics have tried to show that they could use math to make
luxo-like animations (a lamp that leapt).  It was very clever, but
never answered the more fundamental questions: is this a young lamp,
or an old one? Is it happy, or sad? And they never remotely approached
harder physical tricks like wiggling your base off-balance to waddle,
or how to ride on a ball :) 

Truly elegant tools provide you with the means to do procedural
tricks, but also will provide the animator with the tools he REALLY
needs to make convincing animation.
---- Kevin Bjorke ---- Animation Scientist ---- Hi Tech Toons ----
		-------  Baka mo ichi gei  --------