 The Improv Animation System, was developed
at New York University's Media Research Laboratory as a set of tools and techniques which make it possible to create
virtual worlds and applications populated with animated agents that behave, interact and respond to user input in
ways that convey mood and emotion. The goal of this project was to make improvisational animation accessible to professional
artists and creative amateurs with minimal knowledge of 3-D animation, biomechanics, behavioral psychology or
artificial intelligence, and to enable researchers and educators to exploit these technologies without relying on expensive
production efforts.
Two patents were ultimately granted for the work, one covering the initial procedural animation
work, and the other, which is shared between Dr. Perlin and Mr. Goldberg, covering the Improv Animation System itself.
Mr. Goldberg, working with Professor Perlin, led the research team, consisting of faculty,
graduate students and research scientists in the development of the Improv Technology, and eventually licensed the technology
to form NYU's first software technology spin-off. Improv Technologies. Though Improv Technologies was ultimately forced to
suspend operations in the winter of 2002, the company managed to release two commercial products based on the technology,
Orchestrate3D, winner of Computer Graphics World's 2000 Innovation Award, and Catalyst, a Rreal-time 3D game engine used in the development of Jedi-KnightII:Outcast for the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo
Gamecube.
Improv Animation System Projects
M.C. Leon
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| M.C.Leon |
For SIGGRAPH 99 we presented M.C. Leon, a live performance of a
virtual actor who served as Master of Ceremonies for the Electronic Theater. This performance combined multi-layered facial
animation, lip-synched audio, lights, cameras and moving scenery to create one of the most sophisticated examples of the Improv
Animation System to date.
Sid and the Penguins
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| Sid and the Penguins |
At the SIGGRAPH 98 Electronic Theatre, the MRL presented a live
performance by a troupe of virtual actors - that took place within a web browser. This project was a collaboration involving
dozens of undergraduate computer science and animation students, as well as faculty from both disciplines. It tells the story
of the lovable Sid and his interaction with a group of dancing penguins.
Studies in Improvisational Sculpture
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| Improvisational Sculpture |
In this piece, simple geometrical constructions are layered, blended and combined to create constantly changing patterns
of shape, color and movement. This piece was created to study how behavioral animation techniques could be applied to a purely
visual non-realistic 3D environment
The Face
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| The Face |
This project explored the implementation of expressive animation
with minimal geometry. This demonstration enabled participants to to explore a broad selection of expressions, and then, through
the use, of the PAD zooming interface, explore the components used to create these expressions, and create new expressions
for themselves. This project is one of the best demonstrations of how a simplified model, with a minimal set of controls
can produce a rich variety of lifelike expressions. This project is currently on permanent display at the American Museum
of the Moving Image in NY.
Willy
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| Willy |
Working with NYU Music Technology professor Robert Rowe, in 1998
the MRL created Willy - a saxophone player who improvises music and movement in response to a jazz piano player. At their
first rehearsal, Clilly Castiglia remembers the piano player jumping back from his keyboard to say, "This is the first time
in years someone's really listened to me." Willy was presented in a series of performances at Lincoln Center, as well as at
conferences such as ISEA and ICMA.
Wendy
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| Wendy |
At SIGGRAPH 97, Wendy helped the MRL introduce the then-new Java/VRML
version of Improv. Her click-controls are still one of the best introductions to our motion layering and blending techniques.
Aria
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| Gigio |
At the SIGGRAPH ‘96 conference, we presented an installation
entitled Aria, created in collaboration with the Laboratório de Sistemas Integravéis of University of São Paulo, Brazil. In
this installation, a human participant approaches a video projection of an opera stage and picks up an electronic baton. Gigio,
a computer-animated opera singer, takes the stage, bows and prepares to sing. As the participant begins to conduct, a MIDI
orchestra plays, following the tempo and amplitude of the conductor’s stroke. Gigio sings along using a singing synthesis
algorithm and dramatizes the scene through actions, facial expressions and gestures which he chooses based on musical characteristics
and score location.
Botanica Virtual
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| Botanica Virtual |
For the SIGGRAPH 96 Digital Bayou, the MRL created "Botanica Virtual."
This room-size installation allowed a single user (wearing a stereoscopic carnival mask) to interact with mysterious bayou
denizens while a larger audience watched on a projection screen. All graphics, behavior, and environmental sound were produced
in real time on Silicon Graphics and Apple computers.
Interacting with Virtual Actors
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| Interacting with Vrtual Actors |
At SIGGRAPH 95 the MRL allowed audiences a number of ways of interacting
with Responsive Animated Characters. Using voice recognition, they could play "Simon Says" with the comical Otto. Motion tracking
made it possible for participants to turn themselves into virtual bats, flapping their arms to fly around a castle inhabited
by interacting Improv characters. The more severe Gregor character from this scene joined Otto, and the Improv system of this
period, to make possible Barbara Hayes-Roth's "Master/Servant Scenarios" at Stanford University.
Danse Interactif
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| Danse Interactif |
This 1994 demonstration, shown in the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre,
marked the initiation of the Improv Project as a major focus of the Media Research Laboratory. Its visual and
musical story is of a dancer, becoming more comfortable and free in her movements, until she breaks the bounds of conventional
movement altogether. It was produced in real time, on a single processor machine.
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