Issues in the automated generation of animated presentations

Much research in computer animation has concentrated on motion planning, ranging from high-level script design to low-level specification of how each character moves. Generating an animated presentation, however, also requires decisions about camera planning, the selection of what material should be shown and how it should be ordered, the maintenance of visual continuity, and viewport selection. If the presentation is to communicate informa,tion coherently, these decisions must be based in part on knowledge about the content domain and about filmmaking techniques. In this paper, we describe some of the principal techniques for generating good animated presentations, and point out some of the issues in developing systems that could apply these techniques automatically. Some of these issues are illustrated with examples made using ESPLANADE (Expert System for PLANning Animation Design and Editing) , a rule-based test bed that we are developing for exploring the automated generation of animated presentations.