USE OF HIGH-LEVEL 3-D GRAPHICAL TYPES IN THE MIRA ANIMATION SYSTEM

A good computer graphics and animation language is sought that is not only a structured language but must also provide a way to structured data. By introducing three-dimensional graphical types into Pascal, and by providing the means to define any drawing with them, a powerful, structured computer graphics and animation language was obtained, which however lacks abstraction capability. Primitive abstract graphical data called figures were defined and introduced as a graphical extension of Pascal called Mira-2D. Now abstract data types to describe motion of three-dimensional objects (actor type) and of virtual camera (camera types) are introduced to create Mira-3D. These high-level data types are described and their impact on the computer animation methodology is presented.