Improv is a system that allows authors to create believable interactive actors in a virtual world. The actors respond to users and other actors in real-time.

Using a set of two systems, Improv helps the author create the most believable actors as possible. The human author uses the Animation Engine (which uses procedural techniques common in video game design) to dictate the actors’ motions and transitions. Using the Behaviour Engine, the author can set rules for how the actors communicate and make decisions. Improv uses an English scripting language, making is accessible for non-programmers.

At SIGGRAPH 95 the creators of Improv demonstrated an interactive actor named Sam. Sam ‘responded to spoken statements and requests…. In our demonstration, untrained participants could conduct a game of “Simon Says”. Sam would follow requests only if they were preceded by the words “Simon Says”. To make it more interesting we programmed Sam so that sometimes he would also follow requests not preceded by “Simon Says”, but then he would act embarrassed at having been fooled. Our experience was that the sense of psychological involvement by participants was very great and compelling. Participants appeared to completely “buy into” Sam’s presence.’

HD, CB, HF, CE, HFF, CFF

Perlin, K., & Goldberg, A. (1996, August). Improv: A system for scripting interactive actors in virtual worlds. In Proceedings of the 23rd annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques (pp. 205-216). ACM.

1996

Ken Perlin, Athomas Goldberg

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CATEGORIES:
Film/Video/Animation

FLOW OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS:
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