Control of Articulated Figures Animations Using Petri Nets

In this paper we explore the use of Petri Nets as a tool to control the movements of articulated figures in computer animations. This approach permits us to describe the animation sequence by means of the treatment of events present in its execution. An advantage of this method is that the control may be abstracted in different levels, spanning from the definition of the relation among limbs for a single movement to behavioral directives. In addition, our treatment of events hides the mathematical model that describes the movement in fact, allowing the animators to choose the better technique for their applications. In this paper we use an inverse kinematics tool for this purpose. The use of Petri Nets also allows previewing the behavior of the animation before starting any shot.