Quick Camera Path Planning for Interactive 3D Environments

We present a simple and efficient planning algorithm for camera motions through a 3D environment. Planning a camera motion consists of two stages: finding a good viewing position for the target object and changing the camera from the current position and viewing direction to the target. In order to be useful in an interactive application, the planning algorithm has to be reasonably fast, in the order of a few seconds. Focusing on a quick planning, however, mandates some trade-offs in the planning process. Nevertheless, the camera motion must never be disturbing or distracting to the viewer. The resulting camera motion should be free of artifacts such as rough corners or even collisions with any scene objects as these would distract the viewer. While certainly fulfilling their communicative purpose and providing a visually pleasing camera motion, the paths generated by our method are not guaranteed to be the best possible paths.