Key Frame Animation Made Easy With GraphicMentor

Traditionally the topic of key frame animation has been too complex a topic to be covered in introductory computer graphics courses. The difficulties in including this topic have stemmed from the need for relatively difficult mathematical concepts such as B-spline interpolation in order to generate frames for the animation. In this paper we present improvements to a pedagogical tool called GraphicMentor designed to allow students to visualize the basic concepts of computer graphic. The basic concepts illustrated are the specification and interaction of the camera, light sources, and objects. Our improvements to GraphicMentor include features to help students visualize the mechanics behind key frame animation. We also present a hierarchical modeling system to allow more complex animations to be created and a dynamic module system so that students may write their own code to handle various tasks within the framework GraphicMentor provides.