Real-Time Character Animation for Computer Games
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2020年北京海淀外国语实验学校初中部高三英语上学期期中考试试卷及参考答案第一部分阅读(共两节,满分40分)第一节(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)阅读下列短文,从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项AStaying-at-home proves to be effective in slowing the spread of the virus, but loneliness can be tough for many. Luckily, in the age of social media, we are never truly alone. And with the extra time spent indoors, artists are stepping up to help us all with the following clubs.Drawing from Distance by Sarah Beth MorganLet’s shine some light during this trying time and encourage social distancing! I’m starting this tomorrow myself — but from what I offer, take whatever you please. No rules! Just have fun!Stayathome Art Club byCarsonEllisHello! I’ll be posting art homework here every weekday morning when I can. They’ll be designed for kids and grownups alike. Here is your first homework: Draw a picture of yourself from the shoulders up. You can follow some useful examples. If you want to share or see other people’s self-picture, use these hashtags: #Stayathomeartclub# QACselfportrait30-Day indoor Art by Danielle KrysaOne month of avoiding crowds? I’m in! I challenge you to use this time inside to make one piece every day from now until mid April. Please join me in playing around with some painting ideas that have been rolling around in my head but haven’t found their way onto paper yet. Stay at home, make art, save someone’s life.DIY from Illustoria MagazineWe have been so inspired to see our community come together to provide easy art projects for families during this stay-at-home-time! DIY is actually a fantastic way tosparkyour imagination without breaking a sweat. A video every day will teach you how to DIY something.1. What do we know about Sarah Beth Morgan?A. She is a strict artist.B. She aims at training more artists.C. She prefers to work at home office.D. She will provide a wide range of choices.2. What are you expected to do if you join Stayathome Art Club?A. Hand in homework every day.B. Share other people’s pictures.C. Draw a picture of yourself.D. Show up in person occasionally.3. What does “spark”in the last paragraph probably mean?A. Set off.B. Set down.C. Set aside.D. Set about.BHundreds of children are being treated for sleep problems in Wales every year. In some cases,babies,infants (婴儿)and teenagers have been admitted to hospital in north Wales alone.The Children’s Sleep Charity said many children were suffering from lack of sleep mainly because of technology use. Public Health Wales said sleep was as important to a child’s health as healthy eating and exercise,and children with poor sleep patterns were more likely to be fat.Statistics obtained (获得) under the Freedom of Information Act by BBC Wales found at least 408 children have been admitted to hospitals across Wales suffering from sleep disorders since March 2013.Children aged between 0 and 4 made up the highest number of inpatients (住院病人),with some newborns being treated for sleep-related problems from the day of birth.Vicki Dawson,who set up the Children’s Sleep Charity (CSC),said sleepless nights were putting both children and parents in anxiety. “Their weight and growth may also be affected as well as their mental health,”she said.Teachers said children showing signs of sleep shortage and tiredness in class were a concern as they couldn’t concentrate for long periods.Psychologist Amy McClelland,of Sleep Wales,saida common problem was that children were “over excited”before bed and that families should get back to basics. “Think 1950s family home. Dinner as a family,read,chat,a film maybe,lights off and then bed. ”She added.4. What’s the mainreason why children are short of sleep?A. Less exercise.B. Eating habits.C. Technology use.D. Sleep patterns.5. Who are the majority of the inpatients with sleep-related disorders?A. Infants.B. Teenagers.C. Teachers.D. Parents.6. What can we infer from what Amy McClelland said?A. Chatting and films make children sleep more.B. It is difficult for children to read before bed.C. Being too excitedis good for sleep habits.D. Relaxation has a bad effect on children.7. What is the best title forthe text?A. Ways to Treat Sleep ProblemsB. Sleep Problems of Welsh ChildrenC. Sleep Habits of Welsh ChildrenD. The Problems of Welsh ChildrenCCanadaIs Our NeighbourCanada and the United States are neighbours.They are on the same land.They share the same long boundary(国界).These two nations are similar in many ways.Canada buys many goods from the United States.Cars and clothes are two examples.The United States also buys goods from Canada.Much of the paper used in the United States comes from Canada.Some of the oilweuse comes from Canada,too.Americans travel toCanadaon holiday.And Canadians often visit the United States.It is easy for the people of one country to go to the other country.Canadians read about the United States in newspapers and magazines.Many Americans watch Canadian baseball and hockey (曲棍球)matches on Sundays.However,there are important differences between theUnited Statesand Canada.The United States has more people.Because the population is smaller,there are more open places in Canada.There is much unused land.This is another important difference.8.Canadabuys from theUnited States.A.oil and paperB.nothingC.many thingsD.everything9.In the first paragraph “we” means ________.A.CanadiansB.AmericansC.ChineseD.students10.The people in theUnited Stateslike Canadian ________.A.baseballB.basketballC.newspapersD.oil11.Which of the following statements is WRONG?A.Canada has less people than theUSA.B.Canada has not used all the land.C.Canada is connected withAmerica.D.Canadians don’t like hockey.DDragon boating is a team sport that has its root in ancient China. The boats are decorated with a dragon head and tail. In recent years cancer survivor groups have got involved in the sport to help make friends and help rebuild their lives.On a recent Saturday morning, a group of 20 women were on a boat in the Anacostia River in Washington DC. They moved their paddles(船桨)in rhythm to the call of a coach. The women belong to the dragon boat team GoPink! DC, which trains weekly. It also races against other breast cancer survivor teams in dragon boat festivals. As a result, GoPink! DC won medals in this Washington dragon boat festival.Lydia Collins joined five years ago after finding out she had breast cancer. “I was diagnosed with breast cancer.I was demoralized because of my illness - I lost all interest in life and wouldn't even get out of bed to eat. But now I love the team spirit. I just love everything about it. It is like a floating support group on the water.”The paddles are breast cancer survivors and their supporters. Annette Rothemel helped establish(建立)the group in 2006. She is a researcher with the National Institutes of Health as well as a breast cancer survivor. “It is sort of an easy entry sport because on the same boat people at different levels can be doing the same sport.” But Ms Rothemel saysdragon boating can be physically demanding, especially for someone who is sick and getting treatment for cancer.“It’s hard but I think you have to challenge yourself in life. This is something I look forward to. I get to be out here with my sisters and supporters that understand what I’m going through and help motivate me. So it makes me stronger and it makes me feel better,” another cancer survivor Rhonda Hartzel said.Annette Rothemel says the cancer survivors feel a sense of sisterhood and share good times when they paddle together. She says both feelings are treasured by the team.12. What do the underline wordsdemoralizedIn para.3 probably mean?A. depressedB. anxiousC. astonishedD. awkward13. What can we know about Lydia Collims from the text?A. she helps establish Go Pink !DCB. she tries to find a cure for the cancerC. she benefits from the dragon boat raceD. she gives up hope because of her illness14. How can the dragon boat race help the cancer survivorsA. forget their tough experiencesB. recover physically and mentallyC. get rid of the pains of their cancerD. enjoy their rest life without sufferings15. What does the text tell us about Annette Rothemel?A. she is an expert in studying the cause of the cancerB. she helps the cancer survivors in financial difficultiesC. she believes there is a healthful result from the dragon boat raceD. she thinks it unwise for the patient to join in the dragon boat race第二节(共5小题;每小题2分,满分10分)阅读下面短文,从短文后的选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
用3Dmax制作逼真的人物角色动画教程Title: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Realistic Character Animation with 3DMaxIntroduction:Creating realistic character animation is a captivating and challenging task. 3DMax, a renowned software in the field of animation, allows artists to bring their characters to life with lifelike movements, expressions, and emotions. In this guide, we will take you through the step-by-step process of using 3DMax to create realistic character animation.I. Preparing the Character Model1. Choose or create a character model: select a 3D character model that suits your project or create a new one from scratch using the modeling tools in 3DMax.2. Rigging the character: rigging refers to creating a skeleton structure inside the character model. Use the bone and rigging tools in 3DMax to place joints and create the skeleton system for your character.3. Skinning the character: assign vertices of the character model to the respective joints of the skeleton. This process will define how the model deforms when the joints move.II. Creating Keyframe Animation1. Planning the animation: before diving into the animation process, plan the poses and movements of your character based on the storyline or desired actions.2. Setting keyframes: keyframes are the primary frames that define the major poses and movements in an animation sequence. Choose significant frames and set key poses of your character using the timeline and animation tools in 3DMax.3. Timing and easing: adjust the timing and transition between keyframes to ensure smooth and natural movements. Use the graph editor in 3DMax to control the speed and ease of transitions between poses.III. Refining the Animation1. Secondary movements: add secondary movements, such as cloth simulation, hair dynamics, or other accessories, to make the animation more visually appealing and realistic.2. Facial expressions and lip-syncing: use morph targets or blend shape methods to create facial expressions. Synchronize the character's lip movements with dialogue or sound by utilizing lip-sync tools in 3DMax.3. Fine-tuning animation details: polish the animation by adjusting minor movements, timing, and transitions between poses. Pay attention to weight shifts, body mechanics, and overall fluidity of the character's movements.IV. Rendering and Finalizing the Animation1. Setting up the scene: create an appropriate environment, lighting, and camera angles for your character animation. Utilize 3DMax's tools and features to enhance the visual quality of the scene.2. Rendering the animation: choose suitable rendering settings based on your project requirements, such as resolution, frame rate, and file format. Use the rendering options in 3DMax to render the final animation frames.3. Post-processing and compositing: import the rendered frames into a video editing software or compositing program to add any necessary effects, color grading, or sound. Ensure the final output meets your desired expectations.4. Exporting and sharing: export the animation in a suitable format for distribution or presentation, such as MP4 or MOV. Be mindful of file size and compatibility with target platforms when sharing the animation.Conclusion:Creating realistic character animation with 3DMax requires a combination of technical skills, artistic creativity, and attention to detail. By following these step-by-stepguidelines, you can embark on an exciting journey of breathing life into your characters and bringing forth captivating animations. Remember, practice, patience, and continuous learning are key to mastering the art of character animation with 3DMax.。
Character Animation角色动画Unity Manual > User Guide > Creating Gameplay > Character AnimationUnity手册> 使用指南> 创建游戏> 角色动画Unity's Animation System allows you to create beautifully animated skinned characters. The Animation System supports animation blending, mixing, additive animations, walk cycle time synchronization, animation layers, control over all aspects of the animation playback (time, speed, blend-weights), mesh skinning with 1, 2 or 4 bones per vertex and finally physically based ragdolls.Unity的动画系统允许你创建漂亮的动画角色.动画系统支持动画合成,混合,添加动画,步调周期时间同步,动画层,控制所有方面的动画回放(时间,速度,混合-偏重),网格面每个三角有1,2或4个骨骼,且完成基本的物理玩偶.There are some best practices for creating a rigged character with optimal performance in Unity. It is recommended that you read about these techniques on the Modeling Optimized Characters page.这里有一些最好的方法创建一个作弊的角色在Unity获得最好的展示.推荐你阅读下Modeling Optimized Characters页面上的教程。
Make an animation using MotionBuilderFeixiang HuangDepartment of Computer Science ,University of Akron, Akron, OH443251.The subject of studyI am in a term project with other classmate. My taskis to evaluate whether we can use MotionBuilder to make animation in a KINECT project.2.Introduction of MotionBuilderReal-Time 3D Character Animation Software! Increase your animation output per artist and create higher quality animation. Autodesk® MotionBuilder® real-time 3D character animation software can make film and game animation pipelines more efficient. You can create, edit, and play back complex character animation in a highly responsive, interactive environment. MotionBuilder is ideal for high-volume animation, virtual cinematography, previsualization, and performance animation. New stereoscopic toolsets enable you to capitalize on current entertainment trends.MotionBuilder supportfor Autodesk® FBX® technology, and Python® scripting capabilities。
2020-2021学年于都县银坑中学高三英语三模试题及参考答案第一部分阅读(共两节,满分40分)第一节(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)阅读下列短文,从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项AIf your Spanish is good enough, many Spanish gossip magazines being published around the world will provide entertainment and, at the same time, help you practice your language.Diez Minutos: The magazine is a classic Spanish gossip feast with dailynews based on many stories of love, separation, divorce and death. The two main parts are headlined "love" and "partners". They also have an online version of the magazine for serious gossip addicts.Hola: It isSpain's top weekly magazine and the leader of the gossip world. It contains many pictures and a round-up of well-known and less well-known nobles and people in show business. Apart from edited highlights from the present and past issues, there is a report of the week and photo of the week. There is also a French version called OhLa!Revista CUORE: As the third best-selling gossip magazine inSpain, it is mainly aimed at younger teenage readers who look not only for current celebrity gossip, but also for fashion and TV news. It uses a lot of oral terms.Revista SEMANA: It is a Spanish magazine covering the latest news on the famous inSpainandHollywood. It also offers its readers information on fashion, beauty, cooking and travel.Marujeo: It is a blog serving up a daily diet of national gossip news on Spanish and international celebrities and the celebrity world from a particular point of view.Revista CARAS: It is a magazine published in various countries ofLatin America. It is also exported to certain parts of theUnited States, bringing together strange and wonderful news from around the world and the famous Latin community.1.Which magazine is also published in French?A.MarujeoB.Revista SEMANA.C.Revista CARAS.D.Hola.2.How many of the magazines mentioned in the text can be read on the Internet?A.Four.B.Three.C.Two.D.One.3.What can be learned from the passage?A.Diez Minutos presents its readers weekly picturesB.Revista CUORE can help improve one's spoken Spanish.C.Revista SEMANA is intended for readers in teensD.Revista CARAS mainly reports news fromLatin America.BDisease-carrying mosquitoes can spread diseases without affecting themselves. Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year, which results in over one million deaths. Humans experience continuous pressures from disease-carrying mosquitoes in many parts of the world, so we have to find ways to fight against those insects because they keep getting scarier.Even though DEET remains the most commonly used, and most powerful, mosquito repellent ever developed, scientists are actively pursuing effective products based entirely on plant oils. While DEET is an effective contact repellent, many people dislike the oily feel and smell on their skin, and sometimes some people are sensitive to it. Consumers are always interested in alternatives to DEET and other synthetic repellents, so there are numerous natural repellents on the market.In his lab atIowaStateUniversity, Dr. Joel Coats and his team have successfully tested these repellents against three species of dangerous mosquitoes. The first group of the new repellents act through the air. These chemicals have a vapor action that provides protection, and they are called “spatial” repellents, since they act through space. These are potentially most useful in backyards, parks, and houses. The other group are the classic ones that stop insects from standing on a treated surface, such as human skin, clothing or tents; collaborators at the USDA-ARS and BioGents have conducted testing with humans to confirm the effectiveness and identify the very best ones.The new repellents were designed and made from the natural materials in plant essential oils. They maintain many of the advantages of the natural repellents: They are fully biodegradable, with no ecological concerns or environmental wastes, and generally considered safe like the thousands of types of plant essential oils used in the flavor and perfume industries. However, thorough testing will be conducted to determine if they are truly non-poisonous because there is still no enough evidence.4. What does the author mainly want to show in paragraph 1?A. The way mosquitoes spread disease.B. The high death rate of mosquito-borne illness.C. The difficulty of fighting disease-carrying mosquitoes.D. The urgency of finding tools to fight against mosquitoes.5. What is a disadvantage of DEET?A. It won’t be effective for long.B. It can’t be applied universally.C. It causes discomfort to the users.D. It greatly harms people’s health.6. What can we learn about the second group of the new repellents?A. They can kill mosquitoes indirectly.B. They are mainly used in the open air.C. They are more effective on human skin.D. They can prevent mosquitoes from contacting users.7. What’s the author’s attitude to the new repellents?A. Subjective.B. Objective.C. Doubtful.D. Disapproving.COne billion people in the world are short of water. How can this problem be solved. Some suggestions have been to desalinate ocean water or to build enormous water pipelines from areas where water is abundant. (Suggestions such as these prove extremely expensive when they are actually used.) One possibility that scientists are considering is pulling icebergs from either the North Pole or the South Pole to parts of the world with a water shortage. Although many questions must be answered before such a project could be tried, moving icebergs seems a reasonable possibility in the future.Engineers, mathematicians, and glaciologists from a dozen countries have been considering the iceberg as a future source of water. Saudi Arabia is particularly interested in this project because it has a great water shortage. Scientists estimate that it would take 128 days to transport a large iceberg (about 1/2 square mile) to Saudi Arabia. Yet the iceberg would be completely melted by the 104th day. Therefore, insulation would be essential, but how to insulate the iceberg remains an unsolved problem.The problems in transporting an iceberg are numerous. The first problem is choosing the iceberg to pull. The icebergs that form in the North Pole are quite difficult to handle because of their shape. Only a small portion extends above the water — most of the iceberg is below the surface, which would make it difficult to pull. South Pole icebergs, on the other hand, are flat and float like table tops. Thus they would be much easier to move.How can a 200-million-ton iceberg be moved. No ship is strong enough to pull such enormous weight through the water. Perhaps several ships could be used. Attaching ropes to an iceberg this size is also an enormous problem. Engineers think that large nails or long metal rods could be driven into the ice. What would happen if the iceberg splits into several pieces during the pulling. Even if an iceberg with very few cracks were chosen, howcould it be pulled through stormy waters. Furthermore, once the iceberg reached its destination, very few ports would be deep enough to store it.All of these problems must be solved before icebergs can become a reasonable source of water. Yet scientists estimate that it will be possible to transport them in the near future. Each year, enough icebergs form to supply the whole world with fresh water for a full year. In addition, icebergs are free and nonpolluting. As a solution to the world’s water problems, icebergs may be a workable possibility.8. What is a problem in transporting iceberg?A. The size of the iceberg.B. The colour of the iceberg.C. The salt in the iceberg.D. The movement of air and water.9. What is the author’ attitude towards transporting iceberg?A. Pessimistic.B. Objective.C. Optimistic.D. Unconcerned.10. What does the last paragraph mainly tell us?A. It is hard to use iceberg.B. Iceberg are a good choice.C. There are problems with iceberg.D. Man finds no other ways to solve water shortage.11. What can be a suitable title for the text?A. Shortage of water.B. Icebergs for water.C. Scientists and icebergs.D. Iceberg—scientists headache.DTo stay healthy and fit, Chinesestudents do group exercises every day at school. Most of you probably do the same set of exercises. But some school exercises have grown popular online due to their local and innovative designs.Singing in Sichuan dialects with energetic movements and unique mask-changing is not just a Sichuan Opera performance. It’s the routine exercise for students of Mianyang Foreign Languages Experimental School in Sichuan province.“Sichuan Opera is a local opera, and it is now facing a gap in inheritance (传承). Therefore, we cooperated with Mianyang Intangible Cultural Heritage Center to create a simple and easy-to-learn Sichuan Opera exercise,” said Shen Junhua, who is in charge of organizing the school’s exercise between classes.According to Shen, this new type of exercise has been practiced since 2017 and has been popular among students. When students enroll (入学), they will spend several weeks practicing it. At present, almost all of the students and teachers have mastered it.“In fact, we had hardly heard of Sichuan Opera before teachers taught us how to do the Sichuan Opera exercise,” said Li Yangwenwen, 14, an eighth grade student who also joined the school’s Sichuan Opera club out of interest. “It’s very different from normal exercises. After practicing it, we found it very beautiful and became interested in it. Now, almost all of the students look forward to our daily exercise time and feel excited to do it.”“By combining opera with daily exercise, the daily class activity allows students to perceive and understand Sichuan Opera’s culture”, Shen said. “After years of continuous effort to spread the seeds of traditional culture, the younger generation is finally catching on.”12. What do students in Shen’s school do during the group exercise?A. They do normal exercise .B. They sing pop songs in Sichuan dialects.C. They do mask-changing in a Sichuan Opera performance.D. They combine group exercise with Sichuan Opera.13. Why do they adopt the new type of exercise?A. To attract new students to the school.B. To inherit local culture.C. To create an easy-to-learn exercise.D. To make the school’s group exercise popular.14. How do teachers and students react to the group exercise?A. Calm.B. Indifferent.C. Enthusiastic.D. Uninterested.15. What can we learn from the last paragraph?A. Shen’s continuous effort is highly praised.B. The younger generation will have a stronger body.C. The students can better understand their local culture.D. Students help to spread the seeds of traditional culture toyounger generation.第二节(共5小题;每小题2分,满分10分)阅读下面短文,从短文后的选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
2020-2021学年南安市东田中学高三英语上学期期末考试试卷及参考答案第一部分阅读(共两节,满分40分)第一节(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)阅读下列短文,从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项ARed Tourism Sites inShanghaiThis year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Many Chinese people are planning to visit red tourism attractions in the coming summer vacation. The following are some red tourism sites inShanghai.Former Site of the Editorial Department ofNew YouthRevolutionary magazineNew Youth,which created the New Culture Movement and spread the influence of the May Fourth Movement, was established by Chen Duxiu inShanghaiin 1915. The editorial office moved toBeijingin 1917 when Chen Duxiu was head of liberal arts atPekingUniversitybut moved back toShanghaithree years later.Address: No. 2,100 Nanchang Road, Huangpu districtFormer Residence of Chen WangdaoThis three-story building was the home of famous scholar and educator Chen Wangdao. In 1920, Chen completed the first Chinese translation ofThe Communist Manifesto(共产党宣言). He also served as President of Fudan University from 1952 to 1977.Address:51 Guofu Road, Yangpu districtHuangpu Wharf (码头)HuangpuWharfin Yangpu district was the place for about 650 Chinese students who headed toFrancefrom March 1919 to December 1920 to further their studies. They included Zhou Enlai, later the first premier of thePeopledRepublicofChina, and Deng Xiaoping, later the leader of the PRC.Address:32 Qinhuangdao Road, Yangpu districtThe Memorial of the Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party ofChinaThe two-story building was completed in 1920 as the residence of CPC founding member Li Hanjun. On July 23, 1921, thirteen members held their first national congress of the Communist Party of China here, marking the birth of the Party.Address:76 Xingye Road, Huangpu district1. When did the editorial office ofNew Youthreturn toShanghai?A. In 1915.B. In 1919.C. In 1920D. In 1921.2. What do we know about Chen Wangdao according to the text?A. He established theNew Youthmagazine.B. He first translatedThe Communist Manifestointo Chinese.C. He went toFrancefor further study.D. He held the first national congress of the CPC.3. Which site was the birthplace of the Communist Party of China?A. Former Site of the Editorial Department, of New Youth.B. Former Residence of Chen Wangdao.C.HuangpuWharf.D. The Memorial of the Site of the First National Congress of the CPC.BJack was born without eyes. He was very lucky as he grew up having other kittens (young cats) to socialize (交往)with, and was used to people from the moment he was born. However, when it came time to find the kittens homes, no one knew where Jack would end up.That’s when I got an e-mail from my friend. All she asked was “Do you still want one of the kittens? There’s one here with no eyes and no one would like to take him”. Without thinking I told her that I did want the kitten.When we first brought him home, Jack stayed mostly in my room. After about a day he had noissues running around and climbing on everything. At times he gets lost in the house, he’ll stop. But we just call his name and talk to him and it isn’t long before he finds his way back to us.A few weeks after getting Jack, we got a new cat named Bear. Jack and Bear have become best friends. It doesn’t matter that he can’t see. He always knows when Bear is around. He’ll run across the yard straight to Bear and wrap his front legs around his neck in a big hug. They run after each other around and wrestle (摔跤). They’ll lie down in the grass together when tired.Jack is truly an inspiration. I’ve owned lots of kittens in my life, but Jack is the happiest and most playful. Hedoesn’t feel sorry for himself. He doesn’t need pity. I think Jean, owner of Gumbo, another eyeless cat, said it best when she told me that cats don’t have disabilities; they have adaptability.4. Why did Jack come to the author’s home?A. The author cared for an eyeless cat.B. The author didn’t mind whether he was blind.C. No other young cats kept him company.D. The author’s friend begged the author to take him home.5. Which of the following statements is TRUE?A. Jack often wrestles with Bear indoors.B. Jack likes to play with a new eyeless cat.C. Jack quickly adapts to the new environment.D. Jack is good at talking and playing with people.6. What does the underlined word “issue” in Paragraph 3 mean?A. Trouble.B. Fun.C. Luck.D. Business.7. What does the passage mainly tell us?A. A cat has nine lives.B. All is well that ends well.C. God helps those who help themselves.D. A good beginning makes a good ending.CIn this day and age, there seems to be a move towards secondary school subjects. For that reason, some parents and some students feel that the compulsory study of English literature is misguided and disadvantageous to students, particularly if they are second language learners of English. However, there are still good reasons for the study of English literature.Students of English language sometimes fail to see the point of studying English literature,especially if they have no plans to study English or translation at university. But English literature can introduce students to a range of aspects, not only of the English language but also the culture of English-speaking countries.There are aspects of English culture that are summarised by English literature. Of course, this is quite obvious when studying the works of Shakespeare or of writers, poets and playwrights of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is, however, also true when studying other works of English literature. Students can learn about good stories and references to different aspects of English culture. They can also learn the context and meanings of famous quotes and phrases.Studying literature does not confine the students to the traditions ofEnglandbut includes the possibility of introducing them to traditions which inform English literature, such as the study of Ancient Greek drama, and to literature in other contexts, such as American literature.An enjoyment and appreciation of literature will give students the ability to develop this into an interest in books and reading as they move away from their studies and into the adult lives. They will have the confidence to approach and cope with new forms of books and writing, since they were exposed to a range of literature during their school days.When studying literature, students can learn not only language aspects such as vocabulary items but also the language aspects which can be used for specific purposes. For example, if the students are familiar with the concepts of beat and rhythm of English poems, they can improve their own writing as they are able to appreciate and apply these ideas.Finally, the study of literature can provide students with a fresh and creative angle, from which the students can approach their studies in particular and their lives in general.So the next time you are reading a newspaper article complaining of the lack of creativity and initiative in the local workforce, remember that in a small way the study of English literature can help to add a refreshing and further dimension to a person’s life.8. The author may agree that the study of English literature________.A. has a long-lasting influence on studentsB. is misguided and has more disadvantagesC. is not necessary for second language learnersD. only allows the students to learn the traditions ofEngland9. We can learn from the passage that ________.A.schools fail to care about students’ needsB. learning English literature makes students smarterC. English culture is closely related to English literatureD. the more you read literary works, the more you complain10. What’s the author’s attitude towards the study of English literature?A. Critical.B. Cautious.C. Supportive.D. Anxious.11. What’s the best title of the passage?A. Parents and Students’ DemandsB. Why We Learn English LiteratureC. English Culture and English LiteratureD. Suitable Courses for Secondary SchoolsDYou run into the grocery store to quickly pick up your item. You grab what you need and head to the front of the store. After quickly sizing up the check-out lines, you choose the one that looks fastest. You chose wrong. People getting in other lines long after you have already checked out and headed to the parking lot. Why does this seem to always happen to you?Well, as it turns out, it's just math that is working against you. A grocery store tries to have enough employees at the checkout lines to get all their customers through with minimum delay. But sometimes, like on a Sunday afternoon, they get super busy. Because most grocery stores don't have the physical space to add more checkout lines, their system becomes overburdened. Some small interruption — a price check, a particularly talkative customer — will have downstream effects, holding up the entire line behind them.If there are three lines at the store, these delays will happen randomly at different registers (收银台). Think about the probability. The chances of your line being that fastest one are only one in three, which means you have a two-thirds chance of not being in the fastest line. So it's not just in your mind: Another line is probably moving faster thanyours.Now, mathematicians have come up with a good solution, which they call queuing theory, to this problem: Just make all customers stand in one long snaking line, called a serpentine line, and serve each person at the front with the next available register. With three registers, this method is about three times faster on average than the more traditional approach. This is what they do at most banks, Trader Joe's, and some fast-food places. With a serpentine line, a long delay at one register won't unfairly punish the people who lined up behind it. Instead, it will slow everyone down a little bit.12. What phenomenon is described in the first paragraph?A. Queuing in a line.B. A shopping experience.C. A rush in the morning.D. Cutting in a line.13. According to the article, what may cause delays in checking out?A. The lack of employees in the grocery store.B. Some unexpected delays of certain customers.C. The increasing items bought by customers.D. A worsening shopping system of the store.14. What is the solution given by mathematicians?A. Employing more workers for checking out.B. Limiting the number of queuing people.C. Making only one line available.D. Always standing in the same line.15. What's the principle behind the queuing theory?A. To pursue the maximum benefit.B. To leave success or failure to luck.C. To avoid the minimum loss.D. To spread the risk equally among everyone.第二节(共5小题;每小题2分,满分10分)阅读下面短文,从短文后的选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
COMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDSComp.Anim.Virtual Worlds 2004;15:95–108(DOI:10.1002/cav.8)******************************************************************************************************Fast and learnable behavioral andcognitive modeling for virtual character animationBy Jonathan Dinerstein*,Parris K.Egbert,Hugo de Garis and Nelson Dinerstein************************************************************************************Behavioral and cognitive modeling for virtual characters is a promising field.It significantly reduces the workload on the animator,allowing characters to act autonomously in abelievable fashion.It also makes interactivity between humans and virtual characters more practical than ever before.In this paper we present a novel technique where an artificial neural network is used to approximate a cognitive model.This allows us to execute the model much more quickly,making cognitively empowered characters more practical for interactive applications.Through this approach,we can animate several thousand intelligent characters in real time on a PC.We also present a novel technique for how a virtual character,instead of using an explicit model supplied by the user,can automatically learn an unknown behavioral/cognitive model by itself through reinforcement learning.The ability to learn without an explicit model appears promising for helping behavioral and cognitive modeling become more broadly accepted and used in the computer graphics community,as it can further reduce the workload on the animator.Further,it provides solutions for problems that cannot easily be modeled explicitly.Copyright #2004John Wiley &Sons,Ltd.Received:May 2003;Revised:September 2003KEY WORDS :computer animation;synthetic characters;behavioral modeling;cognitivemodeling;machine learning;reinforcement learningIntroductionVirtual characters are an important part of computer graphics.These characters have taken forms such as synthetic humans,animals,mythological creatures,and non-organic objects that exhibit lifelike properties (walking lamps,etc).Their uses include entertainment,training,and simulation.As computing and rendering power continue to increase,virtual characters will only become more commonplace and important.One of the fundamental challenges involved in using virtual characters is animating them.It can often be difficult and time consuming to explicitly define all aspects of the behavior and animation of a complex virtual character.Further,the desired behavior may be impossible to define ahead of time if the character’s virtual world changes in unexpected or diverse ways.For these reasons,it is desirable to make virtual char-acters as autonomous and intelligent as possible while still maintaining animator control over their high-level goals.This can be accomplished with a behavioral model :an executable model defining how the character should react to stimuli from its environment.Alternatively,we can use a cognitive model :an executable model of the character’s thought process.A behavioral model is reactive (i.e.,seeks to fulfill immediate goals),whereas a cognitive model seeks to accomplish long-term goals through planning :a search for what actions should be performed in what order to reach a goal state.Thus a cognitive model is generally considered more powerful than a behavioral one,but can require significantly more processing power.As can be seen,behavioral and cognitive modeling have unique strengths and weak-nesses,and each has proven to be very useful for virtual character animation.However,despite the success of these techniques in certain domains,some important arguments have been brought against current behavioral and cognitive mod-eling systems for autonomous characters in computer graphics.******************************************************************************************************Copyright #2004John Wiley &Sons,Ltd.*Correspondence to:Jonathan Dinerstein,Brigham Young University,3366TMCB,Provo,UT 84602,USA.E-mail:jondinerstein@First,cognitive models are traditionally very slow to execute,as a tree search must be performed to formulate a plan.This speed bottleneck requires the character to make suboptimal decisions and limits the number of virtual characters that can be used simultaneously in real time.Also,since a search of all candidate actions throughout time is performed,it is necessary to use only a small set of candidate actions(which is not practical for all problems,especially those with continuous action spaces).Note that behavioral models are currently more popular than cognitive models,partially because they are usually significantly faster to execute.Second,for some problems,it can be very difficult and time consuming to construct explicit behavioral or cog-nitive models(this is known as the curse of modeling in the artificial intelligencefield).For example,it is not uncommon for behavioral/cognitive models to require weeks to design and program.Therefore,it would be extremely beneficial to have virtual characters be able to automatically learn behavioral and cognitive models if possible,alleviating the animator of this task.In this paper,we present two novel techniques.In the first technique,an artificial neural network is used to approximate a cognitive model.This allows us to exe-cute our cognitive model much more quickly,making intelligent characters more practical for interactive ap-plications.Through this approach,we can animate several thousand intelligent characters in real time on a PC.Further,this approach allows us to use optimal plans rather than suboptimal plans.The second technique we introduce allows a virtual character to automatically learn an unknown behavioral or cognitive model through reinforcement learning.The ability to learn without an explicit model appears pro-mising for helping behavioral and cognitive modeling become more broadly used in the computer graphics community,as this can further reduce the workload on the animator.Further,it provides solutions for problems that cannot easily be modeled explicitly.In summary,this paper presents the following origi-nal contributions:*a novel technique for fast execution of a cognitivemodel using neural network approximation;*a novel technique for a virtual character to auto-matically learn an approximate behavioral or cogni-tive model by itself(we call this offline character learning).We present each of these techniques in turn.We begin by surveying related work.We then give a brief introduction to cognitive modeling(as it is less well known than behavioral modeling)and neural networks.Next we present our technique for using neural networks to ra-pidly approximate cognitive models.We then give a brief introduction to reinforcement learning,and then present our technique for offline character learning.Next we present our experience with several experimental appli-cations and the lessons learned.Finally,we conclude with a summary and possible directions for future work.Related W orkPrevious computer graphics research in the area of autonomous virtual characters includes automatic gen-eration of motion primitives.1–7This is useful for redu-cing the work required by animators.More recently, Faloutsos et al.8present a technique for learning the preconditions from which a given specialist controller can succeed at its task,thus allowing them to be combined into a general-purpose motor system for physically based animated characters.Note that these approaches to motor learning focus on learning how to move to minimize a cost function(such as the energy used). Therefore,these techniques do not embody the virtual characters with any decision-making abilities.However, these techniques can be used in a complementary way with behavioral/cognitive modeling in a multilevel animation system.In other words,a behavioral/cogni-tive model makes a high-level decision for the character (e.g.,‘walk left’),which is then carried out by a lower-level animation system(e.g.,skeletal animation).A great deal of research has also been performed in control of animated autonomous characters.9–12These techniques have produced impressive results,but are limited in two aspects.First,they have no ability to learn,and therefore are limited to explicit prespecified behavior.Secondly,they only perform behavioral con-trol,not cognitive control(where behavioral means re-active decision making and cognitive means reasoning and planning to accomplish long-term tasks).Online behavioral learning has only begun to be explored in computer graphics.13–15A notable example is Blumberg et al.,16where a virtual dog can be interactively taught by the user to exhibit desired behavior.This technique is based on reinforcement learning and has been shown to work extremely well.However,it has no support for long-term reasoning to accomplish complex tasks.Also, since these learning techniques are all designed to be used online,they are(for the sake of interactive speed) limited in terms of how much they can learn.To endow virtual characters with long-term reason-ing,cognitive modeling for computer graphicswasJ.DINERSTEIN ET AL.************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Copyright#2004John Wiley&Sons,Ltd.96Comp.Anim.Virtual Worlds2004;15:95–108recently introduced.17Cognitive modeling can provide a virtual character with enough intelligence to automa-tically perform long-term,complex tasks in a believable manner.The techniques we present in this paper build on the successes of traditional behavioral and cognitive modeling with the goal of alleviating two important weaknesses:performance of cognitive models,and time-consuming construction of explicit behavioral and cognitive models.We will first present our technique for speeding up cognitive model execution through approx-imation.We will briefly review cognitive modeling and neural networks,and then present our new technique.Introduction to Cognitive ModelingCognitive modeling 17–20is closely related to behavioral modeling,but is less well known,so we now provide a brief introduction.A cognitive model defines what a character knows,how that knowledge is acquired,and how it can be used to plan actions.The traditional approach to cognitive modeling is a symbolic approach.It uses a type of first-order logic known as ‘the situation calculus’,wherein the virtual world is seen as a se-quence of situations,each of which is a ‘snapshot’of the state of the world.The most important component of a cognitive model is planning.Planning is the task of formulating a se-quence of actions that are expected to achieve a goal.Planning is performed through a tree search of all candidate actions throughout time (see Figure 1).How-ever,it is usually cost prohibitive to plan all the way to the goal state.Therefore,any given plan is usually only a partial path to the goal state,with new partial plans formulated later on.The animator has high-level control over the virtual character since she can supply it with a goal state.Note that to achieve real-time performance it is necessary to have the goal hard-coded into the cognitive model.This is because it is necessary to implement custom heuristics to speed up the tree search for planning (for further details see Funge et al.17).Therefore,either an animator and programmer must collaborate,or the programmer must also be the animator.This traditional symbolic approach to cognitive model-ing has many important strengths.It is explicit,has formal semantics,and is both human readable and executable.It also has a firm mathematical foundation and is well established in Al theory.However,it also has somesignificant weaknesses with respect to application in computer graphics animation.Since planning is per-formed through a tree search,and the branching factor is the number of actions to consider,the set of candidate actions must be kept very small if real-time performance is to be achieved.Also,to keep real-time performance,we are limited to short (suboptimal)plans.Another performance problem that is unique to computer graphics is the fact that the user may want to have many intelligent virtual characters interacting in real time.In most situa-tions,on a commodity PC,this is impossible to achieve with the traditional symbolic approach to planning.An-other limitation is that it is not possible to have a virtual character automatically learn a cognitive model by itself (which could further reduce the workload on the anima-tor,and provide solutions to very difficult problems).Introduction to Artif|cialNeural NetworksNote that there are many machine learning techniques,many of which could be used to approximate an explicit cognitive model.However,we have chosen to use neural networks because they are both compact and computationally efficient.In this section we briefly review a common type of artificial neural network.22A more thorough introduction can be found in Grzeszczuk et al.5There are many libraries and applications publicly available*(free and commercial)for constructing and executing artificial neuralnets.Figure 1.Planning is performed with a tree search of all candidate actions throughout time.To perform planning in real time without dedicated hardware,it is usually necessary to greatly limit the number of candidate actions and to onlyformulate short (suboptimal)plans.*For example,SNNS (rmatik.uni-tuebingen.de/pub/SNNS)and Xerion (/pub/xerion).FAST AND LEARNABLE BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE MODELING************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************Copyright #2004John Wiley &Sons,Ltd.97Comp.Anim.Virtual Worlds 2004;15:95–108A neuron can be modeled as a mathematical operator that maps R p !R .Consider Figure 2(a).Neuron j re-ceives p input signals (denoted s i ).These signals are scaled by associated connection weights w ij .The neuron sums its input signalsz j ¼w 0j þX p i ¼1s i w ij ¼u Áw jwhere u ¼½1;s 1;s 2;...;s p is the input vector and w j ¼½w 0j ;w 1j ;...;w pj is the connection weight vector.The neuron outputs a signal s j ¼g ðz j Þ,where g is an activation function:s j ¼g ðz j Þ¼1=ð1þe Àz j ÞA feedforward artificial neural network (see Figure 2b),also known simply as a neural net,is a set of interconnected neurons organized in yer l receives inputs only from the neurons of layer l À1.The first layer of neurons is the input layer and the last layer is the output layer .The intermediate layers are called hidden layers .Note that the input layer has no functionality,as its neurons are simply ‘containers’for the network inputs.A neural network ‘learns’by adjusting its connection weights such that it can perform a desired computa-tional task.This involves considering input–output ex-amples of the desired functionality (or target function ).The standard approach to training a neural net is the backpropagation training algorithm.23Note that it has been proven that neural networks are universal function approximators (see Hornik et al.24).An alternative approach that we considered was to use the continuous k-nearest neighbor algorithm.21Unlike neural nets,k -nearest neighbor provides a local approx-imation of the target function,and can be used auto-matically without the user carefully selecting inputs.Also,k -nearest neighbor is guaranteed to correctly re-produce the examples that it has been provided (whereas no such guarantee exists with neural nets).However,k -nearest neighbor requires the explicit sto-rage of many examples of the target function.Becauseof this storage issue,we opted to use a neural net approach.Fast Animation Using Neural Network Approximation ofCognitive ModelsThe novel technique we now present is analogous to how a human becomes an expert at a task.As an example,let’s consider typing on a computer keyboard.When a person first learns how to type,she must search the keyboard with her eyes to find every key she wishes to press.However,after enough experience,she learns (i.e.,memorizes)where the keys are.Thereafter,she can type more quickly,only having to recall where the keys are.There is a strong parallel between this example and all other tasks humans perform.After enough experi-ence we no longer have to implicitly ‘plan’or ‘search’for our actions;we simply recall what to do.In our technique,we use a neural net to learn (i.e.,memorize)the decisions made through planning by a cognitive model to achieve a goal.Thereafter,we can quickly recall these decisions by executing the trained neural net.Training is done offline and then the trained network is used online.Thus,we can achieve intelligent virtual characters in real time using very few CPU cycles.We now present our technique in detail,first discuss-ing the structure of our technique,followed by how to train the neural network,and then finally how to use the trained network in practice.StructureA cognitive model with a goal defines a policy .A policy specifies what action to perform for a given state.A policy is formulated asa ¼ ðiÞFigure 2.(a)Mathematical model of a neuron j.(b)A three-layer feedforward neural network of p inputs and q outputs.J.DINERSTEIN ET AL.************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************Copyright #2004John Wiley &Sons,Ltd.98Comp.Anim.Virtual Worlds 2004;15:95–108where i is the current state and a is the action to perform.This is a non-context-sensitive formulation,which cov-ers most cognitive models.However,if desired,context information can also be supplied as input (e.g.,the last n actions can be input).We train our feed-forward neural net to approximate a specific policy .We denote theneural net approximation of the policy ^(see Figure 3a).Note that the current state (network input)and action (output)will likely be vector-valued for non-trivial virtual worlds and characters.Further,a logical selec-tion and organization of the input and output compo-nents can help make the target function as smooth as possible (and therefore easier to approximate).Selecting network inputs will be discussed in more detail later.Also note that the input should be normalized and the output denormalized for use.Specifically,the normal-ized input components should have zero means and unit variances,and the normalized output components should have 0.5means and be in the range [0.1,0.9].This ensures that all inputs contribute equivalently,and that the output is in a range the neural net’s activation function can produce.An important question is how many hidden layers (and how many neurons in each of those hidden layers)we need to use in a neural net to achieve a good approximation of a policy.This is important because we want a reasonable approximation,but we also want the neural net to be as fast to execute as possible (i.e.,there is a speed/quality trade-off).We have found that,at minimum,it is best to use one hidden layer with the same number of neurons as there are inputs.If a higher-quality approximation is desired,then it is useful to use two hidden layers,the first with 2p þ1neurons (where p is the number of inputs),and the second with 2q þ1neurons (where q is the number of outputs).We have found that any more layers and/or neurons than this usually provides little benefit.Note that the state and action spaces can be contin-uous or discrete,as all processing in a neural network is real-valued.If discrete outputs are desired,the real-valued outputs of the network should simply be quan-tized to predefined discrete values.Even though cognitive models (i.e.,policies)produce good animations in most cases,there are some cases in which they can appear too predictable.This is due to the fact that cognitive models are fundamentally determi-nistic (mapping states to actions).We now introduce an alternative form of our technique that addresses this problem.First note that,in some cases,it may be interesting to not always perform the same action for a given state (even if that action is most desirable).Occa-sional slight randomness in the decision making of an intelligent virtual character,performed in the right manner,can dramatically improve the aesthetic quality of an animation when predictability cannot be tolerated.However,it is not enough to simply choose actions at random,as this makes the virtual character appear very unintelligent.Instead,we do this in a much more believable fashion with a modification of the structure of our technique (see Figure 3b).We formulate it as a priority function :priority ¼P ði ;a ÞThe priority function represents the value of performing any given action a from the current state i under a policy .The priority can simply be an ordering of the best action to the worst,or can represent actual value in-formation (i.e.,how much an action helps the character reach a goal state).Using a priority function allows us to query for the best action at any given state,but also lets us choose an alternative action if desired (with knowl-edge of that action’s cost).For example,by using the known priorities of all candidate actions from the cur-rent state,we can select an action probabilistically.Thus our virtual character is able to make intelligent,but non-deterministic,decisions for all situations.However,note that while this non-deterministic technique is useful,we focus on standard policies in this paper.This is because they are simpler,faster,and correspond to the standard approach to cognitive modeling (i.e.,always using the best possible action in a given state).T raining the Neural NetworkWe train the neural net using the backpropagation algorithm with examples of the cognitive model’s deci-sions (i.e.,policy).A naive approach is to randomly select many examples of the entire state space.However,this is wasteful because we are usually only interested in a small portion of the state space.This is because,asaFigure 3.(a)Neural net approximation of a policy .Thenetwork input is the current state,the output is the action to perform.T and T À normalize the input and denormalize the output,respectively.(b)Neural net approximation of apriority function.FAST AND LEARNABLE BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE MODELING************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************Copyright #2004John Wiley &Sons,Ltd.99Comp.Anim.Virtual Worlds 2004;15:95–108character makes intelligent decisions,it willfind itself traversing into only a subset of all possible states.As an example,consider a sheepdog that is herding a flock of sheep.It is illogical for the dog to become afraid of the sheep and run away.It is equally illogical for the sheep to herd the dog.Therefore,such states should never be experienced in practice.We have found that by ignoring uninteresting states the neural net’s training can focus on more important states,resulting in a higher-quality approximation.However,for the sake of robustness,it may be desirable to also use a few randomly selected states that we never expect to en-counter(to ensure that the neural net has at least seen a coarse sampling of the entire state space).To focus on the subset of the state space of interest,we generate examples by running many animations with the cognitive model.At each iteration of an animation,we have a current state and the action decided upon,which are stored for later use as training examples.We have found that using a large number of examples is best to achieve a well-generalized trained network.Specifically, we prefer to use between5000and20,000examples.Note that this is far more than is normally used when training neural nets,but we found that the use of so many examples helps to ensure that all interesting states are visited at least once(or at least a very similar state is visited).Finally,note that if a small time step is used between actions,it may be desirable to keep only an even subsampling of the examples generated through anima-tion.This is because,with a small time step,it is likely that little state change will occur with each step and therefore temporally adjacent examples may be virtually identical. We used a backpropagation learning rate of ffi0.1 and momentum of ffi0.4in all our experiments.Train-ing a neural net took about15minutes on average using a1.7GHz PC.In all of our experiments,an appropriate selection of inputs to the neural net resulted in a good approximation of a cognitive model.Choosing Salient V ariables and Features Training a neural network is not a conceptually difficult task.All that is required is to supply the backpropaga-tion algorithm with examples of the desired behavior we want the network to exhibit.However,there is one well-known challenge that we need to discuss:selecting network inputs.This is critical as too many inputs can make a neural net computationally infeasible.Also,a poor choice of inputs can be incomplete or may define a mapping that is too rough for a neural net to approx-imate well.General tips for input selection can be found in Haykin,22so we only briefly mention key points and focus our current discussion on lessons we have learned specific to approximation of cognitive models.The inputs should be salient variables(no constants), which have a strong impact in determining the answer of the function.Further,if possible,features should be used.Features are transformations or combinations of state variables.This is useful not only for reducing the total number of inputs but also for making the input–output mapping smoother.Through experience,we have discovered some useful features that we now present. When approximating cognitive models,many of the potential inputs represent raw3D geometry information (position,orientation,etc).We have found that it is very important to make all inputs rotation and translation invariant if possible.Specifically,we have found it very useful to transform all inputs so that they are relative to the local coordinate system of the virtual character.That is,rather than considering the origin to be at somefixed point in space,transform the world such that the origin is with respect to the virtual character.This not only makes it unnecessary to input the character’s current position and orientation,but also makes the mapping smoother.We have also found it useful,in some cases,to separate critical information into distinct inputs.For example,if a cognitive model relies on knowing the direction and distance to an object in its virtual world, this information could be presented as a scaled vector (dx,dy,dz).However,we have found that in many cases it is better to present this information as a normalized vector with distance(x,y,z,d),as the decision-making may be dramatically different depending on the dis-tance.In other words,if a piece of information is very important to the decision-making of a cognitive model, the mapping will likely be more smooth if that infor-mation is presented as a separate input to the neural net.Thus we need to balance the desire to keep the number of inputs low with clearly presenting all salient information.Finally,note that choosing good inputs sometimes requires experimentation to see what choice produces the best trained network,as input selection can be a dif-ficult task.However,recall that if storage is not a con-cern k-nearest neighbor can be used instead of a neural network and(as described in Mitchell21)can automati-cally discover those inputs that are necessary to approx-imate the target function.Several practical examples of selecting good inputs for neural networks to approximate cognitive models are given in the results section of thispaper.J.DINERSTEIN ET AL.************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Copyright#2004John Wiley&Sons,Ltd.100Comp.Anim.Virtual Worlds2004;15:95–108。
2020届成都市第二十中学高三英语第三次联考试题及参考答案第一部分阅读(共两节,满分40分)第一节(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)阅读下列短文,从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项AMembership CardFighting Fit is a members-only club. When you first join, we give you a computerized card. It has your name, photo and membership number on.Please have your card with you every time you use the club. The card is for your use only, and there is a small charge to provide a new one if you lose it. Members are permitted to bring guests to use the facilities at the club.A visiting guest fee is charged for each guest.Fitness ProgramsYour Fitness Program includes a meeting with one of our skilled instructors. This will happen two or three weeks after you have joined. The instructor looks at your health, your current needs and the way you live, and organizes a program suitable for you.GymnasiumOur gymnasiums are the most modem in the area and have high quality exercise equipment. For safety reasons, you must wear sportswear and trainers while exercising, and please remember to take a small towel too. It is one of our rules that you wipe the equipment after use.There is no limit to how long you spend in the gymnasiums, but we ask you to respect other members by only spending 20 minutes on each piece of equipment. There are experienced staff helping you in the gymnasiums at any time.Locker RoomsWe have large male and female locker rooms. Please ensure that your property is kept in your locker at all times. Any belongings which are found in a locker overnight will be removed and taken to Lost Property.CafeThe Cafe offers free tea, coffee and soft drinks.Suggestion BoxMembers' suggestions are always welcome, and the suggestion box and forms can be found at reception. We try to respond within two days.1.What does the Fighting Fit Health Club provide for its members?A.A personalized program on their first visit.B.A second membership card for free.C.Help from the staff all the time.D.Certain kinds of clothes and towels.2.At the Fighting Fit Health Club, you can_.A.share your membership cardB.have free drinks in the CafeC.leave personal items in the locker for 24 hoursD.spend as long as you like on all equipment3.Where is the information most probably from?A.A news report.B.A notice board.C.A guide book.D.A reference book.BA Virginia teen is doing his part to make sure frontline health care workers are getting the meals they need to help them take care of themselves and others.Arul Nigam, 17, of Tyson's Corner, Va. , has had to make several adjustments since his school year ended abruptly in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic(新冠疫情).“We didn'thave any classes for like over a month and then after that there were a lot of technical difficulties. So I started to have a lot more free time,” he tells Yahoo Life. “It was really saddening, but it was also something that really surprised me, that our health care workers are facing something like that,” Nigam says. “So I wanted to see what I could do to help them because obviously, they're sacrificing so much and giving so much for all of us. ”In late March, the teen started fundraising efforts with the help of friends and family to help these health care workers receive much-needed meals. He also began doing research about what hospitals had the most amount of coronavirus cases, so he could prioritize those places first. He was also arranging for the orders to be fulfilled at local family-owned restaurants impacted by shutdown orders. So far, Nigam has delivered over 1,000 meals to 22 hospitals in 13 states, including New York, Massachusetts and Maryland.Nigam's efforts have not only helped health care workers, but restaurants as well. With quarantine restrictionstaking a toll onthe food industry, places like Best Coast Burrito in Oakland, Calif. , have lost business over the last few weeks. Best Coast's owner,Alvin Shen, tells Yahoo Life that being able to partner with Arul and others in efforts to feed those on the frontline has been a big help.4. What would Nigam probably do according to his words?A. Study at home by himself.B. Spend the more free time playing.C. Donate some money to health care workers.D. Do something helpful for health care workers.5. What is Nigam's priority when delivering food?A. The urgency of meals.B. The severity of the virus.C. The number of doctors.D. The position of hospitals.6. What does the phrase “taking a toll on” in the last paragraph mean?A. Turning a blind eye to.B. Keeping an eye on.C Causing lots of damage to.D. Answering completely for.7. Where can you probably read this text?A. Science fiction.B. Fashion magazine.C. Life magazine.D. Entertainment newspaper.CWhen you walk with a backpack, do you know how the things inside move from side to side? Now scientists havefigured out how to tap into that movement to produce electricity.Picture a pendulum (摆锤) fixed to a backpack frame and stabilized with springs on either side. The pack’s weight is attached to the pendulum, so the pendulum swings side to side as you walk.Then a machine is driven by that swinging movement, and spits out electrical current to charge a battery.Volunteers carried the pack while walking on a running machine and wore masks to measure the flow of O2and CO2. Walking with the slightly swinging 20-pound load, the device (设备) did not significantly affect the volunteers’ metabolic (新陈代谢的) rate compared to when they carried the same weight fixed in place. In fact, the energy-harvesting pack reduced the forces of acceleration they’d feel in a regular pack, which might mean greater comfort for a long hike. And the device did produce a steady trickle (涓流) of electricity. If you up the loadto 45 pounds, the swing of the pack could fully charge a smart phone only after 12 hours. The details are in the journal Royal Society Open Science.The device produces electricity from human movement and has been identified as a workable solution to providing a renewable energy source for portable electronic devices. It is particularly useful for those who work in remote areas, as these people often carry a lot of weight in a backpack for their exploration.But here’s a realconundrum: the energy-harvesting device currently weighs five pounds. The researchers say that’s about four pounds too many to be a smart alternative to batteries. So they hope that more research lets them lighten the load, to ensure the pack charges you up without weighing you down.8. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?A. How the device works.B. What the device looks like.C. Who the device is designed for.D. Why scientists designed the device.9. Which of the following describes the device?A. It greatly affected the volunteers metabolic rate.B. It harvested energy as the volunteers walk.C. It failed to produce steady electricity.D. It was useless for a long walk.10. What does the underlined word “conundrum” in the last paragraph mean?A. Problem.B. Method.C. Bond.D. Decision.11. What will the researchers try to do next?A. Increase the charging speed of their device.B. Find smarter alternatives to batteries.C. Reduce the weight of their device.D. Put their device on the market.DMy sister Alice and I have been trying to get people tostop dropping cigarette(香烟)butts(烟头)for seven years. One day, we were walking in our hometown and saw hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground. They made the town look so ugly that we decided to start a group to make people dropping butts. We called it “No Butts About It”.At first, we drew pictures with “The Earth is not your ashtray(烟灰缸)”written on them. We put the pictures around our hometown—in parks, by beaches, and along roads. We wanted to make people understand that dropping butts hurts the environment. Most smokers don’t think that dropping butts hurts the Earth. But it does, and all rubbish does!Later, we wrote to companies and asked them for money to help us. We used the money to buy ashtrays to give to smokers. We wanted smokers to carry the ashtrays with them so they didn’t have to drop butts.At the moment, we are trying to get cigarette companies to put an ashtray in each pack of cigarettes. Some companies want to do it. Many people have started to join our group since it began. Today there are 45 other “No Butts About It” groups inAmerica.Now there even groups inEngland,Australia, andIndia! Many newspapers have written about my sister and me over the last seven years. And we have won many prizes for what we do. But we are not interested in prizes. We just want to make the Earth a better and cleaner place for animals, plants and people.One day, it will be.12. What did the writer think about the cigarette butts in the first place?A. They made the town smelly.B. They made the town unhealthy.C. They made the town dirty.D. They made the town poor.13. What does the writer do with the cigarette butts?A. Give ashtrays to the smokers.B. Stop people buying cigarettes.C. Pick up the cigarette butts.D. Win prizes for starting groups.14. From the passage we can know that _____.A. no companies wanted to give money to themB. The writer believes that the Earth will be a better and cleaner placeC. There are only 45”No Butts About It”D. The writer likes to be on newspapers and win prizes215. Which is the best tittle for the passage?A. Save our Town From Cigarette Butts.B. Buy Yourself An Ashtray.C. Cigarette Butts Also Destroy Other Countries.D. No Butts Prize.第二节(共5小题;每小题2分,满分10分)阅读下面短文,从短文后的选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
Adobe Character Animator for Animation 使用教程及界面介绍翻译Adobe Character Animator 是一款强大的动画创作工具,可用于为角色添加生动的动作和表情。
本文将为您介绍 Character Animator 的使用教程,并详细介绍其界面功能。
一、Character Animator 简介Adobe Character Animator 是 Adobe 公司开发的一款专业动画创作软件。
它借助摄像头和麦克风等设备,实时捕捉用户的面部表情和身体动作,并将其应用到角色模型上。
通过简单的操作,用户可以创作出栩栩如生的动画效果。
Character Animator 不仅适用于个人用户创作独立动画,还广泛应用于电视节目、电影和广告等领域。
二、Character Animator 的安装和基本设置1. 下载和安装:打开 Adobe 官方网站,下载并安装 Character Animator。
2. 设定角色:在 Character Animator 中,您需要为角色创建一个新项目,并导入角色模型。
3. 配置摄像头和麦克风:在设置中,选择正确的摄像头和麦克风设备,并进行测试确保其正常工作。
三、Character Animator 的界面介绍1. 主界面:Character Animator 的主界面由多个板块组成,主要包括场景面板、角色面板、时间轴面板等。
用户可以通过拖拽和调整这些面板的位置,以适应自己的工作习惯。
2. 角色面板:在角色面板中,用户可以选择并控制当前所使用的角色。
通过在角色面板中添加和删除角色,可以实时切换不同的角色模型。
3. 时间轴面板:时间轴面板用于控制角色的动画和表情。
用户可以在时间轴上添加关键帧,对角色的动作进行精细调节。
4. 捕捉面板:捕捉面板主要用于配置摄像头和麦克风,以及调整角色的面部和身体捕捉参数。
5. 录制面板:录制面板是 Character Animator 的核心功能之一。
2019-2020学年鹤山市古劳中学高三英语二模试卷及参考答案第一部分阅读(共两节,满分40分)第一节(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)阅读下列短文,从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项AIn September, something terrible happened on the west coast ofTasmania,Australia. As many as 380 pilot whales became stranded(搁浅) in shallow water there and later died. This might have beenAustralia’s largest stranding event on record, the BBC reported.But this large amount of whale stranding is not uncommon. For centuries, it has happened all over the world and has puzzled scientists. Scientists say the cause is often unknown. But they have offered many different explanations.Some say the whales chase small fish for food and end up in shallow water because they are not paying attention to where they are going.Others think the stranding has something to do with Earth’s geomagnetic field (地磁场). They say that a geomagnetic compass in whales’ brains controls their position. Unusual changes in Earth’s magnetic field can affect the whales’ compasses and send them in the wrong direction.Another explanation suggests that stranding is caused by the close relationships that whales have. Pilot whales travel in large groups. One lead whale might mistakenly lead the whole group to shallow water. “And if one gets into trouble, the others will not leave,” said Sheryl Gibney, a leading biologist fromNew Zealand. “Some will come in and try to help, they get trapped on the beach, then more will come.”The whales are trapped by mistake or out of sympathy(同情). Once they get stranded, they will likely die. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of theUS, less than 10 percent of all stranded whales survive.1. What do we know about the stranding inAustralia?A. It happened on theeast coast ofAustralia.B. It caused the death of over 300 pilot whales.C. It is commonly seen in September each year.D. It was the largest stranding event in the world.2. According to Gibney, the pilot whales are the animals that________.A. are kind to each otherB. are easy to lose directionC. are too huge to float in the seaD.are silly to follow the leading whale3. What is the story mainly about?A. How human activity has affected whales.B. What might cause whale strandings.C. How whales find their direction while traveling.D. What scientists are doing to save stranded whales.BA growing body of research is revealing associations between birth defects (缺陷) and a father's age, alcohol use and environmental factors, say researchers atGeorgetown University Medical Center. They say these defects result from epigenetic changes that can potentially affect multiple generations.The study, published in theAmerican Journal of Stem Cells, suggest both parents contribute to the health status of their offspring — a common sense conclusion which science is only now beginning to demonstrate, says the study's senior investigator, Joanna Kitlinska, PhD, an associate professor in biochemistry, and molecular and cellular biology.“We know the nutritional, hormonal and psychological environment provided by the mother permanently influences organ structure, cellular response and gene expression in her offspring,” she says.“But our study shows the same thing to be true with fathers — his lifestyle, and how old he is, can be reflected in molecules that control gene function,” she says. “In this way, a father can affect not only his immediate offspring, but future generations as well.”For example, a newborn can be diagnosed with fetal (胎儿的) alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), even though the mother has never consumed alcohol, Kitlinska says. “Up to 75 percent of children with FASD have biological fathers who are alcoholics, suggesting that preconceptual paternal alcohol consumption negatively impacts their offspring.”Advanced age of a father is correlated with elevated rates of certain diseases, and birth defects in his children.A limited diet during a father’s preadolescence has been linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular death in his children and grandchildren. Paternal obesity is linked to enlarged fat cells, changes in metabolic regulation, diabetes, obesity and development of brain cancer. Psychosocial stress on the father is linked to defective behavioral traits in his offspring. And paternal alcohol use leads to decreased newborn birth weight, markedreduction in overall brain size and impaired cognitive function.“This new field of inherited paternal epigenetics needs to be organized into clinically applicable recommendations and lifestyle alternations,” Kitlinska says. “And to really understand the epigenetic influences of a child, we need to study the interplay between maternal and paternal effects, as opposed to considering each in isolation.”4. What’s the message the writer conveys in the passage?A. Both parents contribute to the health status of their offspring.B. Father’s age and lifestyle are tied to birth defects.C. Father plays a more critical role in birth defects.D. Birth defects can potentially affect multiple generations.5. What can we infer from the example in Paragraph 5?A. FASD can only be diagnosed in a newborn whose father is addicted to alcohol.B. A newborn will not contract FASD if his mother has never consumed alcohol.C. A father’s lifestyle can negatively impact his offspring.D. Most children have biological fathers who are alcoholics.6. Which of the following situations is less likely to lead to children’s birth defects?A. Having a father with a limited diet.B. Having a father who is an alcoholic.C. Having an overweight father.D. Having a father with psychosocial stress.7. What will the research probably continue to focus on in the part that follows?A. The maternal epigenetic influences of a child.B. The ways to avoid negative paternal influence on children.C. The clinical application of the research findings.D. The interaction between maternal and paternal effects.CFlying someone one-way fromLondontoNew Yorkproduces nearly a ton ofcarbon dioxide or CO2. That's alot of this climate-warming greenhouse gas. But there are ways to cut the climate impact of flying, one of which is to ask planes to surf high-altitude winds every chance they get.It's not something they've been allowed to do. But that may change—and soon.Most jets crossing the Atlantic Ocean follow one of several fixed paths that are widely spaced because radar (雷达) had not been able to track aircraft everywhere above the Atlantic. But a new network of satellites couldsoon change that.Wells was part of a team inEnglandthat calculated the fastest possible routes for passenger planes. According to them , traveltime a plane takes when flying across theAtlanticvaries with the winds that a plane meets. For instance, eastbound (向东的) flights can get a powerful push. Westbound routes miss that benefit. Faster flights burn less fuel. And less burning gives off fewergreenhouse gases.The airline industry knows it has a high " carbon footprint." But it takes decades and many billions of dollars to design, test and fly new planes. Changing a flight path, in contrast, can cut costs and energy right away.The new study doesn't show how well such wind surfing would work for all planes, in all skies and the world over. Bui it does suggest that making flight routes more flexible could cut both fuel use and CO2in some places.However, if flight times vary depending on the wind, scheduling connecting flights and managing runways and gates would become more complicated. The researchers would have to work out the best flight paths that take such scheduling issues into consideration. They may also want to see if flying at different altitudes gives a wider choice of flexible routes at the times most people want to fly.National Air Traffic Services (NATS) which provides air-traffic control for theUnited Kingdomsaid it would temporarily disband its flight-paths system and work to allow airlines to choose flexible routes that would best limit their fuel use.8. What happens to east bound flights when crossing theAtlantic?A. They consume more fuel.B. They use less time and energy.C. They produce more greenhouse gases.D. They are against a stronger wind.9. What should be done to make adopting flexible flight routes possible?A. Calculating the flight time.B. Finding the best flight paths.C. Adjusting the size of jets.D. Adding more runways and gates.10. Which word can best replace the underlined word "disband” in the last paragraph?A. Stop.B. Copy.C. Handle.D. Restore.11. What can we infer from the text?A. Planes are producing the most carbon dioxide.B. New fuel is benefiting airline industries greatly.C. Carbon footprint is a serious problem in theUK.D. Surfing the winds can make air travel greener.DHave you ever imagined that your simple T-shirt could cool you down by up to5℃on these hot summer days? Thanks to a recent discovery, the possibility is getting closer. While there are many alternatives that manage to keep the body warm, this amazing invention aims to offer real relief for those who are eager to feel comfortable and fresh in the outdoors on extremely hot days.Its inventors, engineers Ma Yaoguang of Zhejiang University and Tao Guangming of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, look a completely innovative approach. They designed a special textile dial can absorb body heat and re-emit its energy into space as mid-infrared radiation (MIR). This textile cools both the objects and their surroundings through a technique that is known as radiative cooling, Science reveals. This means that even when it looks like you are wearing a regular shirt, you are actually wearing a device that works like a mirror.Research conducted at Stanford University in 2017 had already managed to cool the wearer by 3℃, but this previous trial was limited. So researchers still need to test the new approach to determine how effectively the new fabric cools while the wearers are standing or walking, and not directly facing the sky, like in their trials. They also need to examine and measure how well it works when T-shirts are not in close contact with the skin.Inventors Yaoguang and Guangming are now looking out for textile manufacturers and clothing brands that are interested in using their fabric. They estimate that the new material will increase clothing manufacturing costs by just 10 percent. “We can make it with mass production which means everybody can get a T-shirt and the cost is basically the same as theirs,” old Yaoguang said.So if you are an athlete or simply someone that has to deal with the extremely high temperatures, be patient because your days of feeling hot and bothered may be corning to an end!12. What is the purpose of the new invention?A. To warm up people's body.B. To cool people off in hot weather.C. To detect the wearers' temperature.D. To protect clothes from becoming wet.13. How does the special product work?A. By turning sunlight into energy.B. By sending out absorbed heat.C. By keeping heat out completely.D. By using light color1 s to reflect sunlight.14. What is the main idea of paragraph 3?A. The invention needs further testing.B. The previous studies lack evidence.C. The new fabric has a good cooling effect.D. The new fabric applies to various situations.15. The invention of the T-shirt may hean example of ________.A. barking up the wrong treeB. robbing Peter to pay PaulC. killing two birds with one stoneD. pulling the cart before the horse第二节(共5小题;每小题2分,满分10分)阅读下面短文,从短文后的选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
Real-Time Character Animation for Computer GamesEike F AndersonNational Centre for Computer AnimationBournemouth UniversityABSTRACTThe importance of real-time character animation in computer games has increased considerably over the past decade. Due to advances in computer hardware and the achievement of great increases in computational speed, the demand for more realism in computer games is continuously growing.This paper will present and discuss various methods of 3D character animation and prospects of their real-time application, ranging from the animation of simple articulated objects to real-time deformable object meshes.1 INTRODUCTIONReal-time character animation in real-time simulated virtual environments like computer games has progressed rapidly over the past few years from non-existence to a standard which now produces results that closely resembles those of off-line computer animated characters. This development has also been reflected by the changes of the visual style of computer games:while originally game characters would either be hand-drawn or computer generated 2D images that are projected onto a plane that is parallel to the viewport (decals, as described in [15]), modern computer games now use three-dimensional game characters which are real-time animated inside the virtual environment and projected onto the screen.Many of the techniques which only four years ago in [8] were listed as possible future developments, and had until then only been used in off-line animation, like skeletal animation and real-time deformation and skinning of 3D meshes, are now established methods for the implementation of real-time 3D character animation.The aim of this paper is to compare some of the existing real-time character animation techniques and to discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and to provide a demonstration of the implementation of one of the algorithms, illustrating its suitability for real-time character animation.2 RELATED WORKBoth, memory and processing power, are expensive. More realism in games can be achieved by increasing the detail of objects in the game and by introducing objects into the virtual environment that are non-essential for the game itself, but which will be recognisable as natural for the given situation by the player. This has an impact on memory utilisation.Memory usage can be reduced by storing less data and by generating more data on the fly, which in turn increases the amount of necessary operations that have to be performed by the processor. Therefore, in real-time animation the aim is to find the balance between these two factors that will result in maximum realism at the minimum cost.2.1 3D Hierarchic Articulated ObjectsIn a hierarchic character as described in [8], different body parts of the articulated object are separate objects, stored in a hierarchy and joined to each other at pivot points, each referencing child objects -attached objects of a lower hierarchic order (Figure 1).[1] describes how the hierarchic character is set up and how itcan be displayed, by recursively traversing the hierarchic datastructure starting from the root, passing down thetransformation of the parent objects to its children and thereconcatenating the passed down translation matrix and thelocal translation matrix.Older 3D games like the original Tomb Raider[P1] use thismethod for character animation.The flexibility and adaptability of this method are its mainbenefits:Animation data can be generated on the fly using techniquessuch as Inverse Kinematics (see below), and applied to themodel in real-time. Memory usage is also small as the vertexand transformation information for each object contained inthe model needs to be stored only once.However this method also has a number of drawbacks:Figure 1as the objects in the hierarchy are all separate, it is inevitablethat gaps between these objects will appear when the character is animated. Although it is possible to hide these gaps by overlapping the objects that make up the model, this again will result in visible seams.2.2 Inbetweening (Blending) between Character MeshesA different approach to real-time character Array animation is the one described in [6], using morethan one object representing the same character buteach of these objects showing the character in adifferent pose. All objects have to contain the samenumber of vertices. In this case the animation isrealised by interpolating the corresponding vertexpositions between the different objects as illustratedin [2] (Listing 1) over time and blending the twoobjects (Figure 2) or just by switching between theseparate objects as described in [8] (Listing 2).The original Quake[P2] computer game used thismethod for animating characters and moderngraphics processors have the functionality tocalculate this in their hardware [2].The result is a smooth animation with no gaps orvisible seams in the character model's geometry.Also, as long as a not too complex interpolationmethod like linear interpolation is used, the amountFigure 2 - vertex blending demo from DirectX 8 SDKFigure 3Figure 4mesh is very small.The downside of this technique however is that key-frameshave to be very frequent to effectively control the animation(Figure 3) which means that the amount of data that has tobe stored is very large. This has a detrimental effect onmemory usage as all object copies that are needed in ananimation sequence will have to be kept in memory for atleast as long as it takes the animation sequence to finish.Characters that are animated with this method are also farless flexible than characters which are based on a hierarchicmodel representation, as the whole of the characteranimation has to be pre-defined off-line and no on the flygeneration of additional animation data is possible.2.3 Skeletal Animation and Mesh SkinningSkeletal animation was developed to simplify the animation process for dealing with articulated objects (characters like bipeds, for example) and to provide more realism through improving the looks of animated objects by making them more life-like. It is an improvement on both of the previously mentioned techniques:it uses an endoskeleton - a hierarchic structure of joints - which drives a skin - a vertex mesh representing the shape of the object. It is this splitting of mesh data and hierarchic position information into two separate data-structures, which makes skeletal animation and mesh skinning superior to the previously mentioned techniques.A bone is simply a transformation matrix, determining the position of the bone in relation to its parent bone, and all the bones of the articulated object together form the skeleton. Explicitly only the skeleton is animated, using an algorithm similar to that used for animating a hierarchic articulated object, which in turn implicitly animates the skin. Memory usage for skeletal animation is small, as all skin vertices have to be stored only once. It requires a significantly lower amount of information to be stored than the mesh inbetweening method discussed above.2.3.1 Rigid Skinned CharactersIn a rigid skinned character each of the skinvertices is associated with a single bone(Listing 3). The resulting animated mesh isseamless, but close to joints deformations canresult in creasing (Figure 4), so this method ofskinning should only be used for low-polygonobjects that do not have a lot of modelled detail.[5] describes a very simple and effective way ofautomating the generation of a skeleton andapplying a rigid skin to it by creating a copy ofan existing character mesh and transformingthat copy into the skeleton of the character.Firstly the copy is scaled down and broken upinto small parts which then are associated withthe skin vertices that are closest to them, whichmakes these object parts the bones of theskeleton.2.3.2 Soft Skinned CharactersSoft skinned character animation is based onrigid skinned character animation and providesa solution for the shortcomings of that method:the creasing of the mesh around joints that are being deformed is greatly reduced, giving the character a much more life-like look (Figure 5).This is achieved by allowing more than just one bone to influence each vertex as described in [14], effectively mimicking the way that a bone in the real world would affect the skin of a living being. Each vertex is given information about which of the bones in the skeleton influence it and how great the influence of those bones is (skin weight). Although a real life bone would not really directly deform the skin but would do so indirectly by flexing and relaxing muscles that are attached to it, this effect is convincingly simulated, as the mesh vertices are offset from the bones and are influenced by transformations of more than one bone:the final vertex position is then determined by adding up vertextransformations by the transformation matrices of all the bones that influence a vertex, each multiplied with its corresponding skin weight. For this to work, all the skin weights for a vertex must add up to 1.A weight of 1 for a bone means thatthe vertex is only affected by thatbone and 0 means it is unaffected bythe bone (Listing 4).As only a few more data elementsare added to each vertex (Listing 5),the memory usage for this methodonly grows insignificantly, but itrequires more computations todisplay than the simple rigid skinnedskeletal animation described above,or the model tweening method:for V skin vertices and n bonesaffecting each vertex V*n vertextransformations have to be calculatedfor each animation frame to calculatethe vertex positions.The more bones influence a singlevertex, the more natural the skinsurrounding that vertex will behave.Figure 5(bone_0_transformations * bone_0_weight)+(bone_1_transformations * bone_1_weight)+ ...+(bone_N-1_transformations * bone_N-1_weight)+(bone_N_transformations * bone_N_weight)____________________________________________________=final_vertex_transformationIt is even possible to simulate the presence of muscles within a skinnedmesh, by adding dummy bones whose sole purpose is to deform parts ofa skin by adding further weights to the skin.The "Bendy Tentacle Demo" program that was written to demonstratesome of the methods described in this document contains animplementation of a soft skinned mesh with 2 bone influences for eachskin vertex (Figure 6).Modern graphics processors contain hardware solutions that are able tooptimise the performance of this mesh skinning technique [2].2.4 Real-Time IKInverse Kinematics is a technology which originated in robotics. It has since found its way into off-line animation as demonstrated by [10], but has so far only rarely been used for real-time animation.The fact, that the IK functionality of off-line animation systems is applied in real-time is proof, that it is possible to have real-time IK. However the number of calculations which have to be carried out for the majority of IK algorithms is too great to be of any use in a modern computer game, where a big part the processing capability is used for maintaining the virtual environment [13]. The main reason for this is that often the IK algorithms used are direct copies of the robotics IK algorithms, but whereas only few industrial robots have more than six joints, a humanoid character in computer animation can easily have one hundred or more joints, which can slow down these IK algorithms considerably. In[11] the authors present an innovative approach to IK algorithms, tailored to computer animation,unlike many other IK algorithms, which is targetedat off-line animation and therefore still too complexfor generating real-time animation for computergames. [9] implements a 2D geometrical IKsolution that is transferred into 3D, which cancreate acceptable results, but by far the bestsolution for use in games is the one described in[4]. In this algorithm a force is applied to the end-effector of the IK chain, pulling it towards the IKtarget, trying to reach it, or - if that is impossiblebecause it is out of the range which the articulatedobject can reach to - pointing towards it. For eachbone in the IK chain, back tracking the chain fromits end-effector to the start of the chain, the IKsolver has to be invoked for each axis of rotationfor that bone.The pulling force towards the IK target isequivalent to the length of the vector pointing fromthe end-effector of the IK chain to the IK target. IfF is the force vector, A is the rotation axis for thecurrent bone and B is the bone itself (Figure 7),the basic formula for finding the angle which has to be added to the current rotation angle of the current Figure 6Figure 7bone is the following:Angle = |F| * A x F * B x F * (((A x B).F) / | ((A x B).F)| ). =dot-productx =cross-product The end-effector will not snap to the IK target though, but move there over a short period of time.A variation of this algorithm is implemented in the "Bendy Tentacle Demo" program that was writtento demonstrate some of the methods described in this document.3 FILE FORMAT CONSIDERATIONSAs mentioned before, the more data is available, the fewer calculations are required. However whilefile storage on hard disk is cheap, and file sizes no longer play a significant role because of the high computer specifications that nobody would have dreamed of only a few years ago and which nowadays are commonplace in home user computers, it still takes a relatively long time to transportthe necessary data from a file on disk into the much faster RAM of the computer. It is therefore advisable to only store on disk the data that cannot be generated on the fly by the program.This section of this paper will try to provide a simple analysis describing what data has to be stored ina 3D model file to support the animation of that model.3.1 REQUIREMENTSSkeletonThe data required to store a skeleton for an articulated object - as described earlier - on disk, apart from positional information for its joints itself, is the relationship between those joints. By far theeasiest way to do this is by nesting the information for joints of a lower order in the hierarchy just below the joint which they are supposed to be Array connected to (Listing 6).For the joints themselves, all that needs to beknown is the relative position of the jointwhich occupies the next higher order in thejoint hierarchy of the skeleton. The exceptionto this is the highest order joint in thehierarchy, the root of the skeleton, whichshould contain global positioning data for thewhole object instead of the local positioningdata.In addition to that, it may be useful to storeconstraints for each joint which limit the freedom oftransformations which can be applied to the joint, sothat a program which generates animation on the flycan distinguish illegal movements which might causethe object to collapse (Figure 8).Bones (connections between the joints – vectorspointing from a joint to that joint’s child joints) doFigure 8not have to be explicitly saved in the file, as they areimplicitly defined by the joints which they connect.SkinThe information which has to be stored for the skin of an articulated object, are the vertices which make up the skin. Each vertex structure has to contain data regarding the untransformed position of the vertex itself, the vertex normal, the UV texture coordinates of the vertex for texturing the model, a list of bones and skin weights, which define which of the joints of the skeleton are able to influence the vertex and by how much each of these joints influences the vertex.IK chainsTo use IK with an articulated object, that object will have to include IK chains, defining which will be affected by the IK. The information required for this would be some sort of list, describing which of the joints in the IK chain is the start of the chain, and which of the joints is the end-effector on the other side of the IK chain. That information could easily be stored inside the bone structures themselves, provided that the joints can point towards its parent joints, so that the IK chain can be back-tracked from its end-effector to its starting joint.For more complex IK operations one could also introduce a weight or sensitivity value which would define by how much a bone in the IK chain would be affected by the IK.Animation CyclesThe easiest solution by far for this is the one implemented in id Software’s Quake II[P3] file format: All models have an identical number of frames, every single frame is a key-frame and the length of each animation cycle is pre-defined. While this reduces the calculations which are necessary for displaying the animation to a minimum, it also reduces the flexibility of the file format. Usually though, transformation information for all the joints of the articulated structure is stored in each key-frame of an animation.3.2 A LOOK AT THE DIRECTX X-FILE FORMAT[3], [7] and [15] all contain descriptions of the DirectX X-File object format and provide implementation information for loading, and displaying files stored in the X-File format. The X-File format is based on templates, which makes it very flexible and adaptable to specific problems. There are already a number of pre-defined templates that allow data that is compliant with a number of the above mentioned requirements to be stored in an X-File. The unfulfilled requirements can easily be included by adding custom templates to the file format. A full description of this file format and its capabilities can be found in [P4]SkeletonThe DirectX X-file format supports skeletons in hierarchic articulated objects in the form of the so-called Frames of reference, which are the X-File equivalent for bones.Each Frame can contain a Array FrameTransformMatrix, containing localtransformations for that Frame. A Frame can alsocontain Mesh objects defining the vertices thatform a 3D model, and child Frames as described in[3]. (Listing 7)IK chainsIK chains are not part of the X-file format, althoughthe modular and expandable nature of the fileformat, which allows the addition of new templates,would make it relatively easy to create an extensionto the file format which could then be parsed andinterpreted by the loading program.An IK chain template for the X-file format couldeasily be implemented (Listing 8).Animation CyclesIn the X-File format animation cycles are saved inthe AnimationSet structure. Within anAnimationSet one can define a separate Animationfor each part of the model which animates withinthe time frame of that particular animation cycle. Each Animation contains an AnimationKey structure which in turn contains a list of timed key transformations which will affect the part of the model referenced by the Animation.4 SAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION OF ALGORITHMSThis paper is provided with asample application usingOpenGL, which demonstratesthe use of some of thealgorithms which have beendiscussed earlier in this paper.The "Bendy Tentacle Demo"(Figure 9) shows a simplearticulated object (tentacle)which contains two boneswhich influence the weightedskin mesh.Interactive Forward Kinematics,similar to the "robotic armdemo" in [12] were included inthis application to allow for thetesting of the effects of theweighted mesh skinningfunction. The user can alsoFigure 9interactively move an IK targetaround the scene, which exerts a pulling force on the IK chain's end-effector which is situated in thetip of the tentacle. The full source code of this demo application is included in the source distributionfile of the demo program.The fewer instructions that have to be executed, the faster the program will run.One of the important steps in calculating Array real-time animation data is therefore theidentification and elimination of bottlenecksin the animation program.For skeletal animation once every frame, theprogram would first calculate thetransformation matrices for each joint andthen update the transformation matrices thatare part of the joint. If a hierarchic dynamicstructure is used to store the skeleton, thejoints would usually be traversed recursivelyfor updating (Listing 9). If a linear, fixed-size data structure is used instead, thenumber of instructions necessary forupdating the joints of the skeleton can be reduced (Listing 10).The implementation of the mesh skinning can be found in the function skin()skin(){Glfloat tempx1,tempx2,tempy1,tempy2,tempz1,tempz2,tvec[4],vec[4],transform[16];build_matrices();for(int i=0;i<NUM_VERTICES;i++) // calculate skin vertex positions{int bone1,bone2;bone1=tentacle_skin[i].bone1;// retrieve the skin weight for the first bonebone2=tentacle_skin[i].bone2;// retrieve the skin weight for the second bonevec[0]=vertices[i][0];vec[1]=vertices[i][1];vec[2]=vertices[i][2];vec[3]=1.0f; // homogeneous coordinatematxvec(tvec,bones[bone1].tmatrix,vec);// calculate the transformation of the skin vertex fortempx1=tvec[0];// the first bonetempy1=tvec[1];tempz1=tvec[2];matxmat(transform,bones[bone1].tmatrix,bones[bone2].tmatrix);matxvec(tvec,transform,vec);// calculate the transformation of the skin vector fortempx2=tvec[0];// the second bonetempy2=tvec[1];tempz2=tvec[2];tentacle_skin[i].x=(tempx1*tentacle_skin[i].weight)+(tempx2*(1-tentacle_skin[i].weight));tentacle_skin[i].y=(tempy1*tentacle_skin[i].weight)+(tempy2*(1-tentacle_skin[i].weight));tentacle_skin[i].z=(tempz1*tentacle_skin[i].weight)+(tempz2*(1-tentacle_skin[i].weight));}}In the function above (simplified version of source), each skin vertex of the model is transformed bythe transformation matrices of both bones which have an influence on that skin vertex, and the two resulting vertex positions are then multiplied by the corresponding bone's weight. The resulting vertex positions are then added, to give the final vertex position of the current vertex.The implementation for the IK solver can be found in the function solvejoint()// magnitude() returns the length of the passed vector// sinEnclosed returns the value of the cross product of the 2 passed vectors// cosEnclosed returns the value of the dot product of the 2 passed vectors// sign returns the sign of the passed valuedouble solvejoint(GLfloat *a,GLfloat *b,GLfloat *f){GLfloat rlength;GLfloat r[3];r[0]=(a[1]*b[2])-(a[2]*b[1]);r[1]=(a[2]*b[0])-(a[0]*b[2]);r[2]=(a[0]*b[1])-(a[1]*b[0]);rlength=sqrt((r[0]*r[0])+(r[1]*r[1])+(r[2]*r[2]));r[0]/=rlength;r[1]/=rlength;r[2]/=rlength;return magnitude(f)*sinEnclosed(a,f)*sinEnclosed(b,f)*sign(cosEnclosed(r,f));}In the function above (simplified version of source), the length of the force vector F is multiplied with the cross-products of A, the rotation axis, and F and B, the bone, and F, which in turn is multiplied with the dot-product of the cross-product of A and B with F. The resulting value is the angle whichhas to be added to the current angle of rotation, to solve the IK problem.The main control keys for the demo application are:[Esc]- end the application[B ]- toggle bone visibility on/off[ F]- toggle Forward Kinematics on/off[ I ]- toggle Inverse Kinematics on/off[ P]- pause the default animation of the tentacle[ R]- toggle the turntable rotation on/off[ T]- toggle between wireframe and smooth shadingArrow Keys and PgUp and PgDn - move the tentacle in interactive modesFor further information please consult the "readme" file that is included in the source and binary distribution files for the demo application.4.1 FUTURE DEVELOPMENTThe source code of the "Bendy Tentacle Demo" could without many problems be converted and extended into a general 3D mesh skinning library for real-time animation. It should also be relatively simple to port the current application source code to a different graphics API like DirectX. This would be especially useful as the native support for skinned meshes by the DirectX API is less than adequate, providing little information about the implementation, which could have been realised a lot simpler, but with similar results, as demonstrated with the "Bendy Tentacle Demo".Some more work can be done on the IK solver - weights and constraints could be added to increase the realism and improve the usability of the methods presented in this paper.Further improvements can be made on the animation timer. Currently the program uses a standard timer event, but a high resolution timer could increase the smoothness of the animation considerably.5 CONCLUSIONThis paper and the demo program have presented a simple and efficient algorithms for realistically representing a smooth skinned articulated object in a real-time calculated virtual (game) environment. Further techniques suitable for real-time character animation have been presented.This paper and the demo program also demonstrate the real-time generation of additional animation data for skeleton-driven objects, using an "inexpensive" Inverse Kinematics algorithm.This shows that many off-line animation techniques can be successfully implemented in real-time applications. With ever increasingly more powerful hardware becoming available, it is certain that these techniques and methods will find their way into real-time animation in the foreseeable future.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Robert BergkvistProf. Peter Comninos Adam Vanner (project tutor)REFERENCES[1]Prof. Peter Comninos, "Defining Hierarchic Objects", 3D Computer Animation. NationalCentre for Computer Animation, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK.[2]Cem Cebenoyan, "Efficient Animation", GDC2001 presentation, NVIDIA Corporation[3]Robert Dunlop, Dale Shepherd and Mark Martin, Teach Yourself DirectX 7 in 24 Hours,Sams Publishing, Indianapolis, IN[4]Hugo Elias, "Inverse Kinematics", /hugo.elias/models/m_ik.htm[5]Torgeir Hagland, "A Fast and Simple Skinning Technique." In Game Programming Gems,Charles River Media, Rockland, MA[6]Peter J. Kovach, Inside Direct3D, Microsoft Press, Redmont, WA[7]Peter J. Kovach, The Awesome Power of Direct3D/DirectX, Manning Publications,Greenwich, CT[8]Jeff Lander, "On Creating Cool Real-Time 3D", [9]Adrian Perez and Dan Royer, Advanced 3-D Game Programming Using DirectX 7.0,Wordware Publishing, Plano, TX[10]Steve Pitzel, "Character Animation: Skeletons and Inverse Kinematics", Intel DeveloperService[11]Deepak Tolani, Ambarish Goswami and Norman I. Badler, "Real-time inverse kinematicstechniques for anthropomorphic limbs", Computer and Information Science Department,University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA[12]Mason Woo, Jackie Neider and Tom Davis, OpenGL Programming Guide, Second Edition,Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA[13]Alan Watt and Fabio Policarpo, 3D Games Real-time Rendering and Software Technology,ACM Press, New York, NY[14]Ryan Woodland, "Filling the Gaps – Advanced Animation Using Stitching and Skinning."In Game Programming Gems, Charles River Media, Rockland, MA[15]Stefan Zerbst, 3D Spieleprogrammierung mit DirectX in C/C++, Libri BoD, Braunschweig,GermanyPRODUCT REFERENCES[P1]Tomb Raider™Core Design Limited[P2]Quake®id Software, Inc[P3]QuakeII®id Software, Inc[P4]DirectX 8.0 SDK Microsoft Corporation/directx。