Animation/Graphics

• Genworks International
  Application: GDL/GWL (General-purpose Declarative Language and Generative Web Language)
  GDL/GWL (General-purpose Declarative Language and Generative Web Language) is a Knowledge Base development environment that features an integrated web server-based user interface. GDL/GWL provides a complete environment for the development of business and engineering applications, covering areas traditionally serviced by specialized KBE (Knowledge-based Engineering), ERP (Enterprise Resource Management), and CRM (Customer Relations Management) software packages.

• Izware
  Application: Mirai
  Izware maintains the Mirai application originally created by Nichimen Graphics. Mirai is still used extensively throughout the Animation Community, and was used in the Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy. Former Nichimen Graphics employee, Bai Raitt, used Mirai to design and build the system animators used to create the faces of some of the Trilogy's more unique characters -- Gollum, Balrog, Cave Troll and Treebeard.

• Microsoft Research
  Application: Player
  Animations express a sense of process and continuity that is difficult to convey through other techniques. Although interfaces can often benefit from animation, User Interface Management Systems (UIMSs) rarely provide the tools necessary to easily support complex, state-dependent application output, such as animations. Here we describe Player, an interface component that facilitates sequencing these animations. One difficulty of integrating animations into interactive systems is that animation scripts typically only work in very specific contexts. Care must be taken to establish the required context prior to executing animation. Player employs a precondition and postcondition-based specification language, and automatically computes which animation scripts should be invoked to establish the necessary state. Player's specification language has been designed to make it easy to express the desired behavior of animation controllers. Since planning can be a time-consuming process inappropriate for interactive systems, Player precompiles the plan-based specification into a state machine that executes far more quickly. Serving as an animation controller, Player hides animation script dependencies from the application. Player has been incorporated into the Persona UIMS, and is currently used in the Peedy application.

• Naughty Dog Software
  Application: Jak and Daxter: the Precursor Legacy
  Jak and Daxter: the Precursor Legacy, is the latest game release from Naughty Dog Software for the Sony Playstation II. Naughty Dog used Allegro CL for the character control and graphics portions of the game. The character control and AI written in Lisp enabled the development of over 500 different types of game objects, each with uniquely crafted and tuned gameplay and visual characteristics.

• Nichimen Graphics
  Application: N-World
  Nintendo's highly successful game release for the Nintendo 64™, Super Mario 64™, was built using the N-World development tool suite from Nichimen Graphics Inc. Nichimen chose Allegro CL from Franz Inc. to develop its powerful N-World products.

• Parametric Technologies Corporation
  Application: Pro/ENGINEER
  Pro/ENGINEER is the de facto standard for mechanical design automation—based on a parametric, feature-based, fully associative architecture—that delivers a comprehensive suite of solutions for all areas of the development process, from a product's conceptual design and simulation through manufacturing.

• Square USA Inc.
  Application: Phantom
  Animation Production Management used in creating the 2001 feature film, Final Fantasy