Computer animation with CINEMA

ABSTRACT

Cinema is a general purpose animation system designed to animate models developed using the SIMAN simulation language. The Cinema package consists of two separate modules. With the first module, called CINEMA, users specify graphical images used in the animation. The second module, called CSIMAN, is used to execute a SIMAN simulation model and concurrently render the associated animation.Animation typically centers around the presentation of final modeling results. However, the simplicity of developing Cinema animations allows users to exploit animation in more phases of a simulation project. By using Cinema, contributions of animation can be found throughout the entire simulation project from initial model debugging through the presentation of the final simulation results.Recent enhancements to Cinema IV include accumulating conveyors, AGV modeling features, dynamic plots and histograms, symbol fetch from backgrounds, and an improved user interface.Cinema is available on a wide variety of platforms and operating systems. These include microcomputers under DOS and OS/2, as well as Sun, Apollo, and VAX workstations under the UNIX and VMS operating systems.

REFERENCES

• 1: Johnson, M. Eric and Jacob P. Poorte. 1988. A hierarchical approach to computer animation in simulation modeling. Simulation 50(1), pp. 30--36.
• 2: Pegden, C. Dennis. 1982. Introduction to SIMAN. Systems Modeling Corporation.
• 3: Pegden, C. Dennis and David T. Sturrock. 1989. Introduction to SIMAN. Proceedings of the 1989 Winter Simulation Conference, Washington, D.C.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.2 Simulation Languages

          Nouns: SIMAN

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Animation
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Performance, Verification