Abstract:
The aggregate motion of a flock of birds, a
herd of land animals, or a school of fish is a beautiful and familiar
part of the natural world. But this type of complex motion is rarely
seen in computer animation. This paper explores an approach based on
simulation as an alternative to scripting the paths of each bird
individually. The simulated flock is an elaboration of a particle
system, with the simulated birds being the particles. The aggregate
motion of the simulated flock is created by a distributed behavioral
model much like that at work in a natural flock; the birds choose
their own course. Each simulated bird is implemented as an independent
actor that navigates according to its local perception of the dynamic
environment, the laws of simulated physics that rule its motion, and a
set of behaviors programmed into it by the "animator." The aggregate
motion of the simulated flock is the result of the dense interaction
of the relatively simple behaviors of the individual simulated birds.
Keywords:
flock, herd, school, bird, fish, aggregate motion, particle system,
actor, flight, behavioral animation, constraints, path planning.
Citation:
Reynolds, C. W. (1987) Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Distributed
Behavioral Model, in Computer Graphics, 21(4) (SIGGRAPH '87 Conference
Proceedings) pages 25-34.
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