Developing Object-Oriented Frameworks For Computer Animation By

This thesis was driven by an interest in developing a reusable framework for building behavioral animations. The initial goal was to facilitate and automate the construction of a core behavioral animation application that could then be extended with exquisite services to investigate concepts in specific research areas. We wanted to develop a framework that would instantiate an executable behavioral animation that provided the functionality common to typical behavioral animation applications. To achieve this goal, we needed to develop a systematic approach to engineering object-oriented frameworks and then apply that approach to the behavioral animation domain. This thesis describes the Software Productivity Consortium’s (Consortium) Approach to Framework Engineering and its application to the initial architecture design of an object-oriented framework for behavioral animation applications. I developed the Consortium’s Approach to Framework Engineering using best practices from multiple engineering and management processes. This approach is the initial iteration towards a full methodology for the systematic development of object-oriented frameworks. During this thesis we wanted to validate the several of the engineering activities and develop a greater insight into current behavioral animation research programs