Integrating a Constraint Solver into a Real-Time Animation Environment

This article investigates the integration of an interactive constraint solver into an existing 2--D real--time animation environment in order to achieve a better observability, traceability, and stability of the individual graphical objects. We present two approaches for assigning constraints to the objects. The first approach assigns constraints to the objects when they are created keeping them stable during their entire life--time. The second approach dynamically changes constraints before the computation of each frame. The investigation is based on our practical experience with the complete visual programming language Pictorial Janus and the parallel constraint solver Parcon. 1. Introduction 2--D animation incorporates inherent layout problems when generating the individual frames. The layout can be computed by dedicated layout algorithms or by means of a constraint solver. Unfortunately, due to their runtime costs, most classical graph layout algorithms are not applicable for inte..