AL: The Animation Language: Docs: Overview

language reference overview

AL (Animation Language) is a programming language for 3D modeling and animation. The AL Language Reference defines the extensions to the programming language Scheme that AL provides for animation and modeling. It does not describe the programming language Scheme or the implementation of the current AL interpreter. It also does not cover the plugins provided with AL that deal specifically with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, BMRT, and OpenGL.

Basic Concepts
- gops, gprims, graphics state
- models and avars
- AL types (vec3, mat4, vec3list, indexlist)
Geometric Operations
- blocking constructs (world, separators, boolean ops)
- transformations (translate, rotate, scale, current transform)
- cameras
- attributes (surface and geometric)
- light sources
Geometric Primitives
- quadrics (spheres, cylinders, hyperboloids, ...)
- polygons
- patches (bicubic and NURBS)
- lines and text
- standard gprim parameters (per-vertex color, normals, texture coordinates)
Animation
Rendering
Math
Index

Last updated: 10/30/96 / Steve May ( smay@cgrg.ohio-state.edu )

Any comments or suggestions appreciated.

Contents