Artificial fishes

TLDR

The framework aims to capture realistic appearance, movement, and group behavior of animals. The paper proposes an animation framework that achieves intricate natural motion with minimal animator input. The framework models each animal as an autonomous agent in a physics‑based virtual marine world, where artificial fishes swim hydrodynamically using internal muscle‑controlled fins and adapt their behaviors based on environmental perception. The artificial fishes exhibit unpredictable, natural‑like motions in the virtual habitat, mirroring real fish behavior.

Abstract

This paper proposes a framework for animation that can achieve the intricacy of motion evident in certain natural ecosystems with minimal input from the animator. The realistic appearance, movement, and behavior of individual animals, as well as the patterns of behavior evident in groups of animals fall within the scope of the framework. Our approach to emulating this level of natural complexity is to model each animal holistically as an autonomous agent situated in its physical world. To demonstrate the approach, we develop a physics-based, virtual marine world. The world is inhabited by artificial fishes that can swim hydrodynamically in simulated water through the motor control of internal muscles that motivates fins. Their repertoire of behaviors relies on their perception of the dynamic environment. As in nature, the detailed motions of artificial fishes in their virtual habitat are not entirely predictable because they are not scripted.