Medium Level Animation
An [see page 25, animation] approach where we give a few parameters which then get processed into many parameters which then affect the objects in the scene.
Particle Systems
A particle system could have million of particles each with their own state (position, velocity, radius, etc.). Storing each of these for each frame is intractable so we instead [see page 26, specify] a few values (direction, initial velocity, etc.) and [see page 27, apply] some randomness to each particle at it's creation. After the particle has exceeded it's lifetime it's extinguished.
Deep Water Waves
[see page 30, sinusodial] waves are added to a surface represented as a mesh of polygons. We alter the amplitude of the surface uniformly using sinusodial waves. This approach takes just a [see page 31, handful] of parameters but can produce highly complex patterns.
Human Figure Animation
A hierarchical data structure organises input from animator. Enables cascading of information.
[see page 34, Kinematics] is often used to calculate the relations between joints.
Physically Based Simulations
[see page 35, Simulate] muscles, joints, etc. and supply forces to have them move as you'd expect.