Skitters and jacks: interactive 3D positioning tools

  • Authors:
  • Eric Allan Bier

  • Affiliations:
  • Xerox PARC, 3333 Coyote Hill Rd., Palo Alto, CA

  • Venue:
  • I3D '86 Proceedings of the 1986 workshop on Interactive 3D graphics
  • Year:
  • 1987

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Abstract

Let scene composition be the precise placement of shapes relative to each other, using affine transformations. By this definition, the steps of scene composition are the selection of objects to be moved, the choice of transformation, and the specification of the parameters of the transformation. These parameters can be divided into two classes: anchors (such as an axis of rotation) and end conditions (such as a number of degrees to rotate). I discuss the advantages of using Cartesian coordinate frames to describe both kinds of parameters. Coordinate frames used in this way are called jacks. I also describe an interactive technique for placing jacks, using a three-dimensional cursor, called a skitter.