Motion control in animation, simulation and visualization

This paper discusses the role and the evolution of animation, simulation and scientific visualizzation and their relationships. Two trends are described: (1) the physical laws are well-know and their use improves the animation (2) the physical laws are not really well-know and the animation techniques contribute to understand them. We distinguish descriptive models used to reproduce an effect without knowledge about its cause and generative models describing the cause which produces the effects, Cooperation between descriptive and generative models is also discussed as well as man-machine interface constrains.