AL Introduction
(Much of the following is taken from the
AL Reference Manual.
It should be consulted for further details.)
"AL is an acronym for "Animation Language". It describes
extensions to the programming language Scheme for the creation of
geometry and animation."
To use AL, you must be running the interpreter,
ox. To see any of the objects as they are created,
you need to be running the program Icam.
- Geometric Primitives (Gprims)
- Gprims are used to create simple geometry.
- Graphics State and Geometric Operations (Gops)
- The graphics state controls the transformation and attributes of
drawn Gprims. Geometric Operations change the current graphics state.
- Rendering
- Scenes created in AL can be fully rendered by RenderMan.
frames.
- Cameras
- Cameras are used to control all aspects of the point-of-view when a
scene is rendered.
- Lights
- Lights control the illumination in the environment when it is rendered.
- Shaders
- Renderman shaders are used to specify the surface properties of objects
when they are rendered.
Return to Schedule Information
mrl