For example, if two geometrically defined spheres were brought ever closer together, at a certain distance, a dog's bone shape could be created. Taking the idea further, with different size spheres at varying distances, a dinosaur shape could be made. By 1987, Professor Wyvill's work allowed a series of such connected volumes or shapes to follow a trajectory, exhibiting some novel properties. Negative objects can also be created. These allow holes and boundaries to be defined within objects.
Animation is clearly more than meets the eye.
Another one shown, HiFi Mike , had inbuilt mechanical dynamics, so that the objects moved in a realistic manner, bouncing on the floor and off other objects, for example. It also included some speech synthesis, although it was admitted that synchronisation between sound and lips could sometimes be problematic. Warping was then discussed, in which 3D space, instead of being linear, became distorted, so that linear objects created externally were affected by the distortion. Where this technique was illustrated was when a rubbery object landed on a firm surface, changed shape due to momentum and compression, and then bounced back upwards, and regained its original form. The space just above the surface had been distorting, so that all objects approaching it were transformed accordingly.