Motivation & Charter

The University of Washington Department of Computer Science & Engineering, together with the Schools of Art, Music, and Architecture, have launched a new interdisciplinary center of research and education, called the Animation Research Labs (ARL). Core support for the ARL comes from the Advanced Technology Initiative, a collaborative undertaking of the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the Washington State Legislature.

The mission of the Animation Research Labs is to advance the state of the art in animation through research, teaching, and computer-animated production.

The ARL is a place where computer scientists, animators, artists, musicians, architects, storywriters, and user-interface designers will work together to create new algorithms, systems, and tools for computer animation -- and use these advances to create innovative and experimental animated productions, including interactive forms of animation such as web-based animation and games.

The ARL will have rich, deep ties with industry. Indeed, one of our core objectives is to accelerate the growth of the digital media industry in the Puget Sound region. Since the principal way in which research universities drive economic development is through their scholarship, the primary metrics of success will be directly related to research and education in this field: high-impact research results presented in top venues such as SIGGRAPH; production pieces recognized in top animation competitions, festivals, museums, and other appropriate public forums; and students at all levels educated through our programs.

The ARL differs from initiatives at other universities to create "New Media" or "Entertainment Technology" centers in that it is intended to be first and foremost a world-class research center, focused on the technologies underlying computer animation. The ARL will explore the synergistic relationship between research and production, with new computer technologies enabling new forms of artistic expression. As new needs from ARL productions are discovered, they will serve to inspire technical research into underlying algorithms, systems, and tools.

In many ways, the work carried out at the ARL will resemble the kind of in-house research, tool-building, and short animated production that takes place in commercial production houses such as Pixar or Pacific Data Images. However, although research is certainly a strong component of the work going on in commercial environments, the research in these places is necessarily driven first and foremost by commercial needs. At the ARL, we will have the opportunity to pursue research and production for their own intrinsic merits, both scientific and artistic.

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