ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the higher-level architecture, it is worth giving a quick overview of modern-day animation systems. There are two requirements for creating believable characters in games: the first is that characters need to make the correct decisions, and the second is that they need to look good when acting on those decisions. With the heavy visual focus in games, it is fair to say that an artificial intelligence system will live or die based on the quality of its animation system. Animation graphs are ubiquitous within the industry when it comes to describing the set of animations as well as the necessary chaining of these animations in performing in-game actions. An animation behavior is defined as a program that executes a specific set of actions is needed to realize a character action from a visual standpoint. Animation behaviors are purely concerned with the visual aspects of character actions, and they are not responsible for any gameplay state changes themselves.
