The present invention provides a system that increases a user's control over
character animation. Time-dependent signals are accepted from a user input device.
The input is processed in real-time such that the user's input can be used to directly
control the animation of an animated character. For example, the animation of a
three-dimensional rendered character swinging a golf club in a golf game can be
changed in mid-swing according to the user's operation of an input device. In general
the system accepts user continuous and real-time user input. The user is given
improved control and visual feedback on the movement being animated. One embodiment
of the invention includes an analog input module, a control state machine module
and an animation state machine module. The analog input module is configured to
receive user analog input (e.g., from an analog joystick) related to animated character
display and to normalize the user analog input to create a normalized user analog input.