With the advent of very powerful PCs and high-end graphics cards, there has been an incredible development in Virtual Worlds, real-time computer animation and simulation, games. But at the same time, new and cheaper Virtual Reality devices have appeared allowing an interaction with these real-time Virtual Worlds and even with real worlds through Augmented Reality. Three-dimensional characters, especially Virtual Humans are now of an exceptional quality, which allows to use them in the movie industry. But this is only a beginning, as with the development of Artificial Intelligence and Agent technology, these characters will become more and more autonomous and even intelligent. They will inhabit the Virtual Worlds in a Virtual Life together with animals and plants.

Computer Animation & Virtual Worlds is the first journal to address this global thematic of the Virtual Worlds. This thematic has been subdivided into 6 areas:

• Computer animation
• Embodied agents
• Virtual Environments
• Augmented Reality
• Virtual Life
• Visualization

Computer Animation & Virtual Worlds seeks papers in all fields of Virtual Worlds. Contributions are solicited describing original research results, applications, and experience in the following topics:

Computer Animation

• 2D animation
• Keyframe animation
• Inverse kinematics
• Biomechanics models
• Motion capture and motion retargeting
• Physical-based animation
• Facial and body animation
• Path planning
• Cloth and hair animation
• LOD and impostors
• Real-time rendering

Augmented Reality

• Tracking
• Mobile AR systems
• Virtual Heritage

Embodied Agents

• Perceptual models
• Virtual Sensors
• Interagent communication
• Modelling of groups and crowds
• Conversational agents
• Goal driven behavior
• Interaction with Virtual Humans
• Intelligent virtual actors
• Social behavior
• Emotions and personality
• Autonomous Virtual Human architectures
• Simulation involving Virtual Humans
• Autonomous Virtual Humans in games

Virtual Environments

• Gesture and action recognition
• Haptic interfaces
• Audiospace
• Simulators (flight, car drive etc…)
• VR for emergency
• VR for psychiatry
• VR for rehabilitation
• Virtual surgery

Virtual Life

• Plant development and growing
• L-systems
• Artificial animals and animats
• Population generation
• Virtual cities
• Persistent worlds

Visualization

• Medical imaging and reconstruction
• Molecular graphics
• Fluid visualization
• Visualization of physical phenomena
• Volume rendering