Synthetic lifelike behavioral character animation system and behavior component evaluation methods for determining lifelike behavior outputs that drive character animation

A synthetic lifelike behavioral character animation system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that are executable by the processor to implement:
• a plurality of behavior components that provide modularized representations of behavior of a character based on contextual input;
• a publish/subscribe architecture that provides a communication framework between the plurality of behavior components, wherein a first one of the behavior components subscribes to a second one of the behavior components,
• wherein, responsive to the second one of the behavior components publishing output formed as output events and corresponding metadata, the publish/subscribe architecture provides the output formed as output events and corresponding metadata from the second one of the behavior components as input to the subscribed first one of the behavior components, based on a previous subscribing of the first one of the behavior components to the second one of the behavior components;
• and
• an animation system that simulates movement and behavior of the character based on the modularized representations of behavior provided by the plurality of behavior components.