The next level of 3D Animation

If Jos Stam has his way, 3D animation will soon be subject to all the laws of physics. Waves crashing, leaves blowing in the breeze and candles flickering will be as random and realistic as they appear in real life.

Jos Stam is one of the lead developers for Autodesk, the software company that produces Maya, the world's leading 3D modeling software. Maya is responsible for many of the special effects in modern movies as well as some of the 3D animation seen in 3D Walkthroughs and Interactive 3D presentations.

Stams, newest concept, a module for Maya called Nucleus, would involve teaching visual effects software all the fundamental laws of physics and then letting it do the grunt work for you. Think of it as a unified field theory for animation — the animator can simply plug in the variables:

Wind speed: 25 knots
Wave height: 7 feet
Ship's mass: 46,000 tons
Ocean depth: 7,000 feet

The result would be a totally realistic animation of waves crashing over a ship in gale force winds.

Additional details might include air and water temperature, time of day (for lighting effects), wind direction, etc. With the parameters set, hit Enter and voilá — the software would crunch the numbers and spit out the finished scene. At least, that's the theory. In practice, while algorithms for individual components (fire, water) already exist, integrating them all together has proven to be hideously complicated.

Source: Wired.com

An article in Wired.com describes Stam's effort in more details and gives more examples of how Nucleus, once completed, could change the future of animation as we know it. It even points out the irony that would exists for film makers if Nucleus was successful. As effects produced by this module would be subject to the laws of physics, they would be as random as they exist in the real world, and hard to control when filming a scene.

3Dwalkthroughs.com will be following the developments of this module as it offers our entire industry a new way of taking all of our 3D products to the next level of realism.

The full article can be found here>>>