Post by ferryfast admin on Mar 29, 2005 2:18:45 GMT -5
Joint effort in fluid arts
Selina Mitchell
australianit.nes.com.au/
MARCH 29, 2005
CSIRO mathematicians, more accustomed to modelling industrial processes, may soon provide the animation sector with a solution to a long-standing problem — realistic depiction of fluids.
Fast, faithful animation of water, gasses, smoke, lava and molten metals in movies, computer games and advertisements has long been one of the biggest challenges of animation.
The CSIRO team has joined forces with world-renowned Korean animators in a four-year project that aims to produce tools to speed up the process, and provide images so realistic viewers will reach for their umbrellas, CSIRO mathematical and information sciences business development manager Kevin Cryan says.
The Korean Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute approached the CSIRO to help it advance the technology used by Korean companies – and push its role in the industry from animating episodes of The Simpsons on the cheap to providing large-scale productions of their own.
Next month, CSIRO scientists will meet local special effects and animation companies to assess their interest in the project.
"We're taking the equations used to model complex fluid interactions, such as the aerodynamics of aircraft or the behaviour of mined ores in crushing mills, and applying them to animating fluids for motion pictures and computer games," Cryan says.
The tools will deliver animations of fluids that are better than anything currently possible because of the high level of accuracy already attained in modelling industrial processes, he says.
Perhaps more importantly, such tools can save production costs by speeding up the complex animation process, he says.
Chris Spry, head of 3D at post-production facility, the LaB, says his group is looking forward to discussions with CSIRO.
"Speed is our biggest problem," he says. "It can take three days to run through a simulation of one sequence of 100 frames, which is about four seconds worth.
"Often we only have one or two weeks to produce the end result. Even though computers get faster, nothing gets quicker, the quality just gets better," Spry says.
The LaB recently produced a Mizone drink commercial for the Chinese market that involved complex fluid animation.
Animal Logic research and development director Guy Griffiths says representatives of his digital production company will meet CSIRO scientists in April to discuss the project.
Griffiths says animating fluids is difficult, but the big issues is to have artistic control over the simulation.
"Scientists ask, given the initial conditions, where will the fluid end up, but we want to be able to direct it."
Computational fluid dynamics methods are already used in animation, Griffiths says.
"We're trying to create a plausible reality."
The CSIRO's achievements so far are the result of 15 years of work in computational fluid dynamics.
The same work could also lead to breakthroughs in biotechnology (modelling the flow of blood through and around objects), financial services (risk analysis tools) and boatbuilding (next-generation fast ships), Cryan says.
"If you make significant investments in core mathematics, you get benefits in ways you can't at the time begin to contemplate," Cryan says.
"You're getting real innovation where the disciplines collide, such as IT and art, or IT and biology."
This report appears on australianIT.com.au.
Selina Mitchell
australianit.nes.com.au/
MARCH 29, 2005
CSIRO mathematicians, more accustomed to modelling industrial processes, may soon provide the animation sector with a solution to a long-standing problem — realistic depiction of fluids.
Fast, faithful animation of water, gasses, smoke, lava and molten metals in movies, computer games and advertisements has long been one of the biggest challenges of animation.
The CSIRO team has joined forces with world-renowned Korean animators in a four-year project that aims to produce tools to speed up the process, and provide images so realistic viewers will reach for their umbrellas, CSIRO mathematical and information sciences business development manager Kevin Cryan says.
The Korean Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute approached the CSIRO to help it advance the technology used by Korean companies – and push its role in the industry from animating episodes of The Simpsons on the cheap to providing large-scale productions of their own.
Next month, CSIRO scientists will meet local special effects and animation companies to assess their interest in the project.
"We're taking the equations used to model complex fluid interactions, such as the aerodynamics of aircraft or the behaviour of mined ores in crushing mills, and applying them to animating fluids for motion pictures and computer games," Cryan says.
The tools will deliver animations of fluids that are better than anything currently possible because of the high level of accuracy already attained in modelling industrial processes, he says.
Perhaps more importantly, such tools can save production costs by speeding up the complex animation process, he says.
Chris Spry, head of 3D at post-production facility, the LaB, says his group is looking forward to discussions with CSIRO.
"Speed is our biggest problem," he says. "It can take three days to run through a simulation of one sequence of 100 frames, which is about four seconds worth.
"Often we only have one or two weeks to produce the end result. Even though computers get faster, nothing gets quicker, the quality just gets better," Spry says.
The LaB recently produced a Mizone drink commercial for the Chinese market that involved complex fluid animation.
Animal Logic research and development director Guy Griffiths says representatives of his digital production company will meet CSIRO scientists in April to discuss the project.
Griffiths says animating fluids is difficult, but the big issues is to have artistic control over the simulation.
"Scientists ask, given the initial conditions, where will the fluid end up, but we want to be able to direct it."
Computational fluid dynamics methods are already used in animation, Griffiths says.
"We're trying to create a plausible reality."
The CSIRO's achievements so far are the result of 15 years of work in computational fluid dynamics.
The same work could also lead to breakthroughs in biotechnology (modelling the flow of blood through and around objects), financial services (risk analysis tools) and boatbuilding (next-generation fast ships), Cryan says.
"If you make significant investments in core mathematics, you get benefits in ways you can't at the time begin to contemplate," Cryan says.
"You're getting real innovation where the disciplines collide, such as IT and art, or IT and biology."
This report appears on australianIT.com.au.