CIS 563: Physically Based Animation (Spring 2010)

Time:  MW 1:30-3pm
Room: Moore 212
Instructor:  Alla Safonova

Email: alla at cis.upenn.edu Office: Levine 303 Office Hours: xxx

 

TA: Benjamin Sunshine-Hill

Email: bsunshin@seas.upenn.edu Office Hours: xxx

 

 

 Detailed Course Syllabus (coming soon)

Detailed Course Syllabus From Spring 2009 is available here Website for Spring 2009 class is here

Course Description
This course introduces students to common physically based simulation techniques for animation of fluids and gases, rigid and deformable solids, cloth, explosions, fire, smoke, virtual characters, and other systems. Physically based simulation techniques allow for creation of extremely realistic special effect for movies, video games and surgical simulation systems.  We will learn state of the art techniques that are commonly used in current special effect and animation studios and in video game community. To gain hands-on experience, students implement basic simulators for several systems. The course is appropriate for both upper level undergraduate and graduate students. 

 

Prerequisites
Students should have a good knowledge of object oriented programming and basic familiarity with linear algebra and physics. Some background in computer graphics is helpful.

 

List of Topics

Simulating Deformable Objects Particle Systems Mass spring systems Deformable Solids & Fracture Cloth Explosions and Fire Smoke  Fluids Deformable active characters Simulating Rigid bodies Rigid bodies dynamics Collision detection and handling Controlling rigid bodies simulation Simulating Articulated Bodies Simulated characters in games Optimization for character animation Data driven approaches Dynamic Response for Games Numerical Methods that will be covered o    Finite Element Methods o    Finite Difference Methods o    Collision Detection & Response o    Stability and Implicit Integration o    Level Set Methods o    Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics o    Model Reduction Techniques o    Simulation Control

Grading
Grading will be based on a number of programming assignments.

Very preliminary assignment list (can change):

·  Mass-Spring Particle System Simulation (15%) ·  Fluid or Smoke Simulation (25%) ·  Rigid body simulation (25%) ·  Final project of your choice (35%)

Textbook
There is no required text book for this class. Lecture notes will be provided for each class. Also supplemental reading material is linked from the syllabus.

Good resources:
Physically Based Deformable Models in Computer Graphics by Andrew Nealen, Mathias Muller, Richard Keiser, Eddy Boxerman and Mark Carlson  (Nice survey paper of the field)
Physically Based Modeling (The 2001 course notes by Baraff and Witkin)
Fluid simulation (SIGGRAPH 07 course notes on by Bridson et. al.)
Computer Animation Information Page (Rick Parent's page with large number of links)
Hecker Articles(Rigid body dynamics)

Useful Books (not required):

Fluid Simulation for Computer Graphics (Robert Bridson, A K Peters, 2008)

Physics Based Animation (Book by Erleben, Sporring, Henriksen, Dohlmann)