Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Animation Uses Old Physics to New Effect

Ever wonder how animated films such as The Incredibles get hair, clothing, water, plants, and other details to look so realistic? Or how, like the lion in The Chronicles of Narnia, animated characters are worked into live-action films? If not, the animators would be pleased, since they don't want special effects to distract from the story. Behind the scenes, though, is a sophisticated combination of artistry, computation, and physics.

Traditionally, animation was hand drawn by artists who needed"some of the same magical eye that the Renaissance painters had, to give the impression that it's realistically illuminated," says Paul Debevec, a computer graphics researcher at the University of Southern California. Over the past decade or so, the hand-painted animation has faded as physically-based simulations have increasingly been used to achieve more realistic lighting and motion. Despite this movement toward reality in animated films, the physics of the real world remains a slave to expediency and art: Simplifications and shortcuts make the simulations faster and cheaper, and what the director wants trumps physical accuracy.

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