Baby You're a Firework

For our last Computer Animation assignment, we did particle simulations. We programmed the physics behind a basic 2D one, but we also got the opportunity to play around in Houdini for some extra credit!

Here's one I made with the fireworks plug-in:

And here's one I made from scratch with a POP network:

It was fun trying to figure out all of the different particle affecting nodes!

Do the Locomotion

We got to use the Vicon motion capture system in my Computer Animation class, which was AWESOME. Probably one of the coolest things I've done here at Penn. I suited up! The retroreflective markers glow when you use the flash on a camera:

It was really cool to see little dots on the projected screen move when I moved! We recorded 13 motions and then picked a few and brought them into Motion Builder to create into animations and then blend together. I used my captures of idles, a handstand, running and a cartwheel.  Still working on attaching it back to a character (when I tried it broke in the arms) but the motion turned out ok!

sudo reboot

I'm reinstating this blog! I got distracted with the end of last semester and my summer spent in San Francisco, where I had the opportunity to work for the Lucas Online division of Lucasfilm, but I have so many things going on right now that I want to start blogging again!

First since my last post was about some progress we had with our particle advection project, I thought I would by posting the final result of that:

We were happy with the outcome and that it looked like water! Although there are obvious improvements to be made.

Also, for my Phys-based final project I'm working with my friend Jason and we're doing a water sim (Semi-lagrangian, marker particles, eventually level sets...). We've been having major issues because we are extending off of our smoke sim code BUT we've finally had a bit of success worth posting! (We have our own blog for this project which you can reach through my profile, but I thought I'd go ahead and put up highlights if we have them.) Props to Jason for the music choice (very appropriate).Yes, it does blow up at the end but we're working on it (and I think it kind of looks cool...)

A compilation of my videos from 563! Hopefully I will have time to play around with these more this summer. I need more hours in the day!

Graphics for the Summer!

I found out last week that I will be interning in the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation as a research assistant! I AM SO EXCITED!!! I don't know which project I'll be working on yet for sure but I can't wait to find out. Almost as happy as these guys (this video never gets old):

Doing Nothing

I'm in Advanced Computer Animation this semester and it focuses on facial animation. It's pretty different from any art class I've taken, but I like it. It's taught by Chris Landreth who, to be quite honest, I had never heard of before but I've come to learn that he's quite a big shot in the animation world. I mean, he kind of won an Oscar and he commutes to Philadelphia from Canada almost every Friday (just for the day) to teach us. Anyways, our assignment for this week was to make a short animation of one of his rigged characters "doing nothing." Doing nothing is actually pretty complicated; we move a lot when we're not moving! Anyways, I'm super tired (longest week in a while, physics based animation kicked my butt a little bit... I'll post my rigid body sim) so I'm calling it quits for now and this is what I have so far. It's way too fast (I have a bad habit of animating fast...I'm working on it) but it's a start.  So, this is Angela! I was trying to convey a bit of suppressed sadness/distress, but like I said it's a start. 

My PhysBased Projects so far

I'm in this great class that I've been waiting to take since Freshmen year called Physics Based Animation. A former me would have never imagined that math+code could do such cool things. Anyways, we've had two assignments so far and I plan to extend both (in between doing the third assignment and starting our hard core final projects) because there's a lot of possibilities! Assignment 1 was simulating a jello cube with a particle system and Assignment 2 was a smoke simulation using a semi-Langrangian approach. Here's round 1:

Jello Simulation

Smoke Simulation (I did a couple different variations on color/source)

I was happy to finish the assignments for grading but I'm definitely excited to make these better.

Hello, World!

Yay I have a blog! All of my projects in progress will be put HERE.

Baby Stanley gets the first post though of course.