Broad Area Colloquium For AI-Geometry-Graphics-Robotics-Vision
(CS 528)

Dynamics and animation for film, where we are - where we are going

John Anderson
Pixar Animation Studios
Monday, February 23, 2004, 4:15PM
TCSeq 200
http://graphics.stanford.edu/ba-colloquium/

Abstract

In the last 5 years physically motivated procedural animation has become an increasingly important tool for character and effects animation. The influence of these techniques has progressed from an era where dynamics based approaches were painstakingly applied to a few special shots to the point where the majority of CG character animation includes some procedural elements.

We are now at a particularly exciting point in the development and application of these techniques. New technologies and faster hardware have opened the door to real-time procedural characters. These characters combine methods from dynamic simulation and multivariate statistics to provide new tools that allow animators to achieve artistic goals witout losing control of the performance.

About the Speaker

John Anderson his his undergraduate work in physics at MIT, his masters degree from MIT, and his Ph.D. from Colorado State University, both in geophysical fluid dynamics. He taught for 3 years (1984-1987) at U. Ill. Urbana-Champaign and 12 years (1987-2000) at the U. of Wisconsin-Madison where he was a Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Associate Director of the Space Science and Engineering Center, and founding chair of the UW Computational Sciences program. From 1997-2001 he worked in the R&D department at Industrial Light and Magic where he developed the ILM fluid dynamics and creature dynamics systems and worked on several films including Star Wars I and II, The Perfect Storm and Jurassic Park III. In 2001 he received a Science and Technology award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work on the ILM creature dynamics system. Since 2001 John has been in the Studio Tools department at Pixar animation studios where he has worked on fluid dynamics for Finding Nemo and character articulation technology for the upcoming film The Incredibles.

Contact: bac-coordinators@cs.stanford.edu

Back to the Colloquium Page