In this course, attendees received a working knowledge of several techniques for simulating natural phenomena. Course presenters provided both a research and production perspective on several difficult tasks, including photo-realistic modeling, rendering, and animation of natural phenomena. They surveyed physics-based approaches for modeling and animating water, waves, and oceanscapes; rapid, stable dynamics for water and gas animation; procedural and physics-based approaches for modeling smoke and steam; procedural volumetric techniques
for modeling and animating clouds; grammar-based techniques for modeling plants and
plant ecosystems; and fractal techniques for simulating mountainous landscapes.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with standard graphics techniques for modeling. Familiarity with basic grammar-based modeling, procedural techniques, and particle systems is helpful but not required.
Topics
Fractal-based techniques for simulating mountains and planets. Realistic modeling and rendering of oceanscapes viewed from above or below. Stable and interactive simulation of motion in fluids. Volumetric procedural cloud modeling. Grammar-based techniques for modeling plants and plant ecosystems.
Organizer
David Ebert
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Lecturers
David Ebert
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Ken Musgrave
FractalWorlds.com
Przemyslaw Prusinkiewics
University of Calgary
Jos Stam
Alias|Wavefront
Jerry Tessendorf
Cinesite Visual Effects
