3D Art Essentials

9

DYNAMICS: LET’S GET PHYSICAL

Picture a soldier aiming a rocket launcher. He fires. The missile arches toward a helicopter and hits it (Figure 9.1). It explodes into a fireball and pieces fly out in all directions, hitting other objects. One particular piece tumbles through the air toward the soldier, who runs to avoid it.

What about a ballroom with skirts swaying as dancers spin through complicated forms? Animating a dancing form could be simple enough, but animating the clothes on even one individual becomes very difficult. A whole ballroom full of them would be impossible to digitally animate one by one.

Animating such scenes, with explosions or moving cloth, can be achieved by using dynamics. With dynamics, the vast amount of work is done ...