Physics Based Animation (Graphics Series) [Hardcover]

Kenny Erleben (Author), Jon Sporring (Author), Knud Henriksen (Author), Henrik Dohlmann (Author)

Book Description

Series: Graphics Series | Publication Date: August 9, 2005

The booming computer games and animated movie industries continue to drive the graphics community's seemingly insatiable search for increased realism, believability, ad speed. To achieve the quality expected by audiences of today's games and movies, programmers need to understand and implement physics-based animation. To provide this understanding, this book is written to teach students and practitioners and theory behind the mathematical models and techniques required for physics-based animation. It does not teach the basic principles of animation, but rather how to transform theoretical techniques into practical skills. It details how the mathematical models are derived from physical and mathematical principles, and explains how these mathematical models are solved in an efficient, robust, and stable manner with a computer. This impressive and comprehensive volume covers all the issues involved in physics-based animation, including collision detection, geometry, mechanics, differential equations, matrices, quaternions, and more. There is excellent coverage of collision detection algorithms and a detailed overview of a physics system. In addition, numerous examples are provided along with detailed pseudo code for most of the algorithms. This book is ideal for students of animation, researchers in the field, and professionals working in the games and movie industries. Topics Covered: * The Kinematics: Articulated Figures, Forward and Inverse Kinematics, Motion Interpolation * Multibody Animation: Particle Systems, Continuum Models with Finite Differences, the Finite Element Method, Computational Fluid Dynamics * Collision Detection: Broad and Narrow Phase Collision Detection, Contact Determination, Bounding Volume Hierarchies, Feature-and Volume-Based Algorithms

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kenny Erleben is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Copenhagen. He has contributed to Graphics Programming Methods (CRM 2003). Jon Sporring received his Master and Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, where he is currently an associate professor. Knud Henriksen is an associate professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Copenhagen, where he holds a Ph.D. in computer science. Henrik Dohlman is a Ph.D. student at the University of Copenhagen and is employed in an industrial collaboration between the Department of Computer Science and the School of Dentistry.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 817 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media (August 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584503807
• ISBN-13: 978-1584503804
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #630,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended physics book, October 14, 2005

By 

EJ Coumans (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Physics Based Animation (Graphics Series) (Hardcover)

I've been working in collision detection and rigidbody simulation for several years now and there are not many books that cover stuff needed to get the knowledge to be able to develop a modern physics engine.

Rather then filling half of the book with basic linear algebra and stuff that no-one actually uses when developing realtime physics algorithms, this one actually discusses the good stuff.

Contact points generation, comparison of collision detection algorithms, iterative solvers, sph fluids, fem deformable etc.

Just buy it.
Erwin Coumans
http://www.continuousphysics.com

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars need some undergrad physics and maths background, September 15, 2005

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Physics Based Animation (Graphics Series) (Hardcover)

The authors figure that you are already an animator. You know the rudiments of programming animation in some language, but want to add more realism to the actions in your games.

The point of this book is to teach you how to go from understanding simple but useful physics equations to implementing these numerically and efficiently in your game. Probably the most obvious context are the equations of motion - where your objects obey gravity. And they conserve momentum and energy, up to a point. That is, you can build in friction into your system, for more realism. Ideally, all of this should make your game more plausible to a player, by conforming to her real world intuition.

The book also gives extensive coverage to collision detection methods. In many games, 2d or 3d, if you have objects moving around, how to quickly see when they might collide? Efficiency is often a key consideration.

Having said all this, it probably does help if you have had several undergraduate courses in physics and maths. So that what the book brings up doesn't throw you for a loop.

4.0 out of 5 stars Physics Based Animation Review, May 30, 2009

By 

Teodor Cioaca "KT117A" (Bremen, DE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Physics Based Animation (Graphics Series) (Hardcover)

The book provides a complete overview of all the chapters physically based modeling of phenomena requires. However, the reader won't find a very detailed and easy to use description of certain methods. It can be regarded as a strong immersion into the realm of physics for games or simulations, especially for the novices in these fields.