15 - Deformable Surfaces using Physically Based Particle Systems

Abstract

This chapter discusses a method for animating deformable surfaces using physically based particle systems. The use of physically based models for animating deformable surfaces is an important field in computer graphics. There are two successful approaches to this problem: particle systems and continuous systems. Particle systems consist of a large number of single particles, all of which move under the influence of the forces, such as gravity and external forces, etc. The particle systems were originally used to model fire, fireworks, waterfall, ocean, spray, trees, grass and other natural phenomena. More recently, particle systems have been used to model deformable surfaces. An interesting work in this area is the description of cloth draping behavior. In this field, the interacting-particle methods have been used to develop a theoretical model of woven cloth and predicate the drape of woven cloth such as cotton and wool. This chapter proposes the use of particle systems and a series of simple methods for creating and animating a deformable surface which has a similar result to continuous systems, but with better stability and much faster speed of calculation. The shape of the surfaces is easily controlled.