Physics Based Animation (Graphics Series)

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 832 pages
• Published by: Charles River Media August 9, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1584503807
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1584503804
• Book Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.7 x 2 inches
• Weighs: 3.4 pounds

Book Description
This book is written to teach students and practitioners the theory behind the mathematical models and techniques required for physics-based animation. It does not teach the basic principles of animation, but rather demonstrates 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 great 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

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 Dohlmann 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.

Reader Reviews
I recommend this book for breadth of coverage and references. However, you will find many of the derivations very lacking and you will have to do a lot of work to prove them to yourself. Also, the mathematical typesetting is very much below par (they should have used LaTeX, which is industry standard!), so your eyes will hurt. I find myself copying out their formulas just so I can read them. Good book with some problems. I would buy it again. Comment | | (Report this)