University Scholar Series: Alejandro Garcia

Collaborating with DreamWorks On April 25, 2012 Professor Alejandro Garcia spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Ellen Junn at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Professor Alejandro Garcia developed and teaches Physics of Animation, a science course for visual artists. During 2011, he took a professional leave and worked in DreamWorks Animation\u27s department of Artistic Development as a physics consultant on Madagascar 3: Europe\u27s Most Wanted. In this seminar, Alejandro Garcia describes the animation industry from both the scientific and artistic perspectiveshttps://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/uss/1013/thumbnail.jp

Open 3D Projects

Many professionals and 3D artists consider Blender as being the best open source solution for 3D computer graphics. The main features are related to modeling, rendering, shading, imaging, compositing, animation, physics and particles and realtime 3D/game creation.

Doctor of Philosophy in Computing

dissertationPhysics-based animation has proven to be a powerful tool for creating compelling animations for film and games. Most techniques in graphics are based on methods developed for predictive simulation for engineering applications; however, the goals for graphics applications are dramatically different than the goals of engineering applications. As a result, most physics-based animation tools are difficult for artists to work with, providing little direct control over simulation results. In this thesis, we describe tools for physics-based animation designed with artist needs and expertise in mind. Most materials can be modeled as elastoplastic: they recover from small deformations, but large deformations permanently alter their rest shape. Unfortunately, large plastic deformations, common in graphical applications, cause simulation instabilities if not addressed. Most elastoplastic simulation techniques in graphics rely on a finite-element approach where objects are discretized into a tetrahedral mesh. Using these approaches, maintaining simulation stability during large plastic flows requires remeshing, a complex and computationally expensive process. We introduce a new point-based approach that does not rely on an explicit mesh and avoids the expense of remeshing. Our approach produces comparable results with much lower implementation complexity. Points are a ubiquitous primitive for many effects, so our approach also integrates well with existing artist pipelines. Next, we introduce a new technique for animating stylized images which we call Dynamic Sprites. Artists can use our tool to create digital assets that interact in a natural, but stylized, way in virtual environments. In order to support the types of nonphysical, exaggerated motions often desired by artists, our approach relies on a heavily modified deformable body simulator, equipped with a set of new intuitive controls and an example-based deformation model. Our approach allows artists to specify how the shape of the object should change as it moves and collides in interactive virtual environments. Finally, we introduce a new technique for animating destructive scenes. Our approach is built on the insight that the most important visual aspects of destruction are plastic deformation and fracture. Like with Dynamic Sprites, we use an example-based model of deformation for intuitive artist control. Our simulator treats objects as rigid when computing dynamics but allows them to deform plastically and fracture in between timesteps based on interactions with the other objects. We demonstrate that our approach can efficiently animate the types of destructive scenes common in film and games. These animation techniques are designed to exploit artist expertise to ease creation of complex animations. By using artist-friendly primitives and allowing artists to provide characteristic deformations as input, our techniques enable artists to create more compelling animations, more easily

The artistic use of parallax and lenses revealing the invisible in holography

There are many artistic resources offered by holography: third-dimension registration and reconstruction, immateriality, color interpretation, holographic space, realism, etc. But there are a few of them which are very characteristic and singular of that media such as the inversion of parallax, and the possibility of making invisible to turn into visible. Current paper aims to discuss key issues concerning with the aesthetic use of those special features. It is based on theoretical as well as critical analysis of the production by some of the most outstanding holographic artists who have made use of such interesting resources

Material Sight: A Sensorium for Fundamental Physics

Often our attempts to connect to the spatial and temporal scales of fundamental physics - from the subatomic to the multiverse - provoke a form of perceptual vertigo, especially for non-scientists. When we approach ideas of paralysing abstraction through the perceptual range of our sensing bodies, a ‘phenomenological dissonance’ can be said to be invoked, between material presence and radical remoteness. This relational dynamic, between materiality and remoteness, formed the conceptual springboard for 'Material Sight' (2016-2018), a research project based at three world-leading facilities for fundamental physics, that brought to fruition a body of photographic objects, film works and immersive soundscape that re-presented the spaces of fundamental physics as sites of material encounter. The research was premised on a paradoxical desire to create a sensorium for fundamental physics, asking if photography, film and sound can embody the spaces of experimental science and present them back to scientists and non-scientists alike, not as illustrations of the technical sublime but as sites of phenomenological encounter. This article plots the key conceptual coordinates of 'Material Sight' and looks at how the project’s methodological design – essentially the production of knowledge through the 'act of looking' – emphatically resisted the gravitational pull of art to be instrumentalised as an illustrative device within scientific contexts

Physically-based Muscles and Fibers Modeling from Superficial Patches.

We propose a novel approach for the generation of volumetric muscle primitives and their associated fiber field, suitable for simulation in computer animation. Muscles are notoriously difficult to sculpt because of their complex shapes and fiber architecture, therefore often requiring trained artists to render anatomical details. Moreover, physics simulation requires these geometries to be modeled in an intersection-free rest state and to have a spatially-varying fiber field to support contraction with anisotropic material models. Inspired by the principles of computational design, we satisfy these requirements by generating muscle primitives automatically, complete with tendons and fiber fields, using physics based simulation of inflatable 3D patches which are user-defined on the external mesh of a character