̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - animation

“You’ve got a friend in me” Bringing designers and animators together

lw355 — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 09:53:13 +0000

̽��ֱ��adventures of Woody and Buzz Lightyear have been charming children – and adults – worldwide for 20 years this year. As well as a razor-sharp, hilarious script, Toy Story was the first full-length feature film made entirely using computer-generated imagery, marking the arrival of a new way of creating visual effects in three dimensions.

But the underlying mathematics that brought the toys to life, and continues to be used by a thriving visual effects industry, has actually been around since the 1960s. It’s embedded in how the automotive, aeronautical and other manufacturing industries design their products.

̽��ֱ��two branches of design – called subdivision surfaces (used by animators) and Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS, used by the manufacturing industry) – have the same mathematical roots, but they have evolved in different directions.

Recently, however, researchers at Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory have found a way to reconcile the two divergent paths, enabling product designers to access the easier and less-constraining tools used by the animation industry.

This all sounds like good news for the product designers. But, as lead researcher Neil Dodgson, Professor of Graphics and Imaging, explained, “there is understandable caution. Although the method used by designers gives greater freedom and increased usability, manufacturers have a back catalogue of existing models and around 45 years of experience. A move away from the method used by the manufacturing industry has to be sufficiently advantageous to warrant making.” Dodgson believes that current research is providing that advantage.

̽��ֱ��NURBS method was developed at a time when computers were very limited in their capabilities; by the time the subdivision surface method was commercialised, in the late 1990s, computers had vastly increased memories and processing power.

Essentially, the two methods address different priorities. When animators model three-dimensional surfaces, they want ease of design and their ‘product’ lives only on the screen. An engineer, by contrast, needs a design tool that is mathematically able to handle a wide range of requirements, including specifying cutting paths, mould shapes and objects that can actually be manufactured.

Dodgson’s team’s first breakthrough was to demonstrate, in 2009, a mathematical framework that made NURBS compatible with subdivision methods. Like a ‘bolt-on’ application, NURBS-based design could be imported to subdivision methods at the press of a button.

“It had been thought that the two methods had diverged so much as to be incompatible. Suddenly, we had a method that theoretically offered the manufacturing industry the flexibility the artists enjoy in subdivision. But the ‘theoretically’ is important… in practice there were two stumbling blocks.”

With funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, his team has spent the past few years ironing out the problems. Ironically, one of the problems was to make creasing possible.

Take the Mercedes car. Part of its distinctive shape is the presence of two furrowed creases running the length of the hood. In fact, almost all cars have a crease somewhere. ̽��ֱ��NURBS method can accomplish this, and so can the animators’ subdivision method, but the researchers’ NURBS-compatible subdivision method had cases that just did not work. Now, however, the problem of creasing has been solved by Dr Jirí Kosinka.

̽��ֱ��second challenge was to enable ‘trimming’. In NURBS design, holes and complicated joins are often made by mathematically trimming away part of the NURBS surface, which adds a further layer of mathematical complexity on top of the basic NURBS method. Subdivision does not need trimming, because it has the flexibility to allow holes and complex joins within its basic mathematical structure.

PhD student Jingjing Shen has tackled this problem by developing a method that will convert a trimmed NURBS surface to an ordinary, untrimmed, subdivision surface. Her current challenge is to extend this work from ordinary subdivision to NURBS-compatible subdivision.

“So will the industry take up our method? Well, a new piece of research might help persuade them,” said Dodgson. While the researchers in Cambridge were perfecting their conversion method, researchers in Europe and the USA have spent a decade developing a computational approach called isogeometric analysis (IGA) that would allow manufacturers to carry out design and simulation using the same tools.

New designs of products such as cars, planes and ships have to be rigorously tested using simulation software to be sure they will work – and work safely – once manufactured. At the moment, it is necessary to convert data from NURBS into a different geometrical representation for the analysis and testing phase. ̽��ֱ��engineers carrying out the analysis have to take the NURBS designs and then spend weeks or months creating new models that can be fed into the simulation system.

“Although IGA would enormously speed this process up, it cannot be used by product designers because it hasn’t been able to handle trimming,” said Dodgson. “We think we offer a way to avoid this problem.” Dodgson’s Austrian collaborators have recently developed IGA for subdivision surfaces and Dodgson suggests that the trimming problem can be completely avoided with Shen’s method for converting trimmed NURBS to untrimmed subdivision for analysis.

Dodgson points towards the example of a leaky teapot as an indication of how important the link between design and analysis is. When a teapot is designed using NURBS, the cutting and trimming needed to fit a spout to the body of the teapot leaves a tiny gap at one edge of the join. ̽��ֱ��same would be true for fitting the nose of an aeroplane to the body.

“At the production stage, these gaps don’t matter because the gaps are truly tiny. At sub-micrometer in size, they are smaller than the machining tools can cope with, so they simply vanish in the actual product,” he explained.

“But before you get to the production stage, when the design is going through simulation testing, they do matter. Any gap in a teapot would cause it to leak, in theory, and so the software throws up errors.”

Dodgson believes that his conversion method can solve these difficulties: “When you convert from trimmed NURBS to subdivision, the gaps vanish: there is a true mathematical join between previously disjointed surfaces.”

He added: “This, combined with IGA, and subdivision’s increased flexibility and usability, all look very promising for being able to design and analyse automatically, and quickly feed the results back into re-design.” ̽��ֱ��researchers believe that the new process they are developing could make a vast difference to manufacturing design. Or, in the words of Buzz Lightyear, to infinity and beyond.

Inset images: credit: Jirí Kosinka

Aircraft designers and animators use different digital technologies to achieve the same goal: creating a three-dimensional image that can be manipulated. But a new method that links the two could vastly speed up how product designers create and simulate the performance of their products.

Suddenly, we had a method that theoretically offered the manufacturing industry the flexibility the artists enjoy in subdivision

Neil Dodgson

Jirí Kosinka

Reflection lines on a creased structure

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. For image rights, please see the credits associated with each individual image.

Yes

Trilogy of short films explores young people’s views of life in social care

jfp40 — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 16:56:36 +0000

̽��ֱ��film, Our House, is the third in a trilogy of films about life in the care system developed by young people working with a team of professionals as a way of giving them a voice within the care system and providing new skills to help them in future life. ̽��ֱ��young people were national finalists for the Children in Care Award at the Children & Young People Now Awards 2014, for their work on the first two films, My Name is Joe, about being taken into care, and Finding My Way, about leaving care. Earlier this year, Finding My Way won a documentary award at the BFI Future Film Festival for young film-makers.

̽��ֱ��films are part of a research project run by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR CLAHRC) East of England, a collaboration between universities and service providers. Partners in the film projects are the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire County Council and Cambridgeshire Film Consortium. ̽��ֱ��latest film was jointly funded with a donation from the Isaac Newton ̽��ֱ�� Lodge, Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��films have all been created at four-day animation summer schools, held each August for the last three years, at which young people in care and care leavers work with a team of professionals to explore difficult and sensitive issues through sound, music and animation.

“These films work on so many levels", explains Valerie Dunn, a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry, who led the project. “They give young people a voice, ensuring that that their own, authentic experiences can be part of the debate about the services which directly affect their lives. In terms of research, film-making like this is a really exciting way of getting under the skin of a complex issue and working with groups who may be difficult to engage in more traditional approaches.”

During the summer school the young people learned new skills in terms of film-making, animation and sound recording, but their learning also extended to team-building skills, self-expression, learning a work routine, timing, working to deadlines and negotiation skills.

“Although the end products – the films – are important, the production process is equally, if not more, important,” explains Tom Mellor, a youth worker who facilitated the workshops. “Young people in care often find self-expression difficult and our approach provides a creative way of them exploring and sharing their opinions, experiences, thoughts and feelings. They learn a lot – but so do we, the adults, as we all work towards a common goal in a safe environment. Crucially, we all have a lot of fun along the way.”

Under the tutelage of filmmakers Ryd Cook and Andy Dunn, for each film the young people filmed some live action, either at studios at Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ�� or, for the latest film, on location in residential homes. Sound artist James Rogers worked with the young people on the sound track and sound effects. On the latest film he worked with one young man, Twitch, to produce We All Have A Life, We All Have A Story, a rap which ends the film. Animator Lizzy Hobbs taught animation techniques and inspired the young people to create and animate images and consider the overall production.

Speaking about the latest film, Michelle Dean, Children's Social Care Participation Manager at Cambridgeshire County Council, says: “We all learned a great deal through this process about how young people view residential care. They clearly want the choice of living either in a residential setting or in a smaller foster care placement: those who were allowed to choose were better able to settle in. Some young people also have a positive experience of their care, forming very strong attachments to residential staff and preferring residential care to foster care. ̽��ֱ��staff are the key to success and can be important sources of support and information. But most of all, young people want to be listened to.”

One of the young people is now keen to pursue a career in film design and recently completed a BFI Film Academy week, run by the Cambridgeshire Film Consortium, for talented 16-19 year olds wanting to join the film industry. “I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t done this film project. I’ve learned loads and it’s been so fantastic,” she says.

At the annual local authority Children in Care awards last week the young people turned the tables and gave the professionals an Outstanding Achievement Award: “For giving us the help and guidance to make our and other young people’s voices heard. For being so supportive, helpful and understanding. We make such a great team – simply outstanding.”

Between them, the films have over 7,000 views on YouTube. ̽��ֱ��first two are being used to train foster carers, social workers and young people all over the UK by local authorities, fostering agencies and colleges. My Name is Joe has been incorporated into the new edition of ̽��ֱ��Skills to Foster, the most widely used training scheme in the UK for prospective foster carers, produced by ̽��ֱ��Fostering Network. Short Behind the Scenes films show the young people at work.

A powerful new short film created with young people in residential care is helping provide valuable insights for service providers into the challenges of life in residential care from the perspective of the young people within the system.

These films work on so many levels. They give young people a voice, ensuring that that their own, authentic experiences can be part of the debate about the services which directly affect their lives.

Valerie Dunn

Our House

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Still from animation "Our House"

Yes