CS 352: Computer Graphics Hierarchical Graphics, Modeling, and Animation

CS 352: Computer Graphics
Hierarchical
Graphics,
Modeling,
And Animation
Chapter 9 - 2 Interactive Computer Graphics
Overview
 Modeling
 Animation
 Data structures
for interactive
graphics
 CSG-tree
 BSP-tree
 Quadtrees and Octrees
 Visibility precomputation
 Many figures and examples in this set of lectures are
from The Art of 3D Computer Animation and
Imaging, by I. Kerlow
Modeling
 The modeling problem
 Modeling primitives
 Polygon
 Sphere, ellipsoid, torus, superquadric
 NURBS, surfaces of revolutions, smoothed polygons
 Particles
 Skin & bones
 Approaches to modeling complex shapes
 Tools such as extrude, revolve, loft, split, stitch, blend
 Constructive solid geometry (CSG)
 Hierarchy; kinematic joints
 Inverse kinematics
 Keyframes
Representing objects
 Objects represented as symbols
 Defined in model coordinates; transformed
into world coordinates (M = TRS)
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glLoadIdentity(); glTranslatef(…);
glRotatef(…); glScalef(…);
glutSolidCylinder(…);
Primitives
 The basic sort of
primitive is the
polygon
 Number of
polygons:
tradeoff between
render time and
model accuracy
Spline
Curves
 Linear spline
 Cardinal spline
 B-spline
 Bezier curve
 NURBS (non-
uniform rational
b-spline)
Mesh
Mesh deformations
Sweep
 Sweep a shape over a path to form a
generalized cylinder
Revolution
 Revolve a shape around an axis to create an
object with rotational symmetry
Extrusion
 Extrude: grow a 2D shape
in the third dimension
 Shape is created with a (1D)
b-spline curves
 Hole was created by
subtracting a cylinder
Joining Primitives
 Stitching, blending
Modifying Primitives
Subdivision Surfaces
 Can set level of polygon subdivision
Skin and Bones

 Skeleton with joined “bones”
 Can add “skin” on top of bones
 Automatic or
hand-tuned
skinning
Particles
Algorithmic
Primitives
Algorithms for
trees, mountains,
grass, fur,
lightning, fire, …
Geometric model file formats

 .obj: Alias Wavefront
 .dxf: Autocad
 .vrml: Inventor
 Dozens more
 Can convert
between formats
 Converting to a
common format
may lose info…
Hierarchical models
 When animation is desired, objects may have
parts that move with respect to each other
 Object represented as hierarchy
 Often there are joints with motion constraints
 E.g. represent wheels of car as sub-objects with
rotational motion (car moves 2 pi r per rotation)
DAG models
 Could use tree to
represent object
 Actually, a DAG
(directed acyclic
graph) is better:
can re-use objects
 Note that each arrow needs a
separate modeling transform
 In object-oriented graphics, also
need motion constraints with each
arrow
Example: Robot
 Traverse DAG using DFS (or BFS)
 Push and pop matrices along the way
(e.g. left-child right-sibling)
(joint position parameters?)
Modeling Programs
 Moray
 Shareware
 Limited functionality
 Easy
 Lightwave, Maya
 NOT shareware
 Very full-featured
 Difficult to learn and use
 Moray, Maya demos; Lightwave video
Animation
 Suppose you want
the robot to
pick up a can of oil
to drink. How?
 You could set the
joint positions at
each moment in
the animation
(kinematics)
Inverse Kinematics
 You can’t just invert the
joint transformations
 Joint settings aren’t even
necessarily unique for a
hand position!
 Inverse kinematics:
figure out from the hand
position where the joints
should be set.
Using Inverse Kinematics

 Specify joint
constraints
and priorities
 Move end effector
(or object pose)
 Let the system figure
out joint positions
 [IK demo]
Keyframe Animation
 In traditional key frame animation the animator
draws several important frames, and helpers do the
“inbetweening” or “tweening”
 Computer animation is also key-frame based
 At key frames, animator positions objects and lights,
sets parameters, etc.
 The system interpolates parameter values linearly or
along a curve
 To get from one object pose to the next, inverse
kinematics determine joint motions
 [Keyframe animation demo]
Motion Capture
 More realistic
motion sequences
can be generated
by Motion Capture
 Attach joint
position indicators
to real actors
 Record live action
Morphing
 Morphing: smoothly shifting from one image
to another
 First popularized in a Michael Jackson video
 Method: a combination of
 Warping both images, gradually moving control
points from location in first image to location in
the second
 Cross-fading from first image sequence to second
3D Morphing
 Define 3D before and
after shapes as e.g.
NURBS surfaces with
same number of
control points
 Gradually move
control points from
first setting to second
 Specify key poses: e.g.
smile, frown, 12 frames of walking motion
Combined approaches
Example: virtual puppetry

 Suppose you want to display virtual puppet
shows
 How could you animate puppet movements?
 How could you control the animations externally?
Character Animation
 To make computer graphics
(or cartoon drawings)
come alive…
Personality through Pose,

Expression, Motion, Timing
Object-oriented Graphics
 Higher in the programming hierarchy: control
models with object-oriented programs
robot robbie;
robbie.smile();
robbie.walk(270, 5, 3);
Data Structures for Modeling

 This part of chapter: how some example
applications be done efficiently (i.e. topics
without a better home…)
 Tree-based subdivisions of space
 Example 1: how to represent complex
objects made up of union, intersection,
difference of other objects
CSG Tree
Application 2: HSR
 How to render in 3D with hidden surface
removal when you don’t have a hardware
depth-buffer?
 Can you think of any other ways of removing
hidden surfaces quickly?
 Principle: a polygon can’t be occluded by

another polygon that is behind it.
BSP-tree
 The painter’s algorithm for hidden surface
removal works by drawing all faces, from
back to front
 How to get a listing of the faces in back-to-
front order?
 Put them into a binary tree and traverse the
tree (but in what order?)
BSP Tree Figures

 Right is “front” of polygon; left is “back”
 In and Out nodes show regions of space
inside or outside the object
 (Or, just store split pieces of polygons at
leaves)
Traversing a BSP tree

 Binary Space Partition tree: a binary tree
with a polygon at each node
 Children in left subtree are behind polygon
 Children in right subtree are in front of polygon
 Traversing a BSP-tree:
 If null pointer, do nothing
 Else, draw far subtree, then polygon at current
node, then near subtree
 Far and near are determined by location of viewer
 Runtime of traversal?
 Drawbacks?
Building a BSP tree

 Inserting a polygon:
 If tree is empty make it the root
 If polygon to be inserted intersects plane of
polygon of current node, split and insert half on
each side recursively.
 Else insert on appropriate side recursively
 Problem: the number of faces could grow
dramatically
 Worst case (O(n2))…but usually it doesn’t grow too badly in
practice…
BSP-tree Summary
 Returns polygons not necessarily in sorted
order, but in an order that is correct for back-
to-front rendering
 Widely used when Z-buffer hardware may
not be available (e.g. game engines)
 Guarantees back-to-front rendering for alpha
blending
 Works well (linear-time traversals) in the
number of split polygons
 [And we hope the number of polygons
doesn’t grow too much through splitting]
Application 3: Handling Large

Spatial Data Sets
 Example application: image-based rendering
 Suppose you have many digital images of a
scene, with depth information for pixels
 How to find efficiently the points that are in front?
 Other applications:
 Speeding up ray-tracing with many objects
 Rendering contours of 3D
volumetric data such as MRI scans
Quadtree
 Quadtree: divide space into four quadrants.
Mark as Empty, Full, or Partially full.
 Recursively subdivide partially full regions
 Saves much time, space over 2D pixel data!
Quadtree Structure
Octrees
 Generalize to cutting up a cube into 8 sub-
cubes, each of which may be E, F, or P (and
subdivided)
 Much more efficient
than a 3D array of
cells for 3D
volumetric data
Quadtree Algorithms
 How would you
 render a quadtree shape?
 find the intersection of a ray with a quadtree
shape?
 Take the union of two quadtrees?
 Intersection?
 Find the neighbors of a cell?
Applications of Octrees
 Contour finding in MRI data
 3D scanning and rendering
 Efficient ray tracing
 Intersection, collision testing
Research in Visibility
 Can we figure out in advance what will be
visible from each viewpoint?
Viewer-centered representation
 Viewer-centered object representations:
representation not of volume of space filled
but appearance from all viewpoints
Occlusion in view space

 Occlusion in view space is subtraction
Events
 Events: boundaries in viewpoint space
where faces appear or disappear
Aspect Graph
 Aspect graph: a graph with a node for every
topologically distinct view of an object, with
edges connecting adjacent views
Aspect graph varieties

 Aspect graphs can be constructed for
 3D: space
 2D: multiple axis rotations or planar motions
 1D: single-axis rotations
1D Aspect Graph for Rotation

1D Aspect Graph Results

 Useful for rotations without Z-buffer
hardware!
 Not so useful for more viewer freedom,
modern graphics hardware
Conservative Visibility Preprocessing

 Q. can we take advantage of z-buffer?
 Definition: weak visibility. A polygon is
weakly visible from a region if any part of the
polygon is visible from any viewpoint in the
region
 Conservative visibility preprocessing:
computing in advance a (super-)set of the
polygons that are weakly visible from some
region
 Rendering with Z-buffer yields correct image,
but it’s faster since fewer polygons are drawn
Weak Visibility Subdivision

 Given an object and a wall, find the region of
space from which the wall occludes the
object
 Divide space into
regions, where each
edge represents
some object
appearing or
disappearing
Conservative Visibility
Preprocessing on a Grid
 Divide viewing
space into a 3D
(or 2D) grid
 Compute a
conservative
display list for
each cell
Conservative visibility
algorithm
 Initialize a display list for each grid cell
 Algorithm: for each object, wall, and cell
 If the object is not weakly visible from the cell,
remove from cell’s display list
 You can churn away at this computation as

long as you like, increasing runtimes, but you
can stop at any time with usable results.
(Results improve over time!)
Perspective
 What good did this visibility research do for
the world?
 It wasn’t enough for me
 I left graphics research and went into digital
libraries
 Left University of Pittsburgh and went to Wheaton
College
Summary
 3D modeling uses advanced primitives and
ways of cutting, joining them
 Inverse kinematics determines joint position
from end effector motions
 Keyframe animation involves important poses
and inbetweening
 3D morphing animates surface control points
 3D spatial subdivision trees include CSG-
trees, BSP-trees, Quadtrees, and Octrees
 Visibility preprocessing speeds walkthrough

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CS 352: Computer Graphics

Skin and Bones

Geometric model file formats

Using Inverse Kinematics

Example: virtual puppetry

Personality through Pose,

Data Structures for Modeling

 Principle: a polygon can’t be occluded by

BSP Tree Figures

Traversing a BSP tree

Building a BSP tree

Application 3: Handling Large

Occlusion in view space

Aspect graph varieties

1D Aspect Graph for Rotation

1D Aspect Graph Results

Conservative Visibility Preprocessing

Weak Visibility Subdivision

 You can churn away at this computation as

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