Project Groups 2009-2010 - Emily Weihrich

• Real-Time Hair Simulation for Low Dynamic Movements (Emily Weihrich)
  
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Abstract

Simulating hair on a virtual character remains one of the most challenging aspects of computer graphics. Currently, there are numerous different techniques for modeling, animating, and rendering believable hairstyles.

With the emergence of new-generation GPUs, real-time hair simulation techniques are beginning to adopt more detail-promoting methodologies. Computations that once took hours, such as hair-hair collisions, now take minutes; likewise, computations that used to take minutes have been condensed to times favorable for real-time results. This general trend is visible across all three subcategories of hair simulation: modeling, animating, and rendering.

This project seeks to use current advances in real-time hair simulation to create two realistic (in terms of modeling, animating, and rendering) hairstyles, one male and one female, for virtual characters performing simple head movements, such as nods and turns. Since "main" characters are involved, the chosen simulation technique should be a merger of both computationally-friendly and detail-promoting methods. The end product would ideally be used in any context where real-time, low dynamic movement and rendering of hair are required.