Midterm Update

Midterm Report: Computer Animation Algorithms

Our project is to create a basic 3D spaceship simulator that will model the principles of Newtonian physics. As of today, we have completed the following:

· Generated the proposal document.

· Built the Website.

· Studied Newton’s 3 laws and ways to implement them.

· Assigned workload into three main parts.

· Plan design of the simulation

When we proposed this project, we were unaware that Assignment #3 would involve implementing many of the same concepts that we wish to include in our project. Therefore, we have decided to take the code for assignment #3 and integrate into our project. While this will expedite progress, we will still have to make the code work in a 3D environment. Additionally, we have decided to do the extras for Assignment #3 in order to integrate them into our simulation. We also hope that this extra time will enable us to put a higher degree of polish in our final project as art and aesthetic values were not things that we planned to invest much time in. Another possibility could be to make the objects in our simulation animate in more complex manners.

Because we are not working on the assignments together, we have decided that at this time, we would develop the basic framework for our simulation and begin implementing the physics engine after we decide whose code from Assignment #3 to base it off of. Outside of that, there are no serious roadblocks to report at this time and because we strove to keep the scope of the project within our bounds, it does not appear that anything will face the chopping block yet.

Future Work:

Week 6: Finish Design and Implementation of Assignment 3 with Extras

Week 7: Implementation

Week 8: Implementation

Week 9: Debug

Week 10: Presentation

Project Proposal

Computer Animation – Algorithms and Techniques

Project Proposal

Siu Choi Kevin Cheng, Emmet Coakley, Michael Stec

Summary:

For our project, we intend to create a basic physics engine for Newtonian physics in a zero gravity environment. To demonstrate this, we will create a basic simulation that will showcase the engine using a user-controlled spaceship and have an environment populated by both the spaceship and several objects with differing mass, velocity, and other physical properties. If time permits us to do so, we all also attempt to go beyond basic Newtonian physics and attempt to implement some more advanced laws. Time permitted, we plan to add graphical bells and whistles, pixel and vertex shading using HLSL. The project will be created using C++ and DirectX 9.

Work Plan:

Week 3: Complete Proposal

Week 4: Begin research into which laws to implement and which to leave out

Week 5: Design program framework

Week 6: Implementation

Week 7: Implementation

Week 8: Implementation

Week 9: Debug

Week 10: Presentation

As far as project roles goal, we will divide roles up as follows:

Kevin Cheng: Physics research, physics engine implementation, and art

Emmett Coakley: Physics engine implementation, Debug lead, miscellaneous

Michael Stec: Simulation implementation, physics engine implementation, miscellaneous

Final Presentation:

We will present our project in the “traditional” way graphics projects are presented. This means we'll do a PowerPoint explaining what we did and how we did it and then we will demo.

Website is (tentatively) at: http://newtonslawsofanimation.blogspot.com/