← ArchivePaper2016
How to Build a Human: Practical Physics-Based Character Animation
James Jacobs, Jernej Barbic, Essex Edwards, Crawford Doran, Andy van Straten
Production overview of physics-based character animation combining FEM muscles, skin, and collision for anatomically driven deformation.
Abstract
This work presents a physics-based character animation workflow for generating realistic anatomical motion of muscles, fat, and skin using Finite Element Method simulation. The approach uses MRI scans for anatomical accuracy, assigns material properties from medical literature, and employs muscle fiber fields to enable contraction, producing physically plausible deformation without manual sculpting.
How to read this
- Category
- Production overview: physics-based anatomical character animation
- Contributions
- An FEM-based workflow simulating muscles, fat, and skin to produce realistic anatomical motion
- Use of MRI scans for anatomical accuracy and material properties drawn from medical literature
- Muscle fiber fields enabling contraction-driven, physically plausible deformation without manual sculpting
- Context
- Builds on physically based muscle and soft-tissue simulation in the lineage of Teran et al.'s skeletal muscle work, framed as a practical production pipeline.Builds on: Creating and Simulating Skeletal Muscle from the Visible Human Data Set
- Correctness
- Presented as a production workflow; correctness rests on MRI-derived anatomy and literature material parameters, so readers should keep in mind that fidelity depends on scan quality and on how well published material values transfer to the character.
- Clarity
- Accessible at the overview level; one pass conveys the pipeline, while FEM and fiber-field specifics are kept practical rather than fully derived.
- How to read it
- Read once for the anatomy-to-simulation pipeline (MRI to materials to fiber-driven contraction); go to the cited FEM-muscle literature for the underlying formulation.
Built upon by
Nothing yet.
Related work
- A Neural Network Model for Efficient Musculoskeletal-Driven Skin Deformation 2024 / SIGGRAPH
- Character Rigging, Deformations, and Simulations in Film and Game Production 2011 / SIGGRAPH Courses
- EMU: Efficient Muscle Simulation in Deformation Space 2021 / CGF
- Data-driven Modeling of Skin and Muscle Deformation 2008 / SIGGRAPH
Keywords
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