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Robust Skin Simulation in Incredibles 2

Ryan Kautzman, Gordon Cameron, Theodore Kim

SIGGRAPHPixar2 citesCFXMuscles

Addresses Incredibles 2 skin simulation using 2D ray-tracing over mesh surfaces for fast, robust secondary motion on superhero characters.

Abstract

Robustly simulating the dynamics of skin sliding over a character's body is an ongoing challenge. Skin can become non-physically "snagged" in curved or creased regions, such as armpits, and create unusable results. These problems usually arise when it becomes ambiguous which kinematic surface the skin should be sliding along. We have found that many of these problems can be addressed by performing 2D ray-tracing over the surface of the mesh. The approach is fast and robust, and has been used successfully in Incredibles 2.

How to read this

Category
Production talk / technique (robust skin simulation)
Contributions
  • Identifies non-physical snagging of skin in curved or creased regions (e.g. armpits) as the core failure
  • Addresses it by performing 2D ray-tracing over the surface of the mesh to disambiguate the sliding surface
  • Delivers a fast, robust skin-sliding approach used in production on Incredibles 2
Context
Relates to character skinning with contact and collisions (referenced efficient-elasticity skinning work), targeting the secondary skin-sliding motion on stylized superhero characters.Builds on: Efficient Elasticity for Character Skinning with Contact and Collisions
Correctness
Studio practice, not peer-reviewed; results are production-proven on Incredibles 2, and the 2D surface ray-tracing is presented as a robust heuristic for the snagging ambiguity rather than a fully general dynamics solution.
Clarity
Accessible and problem-focused; a single first pass conveys the snagging issue and the ray-tracing remedy.
How to read it
Read once for the failure case (ambiguous sliding surface) and the 2D-ray-tracing fix; focus on when the ambiguity arises rather than expecting a formal derivation.

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