Cheating Physics or Not? Part 2

Now while there are cases in which following the rules may be good, often times in the entertainment industry the need to break rules is important.

Instead of trying to make everything realistic computer animators need to deal with "visual styling, blending cartoon physics with real world physics, using cinematography, mastering facial animation, and optimizing user-controlled animation."(Kerlow)

In order to due this we must bend the rules of physics.  For example when animating anything on a computer they are made out of a bunch of polygons which are made enitirely out of straight lines.  Now when using collisions between objects that are able to deform and reform such as bouncing balls we are unable to deform the object properly since we can't break the polygon lines.  So we oftne times smudge the equations to work properly before and after the bounce but during the bounce smudge the image into making it look like it was deformed but in actuality it is not.

Another big issue in computer graphics is lighting effects.  If we actually used the proper physics equations for lighting attenuation and rays reflecting off surfaces or going through mediums, the processing time it would take to render would freeze even some of the fastest machines out there.  So what happens is we fudge the data and have each object appear brighter or darker based off of a simpler equation that gives the appearance that lighting does exist.

<-Back
Next->