1. Introduction to Non-Rigid Body Dynamics
A Survey of Deformable Modeling in Computer Graphics, by Gibson & Mirtich, MERL Tech Report 97-19
Elastically Deformable Models, by Terzopoulos, Platt, Barr, and Fleischer, Proc. of ACM SIGGRAPH 1987
…… others on the reading list ……

2. Basic Definition
Deformation: a mapping of the positions of every particle in the original object to those in the deformed body
Each particle represented by a point p is moved by ():
p   (t, p)
where p represents the original position and (t, p) represents the position at time t.
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

3. Deformation Modify Geometry Space Transformation (x,y,z) (x,y,z)
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4. Applications Shape editing Cloth modeling Character animation
Image analysis
Surgical simulation
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M. C. Lin

5. Non-Physically-Based Models
Splines & Patches
Free-Form Deformation
Subdivision Surfaces
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6. Splines & Patches
Curves & surfaces are represented by a set of control points
Adjust shape by moving/adding/deleting control points or changing weights
Precise specification & modification of curves & surfaces can be laborious
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

7. Free-Form Deformation (FFD)
FFD (space deformation) change the shape of an object by deforming the space (lattice) in which the object lies within.
Barr’s space warp defines deformation in terms of geometric mapping (SIGGRAPH’84)
Sederberg & Parry generalized space warp by embedding an object in a lattice of grids.
Manipulating the nodes of these grids (cubes) induces deformation of the space inside of each grid and thus the object itself.
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

8. Free-Form Deformation (FFD)
Linear Combination of Node Positions
In geometric modeling, we often want to deform the model,
for example, we apply bending, twisting, compressing and stretching to some part of a model.
It can be done by modifying the geometric representation itself.
A different approach is space transformation. We can apply a special space transformation to the modeling coordinate system.
It is a mapping from the position before deformation (x,y,z) to the position after deformation phi of (x,y,z).
In Free-Form Deformation, this function phi is defined as a linear combination of node points large X.
This method is versatile. In other word, deformation is defined independent of the representation of geometry.
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

9. Generalized FFD
fi : Ui  R3 where {Ui } is the set of 3D cells defined by the grid and fi mappings define how different object representations are affected by deformation
Lattices with different sizes, resolutions and geometries (Coquillart, SIGGRAPH’90)
Direct manipulation of curves & surfaces with minimum least-square energy (Hsu et al, SIGGRAPH’90)
Lattices with arbitrary topology using a subdivision scheme (M & J, SIGGRAPH’96)
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

10. Subdivision Surfaces
Subdivision produces a smooth curve or surface as the limit of a sequence of successive refinements
We can repeat a simple operation and obtain a smooth result after doing it an infinite number of times
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11. Two Approaches Interpolating Approximating
At each step of subdivision, the points defining the previous level remain undisturbed in all finer levels
Can control the limit surface more intuitively
Can simplify algorithms efficiently
Approximating
At each step of subdivision, all of the points are moved (in general)
Can provide higher quality surfaces
Can result in faster convergence
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M. C. Lin

12. Surface Rules For triangular meshes Loop, Modified Butterfly
For quad meshes
Doo-Sabin, Catmull-Clark, Kobbelt
The only other possibility for regular meshes are hexagonal but these are not very common
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

13. System Demonstration:
An Example
System Demonstration:
inTouch Video
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M. C. Lin

14. Axioms of Continuum Mechanics
A material continuum remains continuum under the action of forces.
Stress and strain can be defined everywhere in the body.
Stress at a point is related to the strain and the rate of of change of strain with respect to time at the same point.
Stress at any point in the body depends only on the deformation in the immediate neighborhood of that point.
The stress-strain relationship may be considered separately, though it may be influenced by temparature, electric charge, ion transport, etc.
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M. C. Lin

15. Stress
Stress Vector Tv = dF/dS (roughly) where v is the normal direction of the area dS.
Normal stress, say xx acts on a cross section normal to the x-axis and in the direction of the x-axis. Similarly for yy .
Shear stress xy is a force per unit area acting in a plane cross section  to the x-axis in the direction of y-axis. Similarly for yx. x y
xx
yy
xy
yx
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

16. Strain
Consider a string of an initial length L0. It is stretched to a length L.
The ratio  = L/L0 is called the stretch ratio.
The ratios (L - L0)/L0 or (L - L0 )/L are strain measures.
Other strain measures are
e = (L2 - L02 )/2L  = (L2 - L02 )/2L02
NOTE: There are other strain measures.
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

17. Hooke’s Law
For an infinitesimal strain in uniaxial stretching, a relation like
 = E e
where E is a constant called Young’s Modulus, is valid within a certain range of stresses.
For a Hookean material subjected to an infinitesimal shear strain is
 = G tan 
where G is another constant called the shear modulus or modulus of rigidity. 
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

18. Continuum Model
The full continuum model of a deformable object considers the equilibrium of a general boy acted on by external forces. The object reaches equilibrium when its potential energy is at a minimum.
The total potential energy of a deformable system is
 =  - W
where  is the total strain energy of the deformable object, and W is the work done by external loads on the deformable object.
In order to determine the shape of the object at equilibrium, both are expressed in terms of the object deformation, which is represented by a function of the material displacement over the object. The system potential reaches a minimum when d w.r.t. displacement function is zero.
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

19. Discretization Spring-mass models (basics covered)
difficult to model continuum properties
Simple & fast to implement and understand
Finite Difference Methods
usually require regular structure of meshes
constrain choices of geometric representations
Finite Element Methods
general, versatile and more accurate
computationally expensive and mathematically sophisticated
Boundary Element Methods
use nodes sampled on the object surface only
limited to linear DE’s, not suitable for nonlinear elastic bodies
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

20. Mass-Spring Models: Review
There are N particles in the system and X represents a 3N x 1 position vector:
M (d2X/dt2) + C (dX/dt) + K X = F
M, C, K are 3N x 3N mass, damping and stiffness matrices. M and C are diagonal and K is banded. F is a 3N-dimensional force vector.
The system is evolved by solving:
dV/dt = M–1 ( - CV - KX + F)
dX/dt = V
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M. C. Lin

21. Intro to Finite Element Methods
FEM is used to find an approximation for a continuous function that satisfies some equilibrium expression due to deformation.
In FEM, the continuum, or object, is divided into elements and approximate the continuous equilibrium equation over each element.
The solution is subject to the constraints at the node points and the element boundaries, so that continuity between elements is achieved.
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

22. General FEM
The system is discretized by representing the desired function within each element as a finite sum of element-specific interpolation, or shape, functions.
For example, in the case when the desired function is a scalar function (x,y,z), the value of  at the point (x,y,z) is approximated by:
(x,y,z)   hi(x,y,z) i
where the hi are the interpolation functions for the elements containing (x,y,z), and the i are the values of (x,y,z) at the element’s node points.
Solving the equilibrium equation becomes a matter of deterimining the finite set of node values i that minimize the total potential energy in the body.
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

23. Basic Steps of Solving FEM
Derive an equilibrium equation from the potential energy equation in terms of material displacement.
Select the appropriate finite elements and corresponding interpolation functions. Subdivide the object into elements.
For each element, reexpress the components of the equilibrium equation in terms of interpolation functions and the element’s node displacements.
Combine the set of equilibrium equations for all the elements into a single system and solve the system for the node displacements for the whole object.
Use the node displacements and the interpolation functions of a particular element to calculate displacements (or other quantities) for points within the element.
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin

24. Open Research Issues Validation of physically accurate deformation
tissue, fabrics, material properties
Achieving realistic & real-time deformation of complex objects
exploiting hardware & parallelism, hierarchical methods, dynamics simplification, etc.
Integrating deformable modeling with interesting “real” applications
various constraints & contacts, collision detection
UNC Chapel Hill
M. C. Lin