POV-Ray animation "Dropping capsules" [HiRes Version]

Physics engines are fascinating. Here, I tried out Open Dynamics Engine, ODE, and created this animation from the results of a simulation I created. It is my first program ever to use a serious physics engine. It is rendered using POV-Ray, an open source raytracing program.

I rendered this animation actually in three varieties:
- "SmoothTime Version", which has a high number of frames that are blurred together to produce a smooth, realistic animation. It is, however, rendered at a low resolution. Available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIQ_4hnHZuM
- "HiRes Version", (THIS VIDEO), which was rendered at a high resolution. It has, however, a lower number of frames, which means that the animation appears more jerky and artificial, though it is very sharp.
- "HDRI Version", in which graphical details from both bright and dim areas are shown in the same frame by retouching each frame with a "tonemapping" algorithm. Additionally, this version is both high resolution and uses motion blur. There's really not that much "HDR" to do after all... Available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sjHsmicDqU

The video has no sound. I originally planned to add sounds -- the simulation program does indeed record all collisions that could produce sound -- but I have not yet figured out what would be the best way to actually produce the soundtrack.

ODE can be found at http://www.ode.org/ . POV-Ray can be found at http://www.povray.org/ .

P.S. The animation was originally supposed to feature coins that are dropped from a tall height. However, currently ODE lacks the code to calculate cylinder-cylinder collisions, which is why I had to change them into capsules. Interestingly enough, it is apparently easier to calculate capsule-capsule collisions.

Trivia: The animation contains 3000 capsules. In addition, because the rendering also shows some "walls" and "lamps" that are on the floor, I had to introduce them, too, to ODE, so that the capsules will properly not-intersect with them. In total, the simulation thus contains 3010 objects, and it runs for 7000 frames (of which 1170 are rendered in the "high resolution version"). The simulation data took about 6 hours to calculate (non threading). The "high resolution" version took about 19 hours to render. It includes the "radiosity" and "antialias" features of POV-Ray, both of which significantly increase the rendering time. The POV-Ray scene contains 5 regular light_source declarations. (All light comes from the bulbs that are seen in the scene.)

Produced in June 2010, uploaded in November 2010.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Open
• Dynamics
• Engine
• ODE
• POV-Ray
• raytracing
• rendering
• 3D
• physics
• simulation

[tubebrocoli]

Whoa amazing. It's been quite some time since I heard of POV-Ray xD.