Flock Navigation (render 2)

Python-scripted flocking behaviour in Maya. Flock members navigate the million-poly landscape (itself generated with Python scripting) and attempt to coordinate with each other.

The emergent properties of the flock are strong, even with such a simple algorithm. Note that the code only provides for individuals to move near one another (and avoid solid vertices), yet the flock appears to act as a coordinated whole.

The render was done using Mental Ray, set to not premultiply. This meant that particles against a blank background rendered very bright RGB colours, with the actual colours mediated by the alpha channel. I didn't have access to proper compositing programs when I was uploading, so I wrote a quick remultiplying compositor using Processing.

This is a tricky scene to render because of those million polys. Caching the flock animation and particles alone took over an hour. This render is incomplete, slightly glitchy, and could be almost twice as long. It will take weeks to do a better version, but this gives you an idea of what's going on.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Autodesk Maya
• Animation
• Processing
• AI