TREE ANIMATION FOR A 3D INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION SYSTEM FOR HURRICANE IMPACTS (ThuAmOR1)

Author(s) : Peter Singh (Florida International University, United States of America) Na Zhao (Florida International University, United States of America) Shu-Ching Chen (Florida International University, United States of America) Keqi Zhang (Florida International University, United States of America)

Abstract : This paper describes an implementation of vertex weighting for real-time animation of 3D trees as a result of wind force and direction. This method improves over similar techniques because it incorporates individual branch animation on 3D models, whereas previous works perform animations on the model as a whole or use planar billboards to visualize the tree. Our tree animation is used in an interactive system that visualizes the effects caused by a hurricane’s impact on a virtual city. The system uses models created with 3D Studio Max and the animations are implemented in OpenGL and the nVidia Cg shader language.

Menu