This page is concerned with creating approximate models of the physical world on a computer. I was up late one night, watching this film which was entirely computer generated. There was this one scene where a cloth lay on a table. The excess cloth hanging off was rippled in just the way a cloth should be, and as a gentle breeze blew in through the window, the cloth flapped around. I was totally impressed. For ages, I couldn't figure out how they could possibly have done this. I thought they must have some very complicated mathematical function or something. Then I realised that it was really easy, and quickly wrote a program to simulate the movement of cloth. 8 jan '00 1.5 Mb

Kinetics Introduction to Particle Systems Collision Detection and Particle Interaction Falling under Gravity Bouncing Being affected by wind Stars moving under Gravity Snooker balls Pendula Friction Rolling (inverse) Kinematics Kinematics (articulated structures) Inverse Kinematics Inverse Kinematics (improved method) Mass & Spring models Strings Cloths Gels Pyrotechnics Fire Fluid Fire Sparks Smoke Explosions The Natural World Introduction To fractal Nature Perlin Noise Trees Flowers Landscapes Landscapes on a Sphere Clouds Rivers Fog Ripples Waves Sunsets