Computer graphics

We Finally Figured Out How To Make Realistic CG Mud

Jurassic Park had just six minutes of computer-generated dinosaurs in it, compared to modern blockbusters which can have thousands of shots requiring complex visual effects. It’s no surprise that animators are eager to embrace any shortcut they can—which is why realistic-looking CG mud could be a game changer. Visual effects studios are not only under…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski May 10

You Can Stop Worrying, Disney Figured Out How to Make Perfect CG Sugar

So far 2016 has been a wild ride, but there’s one less thing to keep you awake at night, terrified about the future, now that Disney Research has finally found a way to render convincing computer-generated sugar that looks and moves just like the real thing. Phew! In a paper titled Efficient Rendering of Heterogeneous…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Dec 8

Virtual 3D Oil Painting Perfectly Simulates How the Brush, Paint, and Canvas Interact

Nvidia and Adobe teamed up to develop a 3D-painting app that is sure to become an essential tool for modern day art forgers. The software accurately simulates the 3D texture of oil paints, and how the bristles of a brush work to smear it across a canvas. If you’ve ever examined an oil painting up…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Jul 27

What Makes a GPU Different From a CPU?

Better graphics requires a better graphics card. This much is intuitive to most people. But asking what makes a GPU different from a standard CPU is almost a trick question, because at their most fundamental level they’re the same damn thing. Both pieces of hardware perform the same kind of task: they get a problem—in…

Sploid Avery Ellis Jun 6

The Pope’s Tablecloth Trick Was a Miracle! (of Modern Computer Graphics)

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, for the fantastic feats of Chill Pope! Today, he’s showing off a classic: The old ‘yank a tablecloth, leaving everything else on the table undisturbed’ trick. It’s a miracle! Except that it’s totally fake. The video showing Pope Francis doing the second coolest thing you can ever do (the…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 6

A Graphics Breakthrough Makes Perfect CGI Skin

You might not understand all of the technical details behind the computer graphics research being revealed at Siggraph 2015 this week, but come next year when the CG characters in movies and video games start to look indistinguishable from real humans, you’ll know who to thank. In this case it’s a team of researchers from…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Aug 12

Why Ikea’s Mostly Computer Generated Catalog Will Soon Be the Norm

The rooms in Ikea’s catalogs may look like wonderlands of inexpensive furniture, but they’re mostly computer generated. Like, 75 percent computer generated. The Swedish juggernaut has experimented with CG product shots for almost a decade now, and it’s getting incredibly good at it. But it’s far from the only company doing it. We learned about…

Tech News Jordan Kushins Aug 29

Creepy Simulation Shows How Ancient Arachnids Actually Walked

After modeling the exceptionally well-preserved remains of a 410 million-year-old arachnid, researchers from the University of Manchester in the UK used an open-source computer graphics program to bring the extinct predator back to virtual life. It’s called trigonotarbid and, in addition to being an early relative of spiders, it was one of the first predators…

io9 George Dvorsky Jul 9

The colors on this digitally restored ancient statue are unreal

It’s considered a Japanese national treasure, but the colors on an 8th century statue of the Buddhist deity Shukongojin have all but faded. Now, using computer graphics technology, a joint team from Tokyo has brought its vivid colors back to life. The 68-inch (173 cm) tall statue is only displayed to the public once a…

io9 George Dvorsky Dec 17

Even the Crappiest of Computers Can Handle ASCII Fluid Simulations

The incredibly lifelike computer simulations of snow and water seen in effects-heavy Hollywood blockbusters—and even video games—require a significant amount of computing power. It’s not uncommon for a single frame of a movie to require days to render, and these days visual effect studios have more computing power than Nasa. But Yusuke Endoh has created…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Nov 28

This jaw-dropping water simulation is the most realistic yet

Simulating the complex ebbs and flows of liquid in real-time is not easy, but this jaw-dropping new demonstration from PhysX shows we’ll eventually get there. This new system is called Position Based Fluids (pdf), and it works off a previously developed model called Position Based Dynamics. The new algorithm reduces water to a large series…

io9 George Dvorsky Apr 24

Whoa, Computer Graphics Can Make Water Look Real Now

Now here’s something impressive. PhysXInfo seems to have solved one of the tougher problems in computer graphics: realistic fluid dynamics. In other words, making water look like actual water, and not a tub full of triangles. The software you see running here is called Position Based Fluids, using PhysXInfo’s Position Based Dynamics. It’s pretty gorgeous,…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Apr 23

Motion Capture Without Skintight Suits Will Make Blu-ray Extras Way Less Fun

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken have developed a new type of motion capture system that doesn’t require the live action performers to wear those skintight body suits covered in cumbersome tracking markers. And the typical 360 degree array of infrared sensors capturing their movements can be reduced to just a…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Mar 28

How to film an epic New York battle scene without actually being in New York

As hard as this is to believe, very little of The Avengers was shot in New York City, including the epic finale. To pull off the trick, the Industrial Light and Magic crew created an intricately detailed 20-block “digital playground” that was mapped against the real thing. Check out this video to see how they…

Movies George Dvorsky Feb 25

A Sneak Peek At the Mind-Boggling Future of Computer Graphics

Computer graphics have come a long way since a T-Rex ate that lawyer in Jurassic Park. But if these glimpses of what the next generation of CG has in store, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Cloth simulations with hyper-realistic wrinkling, modelling complex human hair using thermal imaging, and new approaches to smoke rendering will make…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Nov 28

This Fabric Simulator Will Make CG Characters Sound More Realistic Than Ever

Every last detail can help make a computer-generated character seem more realistic. So a team of researchers at Cornell University have developed a simulator that can accurately recreate the sound of cloth so that the CG characters you see on screen also sound as authentic as possible. Typically this task would be left to foley…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Sep 27

AT&T’s Cutting-Edge Computer Graphics Workstation Looked Outdated Even in 1982

Before the internet as we know it came to be, there were other services that delivered news and information to homes via computers and TVs. Like AT&T’s failed Viewtron system, which required content creators to shell out $34,000 for this Frame Creation Terminal that produced crude computer graphics even by Mario Paint standards. https://gizmodo.com/the-viewtron-was-at-ts-1983-solution-for-information-ov-5907450 For…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Sep 25

Over-Dramatic Mannequin Promises To Make Computer Animation Easy

If you reached the limits of your artistic capabilities with crude flipbooks in your high school textbooks, but dream of being an animator, the Qumarion will make up for at least a little lack of talent. It’s essentially an electronically-enhanced version of those wooden mannequins that artists often use to sketch the human form. Except…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski May 26

Computer Animation in the 70s Was as Hard as You’d Expect

Wireframe boxes and freehand squiggles might not be as exciting as dinosaurs and terminators, but this 1971 film from the National Research Council of Canada is an important history lesson for anyone who doesn’t appreciate the sophisticated animation software we have at our disposal today. The clip takes a look at a piece of software…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Apr 19

A mathematical impossibility that became possible, thanks to early computer graphics

Turning a sphere inside-out was thought to be impossible for decades. It was officially declared possible in 1958, but remained impossible to picture. It was only until the 1970s, when a graphics expert got involved, that people could finally see the craziest bubbling of a beach ball ever mathematically conceived of. Mathematicians have a certain…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 19

We Finally Figured Out How To Make Realistic CG Mud

You Can Stop Worrying, Disney Figured Out How to Make Perfect CG Sugar

Virtual 3D Oil Painting Perfectly Simulates How the Brush, Paint, and Canvas Interact

What Makes a GPU Different From a CPU?

The Pope’s Tablecloth Trick Was a Miracle! (of Modern Computer Graphics)

A Graphics Breakthrough Makes Perfect CGI Skin

Why Ikea’s Mostly Computer Generated Catalog Will Soon Be the Norm

Creepy Simulation Shows How Ancient Arachnids Actually Walked

The colors on this digitally restored ancient statue are unreal

Even the Crappiest of Computers Can Handle ASCII Fluid Simulations

This jaw-dropping water simulation is the most realistic yet

Whoa, Computer Graphics Can Make Water Look Real Now

Motion Capture Without Skintight Suits Will Make Blu-ray Extras Way Less Fun

How to film an epic New York battle scene without actually being in New York

A Sneak Peek At the Mind-Boggling Future of Computer Graphics

This Fabric Simulator Will Make CG Characters Sound More Realistic Than Ever

AT&T’s Cutting-Edge Computer Graphics Workstation Looked Outdated Even in 1982

Over-Dramatic Mannequin Promises To Make Computer Animation Easy

Computer Animation in the 70s Was as Hard as You’d Expect

A mathematical impossibility that became possible, thanks to early computer graphics

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