Disney makes simulating clothes in animations faster and more realistic

Researchers from Disney Research and the University of Colorado have adapted and improved an existing method of simulating the movement of fabric. By applying smoothed aggregation, moving clothing can be simulated six to eight times faster.

The latter can make a big difference in how realistic clothes look in animated images. To simulate the clothing on an animated figure, the researchers use a new multigrid approach. In the ‘traditional’ multigrid approach, complex problems are solved by first solving a coarser, less detailed version of the problem. In the new approach it is recursive or vice versa and the problem is made more and more coarse until it is easy to solve. From there, we have to work in the other direction towards a more complex version of the problem, explains one of the researchers Rasmus Tamstorf in a post on Eurekalert.

The smoothed aggregation technique is an algebraic multigrid method, designed to overcome the coupling between different directions, making it work on any type of mesh or pattern. As a result, the method does not depend on the underlying mosaic or diamond pattern that can change over time. It only needs to use a fine-mesh mesh. As an example, the researchers use a fully clothed figure in which an acceleration of six to eight times can be observed at 371,000 points.

A paper is available at Disney Research.