I was wondering where the line between physically based animations and physics based rendering lies. Is rendering strictly the study of how light behaves and how we perceive it? While animation is more about the movement of actual matter?
keenan
@rlpo Nice question. It is indeed true that the techniques we've introduced in this class for physically based rendering and physically based simulation look very different. Even within simulation, very different techniques might be used for different phenomena (e.g., solids vs. fluids).
However, there are places where the two worlds cross over. For instance, in graphics we use the geometric optics approximation of light, but of course in reality light obeys Maxwell's equations. These effects are typically unnecessary for making pictures, but you can do E&M simulation on meshes, just like you do for solids, fluids, etc. See for instance this paper on simulating Maxwell's equations using discrete differential forms.
Likewise, there are cases where you can use Monte Carlo methods to solve the kinds of PDEs that show up in physical simulation. My student Rohan Sawhney has some nice work on this topic.
I was wondering where the line between physically based animations and physics based rendering lies. Is rendering strictly the study of how light behaves and how we perceive it? While animation is more about the movement of actual matter?
@rlpo Nice question. It is indeed true that the techniques we've introduced in this class for physically based rendering and physically based simulation look very different. Even within simulation, very different techniques might be used for different phenomena (e.g., solids vs. fluids).
However, there are places where the two worlds cross over. For instance, in graphics we use the geometric optics approximation of light, but of course in reality light obeys Maxwell's equations. These effects are typically unnecessary for making pictures, but you can do E&M simulation on meshes, just like you do for solids, fluids, etc. See for instance this paper on simulating Maxwell's equations using discrete differential forms.
Likewise, there are cases where you can use Monte Carlo methods to solve the kinds of PDEs that show up in physical simulation. My student Rohan Sawhney has some nice work on this topic.