A Collision Deformer for Autodesk Maya

Abstract

Believable physical interactions involving collisions between objects are essential in motion graphics and video games. The most common approach to create such effect is to employ dynamics simulation. However, to create a simple collision effect, dynamics simulation is time-consuming and lacks artistic control. This paper presents a custom deformer for creating simple collision effects in Autodesk Maya. The deformer determines intersection between objects by performing inclusion tests for selected vertices, and approximates the elastic behavior of the soft body in response to collisions by applying a controllable deforming algorithm to the object surface. No physics simulation is required in this process. The deformer supports interacting with multiple collider objects and at the same time provides artistic control for the user to manage the deformation. The deformer has proven successful for creating plausible deformation of simple collision interactions in a fast, controllable manner.