Controllable simulation of particle system

Abstract

We describe a method to control a motion of particles during physically based simulation. Specifically we design force fields which drive particles so as to shape a human figure. We define attraction, steering and repulsion force fields to achieve a target shape and avoid obstacles. We use key frames of a skeleton of a human figure as a target shape and distribute attraction points over the target shape as a reference to attract the particles. Compared to previous control techniques, our method is fast enough to run in real time and shows a stable behavior of particles not sacrificing plausible simulation. Since our approach is suitable for real time applications, a user can interact with particles or obstacles in a physically satisfiable manner during the simulation. ？ 2011 Springer-Verlag.