Deborah R. Fowler
Crowds
Posted 2013
Updated Aug 31 2017
click here for Houdini Crowd Resources
click here for Motion Capture Resources
click here for Crowd History
Crowd simulation is a vast topic and involves
everything from characters that are humans, insects, traffic to
robots via artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, particle
systems and various algorithms. On this page the focus is on
Houdini and no attempt is made to cover this vast topic in
detail but rather to introduce the subject as it relates to the
visual effects industry. A brief overview in that context is
given here.
The goal of the simulation is to have large numbers with both individual and group behavior. Many solutions and extensive research have occurred, however the focus here is in the application to entertainment. There are still many challenges in working with crowds, in particular rendering, and more real-time crowd rendering (video games), taking into account runtime LoD (level of detail).Wiki describes crowd simulation as "the process of simulating the movement (or dynamics) of a large number of entities or charcters. It is commonly used to create virtual scenes for visual media like films and video games, and is also used in crisis training, architecture and urban planning, and evacuation simulation".
Solutions range from particle based systems to AI based algorithms.
In TECH 450, we will be using Houdini as our main tool, including terrain development using height fields and motion capture using Vicon Blade.
See Houdini Crowd Resources