Directing the plant interactions for "Over The Hedge"

ABSTRACT

The characters actually go through the hedge in the movie "Over The Hedge". While building a system to solve for the collisions and realistically deforming and ripping of the branches and leaves had its challenges of its own, directing them for timing purposes according to the mood of the movie also required an unique set of controls. In this sketch, we first present how we approached to the problem and then discuss some of the specific cases that required rather special attention during the production. This system was mainly used for the hedge interactions where the volume coverage was rather heavy, but the methods could be applied to the other types of plants.

Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

  • Artificial intelligence

    • Computer vision

      • Image and video acquisition

        • 3D imaging

  • Computer graphics

    • Animation

    • Graphics systems and interfaces

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Interaction devices

      • Graphics input devices