Reality-augmented virtuality: modeling dynamic events from nature

Virtual Reality thrives on interactivity, realism, and increasingly also animation. The virtual world is not a static place anymore: dynamic entities mimicing natural phenomena are finding their way into computer games and special effects. Typically, physics-based models or ad-hoc behavioral descriptions are drawn on to emulate water waves, flames, smoke, cloth motion, ... For interactive VR applications, unfortunately, simulating complex physical processes is often too time-consuming, while, on the other hand, simplified model descriptions yield un-natural, artifical animation results.Alternatively, natural events may be acquired from the "real thing". Given a handful of synchronized video recordings, this talk presents examples how complex, time-varying natural phenomena may be modeled from reality to be incorporated into time-critical 3D graphics applications. The reward are photo-realistic rendering results and truly authentic animations.