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Show CHAPTER 10 CONCLUSIONS This thesis presented eplastics, a physically based modeler for modeling the motion of points connected by elastic and plastic springs and hinges. In addition, this model is created for the express purpose of modeling and animating a certain class of surfaces which convey the properties of softness, flexibility and stretchability. The surface representation chosen for eplastics is the B-spline surface. The B-spline surface representation is a well-established basis for the modeling of complex sculptured surfaces. Eplastics is an attempt to expand the range of surfaces that can reasonably be created under the B-spline representation. To be a useful tool as a B-spline surface modeler, eplastics must afford the user enough control over the parameters of the physical simulation and give feedback quickly enough that an understanding for the meaning of the parameters can be learned. Toward this end, eplastics was written as an interactive program. Menu options give control over every simulation parameter and the modeling response is fast enough for near real time display of most models. Physically based motion alone is not suitable as a surface modeler. External controls are required to guide the surface toward a desired result. Many tools were developed within eplastics to give control over certain parameters in the system. These tools included constraint curves, velocity damping, and global strength multipliers for spring constants. Despite these tools, and the experience of using them, often a simulation had to be run many times before the desired result was |
