#Forensic Animation
<Did you have to generate your own numbers for the vehicles or did the expert
do that, I assume it was a vehicular accident?>
Actually, no.
If will allow me, I'd love to tell the story. It's kind of an interesting.
Besides we made money on it.
In simplest terms, the case involved a multimillion dollar mansion, on a
'compacted' view lot.
The compaction is the point of contention.
6 months after constuction was complete the mansion was 'sinking'.
One side argued that the contractor failed to compact the soil sufficently, and
was the sole reason for the situation.
The other side argued that a water leak had caused the problem.
The data I had to work from:
1. Water bills during the leak period….you will love this….6
MONTHS….1,000 GALLONS A DAY!
(the house was unoccupied at the time, and landscaping was taken into
account in this number)
2. A geologist had taken detailed measurements of the floor inside the
building. This documented
a 10" drop in one corner.
3. Boring data showing where the water was pooling.
4. Data that the footings were modified on site to deal with site conditions.
what showed on the plans as a 3' footing was extended to 7'……with NO
weep holes (the wolves are howling)
What was requested to be demostrated:
1. Show a couple of cross-sections to document where certain items were
located.
2. Nail in coffin #1…show the floor warping
3. Nail in coffin #2…show what 1,000 gallons a day looks like, in everyday
values.
4. Nail in coffin #3…show how this water would stand behind the footing.
What was produced:
1. easy
2. I digitized in the contours the geologist had and created a contoured
surface of the warpage.
in 3DS I duplicated this mesh, flatten the surface and mapped the geologist
drawing onto the surface.
Then I place this surface on the property, pointed out the leak area, then
morphed to the warped surface.
Made it real easy to figure out that the floor moved in the same area as the
leak.
3. We calced the quanity of water involved and discovered that it was equal to
about 3 ABOVE GROUND
POOLS PER MONTH. for 6 months….
So for impact, I have about 3 minutes of pool after pool after pool flying
in, dumping at one spot
and lining up on the horizon, like so many 'dead soldiers'.
4. Just to add insult, I had a profile of the footing, pointed out the leak
location, and then morphed
a 'bag o water' that was constrained to stay behind footing, saturating the
whole area.
As I mentioned before…they settled out of court after seeing this.
Sorry if I ran on here, it's just that this is fun stuff, and I work in a
vacuum.
Todd
Name: Todd Bruno or Paul Cook P.L.S.
Company Name: C.W. Cook Co.
Address: 11835 Olympic Blvd #375
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Phone #: 310.312.8222
Fax #: 310.312.8049
Compuserve: 76635,1274
Internet: TODDBRUNO@delphi.com
Areas Worked In: Land Surveying, Civil Engineering, anything that lands in
our laps
Business Opened: 1911. Yes 1911. We are coming up on 85 years. 3rd generation
owned.
We have been doing expert witness work for years in the above fields, most of
the time creating our own exhibits. Explaining the collection methods and
interpeting the results of ours and others work.
For years we have worked with just 'plan and profile' displays of
existing/proposed conditions, but found that perspective displays were easier
for juries. The next step was to convey the dynamics of the events, hence
animation.