Hey, We Won!
Marion – Metaballs aka blobby molecules by Koichi Ohmura in Japan in 1982, and
by Jim Blinn in the U.S. If you attended Siggraph in 92 the HDTV animation
Dino Tours was created with Metaballs. Thomson Digital Image, SoftImage and
Side Effects Software have all incorporated Metaballs technology into their
software. They are similar to splines but have fluid dynamic properties, which
enabled the rippling skin of the Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Working with them
is however much more complex as they have distributed weight properties. Weight
is like gravity in that Metaballs influence the behavior of each other, and
depending on the weight of the Metaball as it gets heavier, it becomes harder
and fuses less easily. Super Metaballs have eccentric distribution which
permits selective control of the direction in which Metaballs fuse. This is an
incredibly powerful technology, which will no doubt change the course of
computer animation, but there are still some problems that have to be resolved.
Fixed texture maps cannot be used. You may also have seen it used in the liquid
morphing sequence in Terminator II. -JE