A programming approach for complex animations. Part II. Reconstruction of a real disaster

Three years ago, during the excavation of a subway gallery near Neaples, a terrible gas explosion occurred with a terrain and building collapse. In th is paper, we describe the geometric modeling and the visual simulation of s ome possible scenarios of the catastrophic event. The geometric models and the visual simulation, as well as the overall animation coordination, were developed using the functional design language PLaSM. Both animation and re ndering were performed by an Open Inventor-based animation server, which pl ays motion data generated by the PLaSM interpreter. This paper will discuss both the design lines and some preliminary results of a very complex visua l simulation project, accomplished by using a geometric programming approac h. A methodology for symbolic representation of complex animations was alre ady discussed in the companion paper [Bajaj C, Baldazzi C, Cutchin S, Paolu zzi A, Pascucci V, Vicentino M. A programming approach for complex animatio ns. Part I. Methodology. Computer Aided Design 1999;31;695]. (C) 1999 Elsev ier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.