Autodesk Labs has released Project Geppetto, its experimental new crowd simulation system for 3ds Max. Geppetto is a data-driven animation system that offers high level control of plausible human motion. Creating and editing Geppetto crowds is done using simple geometric shapes and paths. It comes with a set of animations for use in common settings like sidewalks, hallways, lobbies and plazas. Architects, engineers and designers can use this project to enrich the context of their presentations with realistic human activity.
Geppetto is part of a broader concept that is called "People Power." The basic idea is to try to assemble all the components you’d need to create, manage and control large crowds of characters.
Goal is to solve three big problems:
- Creating believable motion easily (Geppetto)
- Creating the look of any kind of human population or demographic and allowing for cultural influences (Evolver)
- Creating an efficient framework for interacting with tens of thousands of such characters
Project Geppetto
Source: Autodesk