The EVO project is all about using the open 3D content creation and animation software Blender for developing Environmental Visualization Objects. But for many sophisticated visualization functions in Blender it’s not the Blender developers who made the start. Rather, these functions originate in more generic computer graphics research that tries to find useful algorithms for visualization and simulation problems in the three spatial dimensions plus time.

Smoke plume rendered in Blender

A good example is the smoke simulator that was implemented by Blender developers Daniel Genrich and Miika Hamalainen based on a research paper by computer graphics scientists of Cornell University and ETH Zurich. And there you have it, a chain of links: basic computer graphics research linked to implementation in open software linked to use for specialized application development (e.g. a cloud development EVO) linked finally to students exploring weather dynamics at the end of the chain.

So, what does the future have up it’s sleeve for EVO creation? An intriguing place for some possible answers is the Interactive Geometry Lab led by Prof. Olga Sorkine. Check it out …