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 this paper, we describe the geometric modeling and the visual simulation of some 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 rendering were performed by an Open Inventor-based animation server, which plays motion data generated by the PLaSM interpreter. This paper will discuss both the design lines and some preliminary results of a very complex visual simulation project, accomplished by using a geometric programming approach. A methodology for symbolic representation of complex animations was already discussed in the companion paper [Bajaj C, Baldazzi C, Cutchin S, Paoluzzi A, Pascucci V, Vicentino M. A programming approach for complex animations. Part I. Methodology. Computer Aided Design 1999;31;695].