LittleWorm Point Cloud
Skills: Render, Unity
LittleWorm Point Cloud is a toolkit that allows the user to convert their mesh data (.fbx, .obj, and others) into point cloud-based data structure. By doing so, the model data is discribed not only by the surface (mesh polys), but by the volume (points inside the polys). In addition to taditional point cloud fomate, I also successfully created algorithms to estimate the normal and skinned mesh based on the original mesh data. With these additional imformations, I am able to create lighting effects and continous animations for the models.
LWPointCloud
With the converting algorithm I designed, LittleWorm Point Cloud toolkit converts the information of mesh into a data structure called LWPointCloud, which contains the information of point, including position, normal, and alpha. LWPointCloud works with the particle system I created — LittleWorm Particle System. By giving the particle system those information, the system is able to discribe the model using particles.
How to Discribe an Animation
While LWPointCloud is able to describe the shape and lighting of a model, it is not able to describe the skinned mesh of the model continuously. Therefore, if I wish to use LWPointCloud to represent a clip of model animation, I can only create a discontinue, no-smooth particle animation.
LWPointCloud Animation
To solve the problem above, I designed an algorithm that allows me to evaluate the position of a point, using the neighbor polygons' position and rotation in the first frame and the target frame.
Conclusion
I am extremely satisfied with how this project came out to be. In this project, I gave thoughts on how to use different ways to describe a model without using the traditional mesh format, and I believe I have achieved huge success. I believe the process of making this project gave me an in-depth understanding of rendering and animating, which can be really helpful for me to work on related fields in the future.