Formica polyctena

By 2016-08-30 Ant, Research

One of the ongoing projects and collaborations the ScienceVis Lab has been involved in relates to how animations of dynamic processes are mentally processed and how educational animations can be designed to facilitate this processing.Ant posed and renderedFor an upcoming educational study, we are designing stimuli that depict ant locomotion. For these stimuli, we require a realistic ant model and rig, which I have been working on recently. The rigging process involved determining what controls would be necessary, with the ability to match data from primary literature sources by verifying measurements of angles and distances on the model.Ant rig with segment anglesAnt rig with animation controlsThis animated gif shows a few of the possible model motions in action.In process rig showing ant motionDetail and textures were sculpted on to the model to increase the perception of realism.Ant "displacement" textures showing model detailThe design of the dynamic nature of the stimuli is still in progress, but hopefully soon we will see this ant walking.