Virtual nature: the magic of visualizing scientific models at Royal NIOZ
This movie shows how the NIOZ combines ecological models with 3D computer graphics techniques to generate natural virtual worlds. This technique can be used to reveal natural ecosystems that are normally hidden from view, such as mussels beds underwater, to show their hidden beauty and high biodiverisity. The technique can also be used to visualise the possible outcome of ecosystem management scenarios, which can be helpful for managers and the general public to choose the right management option.
Visualisation of a mussel bed using ecological models and procedural techniques
This is the result of a one year project I did at NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research)
The assignment was to create a visualisation of a virtual mussel bed that couild be used as supporting material for a presentation. The goal was to show the importance of the mussel beds for the Wadden Sea and how they affect the biodiversity.
The movie was shown at a conference to a broad audience of scientists, policy makers and some people from the fishing industry.
The assignment was to create a visualisation of a virtual mussel bed that couild be used as supporting material for a presentation. The goal was to show the importance of the mussel beds for the Wadden Sea and how they affect the biodiversity.
The movie was shown at a conference to a broad audience of scientists, policy makers and some people from the fishing industry.
This was an interesting subject for procedural generation because I could use some ecological models that described the pattern formation of mussel beds.
The large scale band patterns are described by a partial differential equation which creates a texture map with densities that are used for displacement and as input for another model.
The small scale mussel patterns are described by an individual based model that I recreated in Houdini with popdops.
Visualisation of a salt marsh using procedural techniques
This was originally made during my internship at NIOZ. When I later started working at NIOZ for a year I had the opportunity to improve the video for the creation of a promotional video.
The system uses ecological data in the form of coverage curves to calculate densities across the terrrain. Vegetation is then procedurally placed according to the distribution.
Compositing breakdown starts at 0:28 in the video.
Everything in the video was made and composited in Houdini.