Clothing the Masses: Real-Time Clothed Crowds With Variation

The animation and rendering of crowds of realistically clothed characters presents a difficult challenge in computer graphics, which is further exacerbated when real-time frame rates are required. To date, due to real-time constraints, standard skinning methods have been used to animate the clothes of individuals in real-time crowds, which does not create the appropriate secondary motion for flowing garments. However, plausible cloth simulation is vital for the depiction of realistic characters, so we have developed a novel crowd system in which the individuals are endowed with realism and variety through the addition of physically simulated clothing and hardware assisted pattern variation.