Force-based group formation control

Nowadays, simulations of groups are important to bring more natural look to the virtual world. Moreover, large crowds can be used not only to fill space, but to create visually interesting shapes with perceptive or cognitive meaning. Positioning of people to create shapes is well known from live performances, or shows, where dancers are positioned to create formations. This principle is transferred from people to the animals in various motion pictures as another channel of metaphor. Our stochastic approach in distribution of individuals is different from regular ones, where participants are equally distributed. We use particle systems for representation of individuals and apply repulsive forces for distribution. This bring semi-regular approach, where participants are more naturally, less equally distributed with shape-preserving. Moreover we bring more automation and simplicity to the process, where chief animators, or designers define only shapes. Afterward we distribute individuals and create movement between formations. Shape-preserving is a feature which depends on human perception. Therefore we verified our results with the group of children that are target group of most motion picture movies and also with the group of adults. We tested meaning of the formations for humans in various ages and backgrounds.