cei the world’s leader in visualization for science and ... · kent p. misegades, president...

Kent P. Misegades, President Computational Engineering International Inc.

Animating andAnimating andPresentingPresenting

Simulation ResultsSimulation Results

CEI the world’s leader in visualizationfor science and engineering

CEI … analyze, visualize, communicate

• What this Presentation Is and Isn’t

• Tips for Creating Impressive Images

• What About the Color-Blind?

• Types of Animation

• Animation Dos and Don’ts, or how to keep ‘em awake

• Presenting Animations from a Laptop

• Presenting Animations on High-End Display Systems

Topics


• IS– an overview of what has worked well for us

– examples from CEI and its customers

• ISN’T– sales pitch

– see www.ensight.com for CEI product information

What this Presentation Is and Isn’t


• Harpoon– automatic (mostly) hex mesh generator

• EnSight– general-purpose engineering postprocessor

• EnSight Gold– visualization for very large models and virtual reality

• EnLiten– platform-independent “rich” geometry viewer

• EnLiten Gold– virtual reality presentation tool

• EnVideo– platform-independent animation player

• EnVe– engineering video editor

Software Tools from CEISoftware Tools from CEI


Tips for Creating Impressive Images


• Part Colors– avoid fully saturated; pastels are warmer and print better– use banded color palettes that provide strong contrasts– avoid using more than one color palette / image; confuses

• Shading– adjust lighting parameters to mimic realistic conditions

• intensity, diffusion, highlights

– use a single white light source, adjust position to enhancecomprehension of surface curvature

• Anti-Aliasing– SGI hardware does this automatically, very nice images– otherwise use line thickness of at least 2 pixels




Fully-saturated colors • Pastel colors• Alpha-blending transparency• Wire-frame to expose internals



Which palette tells you more?

Continuous color palette Banded color palette

Banded color palette with black contours



Low diffusion, low highlighting High diffusion

Moderate diffusion and highlighting Static light source above & to right



Light source at eye of observer “Static” light source fixed to theleft of the model



No anti-aliasing Anti-aliasing


• Background Colors– choose best color for contrast, black is normally best

– most image editing software “likes” black backgrounds

– complicated backgrounds distract viewer from model

• Perspective– while orthographic views may have engineering advantages,

– humans respond best to realistic images, thus use it

• Transparency– most effective means to expose internal details

– alpha blending is far superior to screen door method




perspective on perspective off

alpha blending screen door


• Overlay CAD Model– overlay transparent CAD data to CFD results

– provides understandable reference to the non-analyst

– complicated backgrounds distract viewer from model

• Reduce Dimension of Model– flow features instead of numerous clips, traces, isos, etc.

• vortex cores, separation lines, shock surfaces, BL profiles, etc.

– developed (unwrapped) quadric surfaces

• Annotation– avoid text cluttering a beautiful image

– consider adding high-quality text later, i.e. in Photoshop




Too many traces! Fewer traces shown as ribbons

Fewer traces shown as tubes Reduce dimension of visual (next slide)



Reduce dimension of visual by depicting features, not raw data

Vortex core (orange)

Surface traces (dark blue)

Sep/attachment lines (green/magenta)


• Close-ups– several close-up views are generally better than one overall– strong perspective adds excitement, motion

• Display of Computational Grid– for modern, high-res models, generates too many lines– looks old-fashioned, difficult to reproduce sharply– use wire frame to show model features

• Particle Traces– use as few as possible; too many = spaghetti and confusion– display as ribbons or tubes to add shading– animate; shaded spheres with tails are best for comprehension



Typical Print Formats• JPEG & TIFF

– best choices for PowerPoint and HTML creation– save from a large size to give best image quality

• RGB– perhaps the best pixel format, from SGI– large file size

• GIF– Unisys now demanding royalties, so let’s not use it anymore

• PostScript– vector PS best choice for use in printed documents since scalable– vector with tiff preview and eps options are best, but seldom

available in OpenGL applications– raster postscript defeats the purpose!

• EVO– CEI’s own compressed image format, play with CEI’s EnVideo– good compromise between image quality and file size– API to create these available at www.ensight.com


• Color deficiencies are common amongst males

– 8% of all caucasian males

– 5% of all asiatic males

• Most common forms

– six types of dyschromatopsia have been identified

– most are dichromatic, only two of three primary colors seen

– typically, either red- or green-sensitive pigment is missing

– actual “color-blind” are only 0.003% of caucasian males

What About the Color-Blind?


• To help the color deficient:– avoid red and green in color palettes and part coloring

– use banded colors and black, delineating contours

– use high brightness levels and shades only of one color

– gray scales also work well

– special color palette in EnSight

• Check your images and web pages– VISCHECK web site

– input is your image

– output is image as seen for the selected color deficiency




Above: typical rainbow color palette, below: special palette for color red/green deficiency

normal vision

normal vision

red/green deficiency

red/green deficiency


Types of Animation• Streamline Animation

– massless or massed, streamlines or pathlines• Plane Sweep Animation

– XYZ, IJK, arbitrary planes, quadric surfaces, lines• Isosurface Animation

– isosurfaces or isovolumes (isosolids)• Transient Solution Animation

– often with moving meshes• Keyframe Animation

– fly-arounds, walk-throughs, part explosions• Linear Load and Mode Shape Animation (CSM)


• Follow Tips for Creating Impressive Images

• Create short segments, composite later (EnVe)

• Start with a fly-around, stopping every 90o

• Fade away obstructing model parts using transparency

• Animate while object fixed in space

• 30 frames/second remains recording rule of thumb

• Better to repeat short, quick animation than show long,

slow animation; KISS

Animation Dos and Don’tsor how to keep ‘em awake


• Recording options

– best are digital video formats (see below)

– preview speed during creation is not playback speed

– playback speed depends on many factors

• format used

• animation player used

• system performance and memory

• image size and total length

– videotape now considered obsolete, few companies have VCRs

Animation Dos and Don’tsor how to keep ‘em awake


Typical Animation Formats• MPEG

– small file size, but poor image quality– huge variation in MPEG formats, players– best played on Unix systems, Windows like Russian Roulette

• AVI– good image quality, but huge files unless compressed– compression tools not generally available due to license issues– best played on Windows systems, Unix like Russian Roulette

• Animated GIF– Unisys now demanding royalties, so let’s not use it anymore

• Quicktime– Apple’s solution; anyone remember the Mac?

• EVO– CEI’s own compressed image format– good compromise between image quality and file size– create anywhere, play anywhere using CEI’s free EnVideo player


• Most common playback today; PowerPoint is preferred tool

• How To:

– link an animation file to an object

• link to a separate image of the animation’s initial frame

• animation file separate from .ppt file, smaller files but less portable .ppt

• Action Settings... > Hyperlink to: > Other File …

– animation file inserted (embedded) as an object into .ppt file

• initial frame of animation appears automatically in presentation

• works well for MS-native formats, OLE players of which there are few

• increases .ppt file size by length of animation files, .ppt huge but portable

Presenting Animations from a Laptop


Sample Animations

Model courtesy Advantage CFD


Sample Animations

Model courtesy Modine Manufacturing


Sample Animations

Model courtesy Advantage CFD


• Less common today but has major advantages– show the entire geometry with color, annotations, legends, etc.– rotate, translate, zoom, animate models from laptop– existing standard formats few, file size can be very large

• How To:– VRML (.wrl file type)

• now defunct effort to create a standard geometry format• many programs can export VRML 1.0, fewer support VRML 2.0• SGI’s free but unsupported COSMO product one of few reliable viewers

– CEI’s scenario files and free EnLiten viewer (.els file type)• create scene, i.e. rendered model plus animations, in EnSight• view, move, animate model in CEI’s free EnLiten• create anywhere, play anywhere, free on www.ensight.com

Presenting Geometry from a Laptop


EnLiten .elsVRML .wrl

Presenting Geometry from a Laptop


Stereo (3D) ViewingStereo (3D) Viewing• No longer an exotic technology

– most modern graphics processors now stereo ready– require monitor displaying at 60 Hz or better– active (shutter) glasses relatively cheap, under $200/bundle– CEI’s supports stereo viewing in all products on all platforms– stereo-capable projectors still expensive, but prices will drop soon

• Most common stereoscopic display methods– Active

• left/right eye images interleaved vertically or horizontally• LCD shutter glasses synchronized by infrared signal or simple wire

– Passive• two polarized images created using two projectors or LCD monitor panel• throw-away plastic or cardboard polarizing eyewear

– Red/Green or Red/Blue• poor quality, but inexpensive eyewear, easily printed, use in .ppt


Stereo (3D) ViewingStereo (3D) Viewing

active stereopassive stereo

red/green stereo


Presenting Animations onHigh-End Display Systems

• What is High-End ?– one or more large display screens with edge blending– ceiling hung or back projection– stereo viewing– 3D or 6 DOF input device using tracker– head tracking driving scene

• Becoming more common as costs fall– automotive styling– engineering design review centers in aero and auto industries– oil exploration– architectural firms - buildings, major industrial construction– defense laboratories– EnSight Gold designed for such systems


Presenting Animations onHigh-End Display Systems

“In 2009, virtual reality tools will be usedfor the interpretation of results.”

Michael Engelman, VP of Technology, Fluent Inc.Technology Trends in CFD

Detroit, March, 1999


Software Tools from CEISoftware Tools from CEI

EnSight - Full Featured

EnLiten - Geometry EnVideo - Animations

EnSight GoldVR and Parallel

Auto Meshing

Solvers & Formats• CFD• CSM• CEM• CAD• Thermodynamics• Imaging• Experiments• etc….

EnVeengineeringvideo editor

.evo

Presentation ToolsEnLiten, EnVideo, EnVe

.cas

.els


Concluding Remarks• A good animation starts with impressive images

• Plan your animation as would a cartoonist, make sketches

• KISS

• Experiment with quality vs. file size vs. playback speed

• Test your animations on multiple computers

• Good productivity = 1 minute of animation created / day

• Use stereo viewing to enhance understanding and impress

• Use high-end display systems if available in your organization

• See www.ensight.com > News > White Papers for more info


Thank YouThank Youwww.ensight.comwww.ensight.com

9.11.01

cei the world’s leader in visualization for science and ... · kent p. misegades, president...

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