From: "Colin Godfrey" Subject: SIGGRAPH/BOSTON at MERL, Wed Dec 8. Date: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 2:50 AM SIGGRAPH/BOSTON at MERL Madeline Kleiner Basement FX Studio Water, fire, and smoke in the cinema Fluid special effects When: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 6:30 - 9:00 pm (Networking 6:30 to 7. Presentation starts at 7) Where: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory 201 Broadway, Cambridge MA 02139 8th Floor Fluid special effects include scenes with water, fire, smoke, wind, and explosions. Obviously, the most convincing fluid effect would be one that recreates the atomic bomb detonating, the house burning down, the city block blowing up, or a ship at sea. One would just film it. Unfortunately, it is not always plausible to do this. It is either not possible, practical or is too expensive. Film makers and special effects people have used extensive low and high tech solutions. This talk will examine these methods including Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the latest particle level-set method used in films such as Terminator 3. Madeline Kleiner is a principal at Basement FX Studio in Cambridge. She creates special effects using Maya and MEL scripting for film and broadcast. A plug-in is being developed at Basement FX Studio for fluid simulation (Maya) that uses particle level-set methods to simulate fluids pouring into containers. Madeline received a Ph. D. in electrical engineering from Tufts University, and a Masters from Boston University. She is a certified Maya instructor and teaches introductory courses at Future Media Concepts in Cambridge. Madeline has a life-long love of science fiction, film, special effects, and animation. She is working on two short animations, "Mimi" and "Sean". She is also the local president of the Maya Users Group. Directions to Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, 201 Broadway: Via T Get off the T at the Kendall Square stop on the Red Line. Exit from the subway and then walk directly into the lobby of the Marriott Hotel, which is on a courtyard adjacent to the subway exit. Walk straight through the lobby and out the opposite side of the building. The street you are facing is Broadway. Turn left. Walk through 3 traffic lights. 201 Broadway is the first building on your right after the third light. We are on the 8th floor. Driving >From the intersection of Storrow Drive and Cambridge Street, take the Longfellow bridge over the Charles river to Cambridge. Drive straight on away from the river. You are on Broadway. Go through one traffic light (the Marriot hotel is now on your left). Continue straight through two more traffic lights (you are now passing over some railroad tracks). (Between the first and second of these traffic lights is a parking garage open to the public. Depending on the time of day there may also be on street parking availabe near MERL.) Continue straight through one more light (Mitsubishi is the first building on your right after this light). It says 201 in large numbers on the corner of the building. MERL is on the eighth floor. ************************************************************************ SIGGRAPH/Boston Contacts WWW: http://www.siggraph.org/chapters/boston SIGGRAPH/Boston maintains a mailing list for e-mail announcements of meetings. Send e-mail to siggraphdistrib-request@@@@cs.umb.edu if you want be added to or dropped from this list.