Technology
Weapon Systems Conceptual Design
Team uses Maya 3D to model ideas
By Dr. Jose Renteria, Software Engineer, ARL MSRC/Raytheon
An important role of the Center’s team is to collaborate with researchers in the formation and design of conceptual weapons systems. The staff develops conceptual animations to provide context to new technologies and insight to future test planning and experimentation. The first step in creating a conceptual animation is the design of a storyboard. In this phase the Scientific Visualization team members meet frequently with the principal investigators (PI) to outline the main objectives of the weapons systems technology. The purpose of the storyboard is to provide a comprehensive representation of the PIs objective and to include the technical detail required to generate the model and any required physics.
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| Supporting frames for the Switchblade scenario animation |
The second step is modeling, rendering and animation. This phase is realized with the Maya 3D software package (Maya). The Maya software is a powerful integrated 3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering solution. Maya models are derived from primitive shapes that are added, removed and organized within a Maya scene. These shapes can then be artistically transformed to a desired shape or size by scaling, rotating and scaling points and polygons. Once the model is finalized, Maya lighting, texturing and shading techniques are employed to provide realistic material properties to the model. Maya rendering tools are then utilized to generate a quality and realistic image. However, to obtain realistic movement thousands of images must be generated using aforementioned techniques. Fortunately, Maya facilitates this with a suite of animation tools that generate key-frames and sub-frames. Models can be animated along a specified path and with a series of hierarchical transformations.
The next phase is to develop an animation. Using the ARL MSRC state-of-the-art multimedia center, a fully functional video production/multimedia facility built around a robust Final Cut Pro HD non-linear editing system, the Center’s team members prepare and generate movies that showcase the animation utilizing frames generated by Maya. Sound effects and narration are used to enhance the animations. The final video/multimedia presentation is used to present the ideas and concepts of the DoD researcher to further understand and analyze the problem at hand.
As one example, this process was used to assist in the evaluation and development of a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) coupled with a detection system. The UAV, called Switchblade, comes pre-packaged in a shipping container that also serves as its own launch tube. The conceptual animation was able to incorporate realistic flight dynamics, allowing the evaluation of numerous flight profiles, camera angles, locations and fields of views. This provided the feedback necessary to optimize these parameters without lengthy and expensive flight testing. The animation was also able to highlight several significant advantages that Switchblade possesses over conventional UAVs. As a self-contained item, packaged inside a robust container, Switchblade can easily stand up to the rough handling of actual battlefield conditions. This is in sharp contrast to other small UAVs that are quite fragile and require manual assembly before launch. As a deviation from the original storyboard, the designers asked that the animation group alter the mission to explore the use of a lethal payload on-board the UAV. Working side-by-side with the ARL design engineer, this animation allowed the portrayal of a mock mission, within a realistic environment, without ever leaving the confines of the computer lab. Figures 10 shows a conceptual model of the Switchblade and a photograph of the actual Switchblade respectively.
The Switchblade conceptual animation required many hours of design, modeling, animation, rendering and final production editing and audio synchronization. This animation would not have been possible without the HPC and Visualization resources and expertise at the ARL MSRC.