TITLE: NeuroBugs
NAME: Ian Cackett
COUNTRY: UK
EMAIL: ian@newdirection.demon.co.uk
WEBPAGE: http://www.newdirection.demon.co.uk
TOPIC: Robot
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
RENDERER USED: PovRay 3.1g
TOOLS USED: CMPEG for MPEG encoding, PaintShop Pro 5 for titling, my own Java tool to automate overlaying of titles and fades between frames
CREATION TIME: Approximately 5 days
HARDWARE USED: Pentium II 400Mhz
VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS:
Tested on Microsoft Windows Media Player version 6.4.05.0809
ANIMATION DESCRIPTION:
Independent robot ‘bugs’, each controlled by a 20 cell neural network to allow co-ordination of movement towards goal points and avoidance/overtaking of other bugs.
DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS ANIMATION WAS CREATED:
I trained a 20 cell neural network to guide each bug towards a goal point while avoiding other bugs, using my own Java-based network trainer. I placed the bugs in several start-up positions (varying their number between about 20 and 300 in different scenes), and gave them goals (sometimes random, sometimes the same goal). I then recorded the bugs’ movement against time, including position, base rotation, rotation of the front wheel and velocity, and converted the resulting data into a POV-Ray include file for each frame of the animation. (This data took up 28Mb, which is why I have not included animation source files!) I then wrote a POV-Ray macro to render a NeuroBug when supplied with the parameters above (position, rotation etc.). I used my own simple Java-based curve generator to add camera positioning and smooth camera movement to some shots. I rendered a low-quality preview animation, followed by a higher quality finished product after tweeking some settings. I used PaintShop Pro 5 and another Java tool of mine to automate blending between scenes and overlaying of titles. The frames themselves are not re-touched in any way other than overlaying of titles and this blending between scenes. Finally, I used CMPEG to encode the frames in MPEG format. I repeated this last stage several times in-order to cut the animation down to the required 5Mb.