Week10

Week 10 Plan:

Plans for 799.

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Basically, this quarter I worked hard on recording the comparison of the two different pipelines, USD and VAT, and finished the first draft of the paper. I also explored triggering VAT animations, Houdini Niagara, and importing large amounts of particles from Houdini into Unreal. In addition, I made VAT collaborate with Niagara by getting the position and rotation from the texture and feeding it into Niagara, so I could change the shapes of the points instead of using cards.

799 Week Plan:

Week 1

Define deeper research questions from the SIGGRAPH reviewers' feedback and lock the core contribution (VAT + Niagara for a changing vertex count).

Week 2

Develop the VAT + Niagara approach in depth: use Niagara to sample VAT textures and drive particles/geometry. Investigate how far this pushes past the vertex-count limitation.

Week 3

Try the VAT dynamic remeshing mode and find out why the changing vertex count breaks it. Test ways to fix it.

Week 4

Push the dynamic remeshing solution further so it stably handles continuously changing vertex counts. Explore edge cases and refine the technique.

Week 5

Explore using masks to control the VAT texture — driving which parts animate, when, and how — for finer, more art-directable control.

Week 6

Experiment with the position and rotation data stored in the VAT — offsetting, layering, and recombining transforms to create richer motion and new effects.

Week 7

Writing: write the methodology, results, and in-depth analysis. Emphasize the "why" behind every finding, not just the "what."

Week 8

Revise: incorporate committee feedback and strengthen the analysis. Finish the artist statement and remaining written parts.

Week 9

Presentation: build and rehearse the final presentation, focusing on the techniques and breakthroughs. Submit all remaining components.

Week 10

Check and submit everything needed.