Modeling deformable objects using local rigid body simulation

As two common types of objects in the world, rigid and deformable bodies are usually simulated with different models in computer graphics. In this work, we study how to reuse the rigid-body simulation techniques for modeling deformable objects. A deformable object is first decomposed into several overlapping patches. These patches are then simulated as rigid bodies. Finally, these patches are explicitly stitched to obtain the deformed shape. We tested our method with various configurations and show that rigid body simulation techniques can be effectively reused to model deformable objects. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.