Collision-Free Construction of Animated Feathers Using Implicit Constraint Surfaces

We present a scheme for constructing complex feather geometry suitable for feature animation. The key points of our approach include the use of a potential field derived from guide geometry and an implicit constraint surface to create nonpenetrating feather geometry. Our method is frame independent and produces visually smooth animation that is free from popping and other visual artifacts. We provide details of the implementation and examples of the technique applied to an animated character with several thousand feathers.