Computer Science Professor Helps Animate Hollywood

Honey dribbling over toast, an artist's brush sweeping across a canvas or a dress swaying as a model sashays down a runway. All of these fluid movements can be reduced to mathematical formulas. Above: still from Disney's animated movie Tangled . The swaying movement of the heroine's dress was based on Grinspun's research. Below: Simulations conducted by Professor Grinspun's team reproduce honey poured onto a moving belt. On the left is real honey; on the right is a computer simulation. Eitan Grinspun , an associate professor of computer science, studies the basic rules of motion and turns them into computer programs that are animating Hollywood movies and creating new tools for graphic designers.