Growth animation of human organs

The growth of the organs of the human embryo changes significantly over a short period of time in the mother's body. The shape of the human organs is organic and has many folds that are difficult to model or animate using conventional techniques. Convolution surface and function representation are a good choice in modelling such organs as human embryo stomach and brain. Two approaches are proposed for animating organ growth: the first uses a simple line segment skeleton demonstrated on a stomach model and the other method uses a tubular skeleton calculated automatically from a 2D object outline. Growth speed varies with the position within the organ and thus the model is divided into multiple geometric primitives that are later glued by a blending operation. Animation of both the embryo stomach and brain is shown. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.