Physically-based Human Neck Simulation

International audienceIn deformable character animation, the skin deformation of the neck is important to reproduce believable facial animation, and the neck also plays an important role in supporting the head in balance while generating the controlled head movements that are essential to so many aspects of human behavior. However, neck animation is largely overlooked both in computer graphics and animation due to the complexity of the cervical anatomy. This paper presents a physical human neck model based on biomechanical modeling. Relevant anatomical structures available in a 3D model of human musculoskeletal system are modeled as deformable or linked rigid bodies. We couple the soft-hard bodies using soft constraints via elastic springs and form a Lagrangian dynamic system. The simulation of dynamic skin deformation is achieved by automatically binding the vertices to underlying bodies in an anatomical manner. Experimental results are provided and show high level of realism our model offers, and the simulation runs at interactive rates on a modern computer