Animating Tree Branch Breaking and Flying Effects for a 3D Interactive Visualization System for Hurricanes and Storm Surge Flooding

This paper illustrates branch breaking and flying effect animation for trees in our 3D interactive visualization system for hurricanes and storm surge flooding. The tree branch breaking and flying effect animation extends our current tree animation framework by estimating the destination quadrant, direction (angle) and traveling speed with which a branch breaks and flies across the terrain. These calculations thus assist in simulating the potential threats to property and human lives posed by the flying branches during a hurricane, and add to the realism and appeal of our system. We utilize 3D tree models created with 3DSmax and implement the animation effects via OpenGL and nVidia CG shader language.