Animation with Dynamic Cubemap

This is my final project for the CSE 169 (Computer Animation) course at UCSD, showcasing a character animation system with skeleton loading, skinning, and keyframe animation. It also includes static and dynamic cubemaps for environment mapping, real-time reflections, and basic Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials, all developed with OpenGL and GLSL.

Note: The reflection using the dynamic cubemap is slightly off, but I will work on fixing it as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy!

Program Controls:

• Rotate Camera: Mouse Click + Drag
• Pan Camera: W / A / S / D
• Zooming: 'Q' (closer) and 'E' (farther).
• Reset Camera: 'R'

Features:

• Skeleton Loading and Visualization

  • Loads and visualizes a character skeleton from a .skel file, supporting 3-DOF rotational joints (ball-and-socket joints).
  • Performs forward kinematics to compute world space matrices for each joint.
  • Allows flexible command line input for loading different .skel files.

• Skinning and Shading

  • Attaches a character skin to the skeleton by loading from a .skin file.
  • Implements basic shading with at least two colored lights to enhance visual realism.
  • Provides interactive controls for adjusting the Degrees of Freedom (DOF) of the skeleton joints, either through keyboard input or a GUI-based approach.

• Keyframe Animation

  • Integrates keyframe animations by loading an .anim file and playing it back on the skinned character.
  • Supports seamless integration of .skel, .skin, and .anim files via command line arguments, enabling various character and animation combinations.

• Static Cubemap - Skybox

  • Implements a static cubemap for environment mapping, creating a realistic skybox that enhances the sense of immersion.
  • Utilizes the GL_TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP enum in OpenGL to load six 2D textures corresponding to each face of the cube, simulating a vast 3D environment.

• Dynamic Cubemap - Real-Time Reflections

  • Generates dynamic cubemaps at runtime, allowing for real-time reflections on reflective or refractive surfaces like spheres.
  • Renders the scene from six different perspectives (one for each face of the cube) by setting the camera along each positive and negative axis with a 90-degree field of view (FOV).
  • Uses a framebuffer object to capture and store the rendered images for each face, which are then combined into a cubemap texture.
  • Applies the cubemap texture during the final rendering pass to create realistic and responsive reflections, adapting to real-time environmental changes.

• Basic Physically Based Rendering (PBR) Material

  • Implements a basic PBR material shader that calculates realistic lighting effects using parameters like albedo, metallic, roughness, and ambient occlusion.
  • Integrates environmental reflections using a cubemap texture, allowing dynamic reflections on the material's surface.
  • Uses the Fresnel-Schlick approximation to simulate realistic specular reflections, adjusting for different material properties.
  • Supports multiple light sources with diffuse and specular components, enhancing the realism of rendered objects.

Launching the Program

• Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/jayHuggie/Animation_with_DynamicCubemap.git

• Navigate to the following directory:

  DynamicCubeMap/build/Debug

• Open “Animation_with_DynamicCubeMap.exe” to run the program!