Working at the GWPAC:
During my undergrad, I had the pleasure of working at the Nicholas and Lee Begovich Center for Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy (GWPAC). They collaborate with Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) to study gravitational wave activities and evaluate the quality of current detectors.
I worked as a research assistant creating visualizations using SideFx Houdini and Autodesk Maya tools. The work on this page showcase two major projects that I worked on.
Credit to the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes collaboration, Denyz Melchor, and Jennifer Sanchez for the data used.
Special Thanks to Dr. Geoffrey Lovelace, Dr. John Smith, and Dr. Jocelyn Read.
Black Hole Binary Neutron Star Merger Simulation
Process:
From Paraview to SideFx Houdini
Most of the visualizations at the center are created using a software called Paraview. It is useful for most scientific visualizations, but it is a lot slower than other 3D software used in the entertainment industry. SideFx Houdini is a 3D software with many purposes such as procedural modeling, 3D character rigging, animation, compositing, rendering, etc. The ultimate challenge was how to get the data from Paraview to Houdini. It took a few weeks to figure out, but I managed to export the data as a CSV file and use a Python Table Import node in Houdini to transfer the data.
Combining the Data
The data-set was organized into 47 sections, each with a specific time-step. To combine them so that they look like a large shape instead of separate segments, I created separate project files for each individual section, imported them, used Houdini’s Merge Node, then exported a BGEO file and renamed it based on its time-step. I did this 47 times and when I combine all BGEO files, I get 960 frames of data to work with. In the future, it would be beneficial if I could create a Python script to automate this process.
Color and Rendering
The data itself is comprised of hundreds of thousands of point data and each point has a density value assigned to it. One of the biggest challenges was how to assign the color values when the density values are so incredibly small. I ultimately scaled up the density values as much as I could without distorting the results and used a Point VOP node that had a Color Ramp feature. This allowed me to adjust the values manually and control what range the density values would fall under. I used the Arnold render for the final look and that involved manipulating the shader nodes to match the Point VOP node. In the future, I would like to eliminate the “dotty” look of the final render and smooth it out.
Cosmic Explorer 3D Model
Project Overview:
I was asked by Dr. Joshua Smith to create an illustration of Cosmic Explorer, the newest generation of gravitational wave detection. For more details on the collaboration and proposal: https://cosmicexplorer.org/
My task was to create various artistic renders and concepts for future presentations, talk, etc.
Orange County Register Article: https://www.ocregister.com/2019/11/06/animation-major-helps-csuf-scientists-envision-black-holes-future-technology/
