Forensic

Subscribe to Liquid Digital News today.

Because your next case must COMPEL!

Since 1993, the minds at Liquid Digital have been shaping the industry of 3D dynamics simulation for use in cases where animating interacting objects by hand was both painfully tedious and lacked realism. The use of dynamics simulation not only provides a faster more realistic visualization and re-creation of real life events, it also provides the ability to see multiple scenarios (“what if”) based on changes in properties such as speed, direction, mass, friction, elasticity, number of object impacts, wind, turbulence, springs, motors, gravity and basically any parameter which can be described by Newton’s Law.

The 'Weiss-McGrath Report' found "a 100 percent increase in juror retention of visual over oral presentations and a 650 percent increase in juror retention of combined visual and oral presentations over oral presentations alone."

Forensic-01 What turns an animation into a forensic animation is the "The forensic Process ". This process depends on accuracy. All objects must obey the laws of physics and conform to a set of facts that are determined by a reconstructionist or forensic expert. The Forensic process for accident reconstruction for example, starts with the accident investigation. This includes all police reports, witness statements, photographs, vehicle inspections, accident scene data, and medical reports if necessary. It is this information which forms the basis on which an accident reconstructionist will recreate the accident.

From this data a recreation is created that fits all the existing facts. A forensic expert will calculate the placement of vehicles, people, and environmental elements (trees, ponds, building structures, walls, weather conditions, time of day visibility and sun angle ...), relevant to the specific forensic reconstruction before, during, and after an accident and come up with data representing the movement of all the players in the final animation.

In summary this forensic process is:

See all vehicles involved in an accident, assess their physical condition, and measure impact damage and location
Do a site survey and complete measurement of the scene
View photographs,if available taken at the accident scene and analyze physical evidence if it is still available
View earlier photographs of structures damaged in the accident
Read police reports and witness statements
Review all other data available
Transform all data into a logical and accurate scenario
Use Data to develop forensic simulation

This information is used to build models of the environment, vehicles and people, and visually creates an animation conforming to the forensic data. The animation is submitted for use as a corroborative exhibit.

Factors that determine the Cost of Forensic Animation

The cost of a forensic animation depends upon five things:

The amount of preparation necessary
The level of detail in the animation
The number of scenarios to be created (different animations)
The amount of animator time required to complete the animation
The total amount of computer time to create the final animations

Amount of Preparation Time

Forensic-03 Once a case is accepted research starts immediately to identify the details. The forensic expert begins to develop data. based in the accumulated facts and the animator through photographs , police reports and site surveys begins modeling the environment in the computer. If specific vehicles are required, they are either modeled or purchased and the pieces of the puzzle are put together to create an overall picture that is factually accurate.

Required Level of Detail

The amount of detail in an animation can have great impact on its cost. The greater the detail, the more hours it takes to create, the greater the cost. This is true for elements used in creating the environment as well as any of the objects moving within it. By using generic objects and purchasing software compatible objects from object model companies rather then having to model more custom ones. Often forensic recreations of accidents use a combination of generic and custom models. Sometimes this works well and sometimes it is important to match the look and feel EXACTLY. We will work closely with you to keep the costs reasonable.

The Animation Visualization Process

Forensic-04 The creation of Computer Animation, especially forensic animation, takes a great deal of time. This is composed of :

Re-production time necessary to gather the facts necessary to create a good forensic simulation
Modeling of the environment with all relevant movable objects in place and articulated or dynamic as necessary
Creating the correct lighting, weather conditions and materials for the scene
Animation of each of the "objects"
Preview animation, rendering and tweaking
Approval and final render
Video mastering & duplication and web publishing of video if required