Physink: sketching physical behavior

Abstract

Describing device behavior is a common task that is currently not well supported by general animation or CAD software. We present PhysInk, a system that enables users to demonstrate 2D behavior by sketching and directly manipulating objects on a physics-enabled stage. Unlike previous tools that simply capture the user's animation, PhysInk captures an understanding of the behavior in a timeline. This enables useful capabilities such as causality-aware editing and finding physically-correct equivalent behavior. We envision PhysInk being used as a physics teacher's sketchpad or a WYSIWYG tool for game designers.