Mike McKenna received his Bachelor in 1987 and his Master of Science from MIT Media Lab in 1990, currently he is preparing for his PhD. He has been working in the Media Lab since 1985, conducting his research in the Computer Graphics and Animation group. His field of research concerns the realistic modelling of physical and biological motion. Animations: "Cootie Gets Scared" 1988, "Grinning Evil Death" 1990. Bob Sabiston graduated to his Bachelor at M.I.T. in 1989 and received his Master at Media Lab's Visible Language Workshop. There he worked as an undergraduate researcher and produced the award-winning animation "Beat Dedication" in 1988.

The animation 'Grinning Evil Death' tells a tale of breakfast, blood, super heroes, and roaches. A kid, munching cereal and watching TV, learns that an alien space pod is bound for Earth. The pod crashes into the kid's city, and a giant cybernetic roach emerges. The Roach proceeds to wreak havoc in the city, breaking power lines and kicking cars. Donning the powerful Ring of Sarcasm from his cereal box, the kid leaps from his window to do battle with the Roach.

'Grinning Evil Death' displays a variety of physical or dynamic simulations. In the opening sequence, cereal puffs pour from above into a breakfast bowl, then leap into the air to bounce from object to object. In fact, the motion of the puffs was simulated to fall under gravity, and to bounce away from collisions obeying the laws of physical motion. The movement of the puffs is therefore automatically determined by the simulation. The role of creativity in such a system is modifying the physical parameters of the objects and the environment.

Technical Background

HW: Hewlett Packard 835 Turbo SRX, Connection Machine II, Wacom Tablet
SW: Custom Research