Professor’s generosity continues legacy of research

A Middlesbrough animation expert is at the forefront of ground-breaking research into simulating the way people move in relation to the size of their body and it’s thanks to the generosity of a former Teesside University professor that the study is reaching its conclusion.

Satish Shewhorak, 32, is three years into a PhD study which, for the first time, examines using computer generated imagery (CGI) to simulate how people of different weights move in order to improve the believability and realism of animated crowd scenes.

The study is being funded by the James Caldwell Scholarship, named in honour of Professor James Caldwell, a former Teesside University professor who generously gives £2,000 a year to fund a PhD student.

Satish, who also studied MA Computer Animation at Teesside, is the first recipient of the James Caldwell Scholarship and the dedicated pair recently met up to discuss Satish’s research.

Professor Caldwell said: 'To meet Satish in person and hear him talk so passionately about his work has been extremely rewarding. He is a very deserving student and I am convinced that I made the right decision to start this scholarship.

'It is very exciting and ground-breaking work and I am sure he will see it through and that it will have a real impact in the field of animation.'

The use of CGI has created a lot of debate with legendary film critic Barry Norman disagreeing with purists who believe that films, such as Life Of Pi and Ridley Scott's Prometheus, that rely heavily on CGI, could not be called ‘epics’.

'CGI animation is as good as and often much more vivid than work produced by the original method and an epic doesn't necessarily require vast crowds anyway," said Norman.

Satish, who previously ran moShine Animation Studio, wanted to undertake a PhD in order to tackle, in detail, a subject he is passionate about.

'To use CGI to specifically focus on different dimensions such as weight and shape, as far as I know, has never been done before,” explained Satish.

'I am using my own data and methodology to recreate how, for example, overweight people would move and accurately portray them in a crowd scene. I hope my work will make a focussed and valuable contribution to knowledge in this area of animation and improve the realism of crowds and characters.

'It would be really interesting to expand this work and look at differing movement in other areas such as ethnicity, age and gender.'

Satish is particularly thankful for the generosity of Professor Caldwell who has made a commitment to reinvest in Teesside University and its community.

He added: 'It has been an inspiration knowing there is somebody here who is willing to invest not only in my future, but in research, in the University and in the region. I would like to think that in the future I can follow the example set by Professor Caldwell and pass on my own knowledge, expertise and generosity to the next generation.'

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