The following is an excerpt from the HyperMatter user manual produced for 2ndNature Industries by Forcade Associates. The book is designed around seven chapters which cover tutorial, user interface, and features based chapters. The manual also includes an illustrated command reference, glossary of terms, and index. This excerpt covers a portion of the theory of use for this character animation plug-in for 3D Studio MAX.

"Real world motion is determined by physical laws which govern the way objects move and react to each other, moment by moment. Given an exact definition of the initial state of an object—including its material composition, speed, and direction of travel—physical laws dictate its motion and can be used to calculate its state at some later time. This is exactly how HyperMatter works. Based on the initial motion of an object and its material or substance properties, HyperMatter can assume complete control of an object’s form and action, frame by frame.

HyperMatter enables you to assign properties to an object or a part of an object so that it behaves as though it is composed of a real world flexible material. You do this by creating Solid Objects. HyperMatter Solids act just like real objects; they are free to act and react on their own. You can produce a HyperMatter animation by creating one or more Solid Objects from any 3D Studio MAX object and then simply click the Play Animation button to set them into motion.

When you click Play Animation, HyperMatter takes over and applies its unique physically-based motion dynamics to each Solid Object you have created. HyperMatter Solids collide, bounce, and wobble automatically without the effort previously associated with producing natural looking motion “by hand”.

Furthermore, if your original MAX object is already animated, you can use HyperMatter to enhance the animation. You can make selected parts of your characters react to their underlying keyframe animation. You don’t have to spend hours keyframing your character to squash, stretch, or anticipate convincingly. HyperMatter embeds these properties into your characters giving them amazingly lifelike qualities."

The HyperMatter Glossary
Much of the documentation process is about creating useful language standards. This is particularly true for ground breaking program such as HyperMatter because there are few existing linguistic conventions. For the HyperMatter project, we worked as active members of the HyperMatter development team to create the language and syntax for program use. The following is an excerpt from the manual's glossary of over 60 program specific terms.

Adaptive Collision A collision detection method that optimizes the number of Solid Object Points in the Current Collision Domain frame by frame (or sub-frame). At each frame, Adaptive Collision calculates the current collisions based on the points that collided in the previous frame (or sub-frame) and their immediate neighbors. Adaptive can either expand or reduce the number of potential collision Points.

All Part The default Part which comprises every point in a Solid Object.

Angular Velocity Constraint A constraint that applies rotational velocity to a Part.

Automatic Solidify Process of creating a Solid Object and adding Snapshot Geometry to it in single step.

Bastard Solid A Sub-Object Level Solid impersonating an Object Level Solid.

Blending A setting which blends a Solid Object from HyperMatter Dynamics Control to MAX Kinematic Control. There are two types of Blending: Transformation and Geometry.

Blending Interval The frame range during which the Blending function is active. The Blending Interval overlays the end of the Lifespan.

Blending: Geometry A setting which enables deformation Blending for the selected Solid Object.

Blending: Transformation A setting which enables position and rotation Blending for the selected Solid Object. For Object Level Solids only.

Boundary Conditions The conditions at the beginning and end of a Solid Object’s Lifespan.

Collide Constraint A Constraint than performs collision detection on any number of Parts.

Collision Detection The function, that prevents Solid Objects from interpenetrating themselves, Walls or other Solid Objects. Collision detection is enabled by a Collide Constraint, Walls Constraint, or Global Walls.

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