A system for procedural generation of diverse and plausible 3D alien creatures

We are pleased to invite UK, EU and international applications for a fully-funded PhD studentship in A system for procedural generation of diverse and plausible 3D alien creatures from Teesside University’s Centre for Digital Innovation.

Project description

3D alien creatures have shown increasing importance and usefulness in games and movies. The development of 3D creatures starts with creating conceptual models, which are low in polygonal detail. These are then passed through a refinement process where artists add more details to the models to give them an organic appearance. Traditionally, the process of generating an alien creature requires the artists to do extensive research by studying the anatomies of various living creatures and then modelling these creatures using animation software in a modular fashion, to achieve an aesthetically viable creature.

Moreover, artists are required to create many different versions of a creature to showcase to the game/movie directors, and during this process many 3D models/concepts end up getting deprecated, resulting in loss of productivity and creativity. That is, creature generation is a very labour-intensive process. When it comes to exploring different aesthetic appearances of the creatures, artists tend to spend substantial time and effort to sculpt different superficial features on the creature bodies, which is another very laborious process. However, there has been a significant shortage of available creativity support tools in the industry for creature development. Although the modern 3D modelling tools are very powerful in terms of generating creature concepts, the creativity solely originates from the artists and the computers play very limited part in aiding the artistic idea generation process.

The project involves developing procedural modelling algorithms and exploring procedural modelling techniques such as L-Systems, computational geometry algorithms, and AI algorithms such as neuroevolutionary algorithms, convolutional neural networks, genetic algorithms, and evolutionary game theory.

The supervisor is Dr Ismail Khalid Kazmi from the School of Computing, Engineering & Digital Technologies.

Entry requirements

You should hold or expect to obtain a good honours degree (2:1 or above) in a relevant discipline. A master’s level qualification in a relevant discipline is desirable, but not essential, as well as a demonstrable understanding of the research area.

International applicants should have a standard of English at IELTS 6.5 minimum and will be subject to the standard entry criteria relating to ATAS clearance and, when relevant, UK visa requirements and procedures.

How to apply

Application is online.

Key dates

• Closing date for applications is 5.00pm, 1 February 2023.
• Shortlisting and online interviews are expected to be held mid-March 2023.
• Successful applicants will be expected to start May or October 2023.