Damien Rohmer

Professor at Ecole polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Researcher in Computer Graphics at LIX
VISTA team (Visual Worlds)
Keywords: 3D Modeling, Real-Time Animation & Simulation, Virtual Character, User Interaction, Garments, Natural Phenomena and Biological Modeling.
  • Damien.Rohmer@polytechnique.edu
  • (+33) 1 69 35 69 62
  • LIX - Bâtiment Alan Turing
    1 rue Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves
    91120 Palaiseau, France
  • (Office 153)
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[ CV ]

Main ongoing responsabilities

- Vice-President of the Department of Computer Science (DIX) at Polytechnique.
In charge of teaching aspects at DIX (Department courses)
- Head of the VISTA Research Team at LIX.
VISTA (Visual World: Temporal Analysis, Animation and Authoring) is a Computer Graphics and Vision research group.
The team is part of the Modeling, Simulation & Learning group at LIX.
It is one of the three research team in Graphics and Vision at IP Paris - GEOVISTA.
- Coordinator of the "Image, Vision, Machine Learning" (IVA) specialization.
IVA is a specialization track from the CS department proposed to the 3rd year engineering students at Polytechnique (20-30 students/year).
The classes are also proposed in the AI and advanced Visual Computing Master, and IGD Master from IP Paris.
- Steering Committee member of AFIG (Association Francaise d'Informatique Graphique).
In charge of the website and listings of internships/jobs, companies, teaching, research teams in CG. Also involed in the CG teaching working group.

News

2024/04
Event: I organize a research Spring school about 3D Animation in Computer Graphics in April
2023/12
Event: Jiayi Wei and Eduardo Alvarado defended their PhD
2023/11
Award: 2nd Best Paper Award JFIG 2023, from Théo Cheynel
2023/10
Event: I was paper chair of IMET 2023 in Barcelona
2023/10
Project: ANR Grant proposal accepted for the research project AnimationConductor with Dada! Animation and IRISA
2023/10
Award: Best Poster Award at ICCV - CVAAD, from Arnaud Gueze
2023/10
Publication: 3 Publications at MIG 2023, including a work with 2A student from Polytechnique
2023/01
Project: ANR Grant proposal accepted for the research project MultiForm with IRIT and LORIA
2022/11
Award: Best Paper Award JFIG 2022, from Jiayi Wei

Short Presentation & Bio:

I am Professor of Computer Science at Ecole polytechnique, part of Institut Polytechnique de Paris. My research lies in the Computer Graphics field, and revolves primarily around 3D Modeling, Deformation, and Animation of virtual content, with a keen interest for Real-Time Efficiency, Interactivity and User Control. My previous research contributed to the Modeling and Animation of Virtual Character, Developable Surface, 3D Garment models, and to the Simulation of Natural Phenomena. My methodology typically couples procedural approaches and lightweight physics, with the use of appropriate geometrical representation featuring for instance hierarchical level of details and field based representations. My work principally find applications for entertainment production recquiring efficiency and interactivity such as Animation Cinema, VFX, and Games, with publications in Graphics journals and venues including SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, SCA and MIG. I additionally enjoy collaboration with other disciplines such as Medical Sciences, Math, or Design.

I obtained my PhD in 2011 from Grenoble University. I also hold an Engineering Degree from CPE Lyon in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (2007), a Master in Optics, Image and Vision from Université Jean Monnet at Saint-Etienne (2007), and a Habilitation (HDR) from Grenoble University (2017).
I am currently serving as Vice-President of the Department of Computer Science at Ecole polytechnique (DIX), and leading the VISTA research team. I was conference chair of SCA2017, program chair of MIG2021 and IMET2023, and I am regularily part of multiple IPC such as Eurographics, Pacific Graphics, SCA, MIG, Siggraph and Siggraph Asia Posters, Shorts and courses. At the national level, I have been part of the sterring commity of AFIG - French Association in CG since 2015.
I am widely involved into education, encompassing teaching at various level, including master and bachelor programs in CG, 3D animation, as well as Web Programming, and engage in tutoring numerous student projects. I am also coordinating the Image, Vision and Learning specialization at Ecole polytechnique, and actively contribute to the organization of the Interaction, Graphics & Design Master program at IP Paris. I further enjoy proposing and developing open-source content and softwares in order to facilitate accessibility and re-usability to students and the scientific community. These include a set of open-source online course slides and practical exercises in CG and Animation, and an entire programming library framework (CGP). I am also the main developer of open community-driven listings for existing Graphics companies, available positions, french research teams, and educational content.

Research

I am researcher in Computer Graphics working in 3D Modeling, Deformation and Animation of virtual content with a specific focus on efficiency, interactivity and user control. The general objective of my work is to develop novel methods to support and improve creativity, representation, exploration and experimentation with virtual data, possibly adapted to various application domains.

Application Domains: Entertainment (Animation Cinema, VFX, Video Games, AR/VR), Natural Sciences (Medical, Biology), Design & Fabrication (Fashion, CAD, Architecture).

Main Research Axes

Interactive Shape & Animation Design
- Sketch-Based Modeling
- Shape and Animation Sculpting
- Space-Time Constraints
Sketching Fashion Products: [CGF21,CGP17, TOG15]
Sketching/Sculpting Hierarchies [SMI19, CGF17, CGF15]
Wrinkles and details: [FoCM18], [CGF15], [SIGGRAPHA10]
Sound-based Animation: [MIG19]
Fluid Sculpting: [MIG16]
Efficient Visual Simulation
- Multi-Scale Physical Simulation
- Coupled and Hybrid Models
- Natural Phenomenon
Natural scene: Volcano [I3D22], Terrain [Frontiers22]
Developable surfaces, Virtual paper [CGF17, SCA16, TOG15]
Biological evolution: [SMO22, jBS15]
Implicit Surfaces & Field-Based Modeling
- Volume-Based modeling
- Collision and Contact Handling
- Shape deformation
Deformers and Contacts [SIGGRAPH19, SIGGRAPHA10]
CSG Modeling [SMO22]
Implicit Skinning: [SIGGRAPH13]
Character Animation and Deformation
- Real-Time Skinning Animation
- Animation principles and Cartoon effects
- Physics-Based Character Animation
Dynamic Skinning [EG21, GI22]
Skinning Deformation [SIGGRAPH13, SCA09]
Character Dynamics: [SCA22, Frontiers22]

People

Current PhDs

Rodrigo Stevenson
2023/10 - 2026/09
Deforming and Animating Multi-Material Objects Using Multi-Valued Field Functions
Damien Rohmer (director), Marie-Paule Cani (co-director)
Funding: ANR MultiForm
2023/04 - 2026/04
Complex interior scene reconstruction from sparse multimodal data
Damien Rohmer (director), Marie-Paule Cani (co-director)
Funding: CIFRE Homiwoo
2022/10 - 2025/10
Video-Based Synthesis and Editing of 3D Animated Humanoid Characters
Damien Rohmer (director), Marie-Paule Cani (co-director)
Funding: CIFRE Kinetix
2020/10 - 2024/02
Interactive 3D Modeling of Evolutionary and Emergent Bio-Inspired Shapes
Damien Rohmer
Funding: CIFRE Dassault Systèmes

Former PhDs

2020/10 - 2023/12
Groups of humans and animals in natural environments: a multi-scale approach
Damien Rohmer (director), Marie-Paule Cani (co-director)
Funding: H2020 ITN CLIPE Project
2020/10 - 2023/12
Novel representations for surface Modeling and Analysis
Damien Rohmer (director), Pooran Memari (co-supervisor).
Funding: IP Paris in Artificial Intelligence
2019/10 - 2023/07
Simulation and Authoring of Consistent Volcanic Phenomena
Marie-Paule Cani (director), Damien Rohmer (co-director)
Funding: MESRI Grant
Thomas Buffet
2017/10 - 2021/01
Field-Based approaches for the collision-free animation of layered and dynamic clothing
[ Manuscript ]
Marie-Paule Cani (director), Damien Rohmer (co-supervisor)
Funding: ANR FoldDyn
Current job: Engineer at 2K, Video Games, California.
2017/10 - 2020/12
Geometric Modeling, Simplification, and Visualization of Brain White Matter Tractograms.
[ Manuscript ]
Isabelle Bloch (director), Pietro Gori (co-supervisor), Jean-Marc Thiery (co-supervisor), Damien Rohmer (co-supervisor)
Funding: Digicosme MetaTracts
Current job: Engineer at Unity, Game Engine, Paris.
2016/10 - 2019/12
Reverse-Engineering Fashion Products : From a single-view Sketch to a 3D Model
[ Manuscript ]
Stefanie Hahmann (director), Damien Rohmer (co-supervisor)
Funding: MESRI Grant
Current job: R&D Engineer at Les fées Spéciales, Animation Studio, Montpellier.
2013/10 - 2016/10
Interactive Deformation of Virtual Paper
[ Manuscript ]
Stefanie Hahmann (director), Damien Rohmer (co-supervisor)
Funding: ERC EXPRESSIVE
Current job: Inria Researcher (ISFP) in Computer Graphics, MFX team, Nancy.
Ulysse Vimont
2013/10 - 2016/10
Novel methods for the interactive design of complex objects and animations
[ Manuscript ]
Marie-Paule Cani (director), Damien Rohmer (co-supervisor)
Funding: ERC EXPRESSIVE
Current job: Engineer Anatoscope, Digital Anatomy, Grenoble.

Teaching

I teach Computer Sciences and Computer Graphics at Ecole Polytechnique.

[ Teaching Webpage ]

Software

I develop a few Open-Source libraries and scripting tools related to Computer Graphics, Research and Teaching