Animated films portray heroes and villains as polar opposites. From clothes to facial expressions, you can tell who's who. Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmations, for instance, never looks innocent or noble. But, if you study them, neither good girl nor bad boy has bouncy, curly hair. That's because a 3D strand of curly hair didn't exist — until now.
A team of  researchers  from France and MIT collaborated to design the first strand of animated 3D curly hair. The study could lead to new, curly-haired characters for the animated film industry, but it also holds potential for advances in predicting the curvature of steel pipes, tubing and cables wrapped around spools, letting us better analyze a structure's stability.
See also: 52 Disney Animated Movie Locations Mapped Around the World
The team outlined the key elements of curly hair using lab trials, computer simulations and scientific theory — science's "perfect triangle," as study co-author Pedro Reis describes it. The scientists organized their data into two parameters: curvature (the ratio of curvature to length) and weight (the ratio of weight and stiffness).
With this information, researchers can predict a strand's length, weight, stiffness and curvature. With that data, they can project the shape of a steel pipe, the curve of a suspended Ethernet cable, or the bounce of an animated character's curly locks.
Plus, the algorithm holds true at any size or measurement, whether in feet, yards or meters.
“We think of steel pipes as being nice and straight but usually at some point they’re getting wrapped around something,” James Miller, an MIT graduate and researcher on the study, said in the statement. "And at large dimensions, they’re so flexible that it’s like you and I dealing with a limp spaghetti noodle.”
Pipes, tubes and cables aside, there may be a new, animated hairdo coming to a theater near you.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.