Becoming an Expert in Forensic Visualization

Technical Competence

Our forensic animation and visualization staff contributes in critical ways to our accident reconstruction process. Following is a description of the characteristics and knowledge-base of a competent forensic animator at Luminous Forensics. When you achieve this level of expertise, you will be an indispensable part of our team. This level of expertise will not necessarily qualify you to manage projects or to lead a team. This level is, however, an essential baseline to achieve if you aspire to manage projects, manage a team, or to testify.

The competent forensic animator understands and uses the following concepts.

Think about the end goal of a visual exhibit. Who you are communicating with? What are you trying to communicate? The final product can be produced internally to present to a case manager/testifying expert or externally to a client. It can be a stand-alone illustration of a concept, or a set of final graphics/animation for deposition, trial, etc. If you’re working too long on a graphic that is just for someone to review internally in the office, you may be missing the point of the exercise. Sometimes quick and dirty is the best way to illustrate a concept. Leave the long and complex visualizations for final production, if possible. It will save you time and energy and most importantly get the important information to the appropriate people faster.

Be smart in your working files. Overly committed or complex approaches may leave you high-and-dry when deadlines approach. Proper naming, grouping, and rendering in layers can help alleviate the need for re-rendering EVERYTHING if something changes, so be smart about your approach to creating visual aids.  Be smart in labeling and organizing working files in Photoshop, After Effects, etc. If you don’t remember what you did, or the files have no logic, you may not be able to jump back in after 3 months of a case sitting idle. Being able to pick up where you left off is important! Additionally, if you are out of the office and someone needs to open your files to make changes, make it easy on them so clients/case managers can get what they need, even in your absence.

Each case is unique. Be ready to problem solve throughout a case’s lifespan. Use the tools at your disposal to extract the best data possible. Sometimes cases will have everything you could ever ask for, including police photographs, measurements, scan data, aerials, USGS LiDAR, etc.  Having all of this data can make a complex case much easier. However, there are going to be times where minimal data is available with bad photographs, poor data/measurements or none at all. Be aware of all the resources available to you (Google Earth, USGS LiDAR, Nearmap Aerials,etc.) so you can get obtain the best possible data for the most accurate representation of the data/evidence, despite shortcomings in documentation. Be adaptable and think about what you can achieve with the data available. One hundred percent accuracy is not always required as long as you’re confident you have extracted the best data you can, given the available evidence. Also, keep in mind that accuracy can be relevant to the task at hand.  If you’re camera matching a tire mark that is 100 feet long and are off 6 inches here or there, it is way less detrimental than a vehicle crush line that is off 6 inches. Relative accuracy should be considered and discussed.

Be willing to voice your opinion to both case managers and clients. Oftentimes, you as the creator of the graphics or animations will have a much more intimate knowledge of certain portions of a scene file, accident sequence, etc.  If you know certain issues may arise in creating specific animations or graphics, make it known. Talking through potential pitfalls up front can often assist in meeting deadlines (internal and external) and will more precisely set expectations for everyone involved. Furthermore, your knowledge of a case in the visualization arena can help in creating more compelling graphics/animations perhaps not considered by case managers, experts, and clients.

Find time to develop new innovations including graphic styles, animation styles, processing techniques.  Additionally, keep up on and be aware of software, plugins, resources to make your job, and others on the visualization staff, easier.  If you find something useful, try it out and see if you can integrate it into your workflow. Share what you learn with others.

Still Graphics v. Animation…Graphics and animations can both be valuable tools for illustrating relationships between vehicles, pedestrians, witnesses, and evidence. Still graphics can often adequately convey a concept, dimension, positional relationship, and in some cases, a few graphics can show an accident sequence without the need for animation. Graphics are typically cheaper to produce than animations.

However, animations can sometimes create a “wow factor” that is more compelling than still graphics. They also are necessary when we need to show the timing of vehicle or human motion. Animations can show dynamic relationships that static graphics cannot. This includes depicting speeds, driver views, top views, etc. Animations allow exploration of a scene/sequence of events with views unavailable for those involved in the accident. Animations can illuminate concepts and relationships that are hard to understand without a moving image.

Software: In addition to these concepts, the competent forensic animator has mastered the following software packages. The greater your expertise with these packages, the greater will be your ability to contribute to the work we do.

AutoCAD

3ds Max

Photoshop

AfterEffects

Faro Scene

Cloud Compare

Pix4D

PTLens

Exif Tool

Vocabulary: The competent forensic animator at Luminous Forensics has an understanding of the following terms used in accident reconstruction. Understanding these terms will increase your effectiveness at communicating with our engineers and accident reconstructionists, and your contribution to our work will increase.

Skid Mark

Yaw Mark

Scuff

Gouge Mark

Scrape Mark

Striations

Material Transfer

Deformation, Damage, or Crush

Direct Damage

Induced Damage

Pre-Impact, Impact, Post-Impact

Override/Underride

Center of Gravity (CG)

Roll

Pitch

Yaw

Rollover

A, B, and C Pillars

Glass Deposit

Tempered Glass

Laminated Glass

Mastery 

You do not become an expert in forensic animation and visualization simply by achieving technical competence. As your expertise progresses, you will take on the following characteristics that are evidence of a growing mastery of accident reconstruction. When you take on these characteristics, you are becoming well-equipped to testify and to lead projects.

Software

When you acheive mastery, you will have gained expertise in specialized software packages beyond the basics that we use. This software may be used for physics-based simulation, for data acquisition, motion capture, or video tracking.

PF Track

Houdini