Bio


Doug L. James is a Full Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University (since June 2015), and a member of Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) and the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME). He holds three degrees in applied mathematics, including a Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of British Columbia. In 2002 he joined the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University as an Assistant Professor, and later became an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University (2006-2015). His research interests include computer graphics, computer sound, physically based modeling and animation, and reduced-order physics models. Doug is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a fellow of both the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation. He received the ACM SIGGRAPH 2021 Computer Graphics Achievement Award, a 2012 Technical Achievement Award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for "Wavelet Turbulence," and the 2013 Katayanagi Emerging Leadership Prize from Carnegie Mellon University and Tokyo University of Technology. He was the Technical Papers Program Chair of ACM SIGGRAPH 2015, and a consulting Senior Research Scientist at Pixar Animation Studios from 2015-2020. Since 2022 he has been a consulting Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA.

Academic Appointments


Administrative Appointments


  • Full Professor, Computer Science, Stanford University (2015 - Present)
  • Affiliated Faculty Member, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University (2015 - Present)
  • Affiliated Faculty Member, Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME), Stanford University (2015 - Present)
  • Consulting Senior Research Scientist, Pixar Animation Studios (2015 - 2020)
  • Associate Professor, Computer Science, Cornell University (2006 - 2015)
  • Assistant Professor, Robotics Institute, and Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University (2002 - 2006)

Honors & Awards


  • Computer Graphics Achievement Award, ACM SIGGRAPH (2021)
  • Katayanagi Emerging Leadership Prize, Carnegie Mellon University and Tokyo University of Technology (2013)
  • Technical Achievement Award for Wavelet Turbulence, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2013)
  • Research Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2011)
  • College of Engineering Excellence in Teaching (Douglas Whitney `61 Award), Cornell University (2008)
  • Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2006)
  • "Brilliant 10" young scientist, Popular Science magazine (2005)
  • CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (2004)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Chair, Technical Papers Program, ACM SIGGRAPH (2015 - 2015)
  • Associate Editor, ACM Transactions on Graphics (2005 - 2017)

Program Affiliations


  • Stanford SystemX Alliance

Professional Education


  • PhD, University of British Columbia, Applied Mathematics (2001)
  • MSc, University of British Columbia, Applied Mathematics (1997)
  • BSc, University of Western Ontario, Applied Mathematics (1995)

Patents


  • Doug Leonard James, Jui-Hsien Wang. "United States Patent WO2020243517A1 Systems and methods for acoustic simulation", Leland Stanford Junior University, Dec 3, 2020
  • Fernando Ferrari de Goes, Douglas L. James. "United States Patent US10586401B2 Sculpting brushes based on solutions of elasticity", Pixar, Mar 10, 2020

Current Research and Scholarly Interests


Computer graphics & animation, physics-based sound synthesis, computational physics, haptics, reduced-order modeling

Projects


2023-24 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Progressive Shell Quasistatics for Unstructured Meshes ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Zhang, J., Dumas, J., Fei, Y., Jacobson, A., James, D. L., Kaufman, D. M. 2023; 42 (6)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3618388

    View details for Web of Science ID 001139790400004

  • Improved Water Sound Synthesis using Coupled Bubbles ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Xue, K., Aronson, R. M., Wang, J., Langlois, T. R., James, D. L. 2023; 42 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3592424

    View details for Web of Science ID 001044671300093

  • Progressive Simulation for Cloth Quasistatics ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Zhang, J., Dumas, J., Fei, Y., Jacobson, A., James, D. L., Kaufman, D. M. 2022; 41 (6)
  • svMorph: Interactive Geometry-Editing Tools for Virtual Patient-Specific Vascular Anatomies. Journal of biomechanical engineering Pham, J., Wyetzner, S., Pfaller, M., Parker, D., James, D., Marsden, A. 2022

    Abstract

    We propose svMorph, a framework for interactive virtual sculpting of patient-specific vascular anatomic models. Our framework includes three tools for the creation of tortuosity, aneurysms, and stenoses in tubular vascular geometries. These shape edits are performed via geometric operations on the surface mesh and vessel centerline curves of the input model. The tortuosity tool also uses the physics-based Oriented Particles method, coupled with linear blend skinning, to achieve smooth, elastic-like deformations. Our tools can be applied separately or in combination to produce simulation-suitable morphed models. They are also compatible with popular vascular modeling software, such as SimVascular. To illustrate our tools, we morph several image-based, patient-specific models to create a range of shape changes and simulate the resulting hemodynamics via three-dimensional, computational fluid dynamics. We also demonstrate the ability to quickly estimate the hemodynamic effects of the shape changes via automated generation of associated zero-dimensional lumped-parameter models.

    View details for DOI 10.1115/1.4056055

    View details for PubMedID 36282508

  • Unified Many-Worlds Browsing of Arbitrary Physics-based Animations ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Goel, P., James, D. L. 2022; 41 (4)
  • Fast Linking Numbers for Topology Verification of Loopy Structures ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Qu, A., James, D. L. 2021; 40 (4)
  • Electric-to-acoustic pickup processing for string instruments: An experimental study of the guitar with a hexaphonic pickup. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Rau, M., Abel, J. S., James, D., Smith, J. O. 2021; 150 (1): 385

    Abstract

    A signal processing method to impart the response of an acoustic string instrument to an electric instrument that includes frequency-dependent string decay alterations is proposed. This type of processing is relevant when trying to make a less resonant instrument, such as an electric guitar, sound similar to a more resonant instrument, such as acoustic guitar. Unlike previous methods which typically only perform equalization, our method includes detailed physics-based string damping changes by using a time-varying filter which adds frequency-dependent exponential damping. Efficient digital filters are fit to bridge admittance measurements of an acoustic instrument and used to create equalization filters as well as damping correction filters. The damping correction filters are designed to work in real-time as they are triggered by onset and pitch detection of the signal measured through an under-saddle pickup to determine the intensity of the damping. A test case is presented in which an electric guitar is processed to model a measured acoustic guitar.

    View details for DOI 10.1121/10.0005540

    View details for PubMedID 34340520

  • DiffImpact: Differentiable Rendering and Identification of Impact Sounds Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) Clarke, S., et al 2021
  • PERSONALIZED HRTF MODELING USING DNN-AUGMENTED BEM Zhang, M., Wang, J., James, D. L., IEEE IEEE. 2021: 451-455
  • Weavecraft: An Interactive Design and Simulation Tool for 3D Weaving ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Wu, R., Zhang, J., Leaf, J., Hua, X., Qu, A., Harvey, C., Holtzman, E., Ko, J., Hagan, B., James, D., Guimbretiere, F., Marschner, S. 2020; 39 (6)
  • Phong Deformation: A better C-0 interpolant for embedded deformation ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS James, D. L. 2020; 39 (4)
  • KleinPAT: Optimal Mode Conflation For Time-Domain Precomputation Of Acoustic Transfer ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Wang, J., James, D. L. 2019; 38 (4)
  • Sharp Kelvinlets: Elastic deformations with cusps and localized falloffs DigiPro '19: 2019 Digital Production Symposium Goes, F. d., James, D. L. 2019: 8

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3329715.3338884

  • On the Impact of Ground Sound International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-19) Qu, A., James, D. L. 2019
  • Dynamic Kelvinlets: Secondary Motions based on Fundamental Solutions of Elastodynamics ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS De Goes, F., James, D. L. 2018; 37 (4)
  • Toward Wave-based Sound Synthesis for Computer Animation ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Wang, J., Qu, A., Langlois, T. R., James, D. L. 2018; 37 (4)
  • Regularized Kelvinlets: Sculpting brushes based on fundamental solutions of elasticity ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) de Goes, F., James, D. L. 2017; 36 (2)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3072959.3073595

  • Bounce Maps: An improved restitution model for real-time rigid-body impact ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) Wang, J., Setaluri, R., James, D. L., Pai, D. K. 2017; 36 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3072959.3073634

  • Animating Elastic Rods with Sound Transactions on Graphics (TOG) Schweickart, E., James, D. L., Marschner, S. 2017; 36 (4)

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3072959.3073680

  • Toward Animating Water with Complex Acoustic Bubbles ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Langlois, T. R., Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2016; 35 (4)
  • Real-time sound synthesis for paper material based on geometric analysis Eurographics/ ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Computer Animation (2016) Schreck, C., Rohmer, D., James, D., Hahmann, S., Cani, M. Eurographics Association . 2016
  • Inverse-Foley Animation: Synchronizing rigid-body motions to sound ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Langlois, T. R., James, D. L. 2014; 33 (4)
  • Eigenmode Compression for Modal Sound Models ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Langlois, T. R., An, S. S., Jin, K. K., James, D. L. 2014; 33 (4)
  • Physics-Based Character Skinning Using Multidomain Subspace Deformations IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS Kim, T., James, D. L. 2012; 18 (8): 1228-1240

    Abstract

    In this extended version of our Symposium on Computer Animation paper, we describe a domain-decomposition method to simulate articulated deformable characters entirely within a subspace framework. We have added a parallelization and eigendecomposition performance analysis, and several additional examples to the original symposium version. The method supports quasistatic and dynamic deformations, nonlinear kinematics and materials, and can achieve interactive time-stepping rates. To avoid artificial rigidity, or “locking,” associated with coupling low-rank domain models together with hard constraints, we employ penaltybased coupling forces. The multidomain subspace integrator can simulate deformations efficiently, and exploits efficient subspace-only evaluation of constraint forces between rotated domains using a novel Fast Sandwich Transform (FST). Examples are presented for articulated characters with quasistatic and dynamic deformations, and interactive performance with hundreds of fully coupled modes. Using our method, we have observed speedups of between 3 and 4 orders of magnitude over full-rank, unreduced simulations.

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TVCG.2012.78

    View details for Web of Science ID 000305000300005

    View details for PubMedID 22392720

  • Precomputed Acceleration Noise for Improved Rigid-Body Sound ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Chadwick, J. N., Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2012; 31 (4)
  • Stitch Meshes for Modeling Knitted Clothing with Yarn-level Detail ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Yuksel, C., Kaldor, J. M., James, D. L., Marschner, S. 2012; 31 (4)
  • Motion-driven Concatenative Synthesis of Cloth Sounds ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS An, S. S., James, D. L., Marschner, S. 2012; 31 (4)
  • Energy-based Self-Collision Culling for Arbitrary Mesh Deformations ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2012; 31 (4)
  • Fabricating Articulated Characters from Skinned Meshes ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Baecher, M., Bickel, B., James, D. L., Pfister, H. 2012; 31 (4)
  • Animating Fire with Sound ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Chadwick, J. N., James, D. L. 2011; 30 (4)
  • Toward High-Quality Modal Contact Sound ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2011; 30 (4)
  • Rigid-Body Fracture Sound with Precomputed Soundbanks ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Zheng, C., James, D. L. 2010; 29 (4)
  • Efficient Yarn-based Cloth with Adaptive Contact Linearization ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Kaldor, J. M., James, D. L., Marschner, S. 2010; 29 (4)
  • Subspace Self-Collision Culling ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Barbic, J., James, D. L. 2010; 29 (4)
  • Harmonic Shells: A Practical Nonlinear Sound Model for Near-Rigid Thin Shells ACM SIGGRAPH Asia Conference 2009 Chadwick, J. N., An, S. S., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2009
  • Skipping Steps in Deformable Simulation with Online Model Reduction ACM SIGGRAPH Asia Conference 2009 Kim, T., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2009
  • Staggered Projections for Frictional Contact in Multibody Systems ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Kaufman, D. M., Sueda, S., James, D. L., Pai, D. K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008
  • Optimizing Cubature for Efficient Integration of Subspace Deformations ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 An, S. S., Kim, T., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008
  • Fast modal sounds with scalable frequency-domain synthesis ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Bonneel, N., Drettakis, G., Tsingos, N., Viaud-Delmon, I., James, D. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008
  • Backward steps in rigid body simulation ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Twigg, C. D., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008
  • Simulating knitted cloth at the yarn level ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 2008 Kaldor, J. M., James, D. L., Marschner, S. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2008
  • Six-DoF Haptic Rendering of Contact between Geometrically Complex Reduced Deformable Models IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS Barbic, J., James, D. L. 2008; 1 (1): 39-52

    View details for DOI 10.1109/ToH.2008.1

    View details for Web of Science ID 000207897900005

  • FastLSM: Fast Lattice Shape Matching for robust real-time deformation ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 Conference Rivers, A. R., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2007
  • Many-Worlds browsing for control of multibody dynamics ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 Conference Twigg, C. D., James, D. L. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2007
  • Mesh ensemble motion graphs: Data-driven mesh animation with constraints ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS James, D. L., Twigg, C. D., Cove, A., Wang, R. Y. 2007; 26 (4)
  • Time-critical distributed contact for 6-DoF haptic rendering of adaptively sampled reduced deformable models Symposium on Computer Animation Barbic, J., James, D. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2007: 171–180
  • Precomputed Acoustic Transfer: Output-sensitive, accurate sound generation for geometrically complex vibration sources ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS James, D. L., Barbic, J., Pai, D. K. 2006; 25 (3): 987-995
  • Skinning mesh animations ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Conference James, D. L., Twigg, C. D. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2005: 399–407
  • Real-time subspace integration for St. Venant-Kirchhoff deformable models ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Conference Barbic, J., James, D. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2005: 982–90
  • BD-Tree: Output-sensitive collision detection for reduced deformable models Annual Symposium of the ACM SIGGRAPH James, D. L., Pai, D. K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2004: 393–98
  • Precomputing interactive dynamic deformable scenes Annual Symposium of the ACM SIGGRAPH James, D. L., Fatahalian, K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2003: 879–87
  • Multiresolution Green's function methods for interactive simulation of large-scale elastostatic objects ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS James, D. L., Pai, D. K. 2003; 22 (1): 47-82
  • DyRT: Dynamic response textures for real time deformation simulation with graphics hardware SIGGRAPH 2002 Meeting James, D. L., Pai, D. K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2002: 582–85
  • Real time simulation of multizone elastokinematic models 19th IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) James, D. L., Pai, D. K. IEEE. 2002: 927–932
  • Scanning physical interaction behavior of 3D objects SIGGRAPH 2001 Pai, D. K., van den Doel, K., James, D. L., Lang, J., Lloyd, J. E., Richmond, J. L., Yau, S. H. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2001: 87–96
  • ArtDefo - Accurate real time deformable objects 26th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques James, D. L., Pai, D. K. ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 1999: 65–72