Our project aims to simulate one of the most subtlely entertaining substances on earth: gelatin. The grand high goal is to display a bunch of gelatin cubes that the user can interact with in real-time. The cubes must look convincing, which means proper soft-body physics must be applied, collision detection and response must be handled correctly, and of course, they must look somewhat like goo. Furthermore, the simulation must be interactive and real-time, meaning that the calculations being performed cannot be too complex. Above all, it must "feel" right; the users must be convinced that they are indeed playing with Jello, and not some low-quality, computer-based facsimile.

The dynamics of gelatin are complex, to say the least. It is obtained from collagen (animal connective tissues) by boiling it in water, then letting it cool for several hours. Once cool, the denatured protein forms a nearly uniform semi-liquid with unusual hybrid properties. It restores its shape after deformation just like a solid does, but is semi-compressible, like a gas. It responds to force by oscillating, just like a liquid, though its motion is heavily damped. It has several other properties (such as fracture and splitting under sharp force), but we chose not to model them in the interest of simplifying calculations.