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This paper proposes a real-time simulation technique for thin rods undergoing large rotational deformation. Rods are thin objects such as ropes and hairs that can be abstracted as one-dimensional structures. Development of a real-time physical model that can produce visually convincing animation of thin rods has been a challenging problem in computer graphics. We adopt continuum mechanics to formulate the governing equation, and develop a modal warping technique for rods to integrate the governing equation in real-time; This is a novel extension of the previous modal warping techniques developed for solids and shells. Experimental results show that the proposed method runs in real-time even for large meshes and it can simulate large bending and/or twisting deformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]