Abstract: In this article, we investigate the use of quadratic finite elements for graphical animation of deformable bodies. We consider both integrating quadratic elements with conventional linear elements to achieve a computationally efficient adaptive-degree simulation framework as well as wholly quadratic elements for the simulation of nonlinear rest shapes. In both cases, we adopt the Bézier basis functions and employ a co-rotational linear strain formulation. As with linear elements, the co-rotational formulation allows us to precompute per-element stiffness matrices, resulting in substantial computational savings. We present several examples that demonstrate the advantages of quadratic elements in general and our adaptive-degree system in particular. Furthermore, we demonstrate, for the first time in computer graphics, animations of volumetric deformable bodies with nonlinear rest shapes.