Dynamic skin deformation simulation using musculoskeletal model and soft tissue dynamics

Deformation of skin and muscle is essential for bringing an animated character to life. This deformation is difficult to animate in a realistic fashion using traditional techniques because of the subtlety of the skin deformations that must move appropriately for the character design. In this paper, we present an algorithm that generates natural, dynamic, and detailed skin deformation (movement and jiggle) from joint angle data sequences. The algorithm consists of two steps: identification of parameters for a quasi-static muscle model using a musculoskeletal model and a short sequence of skin deformation data, and simulation of dynamic muscle and soft tissue deformation with quasi-static muscle shape and a mass-spring-damper system. We demonstrate our method using skeletal motion capture data of a subject (whose data is not used for training) to create appropriate skin deformations for muscle co-contraction and external impacts. Experimental results show that the simulated skin deformations are quantitatively and qualitatively similar to the measured actual skin deformations.