Rig animation with a tangible and modular input device

We developed a novel modular and tangible input device for digital character animation. It consists of joints and splitter parts. A novice user can assemble these parts into a skeleton that allows for the positioning or posing of any digital character. Our approach combines hardware with sophisticated software. An optimization algorithm suggests compact device configurations to the user. It optimizes these configurations for a specific digital character with the help of a small set of sample poses. This way, complex characters with hundreds of degrees of freedom can be animated using only 5 to 10 physical parts. Our tool interfaces with the two most popular 3D-animation tools, Autodesk Maya and Blender.

[1]  Markus H. Gross,et al.  Differential blending for expressive sketch-based posing , 2013, SCA '13.

[2]  Markus H. Gross,et al.  Rig-space physics , 2012, ACM Trans. Graph..

[3]  Chris Esposito,et al.  Of mice and monkeys: a specialized input device for virtual body animation , 1995, I3D '95.

[4]  Jovan Popović,et al.  Semantic deformation transfer , 2009, SIGGRAPH 2009.

[5]  Maneesh Agrawala,et al.  3D puppetry: a kinect-based interface for 3D animation , 2012, UIST.

[6]  Shumin Zhai,et al.  Quantifying coordination in multiple DOF movement and its application to evaluating 6 DOF input devices , 1998, CHI.

[7]  Maud Marchal,et al.  THING: Introducing a Tablet-based Interaction Technique for Controlling 3D Hand Models , 2015, CHI.

[8]  Hans-Peter Seidel,et al.  Interactive motion mapping for real‐time character control , 2014, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[9]  David Lindlbauer,et al.  Creature Teacher: A Performance-Based Animation System for Creating Cyclic Movements , 2015, SUI.

[10]  Robert J. K. Jacob,et al.  Integrality and separability of input devices , 1994, TCHI.

[11]  Olga Sorkine-Hornung,et al.  On Linear Variational Surface Deformation Methods , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[12]  Yuta Sugiura,et al.  An actuated physical puppet as an input device for controlling a digital manikin , 2011, CHI.

[13]  Alexandre Meyer,et al.  Multi-Layer Level of Detail For Character Animation , 2008, VRIPHYS.

[14]  James Davis,et al.  Motion capture data retrieval using an artist’s doll , 2008, 2008 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition.

[15]  John P. Lewis,et al.  Pose Space Deformation: A Unified Approach to Shape Interpolation and Skeleton-Driven Deformation , 2000, SIGGRAPH.

[16]  Markus H. Gross,et al.  Sketch abstractions for character posing , 2015, Symposium on Computer Animation.

[17]  Matthias Zwicker,et al.  Mesh-based inverse kinematics , 2005, ACM Trans. Graph..

[18]  Paul Milgram,et al.  Measuring the allocation of control in a 6 degree-of-freedom docking experiment , 2000, CHI.

[19]  Martin Guay,et al.  Space-time sketching of character animation , 2015, ACM Trans. Graph..

[20]  Olga Sorkine-Hornung,et al.  Tangible and modular input device for character articulation , 2014, SIGGRAPH '14.

[21]  Andrea Tagliasacchi,et al.  Mean Curvature Skeletons , 2012, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[22]  Michael Gleicher,et al.  Retargetting motion to new characters , 1998, SIGGRAPH.

[23]  W. Kabsch.  A solution for the best rotation to relate two sets of vectors , 1976 .

[24]  Brian Knep,et al.  Dinosaur input device , 1995, CHI '95.

[25]  Tong-Yee Lee,et al.  Skeleton extraction by mesh contraction , 2008, SIGGRAPH 2008.

[26]  Jessica K. Hodgins,et al.  Expressing animated performances through puppeteering , 2013, 2013 IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI).

[27]  Taku Komura,et al.  Learning an inverse rig mapping for character animation , 2015, Symposium on Computer Animation.

[28]  Ken-ichi Anjyo,et al.  Direct Manipulation Blendshapes , 2010, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[29]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms , 1997, CHI.

[30]  Junghyun Ahn,et al.  Motion Level-of-Detail: A Simplification Method on Crowd Scene , 2004 .

[31]  Andrew Nealen,et al.  AniMesh , 2015, ACM Trans. Graph..

[32]  Olga Sorkine-Hornung,et al.  Fast automatic skinning transformations , 2012, ACM Trans. Graph..

[33]  Jovan Popovic,et al.  Deformation transfer for triangle meshes , 2004, ACM Trans. Graph..

[34]  PanozzoDaniele,et al.  Rig animation with a tangible and modular input device , 2016 .

[35]  Martin Guay,et al.  The line of action , 2013, ACM Trans. Graph..

[36]  David Salesin,et al.  Performance-driven hand-drawn animation , 2000, NPAR '00.

[37]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  LineFORM: Actuated Curve Interfaces for Display, Interaction, and Constraint , 2015, UIST.

[38]  Zhigang Deng,et al.  Robust and accurate skeletal rigging from mesh sequences , 2014, ACM Trans. Graph..

[39]  Peter-Pike J. Sloan,et al.  Shape by example , 2001, I3D '01.

[40]  Alec Jacobson,et al.  Skinning: real-time shape deformation , 2014, SIGGRAPH ASIA Courses.

[41]  Li-Wei Chan,et al.  FlexiBend: Enabling Interactivity of Multi-Part, Deformable Fabrications Using Single Shape-Sensing Strip , 2015, UIST.

[42]  Olga Sorkine-Hornung,et al.  Rig animation with a tangible and modular input device , 2016, UIST.

[43]  Scott Schaefer,et al.  Example-based skeleton extraction , 2007, Symposium on Geometry Processing.