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Layered Construction for Deformable Animated Characters
Layered character model with skeleton, muscle, and skin layers using proximity-based deformation for realistic anatomical character animation.
Abstract
A methodology is proposed for creating and animating computer generated characters which combines recent research advances in robotics, physically based modeling and geometric modeling. The control points of geometric modeling deformations are constrained by an underlying articulated robotics skeleton. These deformations are tailored by the animator and act as a muscle layer to provide automatic squash and stretch behavior of the surface geometry. A hierarchy of composite deformations provides the animator with a multi-layered approach to defining both local and global transition of the character's shape. The muscle deformations determine the resulting geometric surface of the character. This approach provides independent representation of articulation from surface geometry, supports higher level motion control based on various computational models, as well as a consistent, uniform character representation which can be tuned and tweaked by the animator to meet very precise expressive qualities. A prototype system (Critter) currently under development demonstrates research results towards layered construction of deformable animated characters.
How to read this
- Category
- Method: a layered (skeleton/muscle/skin) deformable character model
- Contributions
- A layered character methodology combining articulated robotics skeletons, physically based modeling, and geometric modeling
- Deformation control points constrained by the skeleton, with a muscle layer that gives automatic squash-and-stretch
- A hierarchy of composite deformations for local and global shape change, keeping articulation independent from surface geometry (prototype system Critter)
- Context
- Builds on Magnenat-Thalmann et al.'s joint-dependent local deformations (1988) and combines it with robotics and physically based modeling for full-character animation.Builds on: Joint-Dependent Local Deformations for Hand Animation and Object Grasping
- Correctness
- Presented via a prototype (Critter) under development; a reader should treat it as a methodology and early system rather than a fully evaluated production tool, with results tuned by the animator.
- Clarity
- Accessible at the architecture level; a first pass conveys the layered scheme, a second pass repays the deformation hierarchy.
- How to read it
- Read for the enduring skeleton/muscle/skin layering idea: focus on how the muscle layer drives squash-and-stretch and how articulation is decoupled from surface geometry; a first pass is usually enough.
Built upon by
Related work
- Real-Time Skeletal Skinning with Optimized Centers of Rotation 2016 / SIGGRAPH
- Anatomically Based Modeling 1997 / SIGGRAPH
- Data-driven Modeling of Skin and Muscle Deformation 2008 / SIGGRAPH
- Capture and Statistical Modeling of Arm-Muscle Deformations 2013 / CGF
Keywords
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