(r6) AnimationInterfaces < Imager

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-- Main.MichielVanDePanne - 26 Feb 2006


---++ Group Topic 2.7:  Animation Interfaces
---++++ Presented by: Zhangbo Liu and Dieter Buys
---++++ "Motion Doodles"

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Open problems are ... -- Michiel van de Panne

I think in certain domains (eg. pre-visualization for movies), this system could be really useful, at least to create a first rough pass at an animation. It reminds me of the discussion we had last class regarding being able to get sufficient range of expression out of character's motion. ie. happy/sad/angry styles of motion don't cover everything an animation might need, just like simple doodle animations can't describe everything we might want a character to do.  But it might get us most of the way there, allowing artists to focus their time on important aspects rather than getting bogged down in the details of every movement.
I think the main problem with it is that it requires a lot of assumptions and built-in parameterizations that limit its generality beyond specific closed domains. --Christopher Batty

A good read. Some questions/comments:
- How is the character model warped for motion of the two internal torso joints?
- What is Catmull-Rom interpolation? (brief elaboration would be nice)
- Is there any kind of motion-sketch garbage detection? (like there is for character sketching) Or is it truly/totally Garbage-in-Garbage-Out.
- Which of the proposed extensions have been made? (Having a 3D input interface would be cool!) A meta language that could connect novel motions with the identified gestures would be neat (making it easy for someone else to adapt this system to their own N-link characters).
- Has there been any commercial interest? -- Daniel Eaton

---++++ "Spatial Keyframing for Performance Driven Animation"

This is a nifty idea, but the fact that all the available motions have to be squished into a 2D plane makes producing anything more than a fairly small simple set of animations pretty difficult, I suspect. (However, the author's demonstration of the juggling teddy bear at last year's SCA was hilarious.) -- Christopher Batty

Separating the timing from the posing may make it a little easier for novice keyframers to do their job, but this still seems to be a time consuming process (a simple periodic motion that involves translation (like walking or hopping) would still take a long time to create). It also might may make it harder to make consistent or precise motions, since the second stage ("performance") is just controlled through a mouse. -- Daniel

Another paper.  Please add your comments below.
Topic revision: r6 - 2006-03-01 - DanielEaton