Abstract: In this paper, we present the results of a human-computer interaction experiment that compared the performance of the animation of dynamic graphs to the presentation of small multiples and the effect that mental map preservation had on the two conditions. Questions used in the experiment were selected to test both local and global properties of graph evolution over time. The data sets used in this experiment were derived from standard benchmark data sets of the information visualization community. We found that small multiples gave significantly faster performance than animation overall and for each of our five graph comprehension tasks. In addition, small multiples had significantly more errors than animation for the tasks of determining sets of nodes or edges added to the graph during the same timeslice, although a positive time-error correlation coefficient suggests that, in this case, faster responses did not lead to more errors. This result suggests that, for these two tasks, animation is preferable if accuracy is more important than speed. Preserving the mental map under either the animation or the small multiples condition had little influence in terms of error rate and response time.

Abstract: Conventional Animation. Computer Animation. The Development of Computer Animation in Various Organizations. Keyframe and Painting Systems. Object Modelling in 3D Animation. Motion Control in 3D Animation. Hidden Surfaces, Reflectance and Shading. Transparency, Texture, Shadows, and Anti-aliasing. Human Modelling and Animation. Object-oriented and Actor Languages and Systems. Automatic Motion Control. Case Studies of Computer-generated Films. Appendix: Computer-generated Films.

Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach which uses brain computer interface (BCI) technology to translate the user's mental conditions, especially the attention state, into game control. Leveraging on BCI engine to measure a user's attention level to control a virtual hand's movement and utilizing 3D animation technique, the proposed system is significant for training those who suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Comparing to robotic based system, the proposed system is cost-effective, interesting, and ease of use. It also can be extended for rehabilitating the people with neurological disorders, such as those debilitating traumatic events. Potentially, millions people may benefit from the system. The system structure and experimental results will be illustrated in this paper. To our knowledge, no same system is reported yet.

Abstract: This article challenges the widely held view that cinema is a subcategory of the larger entity, animation. Tracing the etymology of the word ‘animation’ reveals how it acquired two separate meanings: one to endow with life or to come alive, and the other, to move or be moved. In trade and professional discourses about cinema, ‘animation’ did not refer to single-frame cinematography or to the class of films using that technique until the early 1910s. The genealogical argument that animation was the ancestor of cinema exploits the semantic serendipity of these two meanings, but the approach distracts from a larger understanding of animation as a film form, genre and social practice. A negative result of this line of reasoning is that the distinctive features of the optical toys of so-called pre-cinema are valued only inasmuch as they resembled later cinema and may not be studied in their own right.

Abstract: This article presents the LIFEisGAME project, a serious game that will help children with ASDs to recognize and express emotions through facial expressions. The game design tackles the main experiential learning cycle of emotion recognition: watch and recognize, learn by doing, recognize and mimic, generalize or knowledge transfer to real life. We briefly describe the technology behind the character animation pipeline centered on the creation of a generic rig. Then, we detail the facial expression analyzer that uses Active Appearance Models. Last, we describe the user study experiment using game mode “recognize the expression”.

Abstract: We present an efficient method that uses particles to solve the 2D shallow water equations. These equations describe the dynamics of a body of water represented by a height field. Instead of storing the surface heights using uniform grid cells, we discretize the fluid with 2D SPH particles and compute the height according to the density at each particle location. The particle discretization offers the benefits that it simplifies the use of sparsely filled domains and arbitrary boundary geometry. Our solver can handle terrain slopes and supports two-way coupling of the particle-based height field with rigid objects. An improved surface definition is presented that reduces visible bumps related to the underlying particle representation. It furthermore smoothes areas with separating particles to achieve better rendering results. Both the physics and the rendering are implemented on modern GPUs resulting in interactive performances in all our presented examples.

Abstract: Sand animation is a performance art technique in which an artist tells stories by creating animated images with sand. Inspired by this medium, we have developed a new multi-touch digital artistic medium named SandCanvas that simplifies the creation of sand animations. SandCanvas also goes beyond traditional sand animation with tools for mixing sand animation with video and replicating recorded free-form hand gestures. In this paper, we analyze common sand animation hand gestures, present SandCanvas's intuitive UI, and describe implementation challenges we encountered. We also present an evaluation with professional and novice artists that shows the importance and unique affordances of this new medium.

Abstract: A time efficient compression technique, incorporating attention stimulating factors, for motion capture data is proposed. Compression ratios of 25:1 to 30:1 can be achieved with very little noticeable degradation in perceptual quality of animation. Experimental analysis shows that the proposed algorithm is much faster than comparable approaches using wavelets, thereby making our approach feasible for motion capture, transmission, and real-time synthesis on mobile devices, where processing power and memory capacity are limited.

Abstract: This paper presents an approach for reconstruction of procedural three-dimensional models of woody plants (trees). The used procedural tree model operates by recursively computing all building parts of a three-dimensional tree structure by applying a fixed procedure on a given large set of numerically coded input parameters. The parameterized procedural model can later be used for computer animation. Reconstruction of a parameterized procedural model from images is done by differential evolution algorithm which evolves this model by fitting a set of its rendered images to a set of given reference images. The comparison is done on pixel level of the images through the integration of distances to the nearest similar pixels. The obtained results show that the presented approach is viable for modeling of woody plants for computer animation by evolution of the numerically coded procedural model.

Abstract: Virtual fitting room is a real-time interactive platform used in electronic business affairs of garments. It has good future. In this paper, we discussed the interactive 3D virtual fitting room system on web environment. It integrates several key techniques involved, including 3D modeling, collision dictation, real-time rendering. And we proposed a framework of the virtual Try-On system. It leads the progress of virtual fitting that forms the basis of a realistic, three dimensional simulations and visualization of garments on virtual counterparts of real customers. The system is more flexible to enable garments designing, body modeling and clothing animation etc. Users can view the clothing animation on the various angles, and moreover can change actor's hairstyle, accessories, etc. And the system can evaluate costumer's match in order to guide them choose suitable cloths.

Abstract: This paper describes a complete pipe-line of a practical system for producing real-time facial expressions of a 3D virtual avatar controlled by an actor's live performances. The system handles practical challenges arising from markerless expression captures from a single conventional video camera. For robust tracking, a localized algorithm constrained by belief propagation is applied to the upper face, and an appearance matching technique using a parameterized generic face model is exploited for lower face and head pose tracking. The captured expression features then transferred to high dimensional 3D animation controls using our facial expression space which is a structure-preserving map between two algebraic structures. The transferred animation controls drive facial animation of a 3D avatar while optimizing the smoothness of the face mesh. An example-based face deformation technique produces non-linear local detail deformations on the avatar that are not captured in the movement of the animation controls.

Abstract: In a mixed-reality (MR) environment, the appearance of touchable objects can be changed by superimposing a computer-generated image (CGI) onto them (MR visual stimulation). At the same time, when humans sense the hardness of real objects, it is known that their perception is influenced not only by tactile information but also by visual information. In this paper, we studied the psychophysical influence on the sense of hardness by using a real object that has a CGI superimposed on it. In this experiment, we deform in an extreme way the CGI animation on the real object, while the subject pushes the real object using his/her finger. The results of the experiments found that human subjects sensed different hardnesses by emphasizing the dent deformation of the CGI animation.

Abstract: This specification describes technologies that relate to creating animation effects in an animation at runtime and without requiring the animation effects to be stored in every frame or time instance of the animation. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in a method that includes obtaining animation information having a primary object and a first effect object associated with the primary object. The method also includes generating an animation sequence using the animation information. The animation sequence includes the primary object on which the first effect object and a second effect object can be applied. The act of generating an animation sequence includes interpolating between the first and second effect objects to create at least one intermediate effect applied to the primary object in the animation sequence. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products.

Abstract: We present a method to enhance the realism of animated characters by adding physically based secondary motion to deformable parts such as cloth, skin or hair. To this end, we extend the oriented particles approach to incorporate animation information. In addition, we introduce techniques to increase the stability of the original method in order to make it suitable for the fast and sudden motions that typically occur in computer games. We also propose a method for the semi-automatic creation of particle representations from arbitrary visual meshes. This way, our technique allows us to simulate complex geometry such as hair, thick cloth with ornaments and multi-layered clothing, all interacting with each other and the animated character.

Abstract: Physics simulation offers the possibility of truly responsive and realistic animation. Despite wide adoption of physics simulation for the animation of passive phenomena, such as rigid objects, fluids, cloths and rag-doll characters, commercial applications still resort to kinematics-based approaches for the animation of actively controlled characters. However, in recent years, research on interactive character animation using simulated physics has resulted in tremendous improvements in controllability, robustness, visual quality and usability. In this review, we present a structured evaluation of relevant aspects, approaches and techniques regarding interactive character animation using simulated physics, based on over two decades of research. We conclude by pointing out some open research areas and possible future directions.

Abstract: An interactive inverse kinematics approach robustly generates natural poses in a large human-reachable space. It employs adaptive kd clustering to select a representative frame set from a large motion database and employs sparse approximation to accelerate training and posing. Model training is required only once. IK algorithms are fundamental in computer animation. However, designing energy functions that can generate natural poses for traditional IK algorithms is difficult. Style-based IK solves this problem by learning a prior model from motions. However, it might fail to generate natural poses when the desired poses differ considerably from the limited training poses. As we've shown, NAT-IK overcomes these limitations. It can relieve animators from time-consuming, back-and-forth, IK-pose adjustment. So, it's useful in automated applications such as games and virtual worlds, v*

Abstract: An animation timeline is analyzed to determine one or more discrete states. Each discrete state includes one or more animation effects. The discrete states represent scenes of a slide in a slide presentation. The concepts of scenes allows user to view a timeline of scenes, open a scene, and direct manipulate objects in the scene to author animations. The animations can include motion path animation effects, which can be directly manipulated utilizing a motion path tweening method. To aid in direct manipulation of a motion path of an object, a ghost version of the object can be shown to communicate to a user the position of the object after a motion path animation effect that includes the motion path is performed. The ghost version may also be used to show a start position when a start point is manipulated.

Abstract: In this paper, a new rapid 3D human modeling and animation method based on sketch and motion database is proposed. This method reconstruct 3D human ball B-Spline model from sketch and implement real-time animation using motion database. We firstly blend all parts of sketch to obtain a new sketch which can represent human by one stroke. Then we triangulate this new sketch and select some circum circle centers of the triangles as key points. Radius information can be evaluated by the circum circle radius of relative triangles. Combine key points and radius information, ball B-Spline character model can be obtained through interpolation method. According to human body topology and skeleton structure described by BVH file in motion database, we can define all animation joint positions. Finally, we implement real time animation using motion data from database by updating control points and control radius of ball B-Spline model.

Abstract: We describe a method to parameterize lines generated from animated 3D models in the context of animated line drawings. Cartoons and mechanical illustrations are popular subjects of non-photorealistic drawings and are often generated from 3D models. Adding texture to the lines, for instance to depict brush strokes or dashed lines, enables greater expressiveness, e.g. to distinguish between visible and hidden lines. However, dynamic visibility events and the evolving shape of the lines raise issues that have been only partially explored so far. In this paper, we assume that the entire 3D animation is known ahead of time, as is typically the case for feature animations and off-line rendering. At the core of our method is a geometric formulation of the problem as a parameterization of the space-time surface swept by a 2D line during the animation. First, we build this surface by extracting lines in each frame. We demonstrate our approach with silhouette lines. Then, we locate visibility events that would create discontinuities and propagate them through time. They decompose the surface into charts with a disc topology. We parameterize each chart via a least-squares approach that reflects the specific requirements of line drawing. This step results in a texture atlas of the space-time surface which defines the parameterization for each line. We show that by adjusting a few weights in the least-squares energy, the artist can obtain an artifact-free animated motion in a variety of typical non-photorealistic styles such as painterly strokes and technical line drawing.

Abstract: The use of realistic humanoid animations generated through motion capture (MoCap) technology is widespread across various 3-D applications and industries. However, the existing compression techniques for such representation often do not consider the implicit coherence within the anatomical structure of a human skeletal model and lacks portability for transmission consideration. In this paper, a novel concept virtual character animation image (VCAI) is proposed. Built upon a fuzzy clustering algorithm, the data similarity within the anatomy structure of a virtual character (VC) model is jointly considered with the temporal coherence within the motion data to achieve efficient data compression. Since the VCA is mapped as an image, the use of image processing tool is possible for efficient compression and delivery of such content across dynamic network. A modified motion filter (MMF) is proposed to minimize the visual discontinuity in VCA's motion due to the quantization and transmission error. The MMF helps to remove high frequency noise components and smoothen the motion signal providing perceptually improved VCA with lessened distortion. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is competitive in compression efficiency and decoded VCA quality against the state-of-the-art VCA compression methods, making it suitable for providing quality VCA animation to low-powered mobile devices.

Abstract: Animation of computer-generated display components of user interfaces and content items is provided. An animation application or engine creates images of individual display components (e.g., bitmap images) and places those images on animation layers. Animation behaviors may be specified for the layers to indicate how the layers and associated display component images animate or behave when their properties change (e.g., a movement of an object contained on a layer), as well as, to change properties on layers in order to trigger animations (e.g., an animation that causes an object to rotate). In order to achieve high animation frame rates, the animation application may utilize three processing threads, including a user interface thread, a compositor thread and a rendering thread. Display behavior may be optimized and controlled by utilizing a declarative markup language, such as the Extensible Markup Language, for defining display behavior functionality and properties.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for automatically creating style sheet animations including keyframe information. In some embodiments, a style sheet animation creation tool with a timeline-based interface is provided. By interacting with the user-interface, the user can select a point on a timeline for an animation object to add a keyframe to an animation of the animation object. In response to the user's selection of the keyframe time point, the style sheet animation creation tool displays an interactive keyframe indicator on the timeline to indicate the selected time point. With the style sheet animation creation tool, a user can generate a style sheet animation without having to author style sheet language text statements by hand.

Abstract: This paper describes a complete system to create anatomically accurate example-based volume deformation and animation of articulated body regions, starting from multiple in vivo volume scans of a specific individual. In order to solve the correspondence problem across volume scans, a template volume is registered to each sample. The wide range of pose variations is first approximated by volume blend deformation (VBD), providing proper initialization of the articulated subject in different poses. A novel registration method is presented to efficiently reduce the computation cost while avoiding strong local minima inherent in complex articulated body volume registration. The algorithm highly constrains the degrees of freedom and search space involved in the nonlinear optimization, using hierarchical volume structures and locally constrained deformation based on the biharmonic clamped spline. Our registration step establishes a correspondence across scans, allowing a data-driven deformation approach in the volume domain. The results provide an occlusion-free person-specific 3D human body model, asymptotically accurate inner tissue deformations, and realistic volume animation of articulated movements driven by standard joint control estimated from the actual skeleton. Our approach also addresses the practical issues arising in using scans from living subjects. The robustness of our algorithms is tested by their applications on the hand, probably the most complex articulated region in the body, and the knee, a frequent subject area for medical imaging due to injuries.

Abstract: In this paper, we present an efficient framework to deform polygonal models for skeleton-driven animation. Standard solutions of skeleton-driven animation, such as linear blend skinning, require intensive artist intervention and focus on primary deformations. The proposed approach can generate both low- and high-frequency surface motions such as muscle deformation and vibrations with little user intervention. Given a surface mesh, we construct a lattice of cubic cells embracing the mesh and we apply lattice-based smooth skinning to drive the surface primary deformation with volume preservation. Lattice shape matching with dynamic particles, in the meantime, is utilized for secondary deformations. Due to the highly parallel lattice structure, the proposed method is liable to GPU computation. Our results show that it is adequate to vividly real-time animation.

Abstract: Animating hand-object interactions is a frequent task in applications such as the production of 3d movies. Unfortunately this task is difficult due to the hand's many degrees of freedom and the constraints on the hand motion imposed by the geometry of the object. However, the causality between the object state and the hand's pose can be exploited in order to simplify the animation process. In this paper, we present a method that takes an animation of an object as input and automatically generates the corresponding hand motion. This approach is based on the simple observation that objects are easier to animate than hands, since they usually have fewer degrees of freedom. The method is data-driven; sequences of hands manipulating an object are captured semi-automatically with a structured-light setup. The training data is then combined with a new animation of the object in order to generate a plausible animation featuring the hand-object interaction.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to recording and editing of multi-dimensional video game world data obtained from execution of a video game sequence. An animation editor records the video game world data within a plurality of data logs after execution of an animation component of the video game and prior to providing the data to a material system and/or graphics device for rendering. The user may edit the recorded data to make changes in the recorded game sequence, by employing an animation preset. The user selects an animation preset and combines the preset with a target animation over a time interval. A filter or mask may be used to selectively alter portions of a character or a frame. The animation preset may be selectively stretched or compressed based on the time interval of the target animation and the length of the animation preset.

Abstract: In order to simulate plausible groups or crowds of virtual characters, it is important to ensure that the individuals in a crowd do not look, move, behave or sound identical to each other. Such obvious 'cloning' can be disconcerting and reduce the engagement of the viewer with an animated movie, virtual environment or game. In this paper, we focus in particular on the problem of motion cloning, i. e., where the motion from one person is used to animate more than one virtual character model. Using our database of motions captured from 83 actors (45M and 38F), we present an experimental framework for evaluating human motion, which allows both the static (e.g., skeletal structure) and dynamic aspects (e.g., walking style) of an animation to be controlled. This framework enables the creation of crowd scenarios using captured human motions, thereby generating simulations similar to those found in commercial games and movies, while allowing full control over the parameters that affect the perceived variety of the individual motions in a crowd. We use the framework to perform an experiment on the perception of characteristic walking motions in a crowd, and conclude that the minimum number of individual motions needed for a crowd to look varied could be as low as three. While the focus of this paper was on the dynamic aspects of animation, our framework is general enough to be used to explore a much wider range of factors that affect the perception of characteristic human motion.

Abstract: I: Scientific Visualization and Animation.- Animation of the Development of Multicellular Structures.- Computer-Animated Chemical Models.- Applications of Scientific Visualization to Meteorological Data Analysis and Animation.- II: Human Modeling and Animation.- Directing an Animated Scene with Autonomous Actors.- Human Free-Walking Model for a Real-Time Interactive Design of Gaits.- Registered 3D-Texture Imaging.- III: Artificial Intelligence, Behavior, and Motion Control.- Behavioral Animation Using an Interactive Network.- Animating Microworlds from Scripts and Relational Constraints.- GEMSA: Computer-Aided Movement Generation for Scene Animation.- IV: Models, Systems, and Languages.- Modeling and Animation of Garment Wrinkle Formation Processes.- Command History in a Reversible Painting System.- Computer Pinscreen Simulation.- An Object-Oriented Approach for Modelling Animated Entities.- V: Animation Techniques.- Motion Comparison in Computer Animation.- A Definition of Frame-to-Frame Coherence.- Automating View Function Generation for Walk-through Animation Using a Reeb Graph.- Author Index.- Keyword Index.