A fast and robust exemplar-based character shape matching and deformation approach for an interactive character creation and animation setup workflow

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In computer graphics, character creation and animation remain difficult because humanoid characters are expected to have a high level of realism in their appearance and animation. Autodesk Evolver lets users create humanoid characters by mixing polygon meshes from 49 ready-made "ancestor characters". The created character is also provided with animation setups (blend shapes and skeleton), making it easy to animate the created character. Compared to other tools where specific attributes such as tall/short and thin/heavy are adjusted, Evolver proposes a creative workflow where the user defines the shape of the character by selecting the ancestors that will influence it. A limitation of current character creation tools, including Evolver, is that the basis of character shapes that they work from is limited. It makes it difficult to create a wide range of characters such as aliens, werewolves, witches, etc. The purpose of this project is to allow the user to propose his own "artistic signature" polygon mesh, and create similar characters, with the ease of ancestor mixing found in Evolver. Even character accessories, such as clothes and bags, will be transferred to the created character. In order to achieve such an interactive character design system, scientific problems need to be solved. First, deformation and shape matching methods need to be improved in order to provide more robust mesh matching and deformation, faster computation times as well as proper deformation of accessories. Furthermore, creating high-quality animation controls for such a wide range of characters will require the development of tighter integration between skeleton and blend shape animation setups, novel approaches for ancestor animation setups transfer to the created character, and automatic generation of animation setups for the accessories. These scientific advancements will provide Autodesk with new character creation tools, will allow the community of end users to introduce more creativity in their work, and will provide fundamental approaches in mesh matching and animation setup for the academic community. This grant proposal is the last piece of funding for a broader collaborative project involving an artistic team and separate funding to address artistic objectives.