INTiMATE - Intelligent Media Animation for Transmedia Experiences

INTiMATE是IKinema向Innovate UK提出的一项为期两年的原型智能开发项目，旨在研究和开发算法和智能软件技术，将真人演员和CGI结合起来，用于电影、游戏、现场体验和跨媒体制作。这一提议回应了电影公司和视觉特效公司的需求，即如何将真人演员和虚拟角色无缝结合，从而实现真实、实时的互动。INTiMATE将开发实时工具，将动画对象和真实演员的虚拟环境结合起来，将捕捉工作室中的演员的行为自动、逼真地转移到虚拟世界中的虚拟人物身上，而不需要人工制品。INTiMATE建立在IKinema的IP上，用于反向映射高度铰接和多约束链，具有对数值奇点的鲁棒性。该项目将开发实时方法，将演员的动作转换为四足动物或神话生物，并使预先存储的CGI动画片段能够与真实演员一起播放，并适应他们在虚拟世界中的表演。其成果将作为实时软件技术的原型进行展示，并授权给电影、游戏和跨媒体领域的工作室和软件开发商。其结果将大大提高高端生产的效率，并大大减少时间和成本。运动增强和动画混合技术将在培训、工程和体育领域产生溢出应用。

INTiMATE is a proposal from IKinema to Innovate UK for a two-year Smart Development ofPrototype project to research and develop algorithms and intelligent software technologies forcombining live actors and CGI for films, games, live experiences and transmedia productions.The proposal responds to demands from studios and VFX companies for ways of seamlesslycombining live actors and virtual characters that can interact realistically, in real time.INTiMATE will develop real-time tools for combining animated objects and real actors invirtual environments, transferring behaviour from actors in the capture studio to avatars in thevirtual world automatically, realistically and without artefacts.INTiMATE builds on IKinema’s IP for inverse mapping highly articulated and multiconstraintchains, with robustness to numerical singularities. The project will develop realtimemethods for transferring the motion of actors to quadrupeds or mythical creatures andmake it possible for pre-stored CGI animation clips to be played along with real actors, andadapted to their performances in the virtual world. The outcome will be demonstrated asprototypes of real-time software technologies, for license to studios and software developersin the film, games and transmedia sectors. The results will greatly improve the efficiency ofhigh-end production, with considerably reduced time and cost. The motion enhancement andanimation blending technologies will have spillover applications in training, engineering andsports.