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

在计算机图形学中，角色的创建和动画仍然很困难，因为人形角色的外观和动画都需要高度的真实感。Autodesk Evolver允许用户通过混合49个现成的“祖先角色”的多边形网格来创建人形角色。创建的角色还提供了动画设置（混合形状和骨架），使其易于为创建的角色设置动画。与其他调整特定属性（如高/矮和瘦/重）的工具相比，Evolver提出了一种创造性的工作流程，用户通过选择影响角色的祖先来定义角色的形状。当前角色创建工具（包括Evolver）的局限性在于，它们所依据的角色形状基础有限。这使得它很难创建一个广泛的字符，如外星人，狼人，女巫等，这个项目的目的是让用户提出自己的“艺术签名”多边形网格，并创建类似的字符，与祖先混合在进化中发现的方便。即使是角色的配饰，如衣服和包，也会转移到创建的角色上。为了实现这样一个交互式的角色设计系统，需要解决一些科学问题。首先，需要改进变形和形状匹配方法，以便提供更鲁棒的网格匹配和变形、更快的计算时间以及附件的适当变形。此外，为如此广泛的角色创建高质量的动画控件将需要开发骨架和混合变形动画设置之间的更紧密集成，将祖先动画设置转移到创建的角色的新方法，以及自动生成附件的动画设置。这些科学进步将为Autodesk提供新的角色创建工具，允许最终用户社区在工作中引入更多创造力，并为学术界提供网格匹配和动画设置的基本方法。这项赠款提案是一个更广泛的合作项目的最后一笔资金，该项目涉及一个艺术团队和单独的资金，以解决艺术目标。

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.