Dissertations / Theses on the topic '3D Character Animation'

En animation de personnages 3D, la déformation de surface, ou skinning, est une étape cruciale. Son rôle est de déformer la représentation surfacique d'un personnage pour permettre son rendu dans une succession de poses spécifiées par un animateur. La plausibilité et la qualité visuelle du résultat dépendent directement de la méthode de skinning choisie. Sa rapidité d'exécution et sa simplicité d'utilisation sont également à prendre en compte pour rendre possible son usage interactif lors des sessions de production des artistes 3D. Les différentes méthodes de skinning actuelles se divisent en trois catégories. Les méthodes géométriques sont rapides et simples d'utilisation, mais leur résultats manquent de plausibilité. Les approches s'appuyant sur des exemples produisent des résultats réalistes, elles nécessitent en revanche une base de données d'exemples volumineuse, et le contrôle de leur résultat est fastidieux. Enfin, les algorithmes de simulation physique sont capables de modéliser les phénomènes dynamiques les plus complexes au prix d'un temps de calcul souvent prohibitif pour une utilisation interactive. Les travaux décrits dans cette thèse s'appuient sur Implicit Skinning, une méthode géométrique corrective utilisant une représentation implicite des surfaces, qui permet de résoudre de nombreux problèmes rencontrés avec les méthodes géométriques classiques, tout en gardant des performances permettant son usage interactif. La contribution principale de ces travaux est un modèle d'animation qui prend en compte les effets des muscles des personnages et de leur interactions avec d'autres éléments anatomiques, tout en bénéficiant des avantages apportés par Implicit Skinning. Les muscles sont représentés par une surface d'extrusion le long d'axes centraux. Les axes des muscles sont contrôlés par une méthode de simulation physique simplifiée. Cette représentation permet de modéliser les collisions des muscles entre eux et avec les os, d'introduire des effets dynamiques tels que rebonds et secousses, tout en garantissant la conservation du volume, afin de représenter le comportement réel des muscles. Ce modèle produit des déformations plus plausibles et dynamiques que les méthodes géométriques de l'état de l'art, tout en conservant des performances suffisantes pour permettre son usage dans une session d'édition interactive. Elle offre de plus aux infographistes un contrôle intuitif sur la forme des muscles pour que les déformations obtenues se conforment à leur vision artistique
Surface deformation, or skinning is a crucial step in 3D character animation. Its role is to deform the surface representation of a character to be rendered in the succession of poses specified by an animator. The quality and plausiblity of the displayed results directly depends on the properties of the skinning method. However, speed and simplicity are also important criteria to enable their use in interactive editing sessions. Current skinning methods can be divided in three categories. Geometric methods are fast and simple to use, but their results lack plausibility. Example-based approaches produce realistic results, yet they require a large database of examples while remaining tedious to edit. Finally, physical simulations can model the most complex dynamical phenomena, but at a very high computational cost, making their interactive use impractical. The work presented in this thesis are based on, Implicit Skinning, is a corrective geometric approach using implicit surfaces to solve many issues of standard geometric skinning methods, while remaining fast enough for interactive use. The main contribution of this work is an animation model that adds anatomical plausibility to a character by representing muscle deformations and their interactions with other anatomical features, while benefiting from the advantages of Implicit Skinning. Muscles are represented by an extrusion surface along a central axis. These axes are driven by a simplified physics simulation method, introducing dynamic effects, such as jiggling. The muscle model guarantees volume conservation, a property of real-life muscles. This model adds plausibility and dynamics lacking in state-of-the-art geometric methods at a moderate computational cost, which enables its interactive use. In addition, it offers intuitive shape control to animators, enabling them to match the results with their artistic vision

In character animation achieving realistic deformations of the skin is a challenging task. Geometric skinning techniques, such as smooth blending or dual-quaternions, are very popular for their high performance but fail to produce convincing deformations. They look too soft compared to human skin deformation at a rigid bone joint. In addition advanced effects such as skin contacts or bulges are not taken into account. Other methods make use of physical simulation or volume control to better capture the skin behavior, yet they cannot deliver real-time feedback. We developed a novel skinning framework called implicit skinning. Our method produces visually plausible deformations in real-time by handling realistic skin contacts and bulges between limbs. Implicit skinning exploits the ability of implicit surfaces to be robustly combined as well as their efficient collision detection. By approximating the mesh by a set of implicit surfaces, we are able to guide the deformation of a mesh character. we can combine the implicit surfaces in real-time, and use the final implicit surface to adjust the position of mesh vertices at each animation step. Since collision detection is very efficient using implicit surfaces we achieve skin contacts between limbs at interactive to real-time frame rates. In this thesis we present the complete implicit skinning framework, that is, the conversion of a mesh character to implicit surfaces, the composition operators and the mesh deformation algorithm on top of the implicit surface. Two deformation algorithms are studied: a fast history dependent algorithm which acts as a post process on top of dual-quaternions skinning and a slower yet more robust history dependent algorithm.
Graduate

L'animation expressive permet des styles de mouvements exagerés et artistiques comme l'étirement de parties du corps ou encore l'animation de créatures imaginaires comme un dragon. Créer ce genre d'animation nécessite des outils assez flexible afin de déformer les personnages en des poses quelconques, ainsi que de pouvoir contrôler l'animation à tout moment dans le temps. L'approche acutelle pour l'animation expressive est le keyframing: une approche manuelle avec laquelle les animateurs déforment leur personnage un moment spécifique dans le temps en cliquand et glissant la souris sur une partis spécifique du corps---un à la fois. Malgré le fait que cette approche soit flexible, il est difficile de créer des animations de qualité qui suivent les principes artistiques, puisque le keyframing permet seulement qu'un contrôle local spatiallement et temporellement. Lorsqu'ils dessinent des poses ou des mouvements, les artistes s'appuient sur différentes abstractions sous forme de croquis qui facillitent la réalisation de certain principes artistiques. Par example, certains animateurs dessinent des lignes d'action afin de créer une pose plus lisible et expressive. Afin de coordonner un mouvement, les animateurs vont souvent dessiner des abstractions de mouvement comme des demi-cercles pour des sauts, ou des boucles pour des pirouettes---leur permettant de pratiquer la coordination du mouvement. Malheureusement, ces outils artistiques ne font pas partis de l'ensemble d'outils de keyframing actuelle. Le fait que l'on ne puisse pas employer les même outils artistiques pour animater des personnages 3D a une forte conséquence: les outils d'animation 3D ne sont pas employés dans le processus créatif. Aujourd'hui, les animateurs créent sur du papier et utilisent le keyframing seulement à la fin pour réaliser leur animation. La raison pour laquelle nous n'avons pas ces outils artistiques (ligne d'action, abstractions de mouvement) en animation 3D, est parce qu'il manque une compréhension formelle de ceux-ci qui nous permettrais d'exprimer la forme du personnage---potentiellement au cours du temps---en fonction de la forme de ces croquis. Ainsi la contribution principale de cette thèse est une compréhension formelle et mathématique des abstractions de forme et de mouvement courrament employées par des artistes, ainsi qu'un ensemble d'algorithme qui permet l'utilisation de ces outils artistiques pour créer des animations expressives. C'est-à-dire que les outils développés dans cette thèse permettent d'étirer des parties du corps ainsi que d'animer des personnages de différentes morphologies. J'introduis aussi plusieurs extentions à ces outils. Par example, j'explore l'idée de sculpter du mouvement en permettant à l'artiste de dessigner plusieurs couches de mouvement une par dessus l'autre, de twister en 3D les croquis, ou encore d'animer un croquis ligne comme un élastique. Les contributions principales de cette thèse, aussi résumé ci-dessous: -La ligne d'action facilitant la création de poses expressives en dessinant directement le flow complet du personnage. -La courbe spatio-temporelle qui permet de spécifier un mouvement coordoné complet avec un seul geste (en dessinant une seule courbe), applicable à n'importe quel personnage 3D. -Un algorithme de matching rapide et robuste qui permet du ``squash and stretch''. -La ligne d'action élastique avec des attachements dynamiques à la ligne permettant d'animer un personnages à plusieurs jambes (bras) avec une seule ligne 2D animée
Free-form animation allows for exaggerated and artistic styles of motions such as stretching character limbs and animating imaginary creatures such as dragons. Creating these animations requires tools flexible enough to shape characters into arbitrary poses, and control motion at any instant in time. The current approach to free-form animation is keyframing: a manual task in which animators deform characters at individual instants in time by clicking-and-dragging individual body parts one at a time. While this approach is flexible, it is challenging to create quality animations that follow high-level artistic principles---as keyframing tools only provide localized control both spatially and temporally. When drawing poses and motions, artists rely on different sketch-based abstractions that help fulfill high-level aesthetic and artistic principles. For instance, animators will draw textit{lines of action} to create more readable and textit{expressive} poses. To coordinate movements, animators will sketch textit{motion abstractions} such as semi-circles and loops to coordinate a bouncing and rolling motions. Unfortunately, these drawing tools are not part of the free-form animation tool set today. The fact that we cannot use the same artistic tools for drawing when animating 3D characters has an important consequence: 3D animation tools are not involved in the creative process. Instead, animators create by first drawing on paper, and only later are 3D animation tools used to fulfill the pose or animation. The reason we do not have these artistic tools (the line of action, and motion abstractions) in the current animation tool set is because we lack a formal understanding relating the character's shape---possible over time---to the drawn abstraction's shape. Hence the main contribution of this thesis is a formal understanding of pose and motion abstractions (line of action and motion abstractions) together with a set of algorithms that allow using these tools in a free-form setting. As a result, the techniques described in this thesis allow exaggerated poses and movements that may include squash and stretch, and can be used with various character morphologies. These pose and animation drafting tools can be extended. For instance, an animator can sketch and compose different layers of motion on top of one another, add twist around strokes, or turning the strokes into elastic ribbons. The main contributions of this thesis are summarized as follows: -The line of action facilitating expressive posing by directly sketching the overall flow of the character's pose. -The space-time curve allowing to draft full coordinated movements with a single stroke---applicable to arbitrary characters. -A fast and robust skeletal line matching algorithm that supports squash-and-stretch. -Elastic lines of action with dynamically constrained bones for driving the motion of a multi-legged character with a single moving 2D line

Creation of 3D character animations is a complex and time-consuming process, and the character animator has to simultaneously consider a multitude of factors in order to create high quality expressive animation. The 12 Principles of Animation are traditionally considered as the main guidelines for creating high-grade character animation. The main focus of this research is the process of animating the 3D character’s body expression and the animator’s practice, particularly the Posing phase of the animation process. Although posing is not one of the 12 Principles of Animation, it can be considered as the superposition of a subset of those principles that the animator has to keep in mind, while creating key-poses for any specific movement of an animated character. Additional factors that should be considered by the animator during the Posing stage are body language and acting, along with the technicalities of the 3D character manipulation. Hence, Posing is regarded as an intricate process, making it rather challenging for the animator to avoid involuntary neglect of the large number of the aforementioned characteristics. This aspect of the 3D animation process is extremely important for the final creative result of the animation, in terms of character's expression, because if the key-poses are not well defined, the computer may not be able to generate sufficiently expressive animation. This would often result in work that may be subjectively judged as lower quality animations. This research developed the hypothesis that the key to create more expressive 3D character animation is located within Posing, in the Animation Blocking phase of the process. This thesis proposes that a systematisation of the Posing procedure taking advantage of certain Traditional Animation, Fine Arts and Acting concepts and their underlying rationale, can greatly benefit the animator. This thesis presents a new posing approach to 3D character animation, as a conceptual guideline which promotes the arrangement of the body parts into naturalistic patterns of expression. This is achieved by combining the concepts of Power Centre, Line of Action, Contrapposto and Serpentine Line in a systematic way, around a conceptual flow of force. These comprehensible high-level concepts make Posing and the animation process less complicated and more accessible. This allows animators of different levels to create more believable character body expressions in an easier and less time-consuming fashion, introducing better methods of more efficient workflows resulting in improved creative results over shorter periods of time. It is also demonstrated how the aforementioned concepts can be applied to a variety of animation styles – ranging from the more realistic to the more cartoonish ones. A prototype of a 3D Pose Tool was also developed, based on the rationale of the proposed approach, with the objective of being used as a visual guide for generation of new poses to be included in the case studies. Additionally, this tool produces visual evidence in the analysis of specific good and bad examples of character posing. This thesis, therefore, makes the argument that the proposed solution – whether accompanied with the complementary 3D Pose Tool or not – gives the animator the possibility to work the character body expression as a whole. Thus, avoiding stiffness and ensuring that the essential steps of posing are not neglected in the process. This was demonstrated with several cases, which give evidence of the usefulness of the approach as a contribution to create more expressive character animation and to produce it in a more efficient way.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2004.
Title from electronic submission form. ETSU ETD database URN: etd-0719104-174201 Includes bibliographical references. Also available via Internet at the UMI web site.

Learning to read body language is something we do throughout our whole life. It is a complex non-verbal language that can express more than words. In this study we investigate the possibility to use only body language to portray emotions to the viewer. In a background of a game project we have used a character that has his face covered, therefore, facial expression is not visible during the online survey, which we used as a method for our investigation. As a foundation we have created four character animations to portray anger, frustration, exhaustion and hurt. To find the answer if it is possible to recognize those five emotions in the character animations survey, participants were obligated to name the emotion expressed on each of the video clips. The results of this study show that the characters body language could be sufficient to portray those five emotions. However, it was concluded that body language could be enough to represent the character's emotional state to the viewer; but by including facial expressions we could help to portray the emotion even further.

Abstract. Interest in motion capture (mocap) technology is growing every day, and the number of possible applications is multiplying. But such systems are very expensive and are not affordable for personal use. Based on that, this thesis presents the framework that can produce mocap data from regular RGB video and then use it to animate a 3D character according to the movement of the person in the original video. To extract the mocap data from the input video, one of the three 3D pose estimation (PE) methods that are available within the scope of the project is used to determine where the joints of the person in each video frame are located in the 3D space. The 3D positions of the joints are used as mocap data and are imported to Blender which contains a simple 3D character. The data is assigned to the corresponding joints of the character to animate it. To test how the created animation will be working in a different environment, it was imported to the Unity game engine and applied to the native 3D character. The evaluation of the produced animations from Blender and Unity showed that even though the quality of the animation might be not perfect, the test subjects found this approach to animation promising. In addition, during the evaluation, a few issues were discovered and considered for future framework development.

The goal of this thesis was to take a character from concept to creation and animation. A variety of skills in 2D and 3D computer graphics were used in order to design and build the character for a 3D space. The character was taken from flat concept to 3D model, and then rigged with a skeleton in the 3D program Maya so that the character could be animated. The focus of the animation is a walk cycle.

Human beings have two perfectly aligned eyeballs working together sending three-dimensional images to the brain and providing accurate depth perception. I lack true stereoscopic vision. When I was five years old I had my second eye surgery and I remember lying blind and terrified for two days in the children's ward of Reid Memorial Hospital in Richmond, Indiana. I later learned that my eyes didn't align properly and for the rest of my life my right eye would "wander". Because of my condition, I was given a list of jobs that I could never perform, jobs where human lives are entrusted to skilled professionals wielding scalpels or landing jets. I could never be one of those people. Or so I was told. I've always had excellent vision, nearly 20/20 my whole life and I've never struggled academically. It's just that my eyes don't point in the same direction like everybody else. Those who know me best can see it, but I've learned ways to make it not so obvious. It's all I've ever known. But, in an ironic twist of fate, it's become clear that my lazy eye has taught me to "see" better than the average artist. Having spent the last five years of my life studying 3D Design and exploring the most advanced creative technology on the planet, I've created a series of computer-generated environments, objects and characters. This is my latest attempt to prove to the world that I can see just fine. I could've been a doctor or a pilot after all. In this paper I present to the world a digital friend manifested from my slightly skewed interpretation of the world. Rocky is part of my imagination brought to life in perfect three-dimensional clarity for the world to see. He's a symbolic representation of my childhood love for cartoons and science fiction. He is strong yet gentle, modest, intelligent and noble. And, he is fiercely protective of that scared and blind five-year old boy.

This thesis is framed within the field of 3D Character Animation. Virtual characters are used in many Human Computer Interaction applications such as video games and serious games. Within these virtual worlds they move and act in similar ways to humans controlled by users through some form of interface or by artificial intelligence. This work addresses the challenges of developing smoother movements and more natural behaviors driving motions in real-time, intuitively, and accurately. The interaction between virtual characters and intelligent objects will also be explored. With these subjects researched the work will contribute to creating more responsive, expressive, and tangible virtual characters. The navigation within virtual worlds uses locomotion such as walking, running, etc. To achieve maximum realism, actors' movements are captured and used to animate virtual characters. This is the philosophy of motion graphs: a structure that embeds movements where the continuous motion stream is generated from concatenating motion pieces. However, locomotion synthesis, using motion graphs, involves a tradeoff between the number of possible transitions between different kinds of locomotion, and the quality of these, meaning smooth transition between poses. To overcome this drawback, we propose the method of progressive transitions using Body Part Motion Graphs (BPMGs). This method deals with partial movements, and generates specific, synchronized transitions for each body part (group of joints) within a window of time. Therefore, the connectivity within the system is not linked to the similarity between global poses allowing us to find more and better quality transition points while increasing the speed of response and execution of these transitions in contrast to standard motion graphs method. Secondly, beyond getting faster transitions and smoother movements, virtual characters also interact with each other and with users by speaking. This interaction requires the creation of appropriate gestures according to the voice that they reproduced. Gestures are the nonverbal language that accompanies voiced language. The credibility of virtual characters when speaking is linked to the naturalness of their movements in sync with the voice in speech and intonation. Consequently, we analyzed the relationship between gestures, speech, and the performed gestures according to that speech. We defined intensity indicators for both gestures (GSI, Gesture Strength Indicator) and speech (PSI, Pitch Strength Indicator). We studied the relationship in time and intensity of these cues in order to establish synchronicity and intensity rules. Later we adapted the mentioned rules to select the appropriate gestures to the speech input (tagged text from speech signal) in the Gesture Motion Graph (GMG). The evaluation of resulting animations shows the importance of relating the intensity of speech and gestures to generate believable animations beyond time synchronization. Subsequently, we present a system that leads automatic generation of gestures and facial animation from a speech signal: BodySpeech. This system also includes animation improvements such as: increased use of data input, more flexible time synchronization, and new features like editing style of output animations. In addition, facial animation also takes into account speech intonation. Finally, we have moved virtual characters from virtual environments to the physical world in order to explore their interaction possibilities with real objects. To this end, we present AvatARs, virtual characters that have tangible representation and are integrated into reality through augmented reality apps on mobile devices. Users choose a physical object to manipulate in order to control the animation. They can select and configure the animation, which serves as a support for the virtual character represented. Then, we explored the interaction of AvatARs with intelligent physical objects like the Pleo social robot. Pleo is used to assist hospitalized children in therapy or simply for playing. Despite its benefits, there is a lack of emotional relationship and interaction between the children and Pleo which makes children lose interest eventually. This is why we have created a mixed reality scenario where Vleo (AvatAR as Pleo, virtual element) and Pleo (real element) interact naturally. This scenario has been tested and the results conclude that AvatARs enhances children's motivation to play with Pleo, opening a new horizon in the interaction between virtual characters and robots.
Aquesta tesi s'emmarca dins del món de l'animació de personatges virtuals tridimensionals. Els personatges virtuals s'utilitzen en moltes aplicacions d'interacció home màquina, com els videojocs o els serious games, on es mouen i actuen de forma similar als humans dins de mons virtuals, i on són controlats pels usuaris per mitjà d'alguna interfície, o d'altra manera per sistemes intel·ligents. Reptes com aconseguir moviments fluids i comportament natural, controlar en temps real el moviment de manera intuitiva i precisa, i inclús explorar la interacció dels personatges virtuals amb elements físics intel·ligents; són els que es treballen a continuació amb l'objectiu de contribuir en la generació de personatges virtuals responsius, expressius i tangibles. La navegació dins dels mons virtuals fa ús de locomocions com caminar, córrer, etc. Per tal d'aconseguir el màxim de realisme, es capturen i reutilitzen moviments d'actors per animar els personatges virtuals. Així funcionen els motion graphs, una estructura que encapsula moviments i per mitjà de cerques dins d'aquesta, els concatena creant un flux continu. La síntesi de locomocions usant els motion graphs comporta un compromís entre el número de transicions entre les diferents locomocions, i la qualitat d'aquestes (similitud entre les postures a connectar). Per superar aquest inconvenient, proposem el mètode transicions progressives usant Body Part Motion Graphs (BPMGs). Aquest mètode tracta els moviments de manera parcial, i genera transicions específiques i sincronitzades per cada part del cos (grup d'articulacions) dins d'una finestra temporal. Per tant, la conectivitat del sistema no està lligada a la similitud de postures globals, permetent trobar més punts de transició i de més qualitat, i sobretot incrementant la rapidesa en resposta i execució de les transicions respecte als motion graphs estàndards. En segon lloc, més enllà d'aconseguir transicions ràpides i moviments fluids, els personatges virtuals també interaccionen entre ells i amb els usuaris parlant, creant la necessitat de generar moviments apropiats a la veu que reprodueixen. Els gestos formen part del llenguatge no verbal que acostuma a acompanyar a la veu. La credibilitat dels personatges virtuals parlants està lligada a la naturalitat dels seus moviments i a la concordança que aquests tenen amb la veu, sobretot amb l'entonació d'aquesta. Així doncs, hem realitzat l'anàlisi de la relació entre els gestos i la veu, i la conseqüent generació de gestos d'acord a la veu. S'han definit indicadors d'intensitat tant per gestos (GSI, Gesture Strength Indicator) com per la veu (PSI, Pitch Strength Indicator), i s'ha estudiat la relació entre la temporalitat i la intensitat de les dues senyals per establir unes normes de sincronia temporal i d'intensitat. Més endavant es presenta el Gesture Motion Graph (GMG), que selecciona gestos adients a la veu d'entrada (text anotat a partir de la senyal de veu) i les regles esmentades. L'avaluació de les animaciones resultants demostra la importància de relacionar la intensitat per generar animacions cre\"{ibles, més enllà de la sincronització temporal. Posteriorment, presentem un sistema de generació automàtica de gestos i animació facial a partir d'una senyal de veu: BodySpeech. Aquest sistema també inclou millores en l'animació, major reaprofitament de les dades d'entrada i sincronització més flexible, i noves funcionalitats com l'edició de l'estil les animacions de sortida. A més, l'animació facial també té en compte l'entonació de la veu. Finalment, s'han traslladat els personatges virtuals dels entorns virtuals al món físic per tal d'explorar les possibilitats d'interacció amb objectes reals. Per aquest fi, presentem els AvatARs, personatges virtuals que tenen representació tangible i que es visualitzen integrats en la realitat a través d'un dispositiu mòbil gràcies a la realitat augmentada. El control de l'animació es duu a terme per mitjà d'un objecte físic que l'usuari manipula, seleccionant i parametritzant les animacions, i que al mateix temps serveix com a suport per a la representació del personatge virtual. Posteriorment, s'ha explorat la interacció dels AvatARs amb objectes físics intel·ligents com el robot social Pleo. El Pleo s'utilitza per a assistir a nens hospitalitzats en teràpia o simplement per jugar. Tot i els seus beneficis, hi ha una manca de relació emocional i interacció entre els nens i el Pleo que amb el temps fa que els nens perdin l'interès en ell. Així doncs, hem creat un escenari d'interacció mixt on el Vleo (un AvatAR en forma de Pleo; element virtual) i el Pleo (element real) interactuen de manera natural. Aquest escenari s'ha testejat i els resultats conclouen que els AvatARs milloren la motivació per jugar amb el Pleo, obrint un nou horitzó en la interacció dels personatges virtuals amb robots.
Esta tesis se enmarca dentro del mundo de la animación de personajes virtuales tridimensionales. Los personajes virtuales se utilizan en muchas aplicaciones de interacción hombre máquina, como los videojuegos y los serious games, donde dentro de mundo virtuales se mueven y actúan de manera similar a los humanos, y son controlados por usuarios por mediante de alguna interfaz, o de otro modo, por sistemas inteligentes. Retos como conseguir movimientos fluidos y comportamiento natural, controlar en tiempo real el movimiento de manera intuitiva y precisa, y incluso explorar la interacción de los personajes virtuales con elementos físicos inteligentes; son los que se trabajan a continuación con el objetivo de contribuir en la generación de personajes virtuales responsivos, expresivos y tangibles. La navegación dentro de los mundos virtuales hace uso de locomociones como andar, correr, etc. Para conseguir el máximo realismo, se capturan y reutilizan movimientos de actores para animar los personajes virtuales. Así funcionan los motion graphs, una estructura que encapsula movimientos y que por mediante búsquedas en ella, los concatena creando un flujo contínuo. La síntesi de locomociones usando los motion graphs comporta un compromiso entre el número de transiciones entre las distintas locomociones, y la calidad de estas (similitud entre las posturas a conectar). Para superar este inconveniente, proponemos el método transiciones progresivas usando Body Part Motion Graphs (BPMGs). Este método trata los movimientos de manera parcial, y genera transiciones específicas y sincronizadas para cada parte del cuerpo (grupo de articulaciones) dentro de una ventana temporal. Por lo tanto, la conectividad del sistema no está vinculada a la similitud de posturas globales, permitiendo encontrar más puntos de transición y de más calidad, incrementando la rapidez en respuesta y ejecución de las transiciones respeto a los motion graphs estándards. En segundo lugar, más allá de conseguir transiciones rápidas y movimientos fluídos, los personajes virtuales también interaccionan entre ellos y con los usuarios hablando, creando la necesidad de generar movimientos apropiados a la voz que reproducen. Los gestos forman parte del lenguaje no verbal que acostumbra a acompañar a la voz. La credibilidad de los personajes virtuales parlantes está vinculada a la naturalidad de sus movimientos y a la concordancia que estos tienen con la voz, sobretodo con la entonación de esta. Así pues, hemos realizado el análisis de la relación entre los gestos y la voz, y la consecuente generación de gestos de acuerdo a la voz. Se han definido indicadores de intensidad tanto para gestos (GSI, Gesture Strength Indicator) como para la voz (PSI, Pitch Strength Indicator), y se ha estudiado la relación temporal y de intensidad para establecer unas reglas de sincronía temporal y de intensidad. Más adelante se presenta el Gesture Motion Graph (GMG), que selecciona gestos adientes a la voz de entrada (texto etiquetado a partir de la señal de voz) y las normas mencionadas. La evaluación de las animaciones resultantes demuestra la importancia de relacionar la intensidad para generar animaciones creíbles, más allá de la sincronización temporal. Posteriormente, presentamos un sistema de generación automática de gestos y animación facial a partir de una señal de voz: BodySpeech. Este sistema también incluye mejoras en la animación, como un mayor aprovechamiento de los datos de entrada y una sincronización más flexible, y nuevas funcionalidades como la edición del estilo de las animaciones de salida. Además, la animación facial también tiene en cuenta la entonación de la voz. Finalmente, se han trasladado los personajes virtuales de los entornos virtuales al mundo físico para explorar las posibilidades de interacción con objetos reales. Para este fin, presentamos los AvatARs, personajes virtuales que tienen representación tangible y que se visualizan integrados en la realidad a través de un dispositivo móvil gracias a la realidad aumentada. El control de la animación se lleva a cabo mediante un objeto físico que el usuario manipula, seleccionando y configurando las animaciones, y que a su vez sirve como soporte para la representación del personaje. Posteriormente, se ha explorado la interacción de los AvatARs con objetos físicos inteligentes como el robot Pleo. Pleo se utiliza para asistir a niños en terapia o simplemente para jugar. Todo y sus beneficios, hay una falta de relación emocional y interacción entre los niños y Pleo que con el tiempo hace que los niños pierdan el interés. Así pues, hemos creado un escenario de interacción mixto donde Vleo (AvatAR en forma de Pleo; virtual) y Pleo (real) interactúan de manera natural. Este escenario se ha testeado y los resultados concluyen que los AvatARs mejoran la motivación para jugar con Pleo, abriendo un nuevo horizonte en la interacción de los personajes virtuales con robots.

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES
This essay studies the development of costume design in 3D animation. The process chosen to do so was the comparison of the methodology of costume creation between scenic arts, fashion design, comics and animation itself. The objective of this essay is to inquire the possibility of applying costumes as a narrative element in animation. To this end, it was done a bibliographic research, an analysis of an iconographic compilation and a study of the costume changes on the animated movie The Incredibles (Pixar, 2004). It will be exposed elements referred to design and visual communication, such as colors, shapes and textures as a way to convey the character’s emotionsassociated to the story and scenes. Following that, comparison of the costume creation process on digital, audiovisual and physical sphere. Based on the three images paradigm, the concept presented by Santaella (2005), the simulation on the digital sphere, the concept approached by Couchot (1993) and, lastly,on the concept of immaterial culture presented by Flusser (2007). Those points will be succeeded by indicating the similarities and divergences between fashion drawing and animation concept art drawings, based on topics presented by Gragnato (2008), Hopkins (2011) and Morris (2009)
Este trabalho estuda o processo de criação do design de figurino para personagens de animação tridimensional (3D), por meio de métodos comparativos entre áreas como artes cênicas, design de moda, histórias em quadrinhos e animação. O objetivo é o de averiguar a possibilidade do uso do figurino como elemento narrativo na animação. Para tal propósito, são realizadas revisões bibliográficas, análises de uma compilação iconográfica e o estudo de caso da animação Os Incríveis (The Incredibles, Pixar, 2004). São apresentados elementos projetuais referentes ao design e à comunicação visual como cores, formas e texturas como modo de transmitir ao observador as emoções da personagem em relação à narrativa. Em seguida, é efetuada a comparação do processo de criação do figurino nos meios digital, audiovisual e físico por meio dos três paradigmas da imagem abordados por Santaella (2005), da simulação na esfera digital (Couchot, 1993) e cultura imaterial, conceito apresentado por Flusser (2007). Em sequência, são apontadas as semelhanças e divergências entre os desenhos de moda com as concept arts da animação seguindo tópicos apresentados por Gragnato (2008), Hopkins (2011) e Morris (2009).

The bulk of research in digital 3D animation is focused on problem solving and the development of new techniques and innovations for the 3D animation software of the future. However, little consideration is given for the underlying reasons why problems arise from a psychological perspective, and if 3D animation is to establish itself as a discipline in academia, strides must be taken to strengthen its foundations with existing academic disciplines.This undergraduate thesis examines the possible causes of joint deformation problems inherent to digital human character rigs in Autodesk Maya using cognitive psychology, specifically theories of perception, with additional considerations for the roles of the Uncanny Valley effect and suspension of disbelief. An experiment was devised to evaluate the presence of joint deformation problems on a basic human character rig and in two approaches of solution.The results supported the presented hypothesis on what causes the viewer to notice joint deformation problems, but further investigation is required for test it definitively. The study also implied that whilst joint deformation problems may be noticed by the viewer and cause distraction from the content of a digital film, other factors also strongly affect the viewer’s experience in a similar manner. The results of further studies could help digital artists better understand how the audience may respond to the presence of joint deformation problems and optimise their workflow.
Den övergripande forskningen kring digital 3D-animation är främst fokuserad på problemlösning samt utvecklingen av ny teknik och innovation för framtida programvaror utformade för 3D-animation. Dock har det sällan tagits någon hänsyn till de underliggande anledningarna om varför problemen uppstår, och inte heller genom ett psykologiskt perspektiv. Om 3D-animation ska bli mer etablerat inom den akademiska disciplinen så behöver framsteg göras för att skapa en starkare grund.Denna vetenskapliga uppsats undersöker möjliga anledningar till varför joint-deformationsproblem upplevs med riggen för digitala mänskliga karaktärer i Autodesk Maya. Detta utforskas genom att använda kognitiv psykologi, speciellt teorier kring perception, med ytterligare överväganden om att ”the Uncanny Valley” och ”Suspension of disbelief” skulle vara avgörande faktorer. Ett experiment var utformat för att utvärdera närvarandet av joint-deformationsproblem gällande en grundläggande mänsklig karaktär samt två möjliga lösningar till problemet.Den presenterade hypotesen, om vad som påverkar att en betraktare noterar joint-deformationsproblem, stärktes av undersökningens givna resultat. Dock är fortsatta forskningar kring ämnet nödvändiga för att definitivt bekräfta hypotesens reliabilitet och validitet. Undersökningen visade att problem med joint-deformationer kan noteras av betraktaren och därmed skapa en distraktion för filmens handling, men att andra faktorer kan vara mer avgörande för samma innebörd. Framtida forskningar kan resultera i att hjälpa digitala artister att underlätta deras förståelse om hur en publik kan tänkas reagera på närvarandet av joint-deformationsproblem och att effektivisera deras arbetsprocess.

Synthesizing the realistic motion of a humanoid is a very sophisticated task, studied in different research areas. This work addresses the problem to synthetize realistic animations of 3D biped characters in a simulated environment, using genetic algorithms. Characters are represented as a structure of rigid bodies linked each other by 1DOF joints. Such joints are controlled by sinusoidal functions whose parameters are calculated by the genetic algorithm. Results, obtained by testing and comparing several different genetic operators, are presented. The system we have created allows the non-skilled user, to automatically create animations by setting only few key-poses of the characters.

This creative thesis involved making an animated short film from scratch, dubbed “Laundry Day” for the time being. The film follows two sentient clothing characters, a hoodie and a pair of pants, who need to get out of their owner’s room to get to the laundry room after accidentally being left behind. Please watch the short here and use the password “goodiehoodie”: https://vimeo.com/415387205 This was a time consuming, challenging, and multifaceted project, but provided an accurate glimpse into how feature animation is made. The process of making any project like this is commonly called a pipeline, and can be simplified to seven categories: Story, Character, Environment, Animation, Effects, and Rendering. This paper will go into each of these and explain the technical and creative challenges I had to overcome to reach the final product.

This study examined the differences and similarities in how animated 3D characters were perceived by individuals from Sweden and China. The study also attempted to examine how cultural aspects influenced the participants’ perceptions. Parts of the study were conducted through collaboration with the Chinese game company, Focus Games. A literature study focusing on body language and culture was conducted, as well as a game animation analysis featuring games from both western and East Asian developers. Based on the game analysis, 6 animations were created with movement qualities inspired by each of the cultures. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire, as well as shorter semi-structured interviews. The results show that there were certain similarities and differences in how participants perceived the animations, however the reason as to how cultural aspects influenced the responses was partially unanswered due to lack of data.

The work presented in this thesis explores the possibility to integrate two dimensional drawings with three dimensional animated characters in 3D computer graphics. The goal was to preserve the effects of the cartoonish artistic style and produce a strong emotional and moving story without realistic animation feel. Inspiration of the storyboard was based on a true story from the Arab Spring events that occurred in several Arab countries, I focused my work on the context of Egypt.
Master of Fine Arts

How is it possible to design virtual characters that can express different emotions such as compound emotions that are a mix of basic emotion expressions? Augmented reality (AR) can create engaging experiences for participants, and in recent years, virtual faces and virtual characters have become increasingly realistic and expressive, for example, when reducing costs using therapeutic applications. The validity of virtual expression has been shown in studies on desktop computers but less so in AR. In this paper, the basic emotions and the compound emotions of virtual characters were studied and the character was designed to work with Microsoft HoloLens in AR. The process of creating basic emotion blends to a human virtual character was created and the animations were modified using Unity3D game engine. The participants (n = 24) experienced the virtual character in a job interview context wearing HoloLens mixed reality glasses. The virtual character made basic and compound facial expressions and the participants were asked to label them. The result show that all participants successfully recognized seven basic emotions and seven compound emotions from a virtual character in AR using HoloLens; however, disgust was confused with sad, and angry was sometimes confused with disgust. Also, the fearfully surprised was often mistaken with awed. The result show that the compound emotions were recognized quite well and the results indicate that the perceived valence changes depending on the facial expressions. The study provides insights into how blended emotive expressions for virtual characters are created and perceived.
Hur är det möjligt att designa virtuella karaktärer som kan uttrycka olika känslor, till exempel blandade känslor som är en blandning av grundläggande känslor? Augmented Reality (AR) kan skapa engagerande upplevelser för deltagarna, och de senaste åren har virtuella ansikten och virtuella karaktärer blivit alltmer realistiska och uttrycksfulla, till exempel då kostnaderna minskas med hjälp av terapeutiska tillämpningar. Giltigheten av virtuellt uttryck har visats i studier på stationära datorer, men mindre i AR. I denna rapport studerades de grundläggande känslorna och hur de blandade känslorna av virtuella karaktären kan konstrueras för att fungera med Microsoft HoloLens i AR. Processen att skapa blandade känslor till en mänsklig virtuell karaktär konstruerades och animationerna modifierades med hjälp av Unity3D-spelmotor. Deltagarna (n = 24) upplevde den virtuella karaktären i en jobbintervju med Microsofts HoloLens. Den virtuella karaktären gjorde grundläggande och sammansatta ansiktsuttryck och deltagarna ombads kategorisera dom. Resultatet visar att alla deltagare framgångsrikt erkänt sju grundläggande känslor och sju blandade känslor från en virtuell karaktär i AR med hjälp av HoloLens; disgust var ihopblandad med sad, och angry var ibland ihopblandad med disgust. Fearfully surprised blev också ofta felaktig ihopblandad med awed. Studiens resultat visar att de blandade känslorna var lätta att känna igen och resultaten antyder på att den uppfattade valens förändras beroende på ansiktsuttryck. Studien ger insikter om hur blandade känslouttryck för virtuella karaktärer har konstruerats och uppfattats.

3D character animation is a very challenging field as it requires understanding of two different paradigms: fine arts and computer science. Currently there are many techniques used for animation authoring such as key framing, motion capture, non-linear editing, and forward and inverse kinematics. A limiting factor shared between current animation techniques is that they represent animation as a series of translation and rotation without considering other important aspects such as the rational of the motion, geometrical constraints between characters acting in the scene, or even between a character and his environment. For example, "standing" on floor indicates that both feet touch and parallel to floor. In this thesis I studied the foundations of classical and computer character animation, and then proposed using 3D geometric constraints as another method to represent animation. The method aims at capturing character's posture by a set of geometrical constraints and satisfying them using numerical methods. Maya plug-in has been implemented to build and solve symbolic geometric constraints for simple skeleton. The thesis includes a discussion on the results, usability and limitations of the proposed solution

碩士
國立臺灣大學
資訊工程學研究所
94
This thesis proposes a performance animation system controlled by upper body motion under a restricted workspace environment. The upper body motion are obtained from a markerless vision-based arm tracking system. Since 3D pose information derived from vision is often coarse and inexact, we apply a filter to reduce noise. After noise reduction, the motion signal can be used to directly control the animation of the upper body of the avatar, or be recognized as motion command to assign motion to the avatar. The motion control of our system is divided into two parts, the upper body and the lower body. The upper body motions of avatar can be controlled by control signal from filtered vision input, or they can be motion capture data selected by command signal from motion recognition, or they can be the mixture of two. The motions of lower body are motion capture data automatically selected by motion recognition of filtered vision input. The combined motion of the upper and the lower body may not be physically plausible. To solve this problem, we propose a two level motion integration framework. In each level, we use Kalman filters to smooth the combined motion and then revise it by imposing constraints. The combined motions are processed by the framework to ensure that they are not only smooth but also physically plausible.

碩士
東吳大學
資訊管理學系
103
With the proliferation of computer graphics and multimedia technology, there are abundant choices of three-dimensional (3D) modeling and character animation professional software in the market. However, authoring using different software products collectively still remains a difficult task considering the distinct features of proprietary software artifacts. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a streamlined workflow aiming at performing the 3D modeling construction with animated characters. As the concept of Wikinomics emerges, open source based software and products are utilized to provide the maximum collective throughput potential. The new design of above mentioned popular software is required to attain two goals; learning easily and having fun are vital importance for users. The proposed SketchUp and MikuMikuDance workflow (SUMD) introduces the novel method for plentiful of potential applications in light of the augmented capabilities of the integrated process. The goal is to assist professional users from different domain and sustain their high enthusiasm levels during the modeling process. Rather than manipulating more than one software products with incompatible properties, the workflow users will be guided through the challenging process to complete their 3D construction with additional animated characters in the proposed SUMD workflow.

碩士
南臺科技大學
多媒體與電腦娛樂科學系
104
In now of production industry, there are many software tools of animation, and there are many differences and similar with the nature of three-dimensional drawing tools, I had deal with the different types of projects in development process, which will be applied by different types of skeleton animation tools, and discussed with skeletal animation tools and features. In process among we use animation tools, this research will beginning of the skeleton product, and then to the binding, then enter the weight adjustment, and finally to setup the reverse phase power, after above of this series of steps will be entered to adjust the animation stage. There will be many features for making games or movies animation of characters, it will use by the tool functions include special tools and methods, both of its will affect the quality of the animation process, and times effects. The purpose of this research is to study and find out the relevant application of animation tools, after I finishing study the origin function and associated documentation, it will be associated with the project we get to use animation tools, and we can get conclusions after analyzing the results of the recommendations, I hope readers will have the following knowledge related help in animation tools.

碩士
國立成功大學
資訊工程學系碩博士班
96
This paper present a physics-based approach to generate 3D biped character animation that can react to dynamical environments in real-time. Our approach utilizes an inverted pendulum model to on-line adjust the desired motion trajectory from the input motion capture data. This on-line adjustment produces physically-plausible motion trajectory adapted to dynamic environments, which is then used as the desired motion for the motion controllers to follow in dynamics simulation. Rather than using the Proportional-Derivative controllers whose parameters usually cannot be easily set, our motion following control adopts a velocity-driven method which computes joint torques based on the desired joint angular velocities. Physically-correct full body motion of the 3D character is computed in dynamics simulation using the computed torques and dynamical model of the character. Our experiments demonstrate that MOCAP-following with real-time response animation can be achieved easily. Besides, physically-plausible motion style editing and automatic motion transition can also be generated naturally.

碩士
國立成功大學
資訊工程學系碩博士班
93
In this paper, we present a system that gives artists the ability to add ghost effect, speedline and stylized deformation to existing animation sequences in real time, withoutthe need to modify the 3D mesh geometry of the animation sequence. The artist can add and control e��ects using a sketch-based interface, and see the stylized result in real time. With all e��ects and processing o2 oaded to programmable graphics hardware, the proposed system can be implemented with more e±ciency and °exibility.

碩士
國立臺中科技大學
多媒體設計系碩士班
103
Character animation is a unique form of performing arts. It primarily demonstrates the character’s personality and thought process through the character’s action. The problem of a 3-D animation is how to make the movements more natural and realistic. According to Walt Disney, animations should not only focus on a character’s action and reaction, but also the content of the action, which is the character emotion. To achieve this goal, we capture the character’s action by using 3-D virtual space, then analyze traditional animation principles and apply it on our 3-D computer animation. In addition, this production applied 3-D animation technique to create the short computer animation. The characters are designed to release positive energy to cure those with corrupted soul, and hoping to inspire viewers to value life more and courageously face life challenges. The author of this production followed the highest animation principle, which is the 12 Basic Principles of Animation created by Disney animators through their years of experience. They also provided 3-D animation production process for future references.

Background. In recent years the use of Artifical Neural Networks(ANN) to generate character animations have expanded rapidly. However comparisons of the perceived realism and quality of these new approaches when compared to the results of a traditional pipeline have been lacking or non-existent. Objectives. This thesis aims to show initial data on whether the visual quality of one of these novel approaches is perceived to be of higher visual quality than similar keyframe-based approaches and if so why. As such the objectives of this thesis is to produce animations as a base of comparison for the method. Method. Keyframe animations performing similar actions to an ANN-based plug-in for the game engine unity were handcrafted after which a questionnaire study was performed. This study was sent to willing participants both experienced and inexperienced to gauge public opinion. Results. The results indicated that participants considered the ANN-based plug-in animations to overall be more realistic, natural, smooth and appealing. Statistical analysis via t-test shows a high statistical significance when comparing opinions on quality between the two sets. Conclusions. The ANN-based approach was considered by participants to be of superior visual quality due to reasons stated above. All experienced participants correctly guessed which of the two animation sets were AI-based and 1/3 of the inexperienced. However the inexperienced participants who guessed wrong stated similar motivations for their guess to those who guessed right. Which could imply an uncertainty about the capabilities of AI in the public consciousness that wasn’t accounted for in this thesis.

碩士
大葉大學
設計暨藝術學院碩士班
106
In this digital age, character animation almost become the most popular performance art and the demonstration on the actions is a field in great demand but not easy to learn. In current use production techniques and processes, require an animator possesses certain level in order to achieve high-quality results. It is quite unfavorable to those who are beginners. 　This study focuses on character animation production techniques, and also research on its processes. Summarize all of the production processes to help those who are inexperienced can follow the entire production team. Then apply these processes to create. Allow those who expect to become an animator, the next generation of animation can use these processes to fill the gaps in the lack of experience and be able to produce a certain quality character animation.

Research Report Master of Arts in Digital Animation (Coursework and Research Report) University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Humanities The Wits School of Arts June 2017
Even though a significant amount of research has been conducted over the years on film music and animation, these two fields of academic study mostly developed independently from each other. Little attention has been given to these two fields in terms of how they are deployed together, particularly after the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood filmmaking. This study, from an animation perspective, contributes to this need for research with an investigation and eventual proposition that will elucidate and advance the integration and contemporary deployment practices and processes of music and character animation. The aim of the study was to identify and suggest the ideal musical competency set a character animator would benefit from and, to propose an approach for notation in which these competencies are used to digitally animate characters moving to the beat of pre-recorded music for a 3D animation feature-length film. A qualitative research approach was followed and the research methodology consisted of a historical analysis, studying current practices and the analysis of a case study. The South African 3D computer-animated feature film, Khumba (2013), produced by Triggerfish Animation Studios, was used as the case study. Reasons for its suitability were twofold: Firstly because the researcher could easily access the animators (which was essential) and secondly, because the film had the musical scenes required to conduct the research. The focus was on the musical scenes in the film. The integration of animation and music in a scene was analysed, allowing the researcher to show how Khumba animators could have benefited from the suggested musical competencies and from using the proposed method when animating musical scenes. A universally agreed approach for notation in animating-to-music doesn’t exist. However, a method known as the bar sheet was used by earlier animators, requiring them to have a basic knowledge and understanding of music. This study proposes the reintroduction of an adapted version of the original bar sheet, digitised for assimilation with contemporary technology. A plug-in for Autodesk Maya was also proposed as an output of the research. Ultimately, this research has the potential to lead to a heightened proficiency of character animators when animating musical scenes in 3D feature-length films. In addition, the research could prompt a universally agreed approach for notation which combines traditional and new methods and techniques. The adoption of this approach could also lead to changes in the working practices of film making teams and the work flow within production pipelines.
MT2018

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
圖文傳播學系
99
For a long time, the academic community’s holography research has been focuing on its characteristic of anti-counterfeit, and paid less attention to its integration with creativity. However, unique optical characteristics of hologram can provide creativity in art presentation. A creative work, which combines technology of holography and original design, brings public awareness of a new value-added application. The first task of this research is to design the dot-matrix hologram and different representation of color by computer program. The second task of this research is to design the value-added product, then combining the technology and narrative marketing. Besides, this research is to improve the hologram’s attractive representation and to protect hologram from unexpected scratches. By value-added design, it brings hologram and digital archiving to human’s daily life.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
設計研究所
95
In recent years, the 3D computer animation is developed with astonishing speed, pushing wave to help by the business strength, various computer animations weed through the old to bring forth the new continuously. Whole industry chain more along with the producer increment of the 3D animation, make currently the 3D animation technique already widespread exist the daily life. Since 2006, the animation movie announced by Hollywood is up to 8 movies, and whole is manufactured by the 3D animation and become, in each animation film festival, such as SIGGRAPH, Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Ottwa International Animation Festival... the 3D computer animation takes part in a game a work to also increase significantly in quality and quantity top, becoming main current gradually. In spite of business or not- commercial environment next, animation creators all should face a 3D's technique to create the impact of realm in the animation. This research according to this background, try to use already known of the 3D analytical existing role manifestation of the computer animation, the study constitutes a 3D the main factor of the role and influences the reason of its manifestation. In addition to being the 3D computer animation creator will make reference to in the future blue print, and gain analysis to lend support to personal creations and consider the basis with other manifestation possibilities in order to. Again with the electronics theater of the SIGGRAPH conference of global computer diagram academic association argument leader select an animation for case, induce to analyze a 3D a role of design and influence role animation the factor of the esthetics, attempt to build up the esthetics foundation of the 3D role animation and in the future 3D the development direction of the role. Its important point as follows: (1)The excellent story is the reason that the animation attracts audience, the work which lacks of a content is equal to lifeless. (2)The flat surface art can be used as the nutrient that the new manifestation develops. At develop new style of remaining in the meantime reserve 3D's special features of the animation is a future development trend. (3)For making the role perform more style turn and characteristic, the way used a key's painting's space constitution to regulate compare the motion capture. (4)The special luck mirror method of creation contributes to the influence which strengthens a role animation idea for the audience vision. (5) For personal creations part, the writer thinks and should get away from cultural restriction, looking for fusion science and technology and art, cross-cultural performance style.

碩士
國立交通大學
應用藝術研究所
97
3D characters animation is an art needs a complete plan that could be practiced efficiently. One of most important steps in pre-production is storyboard arrangement. 3D characters animation makers will take story script as a reference.This research experimented a direct animation production process to create 3D role models without using storyboard. I name the method of this animation production ‘Intuitive Creation’ which is the method I used to create my animation. The purpose of this work aims at exploring the meaning of capitalism and its commercial activities.Using this method, I made five parts of animation about capitalism by deducing and presenting its extending meanings. My work was unfolded from the following five aspects: 1. Image and sale, 2. Management and control, 3. Materials and production, 4. Manufacture, 5.keep and sale.These five elements were integrated as a whole of my animation. Moreover, the information of the content, process, experiences of making this animation, and suggestions are provided in this thesis for other animation artists who are interested in this method of making animation.

碩士
國立臺灣藝術大學
多媒體動畫藝術學系
97
Animation design, in line with the requirements of the story and the overall style of animation, should focus on the role modelling of animated characters, in order to have more visual impact. Character design, by "seizing the role of personality traits" and "strengthening the role of the identity" to highlight the personality of Character. Characters must have their own unique characteristics. In the design process, characters' personality traits, and prominent, should be kept distinct from each other. Thus, the characteristics of the characters can be better displayed. "Strengthening the role of the identity" can be achieved through character' status and their corresponding features in the storytelling to enhance character's modelling. Through the understanding of character structure and basic design methods, after simplifying, adding and re-combining with the anthropomorphic processing, innovative and unique shape of characters can be created. One the others hand, body movements of limb will show the character's and his emotion. An animation character, must unify his mind and behavior, to display a lively role. To achieve this goal, efficient manipulating of character's skeleton, muscle mechanism will be required to better performing character's personality and emotion. Creation of this study is to understand how to combine modeling and character of the cartoon characters, and use performance movements to create a unique and full of personality role. The purpose of this study is to understand how to integrate character's personality and role modelling, with proper performance of body movement, to create innovative and unique characters.

In this thesis, the concept of style transfer for visual storytelling is introduced. Style transfer for visual storytelling is the process of identifying a definitive style of a source, such as an artist or culture, and applying the features of that style to a target, such as a character which has a different style. As a proof of concept, the style of the American film director Tim Burton is transferred to a character from Hindu mythology, Yamah. The style transfer is done based on the concept of 'Pattern Language' introduced by Christopher Alexander et al., in his book, 'A Pattern Language'. A set of patterns is developed based on the source and target. The target is then designed based on the patterns. The design is then visualized in a suitable medium.

碩士
大同大學
工業設計學系(所)
105
Displays have become the interface for the public to receive information and enjoy entertainment in our society today. The rapid development of technology has replaced comic books, newspapers and magazines with handsets and tablets. The presentation of 3D images (instead of 2D) has not only enriched the viewing experience and the authenticity of the colours, but also created a visually lively virtual world. The production techniques in the animation industry have also evolved from handy 2D graphs to images created with 3D software programs and models. There are a growing number of 3D displays in the marketplace to enhance the visual perception and experience of viewers in the virtual 3D stereo settings. In the process of creating the virtual environment for animation characters and settings, it is important for designers to control the flows of the story and manage each detail regarding the characters and backgrounds. The stereo effects created at the backend by 3D displays can enrich the personality of the characters and the depth of the settings. This paper seeks to explore the depth cues and perceptions materialized via the interactions between characters and settings in the interactive model for 3D stereo characters. A survey was conducted on the students and young professionals aged between 20 and 30 by asking them to compare and contrast the two sets of character sizes and objects in the background shown on 2D and 3D stereo displays. This paper ran two experiments. The first experiment compared the depth cues of the characters, and the second experiment contrasted the depth cues of the characteristics and objects shown on three different missions. An analysis was performed on the test results over 2D stereo displays and 3D stereo displays, in order to explore the areas for improvement. It is hoped that the user experience with 3D stereo displays can serve as a template for the designers of animation characters and settings.

碩士
國立臺灣藝術大學
多媒體動畫藝術學系動畫藝術碩士班
102
Language represents a form and a tool of communication in human history for such a long time. The world has identified more than 6,900 languages existed around and the language often shows the characteristics of localization and culture of specified regions. In Taiwan, Chinese is recognized as an official spoken and written language and Chinese itself has several names, such as Beijing dialect, Putonghua and Mandarin etc…As historical development and internationalization influences gradually, Chinese language is widely adopted as a performing media in animation artwork. The “Crow” describes a prison who interacts with the reflection of himself to express inner conflict and fear. By using the computer animation techniques, execute the voice, viewers can understand the performance of lip-sync in Chinese language through animation.

Previous research has shown that student-teacher interaction is very important in motivating students to learn a second language. However, it is unclear whether facial expression, which is one of the most important portions of interaction, affects in-game language learning motivation or not. The purpose of this study is to find out the evidence demonstrating the facial expressions of the other party, in this case, virtual characters in game, will or will not influence the learning motivation of Japanese L2 students. The researchers of this study developed four versions of a 3D animated Japanese role-playing game. Each version of the game represents one facial expression that is neutral, happy, sad or angry. The entire research consists of two experiments: a validation study and a motivation study. After validating all the facial expressions of five main characters in the game, eighty-four college students from 200/300 level Japanese courses joined in the motivation study voluntarily. They played a version of the game assigned randomly to them and then did a post-questionnaire. Conclusions were drawn based on the survey results. The findings of this research suggested that virtual characters’ facial expressions in game had no significant effect on participants’ learning motivation. However, significance was found in years of learning Japanese and gender. Meanwhile, it was found facial expression and years of learning Japanese had an interactive effect on the variable immersion into game.

Η διπλωματική αυτή εργασία εκπονήθηκε στο Εργαστήριο της Ερευνητικής Ομάδας Αλληλεπίδρασης Ανθρώπου – Υπολογιστή του Τμήματος Ηλεκτρολόγων Μηχανικών και Τεχνολογίας Υπολογιστών του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών, υπό την επίβλεψη του καθ. Νικολάου Αβούρη. Στόχος της εργασίας είναι η μελέτη και η ανάπτυξη μιας εφαρμογής εικονικού μουσείου, όπου σχεδιάζεται από την αρχή ένα υπάρχον μουσείο, και συγκεκριμένα το «Μουσείο Σολωμού και Επιφανών Ζακυνθίων» που βρίσκεται στη Ζάκυνθο, καθώς και η αλληλεπίδραση του χρήστη με αυτό. Ο χρήστης της εφαρμογής μπορεί να περιηγείται μέσα στο μουσείο και να πληροφορείται σχετικά με τα εκθέματα που περιέχει μέσω της ειδικά ανεπτυγμένης διεπιφάνειας χρήστη.
This diplomatic project was elaborated at the Lab of the Human - Computer Interaction Research Team of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Technology School at the University Of Patras, under the supervision of professor Nikolaos Avouris. The purpose of this project is the development of a virtual museum application, in which, a real museum gets designed from the begining, and particularly the "Museum of Solomos and Important Zakynthos Citizens" which is located in Zakynthos, and the interaction with it. The user can tour the museum and get information about the exhibits it contains, using the specially developed user interface.

This report is an analysis of the applicability of the robotics theory Bukimi no Tani or the Uncanny Valley to the field of CGI. The focus is on whether Mori’s proposal is a useful model for the analysis of photo-realistic 3D facial animation. The paper investigates the transfer of the model from the field of robotics to CGI with a study of various films featuring 3D animated human or humanlike characters. These films include two case studies Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2009). The analysis covers the methodology employed in these and other films to understand the mechanisms which contribute to their success or failure. In evaluating the methods used in the films the report seeks to evaluate the applicability of Mori’s theory of Bukimi no Tani or the Uncanny Valley to the field of CGI.