Model-based reconstruction for creature animation

ABSTRACT

An semi-automatic technique for creating 3D models of creatures suitable for animation is presented. An anatomically based canonical model is deformed, given a sparse set of feature points derived from measurements describing the target animal. The layered canonical model is built on top of an articulated structure hierarchy and contains a representation of the animal's skeleton, muscles, and skin. The joint hierarchy and associated body components are transformed based on the input data. A denser set of feature points is then automatically generated from the new underlying structural components. The feature points are used to deform the attached mesh skin representation, using a segmented interpolation approach. Results are shown using measurements from a scale model and from a live horse. Our main contributions are (1) a novel approach for automatically reconstructing complete jointed creatures from an anatomically based canonical model of similar structure; and (2) an integrated application of skin interpolation for both morphing and animation. In this research, we have addressed the problem in the context of modeling and animating horses; however, the general techniques that we have developed could be applied to a wide range of creatures, at the cost of constructing a canonical model for each creature type.

REFERENCES

• 1: ALIAS/WAVEFRONT, 2000. Maya: Character set-up. Alias/Wavefront.
• 2: BACK, W.,AND CLAYTON, H. 2000. Equine Locomotion. W. B. Saunders, London.
• 3: Volker Blanz , Thomas Vetter, A morphable model for the synthesis of 3D faces, Proceedings of the 26th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.187-194, July 1999 [doi>10.1145/311535.311556]
• 4: J. C. Carr , R. K. Beatson , J. B. Cherrie , T. J. Mitchell , W. R. Fright , B. C. McCallum , T. R. Evans, Reconstruction and representation of 3D objects with radial basis functions, Proceedings of the 28th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.67-76, August 2001 [doi>10.1145/383259.383266]
• 5: J. E. Chadwick , D. R. Haumann , R. E. Parent, Layered construction for deformable animated characters, Proceedings of the 16th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.243-252, July 1989
• 6: David T. Chen , David Zeltzer, Pump it up: computer animation of a biomechanically based model of muscle using the finite element method, Proceedings of the 19th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.89-98, July 1992
• 7: Douglas DeCarlo , Dimitris Metaxas , Matthew Stone, An anthropometric face model using variational techniques, Proceedings of the 25th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.67-74, July 1998 [doi>10.1145/280814.280823]
• 8: DELP, S. L., AND LOAN, J. P. 1995. A graphics-based software system to develop and analyze models of musculoskeletal structures. Computers in Biology and Medicine 25(1) (January), 21-34.
• 9: Michael Gleicher, Retargetting motion to new characters, Proceedings of the 25th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.33-42, July 1998 [doi>10.1145/280814.280820]
• 10: GOODY, P. C. 1983. Horse Anatomy. J. A. Allen and Co. Limited, London.
• 11: IMMERSION, 2000. MicroSribe-3D user's manual. Immersion 3D Capture.
• 12: I. A. Kakadiaris , D. Metaxas, 3D human body model acquisition from multiple views, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Computer Vision, p.618, June 20-23, 1995
• 13: KURIHARA, T., AND ARAI, K. 1991. A transformation method for modeling and animation of the human face from photographs. In Proceedings of Computer Animation 1991, 45-58.
• 14: Yuencheng Lee , Demetri Terzopoulos , Keith Walters, Realistic modeling for facial animation, Proceedings of the 22nd annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.55-62, September 1995 [doi>10.1145/218380.218407]
• 15: Marc Levoy , Kari Pulli , Brian Curless , Szymon Rusinkiewicz , David Koller , Lucas Pereira , Matt Ginzton , Sean Anderson , James Davis , Jeremy Ginsberg , Jonathan Shade , Duane Fulk, The digital Michelangelo project: 3D scanning of large statues, Proceedings of the 27th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.131-144, July 2000 [doi>10.1145/344779.344849]
• 16: J. P. Lewis , Matt Cordner , Nickson Fong, Pose space deformation: a unified approach to shape interpolation and skeleton-driven deformation, Proceedings of the 27th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.165-172, July 2000 [doi>10.1145/344779.344862]
• 17: L. Nedel , D. Thalmann, Modeling and Deformation of the Human Body using an Anatomically-Based Approach, Proceedings of the Computer Animation, p.34, June 08-10, 1998
• 18: Victor Ng-Thow-Hing , Eugene Fiume, Anatomically-based models for physical and geometric reconstruction of humans and other animals, 2001
• 19: Gregory M. Nielson, Scattered Data Modeling, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, v.13 n.1, p.60-70, January 1993 [doi>10.1109/38.180119]
• 20: Jun-yong Noh , Ulrich Neumann, Expression cloning, Proceedings of the 28th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.277-288, August 2001 [doi>10.1145/383259.383290]
• 21: Computer animation: algorithms and techniques, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 2001
• 22: Frederic I. Parke , Keith Waters, Computer facial animation, A. K. Peters, Ltd., Natick, MA, 1996
• 23: PARKE, F. I. 1982. Parameterized models for facial animation. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 2, 9 (Nov.), 61-64, 66-68.
• 24: Frédéric Pighin , Jamie Hecker , Dani Lischinski , Richard Szeliski , David H. Salesin, Synthesizing realistic facial expressions from photographs, Proceedings of the 25th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.75-84, July 1998 [doi>10.1145/280814.280825]
• 25: Emil Praun , Wim Sweldens , Peter Schröder, Consistent mesh parameterizations, Proceedings of the 28th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.179-184, August 2001 [doi>10.1145/383259.383277]
• 26: Ferdi Scheepers , Richard E. Parent , Wayne E. Carlson , Stephen F. May, Anatomy-based modeling of the human musculature, Proceedings of the 24th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.163-172, August 1997 [doi>10.1145/258734.258827]
• 27: Coenraad Frederik Scheepers , Richard E. Parent, Anatomy-based surface generation for articulated models of human figures, 1996
• 28: P. Schneider , J. Wilhelms, Hybrid Anatomically Based Modeling of Animals, Proceedings of the Computer Animation, p.161, June 08-10, 1998
• 29: SIMMONS, M., WILHELMS, J., AND VAN GELDER, A. 2002. A canonical horse model for animation and morphing. Technical Report UCSC-CRL-02-24, University of California, Santa Cruz, Jack Baskin School of Engineering.
• 30: Peter-Pike J. Sloan , Charles F. Rose, III , Michael F. Cohen, Shape by example, Proceedings of the 2001 symposium on Interactive 3D graphics, p.135-143, March 2001 [doi>10.1145/364338.364382]
• 31: Greg Turk , James F. O'Brien, Shape transformation using variational implicit functions, Proceedings of the 26th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.335-342, July 1999 [doi>10.1145/311535.311580]
• 32: Jane Wilhelms , Allen Van Gelder, Anatomically based modeling, Proceedings of the 24th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.173-180, August 1997 [doi>10.1145/258734.258833]
• 33: Lance Williams, Performance-driven facial animation, Proceedings of the 17th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.235-242, September 1990, Dallas, TX, USA

INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
3D morphing, animation, model reconstruction, shape interpolation