Kizamu: a system for sculpting digital characters

ABSTRACT

This paper presents Kizamu, a computer-based sculpting system for creating digital characters for the entertainment industry. Kizamu incorporates a blend of new algorithms, significant technical advances, and novel user interaction paradigms into a system that is both powerful and unique.

To meet the demands of high-end digital character design, Kizamu addresses three requirements posed to us by a major production studio. First, animators and artists want digital clay — a medium with the characteristics of real clay and the advantages of being digital. Second, the system should run on standard hardware at interactive rates. Finally, the system must accept and generate standard 3D representations thereby enabling integration into an existing animation production pipeline.

At the heart of the Kizamu system are Adaptively Sampled Distance Fields (ADFs), a volumetric shape representation with the characteristics required for digital clay. In this paper, we describe the system and present the major research advances in ADFs that were required to make Kizamu a reality.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.4 Graphics Utilities
          Subjects: Graphics editors

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.3 Picture/Image Generation
          Subjects: Display algorithms

General Terms:
Algorithms, Experimentation, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
ADFs, character design, digital sculpting, distance fields, graphics systems, rendering, triangulation, volume modeling