We propose a novel monolithic pure SPH formulation to simulate fluids strongly coupled with rigid bodies. This includes fluid incompressibility, fluid–rigid interface handling and rigid–rigid contact ...handling with a viable implicit particle‐based dry friction formulation. The resulting global system is solved using a new accelerated solver implementation that outperforms existing fluid and coupled rigid–fluid simulation approaches. We compare results of our simulation method to analytical solutions, show performance evaluations of our solver and present a variety of new and challenging simulation scenarios.
We propose a novel monolithic pure SPH formulation to simulate fluids strongly coupled with rigid bodies. A new implicit particle‐based dry friction force for rigid‐rigid contacts is incorporated into the strong coupling between fluid and rigid bodies.
Creating facial animations using 3D computer graphics represents a very laborious and time-consuming task. Among the numberless approaches for animating faces, the use of blendshapes remains the most ...common solution because of their simplicity and the ability to produce high-quality results. This approach, however, is also characterized by important drawbacks. With the traditional animation suites, to select the blendshapes to be activated animators are generally requested to memorize the mapping between the blendshapes and the influenced mesh vertices; alternatively, they need to adopt a trial-and-error search within the whole library of available blendshapes. Moreover, the level of expressiveness that can be reached may be lower than expected; this is due to the fact that the possibility to apply transformations to vertices different than just linear translations and mechanisms for adding, e.g., exaggerations, are typically not integrated into the same animation environment. To tackle these issues, this article proposes an immersive virtual reality-based interface that leverages sketches for the direct manipulation of blendshapes. Animators can draw both linear and curved strokes, which are used to automatically extract information about the blendshape to be activated and its weight, the trajectories that associated vertices have to follow, as well as the timing of the overall animation. A user study was carried out with the aim of evaluating the proposed approach on several representative animations tasks. Both objective and subjective measurements were collected. Experimental results showed the benefits of the devised interface in terms of task completion time, animation accuracy, and usability.
It is notoriously difficult for artists to control liquids while generating plausible animations. We introduce a new liquid control tool that allows users to load, transform, and apply precomputed ...liquid simulation templates in a scene in order to control a particle‐based simulation. Each template instance generates control forces that drive the global simulated liquid to locally reproduce the templated liquid behavior. Our system is augmented with a variable proportion of temporary particles to help efficiently reproduce the templated liquid density, with fewer requirements on the surrounding environment. The resulting control strategy adds only a small computational overhead, leading to quick visual feedback for resolutions allowing interactive simulation. We demonstrate the robustness and ease of use of our method on various examples in 2D and 3D.
Transformer-S2A: Robust and Efficient Speech-to-Animation Chen, Liyang; Wu, Zhiyong; Ling, Jun ...
ICASSP 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP),
2022-May-23
Conference Proceeding
We propose a novel robust and efficient Speech-to-Animation (S2A) approach for synchronized facial animation generation in human-computer interaction. Compared with conventional approaches, the ...proposed approach utilizes phonetic posteriorgrams (PPGs) of spoken phonemes as input to ensure the cross-language and cross-speaker ability, and introduces corresponding prosody features (i.e. pitch and energy) to further enhance the expression of generated animation. Mixture-of-experts (MOE)-based Transformer is employed to better model contextual information while provide significant optimization on computation efficiency. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach on both objective and subjective evaluation with 17× inference speedup compared with the state-of-the-art approach.
Characters are a vital aspect of today’s transmedia practices. Combining theories on fictional persons from Japanese and Euro-American practices, this book discusses video game characters embedded in ...our popular media culture in which they are constantly produced and re-imagined.
This book introduces the dynamic game character, a type of game character with a development structure that consists of multiple outcomes in a game. Through their actions and choices, players can influence these game characters’ identities and affect their possible destinies.
Games subvert the idea that fictional persons must maintain a coherent identity. This book shows that dynamic game characters challenge strategies of top-down control through close readings of the Mass Effect series, Persona 5, Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and more. It is directed to all scholars interested in the topics of transmedia storytelling, video games, characters, and Japanese narratology.
We present a novel retargeting algorithm that transfers the musculature of a reference anatomical model to new bodies with different sizes, body proportions, muscle capability, and joint range of ...motion while preserving the functionality of the original musculature as closely as possible. The geometric configuration and physiological parameters of musculotendon units are estimated and optimized to adapt to new bodies. The range of motion around joints is estimated from a motion capture dataset and edited further for individual models. The retargeted model is simulation‐ready, so we can physically simulate muscle‐actuated motor skills with the model. Our system is capable of generating a wide variety of anatomical bodies that can be simulated to walk, run, jump and dance while maintaining balance under gravity. We will also demonstrate the construction of individualized musculoskeletal models from bi‐planar X‐ray images and medical examination.
We present a novel retargeting algorithm that transfers the musculature of a reference anatomical model to new bodies with different sizes, body proportions, muscle capability, and joint range of motion while preserving the functionality of the original musculature as closely as possible. The geometric configuration and physiological parameters of musculotendon units are estimated and optimized to adapt to new bodies. The range of motion around joints is estimated from a motion capture dataset and edited further for individual models. The retargeted model is simulation‐ready, so we can physically simulate muscle‐actuated motor skills with the model.
We present a probabilistic framework to generate character animations based on weak control signals, such that the synthesized motions are realistic while retaining the stochastic nature of human ...movement. The proposed architecture, which is designed as a hierarchical recurrent model, maps each sub‐sequence of motions into a stochastic latent code using a variational autoencoder extended over the temporal domain. We also propose an objective function which respects the impact of each joint on the pose and compares the joint angles based on angular distance. We use two novel quantitative protocols and human qualitative assessment to demonstrate the ability of our model to generate convincing and diverse periodic and non‐periodic motion sequences without the need for strong control signals.
Since the early 1960s, Lawrence Jordan has appropriated a variety of Victorian engravings transforming them into experimental animations through the use of cut-out stop-motion techniques. In their ...outmoded style and technique, the dense tapestry of collaged ephemera begins to function as indices of their original Victorian context and its printing processes. But the stop-motion manipulation also renders these indexical documents surreal through the juxtaposition of apparently unrelated images. This amounts to a reflexive approach harking back to the early days of cinema when audiences perceived the new technology as a source of wonder, amazement and magic. Jordan’s animations, such as Patricia Gives Birth to a Dream by the Doorway (1961–1964) and The Centennial Exposition (1961–1964), employ a productive tension not just between animation and documentary but between indexicality and illusion as well. In these animations, the use of such tensions exposes history and culture as fragmentary constructions of memory, fantasy and experience, thereby open to alteration, re-reading and reconfiguration in the present moment.
This paper presents a real life Petri Net-based framework for integrated and collaborative project management in the Animation and Videogame (A&V) industry. This framework provides an all-in-one ...modeling, scheduling, and simulation tool. The purpose of the framework is twofold: First to facilitate the configuration (and eventual reconfiguration) of projects and second, provide appropriate analysis tools. The modeling of the project activities and the associated resources is accomplished via a new class of Petri Net denoted here as extended attribute Timed Place Petri Net. This Petri Net class combines the strengths of colored and ordinary Timed Petri Nets in terms of modeling and analysis. The offline project schedule is generated with a Graph Search algorithm which explores the Petri Net state space. The algorithm is also adapted to handle reworks that often occur due to multiple changes during execution. Several scenarios can be simulated along with the calculations of duration, cost and resource usage. The potential of the framework is illustrated with two short case studies. The results and deliverables of the approach have been confronted with managers of several companies involved in the project who provided valuable insight and gave favorable remarks.
•A real life Petri Net-based prototype for project management in the Animation and Videogame (A&V) industry.•A computer application that covers the planning, scheduling and execution phases.•A methodology that shows significant improvement on the A&V project estimations•A methodology that shows its validity for schedule regeneration.
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