计算机动画技术综述

本文从关键帧动画、变形物体动画、过程动画、关节动画和人体动画、基于物理的动画几个方面，对计算机动画作了一个较全面的综述.     

Chain Shape Matching for Simulating Complex Hairstyles

Animations of hair dynamics greatly enrich the visual attractiveness of human characters. Traditional simulation techniques handle hair as clumps or continuum for efficiency; however, the visual quality is limited because they cannot represent the fine‐scale motion of individual hair strands. Although a recent mass‐spring approach tackled the problem of simulating the dynamics of every strand of hair, it required a complicated setting of springs and suffered from high computational cost. In this paper, we base the animation of hair on such a fine‐scale on Lattice Shape Matching (LSM), which has been successfully used for simulating deformable objects. Our method regards each strand of hair as a chain of particles, and computes geometrically derived forces for the chain based on shape matching. Each chain of particles is simulated as an individual strand of hair. Our method can easily handle complex hairstyles such as curly or afro styles in a numerically stable way. While our method is not physically based, our GPU‐based simulator achieves visually plausible animations consisting of several tens of thousands of hair strands at interactive rates.     

Research problems in clothing simulation

Clothing simulation and animation are of great importance in computer animation. If cloth simulations could be improved to the point that they could generate realistic cloth motion in real-time, they would find uses in many aspects of daily life such as in fashion design and manufacturing. The area of cloth simulation and animation is full of technical challenges: creating more realistic results, achieving faster run-times, and developing methods capable of constructing and simulating more complex garments. This paper provides an overview of the key procedures involved in the creation of clothed characters, describes the current state-of-the-art techniques, and proposes the research problems that most require further study. Three technical aspects of cloth simulation are considered in this paper: garment construction, physically based simulation, and collision resolution.     

Vector Fields: an Interactive Tool for Animation, Modeling and Simulation with Physically Based 3D Particle Systems and Soft Objects

Vectorfields have traditionally been used in computer graphics as a means of visualizing models over time. This paper presents a system which extends the use of vector fields as an interactive tool for physically based three dimensional particle systems and soft objects. The techniques implemented in the system provide the user with new flexibility in animation, modeling and simulation. This paper describes bounded interactive vectorfields and how they can be used to manipulate particle systems and a class of soft objects. Applications to animation, modeling and simulation are also presented.     

Simulation Guided Hair Dynamics Modeling from Video

In this paper we present a hybrid approach to reconstruct hair dynamics from multi‐view video sequences, captured under uncontrolled lighting conditions. The key of this method is a refinement approach that combines image‐based reconstruction techniques with physically based hair simulation. Given an initially reconstructed sequence of hair fiber models, we develop a hair dynamics refinement system using particle‐based simulation and incompressible fluid simulation. The system allows us to improve reconstructed hair fiber motions and complete missing fibers caused by occlusion or tracking failure. The refined space‐time hair dynamics are consistent with video inputs and can be also used to generate novel hair animations of different hair styles. We validate this method through various real hair examples.     

Physically based models with rigid and deformable components

A class of physically based models suitable for animating flexible objects in simulated physical environments was proposed earlier by the authors (1987). The original formulation works as well in practice for models whose shapes are moderately to highly deformable, but it tends to become numerically ill conditioned as the rigidity of the models is increased. An alternative formulation of deformable models is presented in which deformations are decomposed into a reference component, which may represent an arbitrary shape, and a displacement component, allowing deformation away from this reference shape. The application of the deformable models to a physically based computer animation project is illustrated     

“三维动画项目流程控制”要点综述

从实际项目制作角度出发,阐述了"三维动画创作"的要点,力图理清"三维动画创作"流程控制与管理的基本脉络。从功能划分、进度安排、渲染方案、项目分工四个方面进行了细致说明,论述其重点问题,揭示科学合理的流程控制对于三维动画创作的重要性。建议在制作中不断探索、调整,寻找最适合实际情况的创作思路。     

Physically‐based forehead animation including wrinkles

Physically‐based animation techniques enable more realistic and accurate animation to be created. We present a fully physically‐based approach for efficiently producing realistic‐looking animations of facial movement, including animation of expressive wrinkles. This involves simulation of detailed voxel‐based models using a graphics processing unit‐based total Lagrangian explicit dynamic finite element solver with an anatomical muscle contraction model, and advanced boundary conditions that can model the sliding of soft tissue over the skull. The flexibility of our approach enables detailed animations of gross and fine‐scale soft‐tissue movement to be easily produced with different muscle structures and material parameters, for example, to animate different aged skins. Although we focus on the forehead, our approach can be used to animate any multi‐layered soft body. © 2014 The Authors. Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hair Interpolation for Portrait Morphing

In this paper we study the problem of hair interpolation: given two 3D hair models, we want to generate a sequence of intermediate hair models that transform from one input to another both smoothly and aesthetically pleasing. We propose an automatic method that efficiently calculates a many‐to‐many strand correspondence between two or more given hair models, taking into account the multi‐scale clustering structure of hair. Experiments demonstrate that hair interpolation can be used for producing more vivid portrait morphing effects and enabling a novel example‐based hair styling methodology, where a user can interactively create new hairstyles by continuously exploring a “style space” spanning multiple input hair models.     

基于物理的流体模拟动画综述

基于物理的流体模拟近年来成为计算机动画领域的一个研究热点.回顾了该领域中基于物理的流体模拟的发展情况,总结了该研究方向所采用的各类方法,并结合各种现象的特点分门别类地详细展开.其方法总体上可以分为欧拉法和拉格朗日法,涉及的现象包括烟雾、火焰、爆炸、波浪、气泡以及自由运动界面等.最后展望了未来发展的3个重点：细节策略、加速策略和控制策略,以使整个模拟能够更好地满足人们对真实感、实时性以及灵活性的需求.     

HandPuppet3D: Motion capture and analysis for character animation

Motion capture is a technique of digitally recording the movements of real entities, usually humans. It was originally developed as an analysis tool in biomechanics research, but has grown increasingly important as a source of motion data for computer animation. In this context it has been widely used for both cinema and video games. Hand motion capture and tracking in particular has received a lot of attention because of its critical role in the design of new Human Computer Interaction methods and gesture analysis. One of the main difficulties is the capture of human hand motion. This paper gives an overview of ongoing research “HandPuppet3D” being carried out in collaboration with an animation studio to employ computer vision techniques to develop a prototype desktop system and associated animation process that will allow an animator to control 3D character animation through the use of hand gestures. The eventual goal of the project is to support existing practice by providing a softer, more intuitive, user interface for the animator that improves the productivity of the animation workflow and the quality of the resulting animations. To help achieve this goal the focus has been placed on developing a prototype camera based desktop gesture capture system to capture hand gestures and interpret them in order to generate and control the animation of 3D character models. This will allow an animator to control 3D character animation through the capture and interpretation of hand gestures. Methods will be discussed for motion tracking and capture in 3D animation and in particular that of hand motion tracking and capture. HandPuppet3D aims to enable gesture capture with interpretation of the captured gestures and control of the target 3D animation software. This involves development and testing of a motion analysis system built from algorithms recently developed. We review current software and research methods available in this area and describe our current work.     

Animation of deformable models

Although kinematic modelling methods are adequate for describing the shapes of static objects, they are insufficient when it comes to producing realistic animation. Physically based modelling remedies this problem by including forces, masses, strain energies and other physical quantities. The paper describes a system for the animation of deformable models. The system uses physically based modelling methods and approaches from elasticity theory for animating the models. Two different formulations, namely the primal formulation and the hybrid formulation, are implemented so that the user can select the one most suitable for an animation depending on the rigidity of the models. Collision of the models with impenetrable obstacles and constraining of the model points to fixed positions in space are implemented for use in the animations.     

Forward dynamics based realistic animation of rigid bodies

This paper presents a new methodology for model and control of the motion of an (articulated) rigid body for the purposes of animation. The technique uses a parameter optimization method for forward dynamic simulation to obtain a good set of values for the control variables of the system. We model articulated rigid bodies using a moderate number of control nodes, and we linearly interpolate control values between adjacent pairs of these nodes. The interpolated control values are used to determine the forces/torques for the body actuators. We can control total motion duration time, and the control is more flexible than in any other dynamics based animation techniques. We employ a parameter optimization, (or nonlinear programming) method to find a good set of values for the control nodes. We extend this method by using a musculotendon skeletal model for the human body instead of the more commonly used robot model to provide more accurate human motion simulations. Skeletal and musculotendon dynamics enable us to do the human body animation more accurately than ever because the muscle force depends on the geometry of a human as well as on differential kinematic parameters. We show various levels of motion control for forward dynamics animation: ranging from piecewise linear forces/torques control for joints to muscle activation signal control for muscles to generate highly nonlinear forces/torques. This spectrum of control levels provides various nonlinear resulting motions to animators to allow them to achieve effective motion control and physically realistic motion simultaneously. Because our algorithms are heavily dependent on parameter optimization, and since the optimization technique may have difficulty finding a global optimum, we provide a modified optimization method along with various techniques to reduce the search space size. Our parameter optimization based forward dynamic animation and musculotendon dynamics based animation present the first use of such techniques in animation research to date.     

An Integrated System for Modeling,Animating and Rendering Hair

There are basically four problems to solve in order to produce realistic animated synthetic actors with hair: hair modeling and creation, hair motion, collision detection and hair rendering. This paper describes a complete methodology to solve these basic four problems. We present how hair styles may be designed with our Hair Styler module. Then we survey the animation model and emphasize a method of collision processing. Finally, we explain how hair may be rendered using an extension of a standard ray-tracing program. We also show applications of our synthetic actors with various hair styles and different styles of mustaches and beards.     

Adjustable Constrained Soft-Tissue Dynamics

Physically based simulation is often combined with geometric mesh animation to add realistic soft-body dynamics to virtual characters. This is commonly done using constraint-based simulation whereby a soft-tissue simulation is constrained to geometric animation of a subpart (or otherwise proxy representation) of the character. We observe that standard constraint-based simulation suffers from an important flaw that limits the expressiveness of soft-body dynamics. Namely, under correct physics, the frequency and amplitude of soft-tissue dynamics arising from constraints (“inertial amplitude”) are coupled, and cannot be adjusted independently merely by adjusting the material properties of the model. This means that the space of physically based simulations is inherently limited and cannot capture all effects typically expected by computer animators. For example, animators need the ability to adjust the frequency, inertial amplitude, gravity sag and damping properties of the virtual character, independently from each other, as these are the primary visual characteristics of the soft-tissue dynamics. We demonstrate that independence can be achieved by transforming the equations of motion into a non-inertial reference coordinate frame, then scaling the resulting inertial forces, and then converting the equations of motion back to the inertial frame. Such scaling of inertia makes it possible for the animator to set the character's inertial amplitude independently from frequency. We also provide exact controls for the amount of character's gravity sag, and the damping properties. In our examples, we use linear blend skinning and pose-space deformation for geometric mesh animation, and the Finite Element Method for soft-body constrained simulation; but our idea of scaling inertial forces is general and applicable to other animation and simulation methods. We demonstrate our technique on several character examples.     

基于动态超螺旋线的三维头发建模*

计算机动画中,模拟人的头发是非常困难的。基于动态的、不可伸展弹性杆的基尔霍夫方程,提出采用超螺旋线表示头发股来解决头发股的弯曲和挠曲的非线性行为。将头发股分成N段,使用拉格朗日力学定律动画绘制每段超螺旋杆,最后将各段连接起来,构成整个头发股。基于其他可行的模型与动态超螺旋线模型的比较,实验结果显示模型能够有效地处理大范围具有高逼真度的卷发。     

Design of an emotional and social interaction paradigm for the animation of 3D characters: the case of a therapy for brain injured people (the mirror neuron paradigm)

We propose an emotional and social interaction paradigm for the behavioural animation of virtual characters. Our research focuses on the production of verbal and paraverbal interactions between a human and a virtual character in the context of virtual therapy. The aim of this project is to assess virtual therapies for the rehabilitation of people with brain injuries caused by cerebral vascular accidents. The therapeutic paradigm is based on the neuroscience concept of “mirror neurones” which emphasise the perceptual side in the process of recovering neural damage. In our paradigm, the patient interacts with a virtual therapist (embodied autonomous agent) that guides and encourages him in order to fulfil the drills. Furthermore and following the “mirror neurone paradigm”, the patient can only see his virtual hands (which are handicapped). The virtual platform provides the patient with a vision of his hands undertaking a movement that he cannot perform. Doing so, we expect that the perception of this virtual movement may improve the recuperation (mirror neurone paradigm). In this paper, we also introduce the notion of an “intelligent emotional character” to produce a sense of social as well as emotional immersion in order to improve the interaction between the patient and the virtual therapist. We discuss the role of emotional interaction in the context of virtual social interaction and in particular its reflexive dimension. Finally, we present an architecture for the animation of virtual characters based on a multidisciplinary approach to model the emotional and social interaction.     

基于物理模型的火苗动画

本文提出了一种基于物理模型的火苗数值模拟方法。真实感和实时性是计算机图形学追求的两个目标。传统的动画技术生成的物体运动是虚拟的，并不能完全反映物体的真实运动。与传统的动画技术相比，基于物理的动画更能表现运动的真实性。本文在用非粘性不可压欧拉方程表示火苗物理模型的基础上，利用破开算予法将其分解成外力项、对流项和投影项分别进行求解，每一步都稳定，因而整个求解也就稳定。求解过程的稳定性保证了模拟可以用大时间步长，也就保证了模拟的实时性。与传统的方法相比，能同时满足计算机图形学的真实感和实时性要求。     

基于物理模型的烟雾实时模拟

本文提出了一种基于物理模型的烟雾的实时数值模拟方法.真实感和实时性是计算机图形学追求的两个目标.传统的动画技术生成的物体运动是虚拟的,并不能完全反映物体的真实运动.与传统的动画技术相比,基于物理的动画更能表现运动的真实性.在用非粘性不可压欧拉方程表示烟雾的物理模型的基础上,利用破开算子法将其分解成外力项、对流项和投影项分别进行求解,每一步都稳定,因而整个求解也就稳定.求解过程的稳定性保证了模拟可以用大时间步长,也就保证了模拟的实时性.与传统的方法相比,能同时满足计算机图形学的真实感和实时性要求.