Skeletal mesh animation driven by few positional constraints

• Published in: Computer animation and virtual worlds Vol. 30; no. 3-4
• Main Authors: Le Naour, T., Courty, N., Gibet, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2019; Wiley
• Subjects: Animation; animation from a limited set of positional constraints; Computer Science; Constraint modelling; data‐driven character animation; Deformation; Finite element method; Iterative methods; mesh animation; Optimization; Rigging; control from a limited set of positional constraints; mesh animation; animation of characters without rigged skeletons
• ISSN: 1546-4261; 1546-427X
• DOI: 10.1002/cav.1900

In this paper, we propose a whole animation pipeline for data‐driven character animation. Considering that the traditional animation pipeline, including skeleton reconstruction from markers, rigging, and retargeting, is subject to potential loss of information and precision, our objective is to control in real time articulated meshes from a low number of positional constraints. Our method is based on an efficient deformation technique that integrates into a volumetric control structure the high‐resolution mesh, the skeleton, and relevant marker locations. An iterative optimization method, which preserves both geometric characteristics, segment lengths and joint limits, is applied to this structure. We show the ability of our system to interactively animate and deform high‐resolution models from few positional constraints while keeping all the details of the movement. This study proposes to reconsider the entire animation pipeline for data‐driven character animation. The goal is to directly control at interactive framerates articulated meshes from a low number of positional constraints. Our method is based on an efficient deformation technique that integrates into a volumetric control structure the high‐resolution mesh, the skeleton and relevant marker locations.