Disney Research

Abstract

Animating Non-Humanoid Characters with Human Motion Data-Image

This paper presents a method for generating animations of non-humanoid characters from human motion capture data. Characters considered in this work have proportion and/or topology significantly different from humans, but are expected to convey expressions and emotions through body language that are understandable to human viewers. Keyframing is most commonly used to animate such characters. Our method provides an alternative for animating non-humanoid characters that leverages motion data from a human subject performing in the style of the target character. The method consists of a statistical mapping function learned from a small set of corresponding key poses, and a physics-based optimization process to improve the physical realism. We demonstrate our approach on three characters and a variety of motions with emotional expressions.

Additional Content

Copyright Notice

The documents contained in these directories are included by the contributing authors as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a non-commercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, notwithstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author’s copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.