Authoring and animating painterly characters

This paper presents the content of the course Fundamentals of Engineering Animation (FEA). The course FEA deals with manlike character animation through four tasks. Before taking FEA the students have mastered 3D character modeling, mapping, lighting and rendering. Also, they are familiar with rigid body animation, as well as with simple animal animation requiring rigging, like fish or animals with simple skeleton. The above mentioned tasks are increasingly more complex and this paper presents the topics of these tasks, details about them and their sequence as well as the evaluation of students’ work. The students’ project requires creating a 3D character mesh as well as rigging and making controls for two cases: Inverse Kinematik (IK) and Forward Kinematik (FK). The first project task (FPT) represents the creation of a simple movement in a sport with several phases: Hold, Anticipation, Target Pose, Overshoot and Hold again. The second project task (SPT) deals with character walk cycle which should be displayed in minimum five walking steps with some personal characteristics. The last task is Final project (FP) which shows the combined movement of the character in which the animation cycle is connected with linear animation. All movements must be shown as happening in the same sequence without interruptions. The aim of the FEA course is that through the four interrelated tasks the students pass through all basic variations of manlike character animation so that they gain the necessary experience before entering the professional production work.

Posing character has always been playing an important role in character animation and interactive applications such as computer games. However, such a task is time-consuming and labor-intensive. In order to improve the efficiency in character posing, researchers in computer graphics have been working on a wide variety of semi- or fully automatic approaches in creating full-body poses, ranging from traditional approaches like inverse kinematics (IK), data-driven approaches which make use of captured motion data, as well as direct pose manipulation through intuitive interfaces. In this book chapter, we will introduce the aforementioned techniques and also discuss their applications in animation production.

Augmented reality devices enable new approaches for character animation, e.g., given that character posing is three dimensional in nature it follows that interfaces with higher degrees-of-freedom (DoF) should outperform 2D interfaces. We present PoseMMR, allowing Multiple users to animate characters in a Mixed Reality environment, like how a stop-motion animator would manipulate a physical puppet, frame-by-frame, to create the scene. We explore the potential advantages of the PoseMMR can facilitate immersive posing, animation editing, version control and collaboration, and provide a set of guidelines to foster the development of immersive technologies as tools for collaborative authoring of character animation.

We describe the reconstruction of a medieval building as an example of how the use of 3D computer graphics can facilitate the reconstruction of an ancient site. We suggest that different stages of a virtual reconstruction imply the use of different rendering techniques, as the style of visualization has a significant impact on both the reconstruction process and the presentation to non-expert viewers.

In order to solve the problem of Poisson equation, the author puts forward a research on the character image setting of 3D animation works. 3D animation refers to the three-dimensional virtual image produced by using computer software, also known as 3D animation, is a new technology produced with the development of computer software and hardware technology in recent years. It is the art of photography, set design, and stage lighting reasonable arrangement of various arts and techniques. At the same time, the design and production of 3D animation need more artistic foundation and creativity. A good 3D animation, it requires producers to have a better sense of space and artistic sense, there is must be a good use of all kinds of 3D animation production software. The image design of animated characters from the perspective of content, design styles and styles vary greatly from reality to non-reality. However, whether taken from nature or elsewhere, they are inseparable from their character as a vehicle for expressing human spirit and emotion. Since the birth of animation, its prominent entertainment function has become the value of the existence of this art style, and it has the possibility of development. And animated characters are more iconic than any other element of animation. The purpose of animation character design is to give appeal and vitality to each animation character art.

In this paper we describe the architecture of the 3D graphics LSI core for mobile phone Z3D. The major 3D graphics applications on mobile phones are character animation and games. While a character animation or a game is running, the CPU has to be used for the communication to the center machine and CPU clock frequency is low. Therefore, the requirement of Z3D is small, low power, and CPU free. The pipeline of Z3D is composed of a geometry engine, rendering engine, and pixel engine. Generally, these modules run in pipeline on PC, but running in pipeline, power consumption rises. We used gated clock control for low power consumption and having the pipeline work in sequential, we could reduce 40% of the power consumption with 10% performance decreasing. The geometry processing performance of Z3D is up to 185Kvertex/sec and the pixel performance is 5Mpixel/sec. This performance is enough to have character animations and games run. The data of 3D shape and animation can be defined using common 3D modeler and contents program can be described by Java. Low level rendering interface and animation rendering interface are provided as a Java API. All the contents programs can be downloaded from network.

Along with the advance of digital technology, various methods are adopted for capturing the 3D animating data. Especially, in 3D animation production market, the motion capture system is widely used to make films, games, and animation contents. The technique quickly tracks the movements of the actor and translate the data to use as animating character's motion. Thus the animation characters are able to mimic the natural motion and gesture, even face expression. However, the conventional motion capture system needs tricky conditions, such as space, light, number of camera etc. Furthermore the data acquired from the motion capture system is frequently corrupted by noise, drift and surrounding environment. In this paper, we introduce the post production techniques to stabilizing the jitters of motion capture data from the low cost handy system based on Kinect.

Many tools have been developed to visualize protein and molecular structures. Most high quality protein visualization tools use the OpenGL graphics library as a 3D graphics system. Currently, the performance of recent 3D graphics hardware has rapidly improved. Recent high-performance 3D graphics hardware support Microsoft Direct3D graphics library more than OpenGL and have become very popular in personal computers (PCs). In this paper, a molecular visualization system termed ProteinVista is proposed. ProteinVista is well-designed visualization system using the Microsoft Direct3D graphics library. It provides various visualization styles such as the wireframe, stick, ball and stick, space fill, ribbon, and surface model styles, in addition to display options for 3D visualization. As ProteinVista is optimized for recent 3D graphics hardware platforms and because it uses a geometry instancing technique, its rendering speed is 2.7 times faster compared to other visualization tools.

Video games have been around for a while and are arguably one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Visuals and aesthetics are one major aspect of video games that appeal to players; from old-school 8-bit graphics, to the more realistic 3D graphics of modern games, players have nowadays an ample choice of visual styles in the video games they play. However, to date, the way in which different visuals and graphics impact people's motivation to play video games remains mostly underexplored. In this thesis, I explore how different types of visual styles and aesthetics impact players' motivation to play video games. I focus on three main types of visual styles and aesthetics in video games, namely (1) realistic (i.e., when graphics in video games are as close as possible to reality, for instance Mortal Kombat or Resident Evil 2 Remake), (2) stylized (i.e., cartoonized graphics like Fusion Fall), and (3) abstract (i.e., when graphics are minimal, for instance Tetris). I surveyed 45 participants on the above visual styles, their preferences, and motivation on playing video games inspired by the Artistic Preference Scale (APS) and the Gaming Motivation Scale (GAMS). Results from the survey show that players prefer realistic visual styles overall and over abstract styles. With the present thesis, I contribute game design with preliminary results on how the preference of visual styles in video games impact players' motivation and provide design recommendations for game designers--Author's abstract

CavePainting is an artistic medium that uses a 3D analog of 2D brush strokes to create 3D works of art in a fully immersive Cave environment. Physical props and gestures are used to provide an intuitive interface for artists who may not be familiar with virtual reality. The system is designed to take advantage of the 8 ft. x 8 ft. x 8 ft. space in which the artist works. CavePainting enables the artist to create a new type of art and provides a novel approach to viewing this art after it has been created. In this paper, we describe CavePainting’s 3D brush strokes, color pickers, artwork viewing mode, and interface. We also present several works of art created using the system along with feedback from artists. Artists are excited about this form of art and the gestural, full-body experience of creating it. CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: I.3.6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques - Interaction Techniques; I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism Virtual Reality; J.5 [Arts and Humanities]: Fine Arts Additional Key Words: 3D painting, 3D modeling, gestures, tangible user interface, Cave

The keyframe image character of 3D animation refers to the image state of the character or scene and other objects presented at specific keyframes in the animation timeline. The character texture will be blurred, distorted and discontinuous in the animation sequence due to motion, perspective change or lighting difference. Due to the lack of optical flow information to guide the current 3D animation keyframe image enhancement process, it is difficult to effectively distinguish the foreground character from the background elements, which affects the algorithm’s ability of recognizing the animation character’s movement patterns. To this end, a character texture enhancement method based on the SIFT algorithm and LK (Lucas-Kanade) optical flow is investigated for 3D animation keyframe images. The SIFT algorithm is used to extract the feature points of the character in each frame of 3D animation image as the initial tracking template, the LK optical flow method is used to calculate the optical flow vector of the feature points in the new frame, and the weighted directional histogram is used to estimate the direction of the character’s movement, and then the feature points in the tracking template are optimized through feature matching and weight updating to complete the tracking of the character’s target in each frame of the image. According to the target tracking results, a fractional-order differential mask is constructed in the character target region, and an adaptive function is constructed by combining the modes of the local gradient, information entropy and variance parameters of the image, so as to realize the enhancement of the character texture of the key frame images of the 3D animation by dynamically adjusting the order of the fractional-order differential. The experimental results show that the method can realize the dynamic tracking of 3D animation image character, and the extracted 3D animation image character feature points show a balanced distribution, and the distribution ratio is reasonable. It can realize the texture enhancement of 3D animation keyframe images, and the enhanced animation character clothing, facial details and other information are clearly recognizable, so as to improve the overall quality and visual impact of 3D animation.

This research focus on the process of creating the world of "Balloon” through low poly visual style in 3D CG animation using an alternative non-photorealistic rendering method that is both efficient and visually astonishing. Low poly are chosen as a visual style because it represent the spirit of courage to explore the world outside the film's story. By using low poly visual style in most of the environment, it creates a unique contrast between the environment and the character. The character is made using a traditional high poly modeling for 3D character. Through variety of experiments with various pipeline, the chosen method is considered the best to accommodate the filmmaker needs in both production time and the visual result. In order to determine the best technique, the research is conducted by testing the render results of some environment scenes within the film. The writer also experimented using procedural materials in the design of the world to help speed up rendering of the compositing process, in order to achieve good visual quality in a shorter production time. Keywords : low poly, non-photorealistic rendering, 3D CG animation

Ne Zha 2, another major Chinese traditional culture animated film, premiered during the 2025 Spring Festival season. Building upon the success of its predecessor Ne Zha: The Birth of the Demon Boy, it further integrates traditional Chinese cultural elements while implementing innovative approaches to rejuvenate its brand image. This strategy has resulted in a more widely appealing and profound cinematic work. This paper examines how Ne Zha 2: The Demon Boy Rages at Sea transformed its brand IP image to appeal to younger audiences. Using case study methodology and analyzing data from social media platforms alongside audience feedback, it explores how traditional Chinese cultural animation films attract Gen Z viewers through brand image innovation. Following the case analysis, the study reveals that Ne Zha 2 implemented numerous innovative adjustments in character development, narrative techniques, and visual style. This leads to the conclusion that modernizing cultural IPs through innovation and diversifying promotional strategies are key to attracting Gen Z audiences. Simultaneously, this research provides theoretical foundations for the innovative development of the cultural and creative industries and offers directional guidance for the youth-oriented transformation of traditional Chinese cultural IPs.

The skinning in the character animation is always one of the vital research contents in computer animation. In recent years, with the rapid development of the 3D game, animation, and film special effects production industry, the requirements for character skin technology have gradually increased, and the innovative development of skin technology has also received more and more attention from researchers, resulting in the birth of many new methods and technologies. This article focuses on analyzing different methods of skinning technology, which can be roughly divided into four categories: Direct Skinning Methods, Automatic Skinning, Example-based Shape Deformation, and Direct Delta Skinning. The contents and details of each method are listed, and the advantages and disadvantages of the above methods are compared and analyzed. Finally, aiming at the shortcomings in the current work, some problems that can be further studied are proposed.

Real-time 3D graphics will be a major power consumer in future portable embedded systems. 3D graphics is characterized by intensive floating point calculations, heavy data traffic between memory and peripherals, and a high degree of non-uniformity due to content variation. Although 3D graphics is currently very limited in power-constrained environments, future user interfaces (head-mounted virtual reality) and applications (simulators, collaboration environments, etc.) will require power-aware implementations. Fortunately, we can exploit content variation and human perception to significantly reduce the power consumption of many aspects of 3D graphic rendering. In this paper we study the impact on power consumption of novel adaptive shading algorithms (both Gouraud and Phong) which consider both the graphics content (e.g. motion, scene change) and the perception of the user. Novel dynamically configurable architectures are proposed to efficiently implement the adaptive algorithms in power-aware systems with gracefully degradable quality. This paper introduces an integrated algorithm and hardware solution based on human visual perceptual characteristics and dynamically re-configurable hardware. Three approaches are explored which are both based on human vision and loosely analogous to video coding techniques. The first approach is called distributed computation over frames and exploits the after image phenomenon of the human visual system. The second approach exploits visual sensitivity to motion. According to the speed and distance from camera to object, either the Gouraud or Phong shading algorithm is selected. The third approach is an adaptive computation of the specular term computation used in Phong. Using the same selection criteria as in adaptive shading, a reduced computational cost algorithm is used for fast moving objects. Results based on simulation indicate a power savings of up to 85% using short but realistic rendering sequences. Future work includes: 1) more sophisticated architectures to support dynamic reconfiguration, 2)exploring other steps in the 3D graphics pipeline, and 3) extending these ideas to other multimedia applications which involve variable content, computation and human perception (for example, video and audio coding).