Expressive and Dynamic Deformation of Animated Computer-Generated Characters

Abstract

3D computer animated characters often lack the communicative power and the expressiveness of traditional animation, especially when used in non-photorealistic graphical representations. Inspired by a talk by Pixar Animation Studios at Animex 2005 [WR05] and based upon the animation and cartooning concepts of lines of action and motion, we present an expressive animation tool that emphasizes and accentuates the intentions of the animator derived from the skeleton-driven animation. Motion and pose-based shape deformations are automatically generated to quickly add an emotive layer to an animated character. This warping of the character geometry also provides a novel solution to the problem of implied motion in non-photorealistic still images.