3D animation finds its applications in different areas such as movies
or games industry, as well as it is useful for different kinds of
education purposes. It brings more human, social and dramatic reality to
these fields. The reason of using the animations for educational
purposes is to create specialized presentations to support greater level
of realism that is adequate for better understanding of the context
presented.
3D animating found in games refers to various
sorts of objects and characters that are animated in real-time (flocking
systems, etc). Its application in this area concerns realistic fashion
of animation during the game and, for example, in cutscenes which break
up the gameplay.
According to animations that are present
in movies, these are used to provide the sophisticated art and
entertainment by watching amazing graphics. The number of different
techniques that are found in production of films is great, e.g. Motion
Capture, Rotoscoping and many more.
This Recent 3D Animation Techniques article can be found on our blog.
1. Potential of 3D animation
3D
animation is growing in both use and importance and the need for new
advances in this field becomes an emerging possibility for studies and
researches as new approaches need to be developed. The latest findings
show it is essential to invent new algorithms and techniques for
creating better results that could be adopted by other industries.
Recent studies concern, among other methods, facial expressions and
character animations which are important areas to discover.
The
number of movies and games that make use of computer generated
animation becomes larger as existing approaches yet are able to provide
realistic effects. However, there is a need to enhance the knowledge
regarding recent methods that simulate these processes. Furthermore,
this knowledge should be adopted by active animators and newcomers.
The
limitations of existent technology bring to live problems that must be
faced by current animators. These limitations cause the lack of realism
in animations produced by most animators as they have no professional
tools or have no experience to do so. As a consequence, the motivation
for exploring the areas of facial expressions and character animations
needs to be addressed to scientists and developers of new animating
approaches. The findings can enhance rendering facial features or
improve the level of realism applied to a character. Finally, new
methods can create new ways of producing animations more efficient and
more effective.
2. Recent advances and future technologies
Facial
animation and character animation have a long history in their
development processes. At its early stage, both were only available in
cartoons, where animators were drawers painting sequences of pictures to
create an illusion of movement. But the advance in facial animation and
character animation areas became larger as the technology has risen. A
development of computer graphics started applying both areas by
computers.
2.a. Facial animation
Depending on what technique
the animator would take to animate a face, the production cycle is
different. For some standards methods, mesh of the face model needs to
be pre-modelled then vertex by vertex, frame by frame animated to
produce desired expression. For some latest approaches, such like motion
capture, the mesh of the face is captured instantly. After that,
animators polish and smooth the pre-generated animation and add some
details to the mesh model.
The list of some standard techniques which are related to facial animation:
- Keyframing
- Skeleton-Muscle System
- Morph Target Animation
Skeleton-Muscle
System, for example, is a relatively old technique that is used in most
commercial animated movies production. Also, 3DS MAX package supports
this approach. The Skeleton-Muscle System has a 1:1 correspondence to
know other face muscles surrounding. Moreover, it uses a spring and mass
systems to animate or deform the skin.
Other method, called Morph
Target Animation, bases on moving each vertex of a face mesh to a
different position in every keyframe to create a motion. By doing this
an animator is able to make real-looking face expressions (smile or
blink) or sophisticated movements to bring life into computer-generated
lines, points and surfaces.
The most recent advances in facial
animation have presented new ways to capture facial expressions from
human face. This technique can be implemented by using specialized
detectors which transfer the data to the PC during the face movements.
Nowadays, a large number of such tools are present but all of them use
different algorithms and different equipment and the results obtained
from every each one are more or less accurate. Typically, more accurate
systems cost more. An alternative to them are cheaper systems which are
widely used.
The list of most recent techniques which are related to facial animation:
- Non-Rigid Tracking for Facial Motion Capture
- Spatial Markov Random Field method
- Sketch-Based Facial Animation
- Sparse Stereo Mesh
Among
other recent methods, Sparse Stereo Mesh gives relatively great
results. Sparse Stereo Mesh is designed to obtain facial contours by
capturing the data from special markers that are placed on the human
face using the camera. The input data is a dense 3D mesh of the person.
This technique allows transferring the kinematics learned on a sparse
mesh onto the 3D dense mesh, which provides more realism at the end.
The
application of all facial animation techniques is wide (biometrics,
animation, CGI, etc). There are some factors that differ ones from
another, such like:
- Production cycle (new development approaches in use)
- Costs (new expensive technology will become cheaper)
- Production time (new advances save the production time)
- Obtained textural details (such as wrinkles or stubble)
- Captured quality of expressions (quality of the facial 3D mesh)
- Number of filters used to smooth the skin (if supported)
- Detectors (markers) used or not
- Future holds (new technology will be in use)
2.b. Character animation
Animation
techniques applied to a character have a large number of applications
being done so far. The production cycle of the character animation is
similar to facial animation.
The list of some standard techniques which are related to character animation:
- Keyframing
- Morph Target Animation
- Forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics
- Skeleton-Based Animation
Forward
Kinematics calculates the movements of particular part from the
position and orientation of the object, in the normal way, downward the
tree structure. In case of using Inverse Kinematics the position and
orientation of each part of the articulated model is determined by
desired position of certain parts of the model, movement is calculated
upward the tree structure.
In Skeleton-Based Animation
approach a skeleton is a base having hierarchical structure of the human
model. Each part of the model is responsible for a portion of
deformable mesh. In practice, the character obtains shapes by attaching a
mesh to a skeleton. Assuming, the skin will follow the movement of the
skeleton.
Motion Capture advance for character animation is as
great 3D animation tool for realistically capturing human motion. There
are a lot of mocap systems that are widely used because of their
precision and big advantage of simplifying the process of animation
(mechanical, electromagnetic, optical).
Here is the Motion Capture Pipeline:
- Calibration
- Capture
- 3D Position Reconstruction
- Fitting to the Skeleton
- Post Processing (motion editing, motion warping)
The future of the Motion Capture:
- Marketless mocap
- Cheaper (current systems are relatively expensive)
- Larger use and easier access
3. Conclusions
For
sure, film and games industries profit from the latest technology, for
example Motion Capture, as well as other methods to successfully
progress the realism and feelings in movies and games. Moreover,
commercial graphics packages (Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3DS Max, Light
wave 3D) enable animators to create movements smoother and better.
Moreover, animation techniques are successively developed and it is
important to invent new algorithms for creating greater results that
could be adopted by other industries.
The very current state of
technology in a range of researches about facial expressions and
character animations is advanced. However, the technology cannot be
easily implemented and used by actual graphics and animating systems/
software. The limitation due to computers power causes that this
technology can be used by expensive computer systems that are able to
handle all the operations to produce best effects.
Assuming, an
effort to develop new approaches, that can be available for everybody,
is needed.The latest trends show a huge impact of facial and character
animations on the technology development. In the future new techniques
will be invented for tracking human movements and facial expressions
more precise and more efficient.
This Recent 3D Animation Techniques article can be found on our blog.
Animation can be used to inform, educate, advertise and express emotions just as live action can by using the same techniques; such as the use of colour, film language and sound. The NSPCC advert by Russell Brooke on television is a good example of how animation can be more effective than live action.
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