Displacement constraints for interactive modeling and animation of articulated structures

This paper presents an integrated set of methods for the automatic construction and interactive animation of solid systems that satisfy specified geometric constraints. Displacement contraints enable the user to design articulated bodies with various degrees of freedom in rotation or in translation at highes and to restrict the scope of the movement at will. The graph of constrained objects may contain closed loops. The animation is achieved by decoupling the free motion of each solid component from the action of the constraints. We do this with iterative tunings in displacements. The method is currently implemented in a dynamically based animation system and takes the physical parameters into account while reestablishing the constraints. In particular, first-order momenta are preserved during this process. The approach would be easy to extend to modeling systems or animation modules without a physical model just by allowing the user to control more parameters.     

The dynamics of articulated rigid bodies for purposes of animation

Curves and surfaces satisfying continuity and smoothness conditions are used in computer graphics to fit spatial data points. In a similar fashion, smooth motions of objects should be available to animators in such a way that the dynamics are correct to the degree required for realism. The motion, like a curve or surface shape, should be controllable by easy manipulations of a set of control parameters or by real-time interaction between the animator and a scene generated by dynamic simulation. In this paper, the objects considered have the form of rigid links joined at hinges to form a tree. This is a reasonable first approximation to human and animal bodies. The equations of motion are formulated with respect to hinge-centered coordinates, and are solved by an efficient technique in time which grows linearly with the number of links.     

语音驱动的人脸动画研究现状综述

利用语音来驱动人脸动画,是虚拟现实（Virtual Reality）等领域重要的智能技术,近年来虚拟现实技术的飞速发展更进一步地突出了在沉浸环境下的人机自然交流的迫切需求。语音驱动的人脸动画技术能够创造出自然生动、带有情感的动画,相对于传统预设的人脸动画而言能够更好地辅助人机交互、提升用户体验。为推进该技术的智能化程度和应用,针对语音驱动人脸动画的关键问题：音视频映射,综述了逐帧分析、多帧分析和逐音素分析的映射方法,同时也梳理了多种脸部模型的思想,动画合成、情感融合、人脸动画评价的方法,及可能的研究发展方向。     

Skeleton driven animation based on implicit skinning

Skeleton-driven animation methods have been commonly used in animating 3D characters. In these methods, a skinning process that binds the character surface onto the skeleton is required. This process is usually accomplished manually and is a time-consuming task. In this paper, we propose a novel method for automatically skinning skeletal character models. Given the motion of a skeleton, our method can animate the character model automatically. In our method, each joint coordinate is parameterized by its surrounding local surface. In such a way, the character's surface is implicitly bound onto the skeleton. Character animation is achieved by minimizing an energy function that is carefully designed to prevent unnatural volume changes and to guarantee smooth deformations. Experiments demonstrate the efficiency and excellent performance of our method.     

Scalar-field-guided adaptive shape deformation and animation

In this paper, we propose a novel scalar-field-guided adaptive shape deformation (SFD) technique founded on PDE-based flow constraints and scalar fields of implicit functions. Scalar fields are used as embedding spaces. Upon deformation of the scalar field, a corresponding displacement/velocity field will be generated accordingly, which results in a shape deformation of the embedded object. In our system, the scalar field creation, sketching, and manipulation are both natural and intuitive. The embedded model is further enhanced with self-optimization capability. During the deformation we can also enforce various constraints on embedded models. In addition, this technique can be used to ease the animation design. Our experiments demonstrate that the new SFD technique is powerful, efficient, versatile, and intuitive for shape modeling and animation. This revised version was published online in February 2004 due to typesetting mistakes in the author correction process.     

Self adaptive animation based on user perspective

In this paper we present a new character animation technique in which the animation adapts itself based on the change in the user’s perspective, so that when the user moves and their point of viewing the animation changes, then the character animation adapts itself in response to that change. The resulting animation, generated in real-time, is a blend of key animations provided a priori by the animator. The blending is done with the help of efficient dual-quaternion transformation blending. The user’s point of view is tracked using either computer vision techniques or a simple user-controlled input modality, such as mouse-based input. This tracked point of view is then used to suitably select the blend of animations. We show a way to author and use such animations in both virtual as well as augmented reality scenarios and demonstrate that it significantly heightens the sense of presence for the users when they interact with such self adaptive animations of virtual characters.     

Continuous collision detection for adaptive simulation of articulated bodies

We perform continuous collision detection (CCD) for articulated bodies where motion is governed by an adaptive dynamics simulation. Our algorithm is based on a novel hierarchical set of transforms that represent the kinematics of an articulated body recursively, as described by an assembly tree. The performance of our CCD algorithm significantly improves as the number of active degrees of freedom in the simulation decreases.     

Video-realistic image-based eye animation via statistically driven state machines

In this work we elaborate on a novel image-based system for creating video-realistic eye animations to arbitrary spoken output. These animations are useful to give a face to multimedia applications such as virtual operators in dialog systems. Our eye animation system consists of two parts: eye control unit and rendering engine, which synthesizes eye animations by combining 3D and image-based models. The designed eye control unit is based on eye movement physiology and the statistical analysis of recorded human subjects. As already analyzed in previous publications, eye movements vary while listening and talking. We focus on the latter and are the first to design a new model which fully automatically couples eye blinks and movements with phonetic and prosodic information extracted from spoken language. We extended the already known simple gaze model by refining mutual gaze to better model human eye movements. Furthermore, we improved the eye movement models by considering head tilts, torsion, and eyelid movements. Mainly due to our integrated blink and gaze model and to the control of eye movements based on spoken language, subjective tests indicate that participants are not able to distinguish between real eye motions and our animations, which has not been achieved before.     

Design and animation of volume density functions

This paper describes the design and animation of volume density functions for creating images containing gases, solid textures and hypertextures. The development of functions for producing images and animations of gases is explained in detail. Procedures for modelling the geometry of various gases are described. Next, animation techniques for volume density functions are described and examples of the animation of these functions are presented, including steam rising from a teacup, wind effects, marble forming, and gas and liquid flow into an opening in a wall. Solid spaces are introduced as a unifying approach to describing and animating object attributes.     

Generation of an adaptive simulation driven by product trajectories

The tracking of products trajectories involves major challenges in simulation generation and adaptation. Positioning techniques and technologies have become available and affordable to incorporate more deeply into workshop operations. We present our 2-year effort into developing a general framework in location and manufacturing applications. We demonstrate the features of the proposed applications using a case study, a synthetic flexible manufacturing environment, with product-driven policy, which enables the generation of a location data stream of product trajectories over the whole plant. These location data are mined and processed to reproduce the manufacturing system dynamics in an adaptive simulation scheme. This article proposes an original method for the generation of simulation models in discrete event systems. This method uses the product location data in the running system. The data stream of points (product ID, location, and time) is the starting point for the algorithm to generate a queuing network simulation model.     

Fast animation of lightning using an adaptive mesh

We present a fast method for simulating, animating, and rendering lightning using adaptive grids. The "dielectric breakdown model" is an elegant algorithm for electrical pattern formation that we extend to enable animation of lightning. The simulation can be slow, particularly in 3D, because it involves solving a large Poisson problem. Losasso et al. recently proposed an octree data structure for simulating water and smoke, and we show that this discretization can be applied to the problem of lightning simulation as well. However, implementing the incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient (ICCG) solver for this problem can be daunting, so we provide an extensive discussion of implementation issues. ICCG solvers can usually be accelerated using "Eisenstat's trick," but the trick cannot be directly applied to the adaptive case. Fortunately, we show that an "almost incomplete Cholesky" factorization can be computed so that Eisenstat's trick can still be used. We then present a fast rendering method based on convolution that is competitive with Monte Carlo ray tracing but orders of magnitude faster, and we also show how to further improve the visual results using jittering     

实例驱动的自适应本体学习

针对知识管理中本体构建存在的问题,将聚类算法与ODP（Open Directory Project）目录有机结合,给出了一种基于知识资源元数据的自适应本体学习方法。根据元数据对文档进行聚类形成本体概念,将生成的概念分别映射到ODP中确定概念间的层次关系,生成初始本体;根据内聚性和相关性的变化进行自适应本体学习,实现本体更新和概念丰富,以及时跟踪知识的变化。提出的自适应本体学习方法能够很好地反映研究领域的演变过程和发展趋势,满足知识型组织进行知识管理和研究人员共享知识的需求。实验结果表明了方法的有效性。     

Performance‐driven muscle‐based facial animation

We describe a system to synthesize facial expressions by editing captured performances. For this purpose, we use the actuation of expression muscles to control facial expressions. We note that there have been numerous algorithms already developed for editing gross body motion. While the joint angle has direct effect on the configuration of the gross body, the muscle actuation has to go through a complicated mechanism to produce facial expressions. Therefore,we devote a significant part of this paper to establishing the relationship between muscle actuation and facial surface deformation. We model the skin surface using the finite element method to simulate the deformation caused by expression muscles. Then, we implement the inverse relationship, muscle actuation parameter estimation, to find the muscle actuation values from the trajectories of the markers on the performer's face. Once the forward and inverse relationships are established, retargeting or editing a performance becomes an easy job. We apply the original performance data to different facial models with equivalent muscle structures, to produce similar expressions. We also produce novel expressions by deforming the original data curves of muscle actuation to satisfy the key‐frame constraints imposed by animators.Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Data‐driven detailed hair animation for game characters

We propose a data‐driven method to realize high‐quality detailed hair animations in interactive applications like games. By devising an error metric method to evaluate hair animation similarities, we take hair features into consideration as much as possible. We also propose a novel database construction algorithm based on Secondary Motion Graph. Our algorithm can improve the efficiency of such graphs to reduce redundant data and also achieves visually smooth connection of two animation clips while taking into consideration their future motions. The costs for the run‐time process using our Secondary Motion Graph are relatively low, allowing real‐time interactive operations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

仿射不变的自适应局部线性嵌入

目的: 为将流形学习有效应用于图像的降维与识别中,并消除图像的仿射变换对流形结构产生的影响,本文提出一种仿射不变的自适应局部线性嵌入算法。方法: 该算法在局部线性嵌入的基础上,为适应产生各种仿射变换的图像样本,引入切线距离计算各样本之间的相似程度,以此描述样本空间中的距离,并通过图像相似度函数自适应计算样本空间中每一点的邻域数量。结果: 实验结果表明,该算法能够构造出更合理的低维流形结构,并有效提升统计识别的正确率。结论: 本文算法对仿射变换不敏感,表现出更强的稳健性。     

A locally adaptive peano scanning algorithm

This paper describes an algorithm which builds a ``Peano scanning,' i.e., the reciprocal mapping, from [0, 1]n to [0, 1], of the well-known ``Peano curve.' This Peano scanning is applied to a set of points in [0, 1]n and gives a one-dimensional image of it. Several applications of this technique have already been developed and are presented in this paper.     

Uncertainty visualization in medical volume rendering using probabilistic animation

Direct Volume Rendering has proved to be an effective visualization method for medical data sets and has reached wide-spread clinical use. The diagnostic exploration, in essence, corresponds to a tissue classification task, which is often complex and time-consuming. Moreover, a major problem is the lack of information on the uncertainty of the classification, which can have dramatic consequences for the diagnosis. In this paper this problem is addressed by proposing animation methods to convey uncertainty in the rendering. The foundation is a probabilistic Transfer Function model which allows for direct user interaction with the classification. The rendering is animated by sampling the probability domain over time, which results in varying appearance for uncertain regions. A particularly promising application of this technique is a "sensitivity lens" applied to focus regions in the data set. The methods have been evaluated by radiologists in a study simulating the clinical task of stenosis assessment, in which the animation technique is shown to outperform traditional rendering in terms of assessment accuracy.     

Non-linear adaptive robust control of electro-hydraulic systems driven by double-rod actuators

This paper studies the high performance robust motion control of electro-hydraulic servo-systems driven by double-rod hydraulic actuators. The dynamics of hydraulic systems are highly non-linear and the system may be subjected to non-smooth and discontinuous non-linearities due to directional change of valve opening, friction and valve overlap. Aside from the non-linear nature of hydraulic dynamics, hydraulic servosystems also have large extent of model uncertainties. To address these challenging issues, the recently proposed adaptive robust control (ARC) is applied and a discontinuous projection based ARC controller is constructed. The resulting controller is able to take into account the effect of the parameter variations of the inertia load and the cylinder hydraulic parameters as well as the uncertain non-linearities such as the uncompensated friction forces and external disturbances. Non-differentiability of the inherent non-linearities associated with hydraulic dynamics is carefully examined and addressing strategies are provided. Compared with previously proposed ARC controller, the controller in the paper has a more robust parameter adaptation process and may be more suitable for implementation. Finally, the controller guarantees a prescribed transient performance and final tracking accuracy in the presence of both parametric uncertainties and uncertain non-linearities while achieving asymptotic tracking in the presence of parametric uncertainties.     

Fast animation of debris flow with mixed adaptive grid refinement

Animating debris flow is one of the most challenging tasks in computer graphics, because of its complex dynamic mechanism and the interaction between flows and solids in so large scale region. The difficulty focuses on how to resolve the contradiction between lower computational load and higher request of animating quality. A highly effective method of modeling and animating of debris flow with adaptive grid is presented. First, the debris flow is modeled as Bingham plastic fluid with view‐dependent adaptive grid that is adopted to model the flow volume, and the boundless grids can cover the large scale region of debris flow. Then the mixed grids are built for confluent flows, and the two‐way coupling interaction between flows and environment is considered. After extracting the debris flow surface, adaptive surface tension combining wave particles equation is used to enhance the details and sprays are generated by particles considering the interaction between two fluid volumes. Finally, different dynamic realistic scenes with debris flow are successfully animating at interactive rates. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance‐driven animation of hand‐drawn cartoon faces

We present a novel performance‐driven approach to animating cartoon faces starting from pure 2D drawings. A 3D approximate facial model automatically built from front and side view master frames of character drawings is introduced to enable the animated cartoon faces to be viewed from angles different from that in the input video. The expressive mappings are built by artificial neural network (ANN) trained from the examples of the real face in the video and the cartoon facial drawings in the facial expression graph for a specific character. The learned mapping model makes the resultant facial animation to properly get the desired expressiveness, instead of a mere reproduction of the facial actions in the input video sequence. Furthermore, the lit sphere, capturing the lighting in the painting artwork of faces, is utilized to color the cartoon faces in terms of the 3D approximate facial model, reinforcing the hand‐drawn appearance of the resulting facial animation. We made a series of comparative experiments to test the effectiveness of our method by recreating the facial expression in the commercial animation. The comparison results clearly demonstrate the superiority of our method not only in generating high quality cartoon‐style facial expressions, but also in speeding up the animation production of cartoon faces. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.