Real-time animation of spark discharge

We have developed a CG technique that creates real-time animations of spark discharges. The technique proposed in this paper has factors related to the generation of a discharge, such as electric charge distribution and boundary conditions in a virtual space as the input, and generates spark discharge shape patterns based on the electric field defined by the input information. An electric field is expressed by the Laplace equation. Our method efficiently obtains the numerical solution of the equation using the calculation technique of the conjugate gradient method implemented on GPU, and can cope with dynamic changes in input. It also produces discharge patterns in both two and three dimensions. In addition, an efficient pseudo-dimensional expansion technique is proposed in this paper, which uses multiple two-dimensional electric fields to generate three-dimensional discharge patterns.     

Real-time animation of realistic virtual humans

The authors have been working on simulating virtual humans for several years. Until recently, these constructs could not act in real time. Today, however, many applications need to simulate in real time virtual humans that look realistic. They have invested considerable effort in developing and integrating several modules into a system capable of animating humans in real-time situations. This includes interactive modules for building realistic individuals and a texture-fitting method suitable for all parts of the head and body. Animating the body, including the hands and their deformations, is the key aspect of the system; to their knowledge, no competing system integrates all these functions. They also included facial animation, as demonstrated below with virtual tennis players. They have developed a single system containing all the modules needed for simulating real-time virtual humans in distant virtual environments (VEs). The system lets one rapidly clone any individual and animate the clone in various contexts. People cannot mistake virtual humans for real ones, but they think them recognizable and realistic     

虚拟人物实时毛发动画

提出了一个基于晶格的机械变形方法。晶格被作为一个粒子系统采用数学方法变形，毛发采用2次B样条插值方法绘制。用元球模型处理毛发和身体表面之间碰撞。发型机械模型具有很高的实时性能和通用性，可以用来模拟各种复杂发型。模型可达到各种绘制背景下准确性和计算速度之间的最佳折中。     

Real-time facial animation on mobile devices

We present a performance-based facial animation system capable of running on mobile devices at real-time frame rates. A key component of our system is a novel regression algorithm that accurately infers the facial motion parameters from 2D video frames of an ordinary web camera. Compared with the state-of-the-art facial shape regression algorithm [1], which takes a two-step procedure to track facial animations (i.e., first regressing the 3D positions of facial landmarks, and then computing the head poses and expression coefficients), we directly regress the head poses and expression coefficients. This one-step approach greatly reduces the dimension of the regression target and significantly improves the tracking performance while preserving the tracking accuracy. We further propose to collect the training images of the user under different lighting environments, and make use of the data to learn a user-specific regressor, which can robustly handle lighting changes that frequently occur when using mobile devices.     

GPU上的水彩画风格实时渲染及动画绘制

论文提出了一种基于GPU 的对三维场景进行实时水彩画效果渲染的方法。 该方法的大部分过程使用图像空间的技术实现。算法将画面分为细节层、环境层、笔触层分 别渲染,再进行合成。在过程中使用环境遮挡、shadow mapping 等技术进行快速的阴影计算, 并使用图像滤镜的方法模拟水彩的多种主要特征。由于该方法以图像空间的技术为主,因此 可以利用GPU 并行处理的特点对计算过程进行加速,进而达到实时的渲染速度。最后建立 动画脚本分析系统,进行实时动画渲染,表明该方法在计算机动画、游戏等数字娱乐产业领 域有较大的应用潜力。     

实时形状匹配变形体动画

给出了一个仿真变形体的方法。物体被几何方法推动变形,操纵基于点的物体并且不需要连接信息,这是一个不需要任何预处理,计算简单,并提供无条件稳定的动态仿真方法。主要思想是通过几何约束替换能量和通过当前位置到目标位置的距离替换力。这些目标位置通过一个通用的无变形的静止状态和点云的当前变形状态之间的形状匹配来决定,因为点总是在定义好的位置被绘制,显式积分方法的过度不稳定问题被消除。相关物体表现方法的灵活性能被控制,相关内存和计算是有效的,动态仿真上的无条件稳定性让这个方法特别适合游戏开发。     

Real-time speech-driven face animation with expressions using neural networks

A real-time speech-driven synthetic talking face provides an effective multimodal communication interface in distributed collaboration environments. Nonverbal gestures such as facial expressions are important to human communication and should be considered by speech-driven face animation systems. In this paper, we present a framework that systematically addresses facial deformation modeling, automatic facial motion analysis, and real-time speech-driven face animation with expression using neural networks. Based on this framework, we learn a quantitative visual representation of the facial deformations, called the motion units (MUs). A facial deformation can be approximated by a linear combination of the MUs weighted by MU parameters (MUPs). We develop an MU-based facial motion tracking algorithm which is used to collect an audio-visual training database. Then, we construct a real-time audio-to-MUP mapping by training a set of neural networks using the collected audio-visual training database. The quantitative evaluation of the mapping shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Using the proposed method, we develop the functionality of real-time speech-driven face animation with expressions for the iFACE system. Experimental results show that the synthetic expressive talking face of the iFACE system is comparable with a real face in terms of the effectiveness of their influences on bimodal human emotion perception.     

基于Kinect深度相机的实时三维人体动画

研究了一种基于H Anim标准的实时人体三维动画方法,首先对H Anim中人体肢体层次结构进行研究和分析,给出了进行人体动画的坐标变换方法;其次,基于OpenNI对Kinect获取的数据进行重新处理,采用逆运动学计算非根关节旋转矩阵;最后给出了系统流程及具体实验方法,采用OpenGL由实时获取的关节旋转矩阵驱动虚拟人实现了人体动画。实验结果表明,该算法可以较精确地提取人体三维姿态,实时重构人体运动。     

Reactive animation: realistic modeling of complex dynamic systems

Some complex systems are transformational, of an input-process-output type, repeatedly carrying out their prescribed work for each new set of inputs. A far more problematic class comprises large systems that are heavily controlor event-driven. Such systems (dubbed reactive because they react to various kinds of events, signals, and conditions in intricate ways) are often concurrent and distributed. Reactive animation, a patent pending technology, offers great promise as a way to enhance the visualization of system behavior, especially for reactive systems, which are a central part of most current computerized technologies.     

Real-time feature-based image morphing for memory-efficient impostor rendering and animation on GPU

Real-time rendering of large animated crowds consisting of thousands of virtual humans is important for several applications including simulations, games, and interactive walkthroughs but cannot be performed using complex polygonal models at interactive frame rates. For that reason, methods using large numbers of precomputed image-based representations, called impostors, have been proposed. These methods take advantage of existing programmable graphics hardware to compensate for computational expense while maintaining visual fidelity. Thanks to these methods, the number of different virtual humans rendered in real time is no longer restricted by computational power but by texture memory consumed for the variety and discretization of their animations. This work proposes a resource-efficient impostor rendering methodology that employs image morphing techniques to reduce memory consumption while preserving perceptual quality, thus allowing higher diversity or resolution of the rendered crowds. Results of the experiments indicated that the proposed method, in comparison with conventional impostor rendering techniques, can obtain 38 % smoother animations or 87 % better appearance quality by reducing the number of key-frames required for preserving the animation quality via resynthesizing them with up to 92 % similarity on real time.     

Real-time visual tracking of complex structures

Presents a framework for three-dimensional model-based tracking. Graphical rendering technology is combined with constrained active contour tracking to create a robust wire-frame tracking system. It operates in real time at video frame rate (25 Hz) on standard hardware. It is based on an internal CAD model of the object to be tracked which is rendered using a binary space partition tree to perform hidden line removal. A Lie group formalism is used to cast the motion computation problem into simple geometric terms so that tracking becomes a simple optimization problem solved by means of iterative reweighted least squares. A visual servoing system constructed using this framework is presented together with results showing the accuracy of the tracker. The paper then describes how this tracking system has been extended to provide a general framework for tracking in complex configurations. The adjoint representation of the group is used to transform measurements into common coordinate frames. The constraints are then imposed by means of Lagrange multipliers. Results from a number of experiments performed using this framework are presented and discussed     

Mixed methods for complex kinematic constraints in dynamic figure animation

Advances for achieving user control of a dynamic simulation of linked figures is presented. The formulation integrates forward and inverse kinematics specification within a mixed method of forward and inverse dynamics simulation. Kinematic specifications can be imposed through kinematic constraints embedded within the dynamics framework. Kinematic constraints may be simple (functions of one degree of freedom), or complex (functions of multiple interrelated degrees of freedom). Thus, keyframed paths, closed loops, point-to-path constraints, and collisions between links and the environment can be simulated. A simultaneous solution for unknown motion and forces of constraint is performed. A Lagrange multiplier method is outlined for incorporating these general constraints into the mathematical formulation of the equations of motion. Results from three example simulations are presented and discussed.     

Real-time adaptive fluid simulation with complex boundaries

In this paper, we present a new adaptive model for real-time fluid simulation with complex boundaries based on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) framework. Firstly, we introduce an adaptive SPH framework that is based on our character field function composed of four factors: geometrical complexity, boundary condition, physical complexity, and complementary condition in terms of the neighboring particle number. Meanwhile, the rule for particle adaptation is presented. We also present a two-step method to fast detect collision with complex boundary. The first step is voxelization on the complex scene. In the second step, based on the result of voxelization, we propose a three-phase method to fast detect collisions between complex boundaries and particles. By using this method, we avoid most of the useless intersection detection computation and greatly enhance the computation efficiency. In addition, a subdivision of boundary is precomputed before the collision interaction method so that fluid in a scene with complex boundary can still be simulated at relatively high speed and system stability risk is reduced greatly. To further accelerate the simulation, a highly parallel fluid algorithm is presented and implemented using GPU so that we can simulate dynamic fluid with mutual interaction between fluid and complex boundary at a considerably fast speed without compromising realism.     

Real-time guidewire simulation in complex vascular models

The base of all training in interventional radiology aims at the development of the core skills in manipulating the instruments. Computer simulators are emerging to help in this task. This paper extends our previous framework with more realistic instrument behaviour and more complex vascular models. The instrument is modelled as a hybrid mass–spring particle system while the vasculature is a triangulated surface mesh segmented from patient data sets. A specially designed commercial haptic device allows the trainee to use real instruments to guide the simulation through the vasculature selected from a database of 23 different patients. A new collision detection algorithm allows an efficient computation of the contacts, therefore leaving more time to deal with the collision response for a realistic simulation in real time. The behaviour of our simulated instruments has been visually compared with the real ones and assessed by experienced interventional radiologists. Preliminary results show close correlations and a realistic behaviour.

基于图像放大影响的多模板相关跟踪算法

目标实时跟踪算法是图像处理技术中的一个非常重要的应用,该算法将提供的原始目标怍为基准图像进行序列跟踪。实时跟踪算法有很多种,大多是基于图像匹配算法的跟踪方法,其中比较常用的为单模板相关跟踪。该文通过对图像放大对相关跟踪影响的分析,计算了单模板相关跟踪的最小图像放大率。针对单模板存在的问题提出了多模板跟踪算法,根据目标莉背景的位置分布提出了五模板相关跟踪,并给出了多模板跟踪算法中的相关结果置信度的计算方法,同时根据最终的相关位置给出了跟踪点的计算方法,仿真试验证明优于单模板跟踪算法。     

A modelling system for complex deformable bodies suited to animation and collision processing

We propose an integrated set of methods for designing and animating bodies whose deformable flesh coats an articulated skeleton. The proposed methods provide good automatic positioning of the ‘skin’ after movements, and automatic deformation after collisions with rigid or deformable objects (dynamic or static). The response to collisions includes a feedback from the flesh to the skeleton, whose movement is adequately modified. Moreover, coating the skeleton gives an easy solution to closed loop collisions and angle constraints control. Our model is modular and gives some high level control to the user.     

大尺度三维复杂场景中雪动态模拟的方法

在大尺度三维复杂场景中,提出了降雪和积雪快速模拟的方法,采用视景体相关和线性分组变换的方法更新雪粒子系统,改进了降雪绘制的视觉效果。针对场景尺度大、复杂度高的特点,创建视点相关遮挡图（Occlusion Map）来精细绘制近处实体的表面积雪细节,生成积雪灰度纹理图来近似模拟远处地物的整体积雪效果,实现了大场景多细节层次积雪的动态模拟。在积雪绘制过程中,近处积雪细节模拟所需的视景体参数和遮挡图通过CPU获取,将复杂的积雪位置的判定和积雪量的计算从CPU移到GPU中,利用自定义的GPU顶点和片段操作加快了积雪模拟的速度。实验结果表明,在大尺度三维复杂场景交互式操作下,提出的方法能较好地实现雪的绘制和模拟。