Extended spatial keyframing

Abstract

This paper presents extended spatial keyframing, a technique for performance-driven character animation, and a method for generating highly articulated character animation with simple and intuitive user input. Existing spatial keyframing has previously introduced a robust tool for interactive control of 3D characters. It has, however, several limits related to the output results, such that the generated character motions are too simple to be used for practical character animation. As 3D computer animation becomes more accessible to novice users, rather than being satisfied with simple results, they will also desire to create high-quality animations. From the point of view of a novice user, good tools that make it possible to create animations intuitively and complex motions feasibly should be available. To create highly articulated complex animations using a relatively simple method, multiple sets of spatial keyframes are used instead of a single set of spatial keyframes. In addition, a hierarchical and layered approach is coupled with an existing spatial keyframing, and a novel method of generating and controlling highly articulated character motions is introduced.