Sketching-out virtual humans: A smart interface for human modelling and animation

In this paper, we present a fast and intuitive interface for sketching out 3D virtual humans and animation. The user draws stick figure key frames first and chooses one for “fleshing-out” with freehand body contours. The system automatically constructs a plausible 3D skin surface from the rendered figure, and maps it onto the posed stick figures to produce the 3D character animation. A “creative model-based method” is developed, which performs a human perception process to generate 3D human bodies of various body sizes, shapes and fat distributions. In this approach, an anatomical 3D generic model has been created with three distinct layers: skeleton, fat tissue, and skin. It can be transformed sequentially through rigid morphing, fatness morphing, and surface fitting to match the original 2D sketch. An auto-beautification function is also offered to regularise the 3D asymmetrical bodies from users’ imperfect figure sketches. Our current system delivers character animation in various forms, including articulated figure animation, 3D mesh model animation, 2D contour figure animation, and even 2D NPR animation with personalised drawing styles. The system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes

From on-line sketching to 2D and 3D geometry: A fuzzy knowledge based system

The paper describes the development of a fuzzy knowledge based prototype system for conceptual design. This real time system is designed to infer user’s sketching intentions, to segment sketched input and generate corresponding geometric primitives: straight lines, circles, arcs, ellipses, elliptical arcs, and B-spline curves. Topology information (connectivity, unitary constraints and pairwise constraints) is received dynamically from 2D sketched input and primitives. From the 2D topology information, a more accurate 2D geometry can be built up by applying a 2D geometric constraint solver. Subsequently, 3D geometry can be received feature by feature incrementally. Each feature can be recognised by inference knowledge in terms of matching its 2D primitive configurations and connection relationships. The system accepts not only sketched input, working as an automatic design tools, but also accepts user’s interactive input of both 2D primitives and special positional 3D primitives. This makes it easy and friendly to use. The system has been tested with a number of sketched inputs of 2D and 3D geometry

Supporting reinterpretation in computer-aided conceptual design

This paper presents research that aims to inform the development of computational tools that better support design exploration and idea transformation - key objectives in conceptual design. Analyses of experimental data from two fields - product design and architecture - suggest that the interactions of designers with their sketches can be formalised according to a finite number of generalised shape rules defined within a shape grammar. Such rules can provide a basis for the generation of alternative design concepts and they have informed the development of a prototype shape synthesis system that supports dynamic reinterpretation of shapes in design activity. The notion of 'sub-shapes' is introduced and the significance of these to perception, recognition and the development of emergent structures is discussed. The paper concludes with some speculation on how such a system might find application in a range of design fields

Sketching space

In this paper, we present a sketch modelling system which we call Stilton. The program resembles a desktop VRML browser, allowing a user to navigate a three-dimensional model in a perspective projection, or panoramic photographs, which the program maps onto the scene as a `floor' and `walls'. We place an imaginary two-dimensional drawing plane in front of the user, and any geometric information that user sketches onto this plane may be reconstructed to form solid objects through an optimization process. We show how the system can be used to reconstruct geometry from panoramic images, or to add new objects to an existing model. While panoramic imaging can greatly assist with some aspects of site familiarization and qualitative assessment of a site, without the addition of some foreground geometry they offer only limited utility in a design context. Therefore, we suggest that the system may be of use in `just-in-time' CAD recovery of complex environments, such as shop floors, or construction sites, by recovering objects through sketched overlays, where other methods such as automatic line-retrieval may be impossible. The result of using the system in this manner is the `sketching of space' - sketching out a volume around the user - and once the geometry has been recovered, the designer is free to quickly sketch design ideas into the newly constructed context, or analyze the space around them. Although end-user trials have not, as yet, been undertaken we believe that this implementation may afford a user-interface that is both accessible and robust, and that the rapid growth of pen-computing devices will further stimulate activity in this area

Stereoscopic Sketchpad: 3D Digital Ink

--Context-- This project looked at the development of a stereoscopic 3D environment in which a user is able to draw freely in all three dimensions. The main focus was on the storage and manipulation of the ‘digital ink’ with which the user draws. For a drawing and sketching package to be effective it must not only have an easy to use user interface, it must be able to handle all input data quickly and efficiently so that the user is able to focus fully on their drawing. --Background-- When it comes to sketching in three dimensions the majority of applications currently available rely on vector based drawing methods. This is primarily because the applications are designed to take a users two dimensional input and transform this into a three dimensional model. Having the sketch represented as vectors makes it simpler for the program to act upon its geometry and thus convert it to a model. There are a number of methods to achieve this aim including Gesture Based Modelling, Reconstruction and Blobby Inflation. Other vector based applications focus on the creation of curves allowing the user to draw within or on existing 3D models. They also allow the user to create wire frame type models. These stroke based applications bring the user closer to traditional sketching rather than the more structured modelling methods detailed. While at present the field is inundated with vector based applications mainly focused upon sketch-based modelling there are significantly less voxel based applications. The majority of these applications focus on the deformation and sculpting of voxmaps, almost the opposite of drawing and sketching, and the creation of three dimensional voxmaps from standard two dimensional pixmaps. How to actually sketch freely within a scene represented by a voxmap has rarely been explored. This comes as a surprise when so many of the standard 2D drawing programs in use today are pixel based. --Method-- As part of this project a simple three dimensional drawing program was designed and implemented using C and C++. This tool is known as Sketch3D and was created using a Model View Controller (MVC) architecture. Due to the modular nature of Sketch3Ds system architecture it is possible to plug a range of different data structures into the program to represent the ink in a variety of ways. A series of data structures have been implemented and were tested for efficiency. These structures were a simple list, a 3D array, and an octree. They have been tested for: the time it takes to insert or remove points from the structure; how easy it is to manipulate points once they are stored; and also how the number of points stored effects the draw and rendering times. One of the key issues brought up by this project was devising a means by which a user is able to draw in three dimensions while using only two dimensional input devices. The method settled upon and implemented involves using the mouse or a digital pen to sketch as one would in a standard 2D drawing package but also linking the up and down keyboard keys to the current depth. This allows the user to move in and out of the scene as they draw. A couple of user interface tools were also developed to assist the user. A 3D cursor was implemented and also a toggle, which when on, highlights all of the points intersecting the depth plane on which the cursor currently resides. These tools allow the user to see exactly where they are drawing in relation to previously drawn lines. --Results-- The tests conducted on the data structures clearly revealed that the octree was the most effective data structure. While not the most efficient in every area, it manages to avoid the major pitfalls of the other structures. The list was extremely quick to render and draw to the screen but suffered severely when it comes to finding and manipulating points already stored. In contrast the three dimensional array was able to erase or manipulate points effectively while the draw time rendered the structure effectively useless, taking huge amounts of time to draw each frame. The focus of this research was on how a 3D sketching package would go about storing and accessing the digital ink. This is just a basis for further research in this area and many issues touched upon in this paper will require a more in depth analysis. The primary area of this future research would be the creation of an effective user interface and the introduction of regular sketching package features such as the saving and loading of images

How Digital Scenography and Images Affect the Visual Spectacle in a Site-Specific Choreographic Installation

The aims of the research project were to gain a better understanding of digital scenography, mainly in the field of dance as used by recent choreographers, to create an experimental, improvisatory dance performance. This was eventually entitled Απεραντοσύνη/ Vastness, and successfully staged in a non-theatre installation space at the Attic, University of Hertfordshire, on September 16, 2016. The three main research questions are: Can a narrative, as represented by images in a projected animation, be a chorographic tool? Is it possible to combine projected animation with projected interactive motion generated images successfully for developing improvisatory dance performances in non-theatre spaces? And if so, can this combination also be a choreographic tool? The thesis of the project is that firstly, despite the apparent lack of historical precedents, it would be possible to combine scripted animations and un-scripted interactively generated graphics successfully in a dance performance project, presenting a decorative and aesthetic enhancement to the visual spectacle of the performance. Secondly, that such use could also be identified as a valuable choreographic tool for the development of improvisatory dance performances in non-theatre spaces. This dissertation analyses the historical, theoretical and practical processes of developing Απεραντοσύνη/ Vastness. It concludes that all of the questions have been given positive answers and these support the thesis

Information visualisation

Bibliography: leaves 100-102.Information visualisation uses interactive three-dimensional (3D) graphics to create an immersive environment for the exploration of large amounts of data. Unlike scientific visualisation, where the underlying physical process usually takes place in 3D space, information visualisation deals with purely abstract data. Because abstract data often lacks an intuitive visual representation, selecting an appropriate representation of the data becomes a challenge. As a result, the creation of information visualisation involves as much exploration and investigation as the eventual exploration of that data itself. Unless the user of the data is also the creator of the visualisations, the turnaround time can therefore become prohibitive. In our experience, existing visualisation applications often lack the flexibility required to easily create information visualisations. These solutions do not provide sufficiently flexible and powerful means of both visually representing the data, and specifying user-interface interactions with the underlying database. This thesis describes a library of classes that allows the user to easily implement visualisation primitives, with their accompanying interactions. These classes are not individual visualisations but can be combined to form more complex visualisations. Classes for creating various primitive visual representations have been created. In addition to this, a number of auxillary classes have been created that provide the user with the ability to swap between visualisations, scale whole scenes, and use automatic level of detail control. The classes all have built-in interaction methods which allow the user to easily incorporate the forms of interaction that we found the most useful, for example the ability to select a data. item and thereby obtain more information about it, or the ability to allow the user to change the position of certain data items. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the classes we implemented and evaluated a. number of example systems. We found that the result of using the classes was a decrease in development time as well as enabling people with little, or no visualisation experience to create information visualisations