Analytic simplification of animated characters

Traditionally, levels of detail (LOD) for animated characters are computed from a single pose. Later techniques refined this approach by considering a set of sample poses and evaluating a more representative error metric. A recent approach to the character animation problem, animation space, provides a framework for measuring error analytically. The work presented here uses the animation-space framework to derive two new techniques to improve the quality of LOD approximations. Firstly, we use an animation-space distance metric within a progressive mesh-based LOD scheme, giving results that are reasonable across a range of poses, without requiring that the pose space be sampled. Secondly, we simplify individual vertices by reducing the number of bones that influence them, using a constrained least-squares optimisation. This influence simplification is combined with the progressive mesh to form a single stream of simplifications. Influence simplification reduces the geometric error by up to an order of magnitude, and allows models to be simplified further than is possible with only a progressive mesh. Quantitative (geometric error metrics) and qualititative (user perceptual) experiements confirm that these new extensions provide significant improvements in quality over traditional, naïve simplification; and while there is naturally some impact on the speed of the off-line simplification process, it is not prohibitive

On Model Analyses of the Media from the Viewpoint of the Didactics of History (an Illustrious Historical Figure – Charles IV).

Historical figures have always aroused the kind of interest we would, in the modern age, call media publicity. What we have in mind here is, first and foremost, pictorial media, the communication of which was intended for the widest possible range of recipients, as well as textbooks and other didactic aids. Modern historical education is based on the concept of historical culture, for which reason it is assumed that the given communication will, rather than mere illustration, become a qualitatively new teaching aid. The text presented here analyses the potential of individual media (from academic texts and works of art to feature films, currency and postage stamps) using the example of a medieval sovereign, and gives an interpretation of the connection between media education and history teaching with a view to the development of the historical awareness of the pupil and his or her media literacy

Application-driven visual computing towards industry 4.0 2018

245 p.La Tesis recoge contribuciones en tres campos: 1. Agentes Virtuales Interactivos: autónomos, modulares, escalables, ubicuos y atractivos para el usuario. Estos IVA pueden interactuar con los usuarios de manera natural.2. Entornos de RV/RA Inmersivos: RV en la planificación de la producción, el diseño de producto, la simulación de procesos, pruebas y verificación. El Operario Virtual muestra cómo la RV y los Co-bots pueden trabajar en un entorno seguro. En el Operario Aumentado la RA muestra información relevante al trabajador de una manera no intrusiva. 3. Gestión Interactiva de Modelos 3D: gestión online y visualización de modelos CAD multimedia, mediante conversión automática de modelos CAD a la Web. La tecnología Web3D permite la visualización e interacción de estos modelos en dispositivos móviles de baja potencia.Además, estas contribuciones han permitido analizar los desafíos presentados por Industry 4.0. La tesis ha contribuido a proporcionar una prueba de concepto para algunos de esos desafíos: en factores humanos, simulación, visualización e integración de modelos

Konsep Believability Pada Karakter Utama Dalam Film Seri Animasi Adit Dan Sopo Jarwo Dan Keluarga Somat

Perbincangan awam mengenai karakter dalam film animasi berpusat pada tampilan visual, sifat, tindakan, gerakan, atau aspek lain yang sama dengan manusia. Bila ditarik pada ranah konseptual, maka mendesain sebuah karakter adalah membangun dunia yang merupakan perwakilan dari seseorang. Ini menunjukkan bahwa studi mengenai karakter dapat dilakukan melalui berbagai pendekatan. Believability pada karakter dilakukan agar karakter dapat meyakinkan penontonnya, mampu menarik penonton kedalam dunia narasi film animasi tersebut. Desain karakter dilakukan dengan mempertimbangkan believability, yaitu perlakuan pada desain yang mengacu pada ukuran sejauh mana penonton terlibat dan berempati pada karakter animas

Modelling and Animation using Partial Differential Equations. Geometric modelling and computer animation of virtual characters using elliptic partial differential equations.

This work addresses various applications pertaining to the design, modelling and animation of parametric surfaces using elliptic Partial Differential Equations (PDE) which are produced via the PDE method. Compared with traditional surface generation techniques, the PDE method is an effective technique that can represent complex three-dimensional (3D) geometries in terms of a relatively small set of parameters. A PDE-based surface can be produced from a set of pre-configured curves that are used as the boundary conditions to solve a number of PDE. An important advantage of using this method is that most of the information required to define a surface is contained at its boundary. Thus, complex surfaces can be computed using only a small set of design parameters. In order to exploit the advantages of this methodology various applications were developed that vary from the interactive design of aircraft configurations to the animation of facial expressions in a computer-human interaction system that utilizes an artificial intelligence (AI) bot for real time conversation. Additional applications of generating cyclic motions for PDE based human character integrated in a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) package as well as developing techniques to describe a given mesh geometry by a set of boundary conditions, required to evaluate the PDE method, are presented. Each methodology presents a novel approach for interacting with parametric surfaces obtained by the PDE method. This is due to the several advantages this surface generation technique has to offer. Additionally, each application developed in this thesis focuses on a specific target that delivers efficiently various operations in the design, modelling and animation of such surfaces.The project files will not be available online

The Revival of Long Reading: A New Multimodal Narrative Format

The goal of this study is to specify nature, the "heart and soul" of a process referred to as a "long reading", to indentify reasons for the interest in the so-called longread narrative formats, unexpectedly going up in times of obviously reverse trends, such as, for example, short and speed reading techniques. The cyclic recurrence registered in case of ‘lengthy twist’ in the reading matters demonstrates that each transfer to shorter-size books gives a chance, probability, to become a step to long books. The key research findings indicate that longread formats are increasingly more and more popular, as these texts enable readers to keep out of the information pollution. The outcomes and conclusions are focusing on expanding the conceptional fields towards new policies stimulating reading and to more creative methods producing reading effects into the sphere of quality online journalism, education, publishing industries and popularization of science, at large. This article is the result of a collaboration made possible by the COST Action IS1404 E-READ (Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation), supported by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020, and the research project DCOST 01/13 - 04.08.2017 of the National Scientific Fund of Bulgaria

An Evaluation of Primary School Children Coding Using a Text-Based Language (Java)

All primary school children in England are required to write computer programs and learn about computational thinking. There are moves in other countries to this effect such as the U.S. K-12 Computer Science Framework (CSF) for development. Debates on how to program and what constitutes computational thinking are ongoing. Here we report on a study of programing by children aged 7 – 11 using Java and elements of computational thinking they experience. Our platform comprises a novel Story-Writing-Coding engine we have developed. We compare novice (children’s) processes of coding an animated story with that of experts (college students) and evaluate the differences using four measures based on the progressive coding of a complete program. We also analyze the use of novice (children’s) computational thinking in this coding process. This research is set against a backdrop of approaches to teaching programing and concepts of computational thinking in recent educational literatur

Study of time-lapse processing for dynamic hydrologic conditions

The usefulness of dynamic display techniques in exploiting the repetitive nature of ERTS imagery was investigated. A specially designed Electronic Satellite Image Analysis Console (ESIAC) was developed and employed to process data for seven ERTS principal investigators studying dynamic hydrological conditions for diverse applications. These applications include measurement of snowfield extent and sediment plumes from estuary discharge, Playa Lake inventory, and monitoring of phreatophyte and other vegetation changes. The ESIAC provides facilities for storing registered image sequences in a magnetic video disc memory for subsequent recall, enhancement, and animated display in monochrome or color. The most unique feature of the system is the capability to time lapse the imagery and analytic displays of the imagery. Data products included quantitative measurements of distances and areas, binary thematic maps based on monospectral or multispectral decisions, radiance profiles, and movie loops. Applications of animation for uses other than creating time-lapse sequences are identified. Input to the ESIAC can be either digital or via photographic transparencies

Appearance-design interfaces and tools for computer cinematography: Evaluation and application

We define appearance design as the creation and editing of scene content such as lighting and surface materials in computer graphics. The appearance design process takes a significant amount of time relative to other production tasks and poses difficult artistic challenges. Many user interfaces have been proposed to make appearance design faster, easier, and more expressive, but no formal validation of these interfaces had been published prior to our body of work. With a focus on novice users, we present a series of investigations into the strengths and weaknesses of various appearance design user interfaces. In particular, we develop an experimental methodology for the evaluation of representative user interface paradigms in the areas of lighting and material design. We conduct three user studies having subjects perform design tasks under controlled conditions. In these studies, we discover new insight into the effectiveness of each paradigm for novices measured by objective performance as well as subjective feedback. We also offer observations on common workflow and capabilities of novice users in these domains. We use the results of our lighting study to develop a new representation for artistic control of lighting, where light travels along nonlinear paths

Multi-timeline randomized story based web animation

Multi-Timeline Randomized Story Based Web Animation is the investigation of the use of randomness as a creative element and production tool for animations produced for the internet using Macromedia FlashTM. It discusses the process of utilizing Actionscript to create animations more efficiently, production techniques for animating with Flash, writing for randomized animations, directing voice talent, optimization for web output, and advantages and limitations of the application. The application discussed, titled Random Life, is an animation which incorporates randomness while remaining coherent by adhering to a traditional story line format