Creative Character Design Based on Combination of 2D and 3D Characteristics

This research combines the need for innovation in character design with the idea of combining 2D and 3D characteristics to create an original and appealing character style. The goal has been to benefit from the capabilities of 3D animation while implementing the simplicity of 2D designs. I studied character design and analyzed examples of existing animated characters followed by experiments with different approaches to combining 2D and 3D character elements. Based on the results of these experiments, I designed a set of characters that combine both 2D and 3D components. These characters have been rigged, animated and rendered to demonstrate their functionality

Painterly rendering techniques: A state-of-the-art review of current approaches

In this publication we will look at the different methods presented over the past few decades which attempt to recreate digital paintings. While previous surveys concentrate on the broader subject of non-photorealistic rendering, the focus of this paper is firmly placed on painterly rendering techniques. We compare different methods used to produce different output painting styles such as abstract, colour pencil, watercolour, oriental, oil and pastel. Whereas some methods demand a high level of interaction using a skilled artist, others require simple parameters provided by a user with little or no artistic experience. Many methods attempt to provide more automation with the use of varying forms of reference data. This reference data can range from still photographs, video, 3D polygonal meshes or even 3D point clouds. The techniques presented here endeavour to provide tools and styles that are not traditionally available to an artist. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

A shader based approach to painterly rendering

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a texture-based painterly shader that would render computer generated objects or scenes with strokes that are visually similar to paint media like watercolor, oil paint or dry media such as crayons, chalk, et cetera. This method would need an input scene in the form of three dimensional polygonal or NURBS meshes. While the structure of the meshes and the lighting in the scene would both play a crucial role in the final appearance of the scene, the painterly look will be imparted through a shader. This method, therefore, is essentially a rendering technique. Several modifiable parameters in the shader gives the user artistic freedom while overall introducing some amount of automation in the painterly rendering process

Designing Digital Art and Communication Tools Inspired by Traditional Craft

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Impressionist Rendering of an Animated Painting

The following thesis documents the development of a non-traditional rendering technique, that of classic impressionist painting, and its use to create an animated three-dimensional painting. Impressionist style painting has an organic feel to it, with brush strokes that remain visible in the dried paint and a light, lively color palette that seeks to capture the light in an image. Reproducing this style in a computer-generated image is no small task. For this project a CG paint method was developed, utilizing Maya Paint Effects and particles. This method was implemented with a script, saving time by automating the process as much as possible. This project was implemented by a group of graduate students. Before settling on the above described solution, many alternative methods were researched and tested. The use of Maya Paint Effects and particles was proven an effective choice for this project because it produced the visual effects desired in a manner that was fairly easily handled by the available equipment. The particle script has been used successfully through three iterations of this project, each time bringing it closer to the original vision

Reflection

Reflection is my animated graduate thesis film. The film is 6 minutes and 30 seconds long. The concept for the story was developed with a focus on character driven animation, acting and performance. I wanted to challenge myself animating a character type that I was not familiar with, something that I could not relate to on a personal level. I chose to animate a mother of 2 kids who is about 40 years old. I wanted her to go through a wide range of emotions throughout the film. I wanted it to be a silent film, so I could bring out all the thoughts and emotions running in her head through acting and really work on my animation skills. To begin with, the mother realizes through a series of events that she is letting life slip away caught in the act of caring for her family. She is no longer cheerful, beautiful and the heart throb she used to be. As the story developed over time, I realized my character was evolving too. The story simply had to change and become more complex to allow for the exploration of the complex character of the mother. The film has both 3D and 2D animation elements to it. A majority portion of the 3D production process was done in Autodesk Maya. The 2D parts were hand drawn animations done in TV Paint. This paper outlines my film, from ideation to a finished product and the wonderful roller coaster ride that is part of the film making process

Stylised procedural animation

This thesis develops a stylised procedural paradigm for computer graphics animation. Cartoon effects animations - stylised representations of natural phenomena - have presented a long-standing, difficult challenge to computer animators. We propose a framework for achieving the intricacy of effects motion with minimal animator intervention.Our approach is to construct cartoon effects by simulating the hand-drawing process through synthetic, computational means. We create a system which emulates the stylish appearance, movements of cartoon effects in both 2D and 3D environments. Our computational models achieve this by capturing the essential characteristics common to all cartoon effects: structure modelling, dynamic controlling and stylised rendering.To validate our framework, we have implemented a cartoon effects system for a range of effects including water effects, fire, smoke, rain and snow. Each effect model has its own static structure such as how the different parts are related temporarily. The flexibility of our approach is suggested most evidently by the high-level controls on shape, colour, timing and rendering on the effects. Like their hand-drawn counterparts, they move consistently while retaining the hand-crafted look.Since the movements of cartoon effects are animated procedurally, their detailed motions need not be keyframed. This thesis therefore demonstrates a powerful approach to computer animation in which the animator plays the role of a high level controller, rather than the more conventional hand-drawing slave. Our work not only achieves cartoon effects animation of un-precedented complexity, but it also provides an interesting experimental domain for related research disciplines toward more creative and expressive image synthesis in animation

Hierarchical Motion Brushes for Animation Instancing

International audienceOur work on "motion brushes" provides a new workflow for the creation and reuse of 3D animation with a focus on stylized movement and depiction. Conceptually, motion brushes expand existing brush models by incorporating hierarchies of 3D animated content including geometry, appearance information, and motion data as core brush primitives that are instantiated using a painting interface. Because motion brushes can encompass all the richness of detail and movement offered by animation software, they accommodate complex, varied effects that are not easily created by other means. To support reuse and provide an effective means for managing complexity, we propose a hierarchical representation that allows simple brushes to be combined into more complex ones. Our system provides stroke-based control over motion-brush parameters, including tools to effectively manage the temporal nature of the motion brush instances. We demonstrate the flexibility and richness of our system with motion brushes for splashing rain, footsteps appearing in the snow, and stylized visual effects

A study of how Chinese ink painting features can be applied to 3D scenes and models in real-time rendering

Past research findings addressed mature techniques for non-photorealistic rendering. However, research findings indicate that there is little information dealing with efficient methods to simulate Chinese ink painting features in rendering 3D scenes. Considering that Chinese ink painting has achieved many worldwide awards, the potential to effectively and automatically develop 3D animations and games in this style indicates a need for the development of appropriate technology for the future market. The goal of this research is about rendering 3D meshes in a Chinese ink painting style which is both appealing and realistic. Specifically, how can the output image appear similar to a hand-drawn Chinese ink painting. And how efficient does the rendering pipeline have to be to result in a real-time scene. For this study the researcher designed two rendering pipelines for static objects and moving objects in the final scene. The entire rendering process includes interior shading, silhouette extracting, textures integrating, and background rendering. Methodology involved the use of silhouette detection, multiple rendering passes, Gaussian blur for anti-aliasing, smooth step functions, and noise textures for simulating ink textures. Based on the output of each rendering pipeline, rendering process of the scene with best looking of Chinese ink painting style is illustrated in detail. The speed of the rendering pipeline proposed by this research was tested. The framerate of the final scenes created with this pipeline was higher than 30fps, a level considered to be real-time. One can conclude that the main objective of the research study was met even though other methods for generating Chinese ink painting rendering are available and should be explored

SandCanvas: A Multi-touch Art Medium Inspired by Sand Animation

10.1145/1978942.1979133Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings1283-129