Computer-assisted animation creation techniques for hair animation and shade, highlight, and shadow

制度:新 ; 報告番号:甲3062号 ; 学位の種類:博士(工学) ; 授与年月日:2010/2/25 ; 早大学位記番号:新532

A survey of comics research in computer science

Graphical novels such as comics and mangas are well known all over the world. The digital transition started to change the way people are reading comics, more and more on smartphones and tablets and less and less on paper. In the recent years, a wide variety of research about comics has been proposed and might change the way comics are created, distributed and read in future years. Early work focuses on low level document image analysis: indeed comic books are complex, they contains text, drawings, balloon, panels, onomatopoeia, etc. Different fields of computer science covered research about user interaction and content generation such as multimedia, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, etc. with different sets of values. We propose in this paper to review the previous research about comics in computer science, to state what have been done and to give some insights about the main outlooks

DEsignBench: Exploring and Benchmarking DALL-E 3 for Imagining Visual Design

We introduce DEsignBench, a text-to-image (T2I) generation benchmark tailored for visual design scenarios. Recent T2I models like DALL-E 3 and others, have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in generating photorealistic images that align closely with textual inputs. While the allure of creating visually captivating images is undeniable, our emphasis extends beyond mere aesthetic pleasure. We aim to investigate the potential of using these powerful models in authentic design contexts. In pursuit of this goal, we develop DEsignBench, which incorporates test samples designed to assess T2I models on both "design technical capability" and "design application scenario." Each of these two dimensions is supported by a diverse set of specific design categories. We explore DALL-E 3 together with other leading T2I models on DEsignBench, resulting in a comprehensive visual gallery for side-by-side comparisons. For DEsignBench benchmarking, we perform human evaluations on generated images in DEsignBench gallery, against the criteria of image-text alignment, visual aesthetic, and design creativity. Our evaluation also considers other specialized design capabilities, including text rendering, layout composition, color harmony, 3D design, and medium style. In addition to human evaluations, we introduce the first automatic image generation evaluator powered by GPT-4V. This evaluator provides ratings that align well with human judgments, while being easily replicable and cost-efficient. A high-resolution version is available at https://github.com/design-bench/design-bench.github.io/raw/main/designbench.pdf?download=Comment: Project page at https://design-bench.github.io

Animation & Cartoons

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn (or made with computers to look similar to something hand-drawn) moving picture for the cinema, TV or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot. Animation is the optical illusion of motion created by the consecutive display of images of static elements. In film and video production, this refers to techniques by which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually. Computer animation is the art of creating moving images via the use of computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation. Anime is a medium of animation originating in Japan, with distinctive character and background aesthetics that visually set it apart from other forms of animation. An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn (or made with computers to look similar to something hand-drawn) moving picture for the cinema, TV or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot (even if it is a very short one). Manga is the Japanese word for comics and print cartoons. Outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. Special effects (abbreviated SPFX or SFX) are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to visualize scenes that cannot be achieved by normal means, such as space travel. Stop motion is a generic gereral term for an animation technique which makes static objects appear to move

Animation of a High-Definition 2d Fighting Game Character

This thesis aims to identify the principles of good in-game character animation and examines different approaches to creating 2d animation. Traditional animation principles, such as timing and spacing, apply to in-game animation as they do to film animation. However, due to restrictions set by the technical and interactive elements of video games, additional challenges are faced in creating animations that both support gameplay and are visually engaging. Appealing character animation is particularly important in the fighting game genre. Early fighting games from the beginning of the 1990s used low resolution bitmap graphics with low frame counts for animation, but nowadays the standards for graphics and animation in games are high. In recent years, many game developers have shifted to using 3d graphics in place of 2d graphics, due to the more adaptive nature of 3d animation. However, there is still demand for the unique aesthetic of hand-drawn 2d, which cannot be fully replaced by 3d techniques. To make the creation process of 2d animation more efficient, supporting techniques such as tracing animation from 3d models have been employed. As the practical part of the thesis character animations suitable for a high-definition 2d fighting game were created. To assist in the creation of 2d animation, 3d animations were used as reference. While using 3d reference is beneficial especially for less experienced animators, it was discovered that relying too heavily on 3d may compromise the quality of the final 2d animation. The assistance of 3d tools cannot substitute good 2d fundamentals.Tämä opinnäytetyö pyrkii erittelemään hyvän pelihahmoanimaation periaatteita ja tarkastelee eri lähestymistapoja 2d-animaation luomiseen. Perinteisen animaation periaatteet, kuten ajoitus ja liikkeen välistys, pätevät pelianimaatiossa samalla tavalla kuin elokuva-animaatiossakin. Pelien tekniset rajoitukset ja interaktiivisuus asettavat kuiten-kin lisähaasteita animaatioiden toteuttamiseen tavalla, joka sekä tukee pelimekaniikkaa että on visuaalisesti kiinnostava. Vetoava hahmoanimaatio on erityisen tärkeää taistelupeligenressä. Varhaiset taistelupelit 1990–luvun alusta käyttivät matalaresoluutioista bittikarttagrafiikkaa ja niissä oli alhainen määrä animaatiokehyksiä, mutta nykyään pelien standardit grafiikan ja animaation suhteen ovat korkealla. Viime vuosina monet pelinkehittäjät ovat siirtyneet käyttämään 2d-grafiikan sijasta 3d-grafiikkaa, koska 3d-animaation tuottaminen on monella tavalla joustavampaa. Perinteiselle 2d-grafiikalle on kuitenkin edelleen kysyntää, sillä käsin piirretyn animaation ainutlaatuista ulkoasua ei voi täysin korvata 3d-tekniikoilla. 2d-animaation luomista on pyritty tehostamaan avustavilla tekniikoilla kuten animaation jäljentämisellä 3d-animaatiosta. Opinnäytetyön käytännön osuutena luotiin hahmoanimaatioita jotka soveltuvat teräväpiirtoiseen 2d-taistelupeliin. 2d-animoinnin apuna käytettiin 3d-animaatiota. Vaikka 3d-animaation käyttäminen mallina on hyödyllistä etenkin kokemattomalle animaattorille, liian tukeutumisen 3d-animaatioon todettiin saattavan heikentää lopullisen 2d-animaation laatua. 3d-työkalujen avustus ei korvaa hyvää 2d-perusteiden hallintaa

Queen´s Fate. 3D modeling and development of a multiplayer fighting game

Treball final de Grau en Disseny i Desenvolupament de Videojocs. Codi: VJ1241. Curs acadèmic: 2020/2021Motivation The main motivation for this work is wanting to develop a project in which the artistic section has to be worked on thoroughly, since it is the section I’m most interested in, and in a game of this style it is important that the models and animations are well worked. It also is a project that wraps all the contents of the degree, since it goes though the whole process of developing a video game, including the construction of the plot, the conceptual design of characters, environments, menus and HUD, the modeling and animation of said characters, the design of the game mechanics, the application of gamification techniques to balance the gameplay, and the coding of all the game logic, thus, being able to complete this project would mean that I’ve acquired all the necessary knowledge that is expected to acquire after finishing this degree. Objectives The objective is to develop a complete game with original models and animations in which players fight each other in a 2D combat system, with many interesting mechanics that offer an extended gameplay. Environment and Initial State The project is going to be entirely developed by a single individual, myself, working on my own with my own equipment. It Started from a completely blank canvas, and the only previous knowledge came from all the projects developed at the degree. I made the decision to develop it using mainly three softwares: Blender for 3D modeling, Photoshop for texturing and 2D sprites (like HUD icons, menus, etc), and Unity as a game engine. I came to this decision since those are programs I’ve previously worked with and I feel quite comfortable using them

Cine-anime: adaptations of realistic lighting styles

Animé, a style of Japanese animation, has begun to evolve into more than a simple animation. The stories found in animé have reached a level of complexity similar to traditional cinema. However, lighting in animé, has been minimal. Using computers to create animé, rather than creating it traditionally by hand, has allowed greater opportunities to be creative with lighting. Color and computer-generated (CG) effects can be integrated with traditional line drawings to create beautiful images in animé. Since cinematic lighting exhibits some of the finest examples of lighting, this thesis will analyze lighting styles from three different cinematographers and adapt them to three anim??e style scenes in 3D. The scenes will be modeled, lit, and rendered using Alias/Wavefront MAYATM, and textured using Adobe PhotoshopTM. The result will be a visual CG piece that adapts the lighting style of certain distinctive cinematographers, while retaining the look of animé

Analysis and Construction of Engaging Facial Forms and Expressions: Interdisciplinary Approaches from Art, Anatomy, Engineering, Cultural Studies, and Psychology

The topic of this dissertation is the anatomical, psychological, and cultural examination of a human face in order to effectively construct an anatomy-driven 3D virtual face customization and action model. In order to gain a broad perspective of all aspects of a face, theories and methodology from the fields of art, engineering, anatomy, psychology, and cultural studies have been analyzed and implemented. The computer generated facial customization and action model were designed based on the collected data. Using this customization system, culturally-specific attractive face in Korean popular culture, “kot-mi-nam (flower-like beautiful guy),” was modeled and analyzed as a case study. The “kot-mi-nam” phenomenon is overviewed in textual, visual, and contextual aspects, which reveals the gender- and sexuality-fluidity of its masculinity. The analysis and the actual development of the model organically co-construct each other requiring an interwoven process. Chapter 1 introduces anatomical studies of a human face, psychological theories of face recognition and an attractive face, and state-of-the-art face construction projects in the various fields. Chapter 2 and 3 present the Bezier curve-based 3D facial customization (BCFC) and Multi-layered Facial Action Model (MFAF) based on the analysis of human anatomy, to achieve a cost-effective yet realistic quality of facial animation without using 3D scanned data. In the experiments, results for the facial customization for gender, race, fat, and age showed that BCFC achieved enhanced performance of 25.20% compared to existing program Facegen , and 44.12% compared to Facial Studio. The experimental results also proved the realistic quality and effectiveness of MFAM compared with blend shape technique by enhancing 2.87% and 0.03% of facial area for happiness and anger expressions per second, respectively. In Chapter 4, according to the analysis based on BCFC, the 3D face of an average kot-mi-nam is close to gender neutral (male: 50.38%, female: 49.62%), and Caucasian (66.42-66.40%). Culturally-specific images can be misinterpreted in different cultures, due to their different languages, histories, and contexts. This research demonstrates that facial images can be affected by the cultural tastes of the makers and can also be interpreted differently by viewers in different cultures

Japanese media cultures in Japan and abroad: Transnational consumption of manga, anime, and media-mixes

Reprinted Special issue of ARTS (2018

The Ethics of Affect

Based on ongoing fieldwork in the Akihabara neighborhood of Tokyo, specifically a targeted subproject from 2014 to 2015, this book explores how and to what effect lines are drawn by producers, players and critics of bishōjo games. Focusing on interactions with manga/anime-style characters, these adult computer games often feature explicit sex acts. Noting that the bishōjo, or “cute girl characters,” in these games can appear quite young, legal actions have been taken in a number of countries to categorize and prohibit the content as child abuse material. In response to the risk of manga/anime images encouraging underage sexualization, lawmakers are moved to regulate them in the same way as photographs or film; triggered by images, the line between fiction and reality is erased, or redrawn to collapse forms together. While Japanese politicians continue to debate a similar course, sustained engagement with bishōjo game producers, players and critics sheds light on alternative movement. Manga/anime-style characters trigger an affective response in interactions with their creators and users, who draw and negotiate lines between fiction and reality. Interacting with characters and one another, bishōjo gamers draw lines between what is fictional and what is “real,” even as the characters are real in their own right and relations with them are extended beyond games; some even see the characters as significant others and refer to them using intimate terms of commitment such as “my wife.” This book argues for understanding the everyday practice of insisting on lines, or drawing a line between humans and nonhumans and orienting oneself toward the drawn lines of the latter, as demonstrating an emergent form of ethics. Occurring individually and socially in both private and public spaces, the response to fictional characters not only discourages harming human beings, but also supports life in more-than-human worlds. For many in contemporary Japan and beyond, interactions and relations with fictional and real others are nothing short of lifelines