Mesh-on-skeleton Animation In Movies
Today it is time for the part no. 2 out of 3. This article continues the "Trilogy" called The Study of Animation and it is be focusing about Mesh-on-Skeleton Animation matter. Enjoy!
Animation techniques applied to a virtual character have a large number of applications being done so far. However, the animation technology is a pretty young subject and there is still a need for the application that combines different techniques to present full-functional animation system. The study introduces specific research areas:
- Hierarchical Modelling for Animation (Part 1)
- Mesh-on-Skeleton Animation (Part 2)
- Motion Capture Technology (Part 3)
Published academic articles in the field of Computer Graphics and Computer Animation present other great animation techniques which could be applied to an avatar. A discussion about animation of rigid models is taking a place and the essence of findings can fascinate. A skeleton is based on a hierarchical structure, where each particular part of the model is responsible for a portion of deformable mesh. In practice, the character obtains shapes by attaching a mesh to a skeleton.
According to an avatar - a human body, shape deformations refer to configuration of the surface that is bended, straightened or curved. Animating the surface of a polygonal object, like human, involves a number of vertices to be moved to produce a smooth transformation. This method, called Morph Target Animation, bases on moving each vertex of a model mesh to a different position in every keyframe to create a motion. By doing this an animator is able to make real-looking face expressions (smile or blink) or sophisticated body movements to bring life into computer-generated lines, points and surfaces.
However, other method presented by some scientists suggests new way of deforming a mesh that can be fully-automatically transformed into fully-rigged virtual subjects. Regarding to this approach a problem of mesh flexibility during animation process is eliminated. Moreover, it enables special features needed for skeleton structure and post-processing compositors to receive best results.
Depending what is the purpose of creating an animation movie, different methods are adequate. The main aspects concern wherever the animated objects will be used - in production of games for character movements or in television industry to gain great graphics, etc. In the real world timing and costs of the production are important and particular approaches fit in where needed. Some scientists suggest that in case of producing a game or real-time application for academic purposes a desired approach which seems to play an important role because of its not large hardware demands is called Skeletal Animation. The advantages of using it are: the full motion effect without time-consuming displacement of vertices every keyframe, and that the bones of a skeleton are independent. In practice, the motion is achieved by changing the position of bones of an articulated model that the mesh sticks to.
Animation techniques applied to a virtual character have a large number of applications being done so far. However, the animation technology is a pretty young subject and there is still a need for the application that combines different techniques to present full-functional animation system. The study introduces specific research areas:
- Hierarchical Modelling for Animation (Part 1)
- Mesh-on-Skeleton Animation (Part 2)
- Motion Capture Technology (Part 3)
Published academic articles in the field of Computer Graphics and Computer Animation present other great animation techniques which could be applied to an avatar. A discussion about animation of rigid models is taking a place and the essence of findings can fascinate. A skeleton is based on a hierarchical structure, where each particular part of the model is responsible for a portion of deformable mesh. In practice, the character obtains shapes by attaching a mesh to a skeleton.
According to an avatar - a human body, shape deformations refer to configuration of the surface that is bended, straightened or curved. Animating the surface of a polygonal object, like human, involves a number of vertices to be moved to produce a smooth transformation. This method, called Morph Target Animation, bases on moving each vertex of a model mesh to a different position in every keyframe to create a motion. By doing this an animator is able to make real-looking face expressions (smile or blink) or sophisticated body movements to bring life into computer-generated lines, points and surfaces.
However, other method presented by some scientists suggests new way of deforming a mesh that can be fully-automatically transformed into fully-rigged virtual subjects. Regarding to this approach a problem of mesh flexibility during animation process is eliminated. Moreover, it enables special features needed for skeleton structure and post-processing compositors to receive best results.
Depending what is the purpose of creating an animation movie, different methods are adequate. The main aspects concern wherever the animated objects will be used - in production of games for character movements or in television industry to gain great graphics, etc. In the real world timing and costs of the production are important and particular approaches fit in where needed. Some scientists suggest that in case of producing a game or real-time application for academic purposes a desired approach which seems to play an important role because of its not large hardware demands is called Skeletal Animation. The advantages of using it are: the full motion effect without time-consuming displacement of vertices every keyframe, and that the bones of a skeleton are independent. In practice, the motion is achieved by changing the position of bones of an articulated model that the mesh sticks to.
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