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Table of Contents

Thesis Introduction

Thesis Conclusion

Chap 1. The Uncanny Valley

History of the Valley

The Uncanny Valley Chart

The Uncanny Valley and Film/Animation

The Uncanny Valley and Video Games

The Uncanny Valley and the Soul

Crossing the Uncanny Valley

Chap 2. Character Design

Character Design/Character Sheet

Character Archetypes

Talk with Tony Chance

Interview with Stan Winston

Practical Interruption

Chap 3. Character Animation

Character Biped & Quadped

Character Gesture and the brain

Character Motion Systems

Image Metrics Animation

Practical Interruption

Chap 4. Conclusion

Thesis Conclusion

Bibliography

Chapter 3.3

Character Motion Systems

Reference: Character Motion Systems - SIGGRAPH 94

The use of motion capture for computer character animation is relatively new, having begun in the late 1970's, and only now beginning to become widespread. Motion capture is the recording of human body movement for immediate or delayed analysis and playback. The information captured can be as general as the simple position of the body in space or as complex as the deformations of the face and muscle masses, a process invented by animator Max Fleischer in 1917.

Motion capture for computer character animation involves the mapping of human motion onto the motion of a computer character. The mapping can be direct, such as human arm motion controlling a character's arm motion, or indirect, such as human hand and finger patterns controlling a character's skin color or emotional state. The idea of copying human motion for animated characters is, of course, not new. To get convincing motion for the human characters in Snow White, Disney studios traced animation over film footage of live actors playing out the scenes.

This method, called rotoscoping, has been successfully used for human characters ever since. In the late 1970's, when it began to be feasible to animate characters by computer, animators adapted traditional techniques, including rotoscoping. At the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab, Rebecca Allen used a half-silvered mirror to superimpose videotapes of real dancers onto the computer screen to pose a computer generated dancer for Twyla Tharp's “The Catherine Wheel.” The computer used these poses as keys for generating a smooth animation; music was by David Byrne of Talking Heads, himself a skilled animator.

 

Continue to Chapter 3.4 - Image Matrics Systems