I always follow closely what is coming out of Fredo Durand's lab at MIT. They have proved to have a good artistic intuition and they usually come up with very simple ideas. The "2.5D cartoon models" paper they presented this morning is no exception. The video clip that comes with the paper explains the whole thing better than I could do it:
MIT 2.5D Cartoon Models from lester banks on Vimeo.
Their system requires no 3D modelling. Instead, you draw your character from different points of views and the system extrapolates the 3D information.
The program is available for free on the project web site (without the source code unfortunately). They don't mention the possibility to create stereoscopic animation, but it can easily be done without modifying the software. The only device required to operate the software is a simple mouse or a tablet and it runs on computers with very modest hardware.
I have tried the software. Got stuck on the spout for my teapot. What does 'toggle hysteresis' mean?
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this paper from Siggraph 2010 too.
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/projects/FractureSound/
I hope to see films created with these tools. Audio and visual worlds with panache.
Sue
Paul Kry (http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~kry/), a recently hired professor in the department of computer science at McGill does that kind of sound synthesis (Paul was on the review comity of my master's thesis).
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see films being made with that stuff too. In fact, I bet a lot of researchers in canadian universities would like to be associated with the NFB on that kind of project. It would add a hype factor to their paper submission to Siggraph. Even though a lot of them criticize Siggraph for not being rigorous enough, they still submit papers and dream of getting them accepted.
I think very short projects would be ideal to experiment with those technologies. Say 3 months like Hothouse, but with a bigger staff (1-2 animators, an engineer and a technician and some collaborators from universities). We were discussing that idea last week when I met with Jean-Francois Levesque and Benoit Chagnon for a test session of my collaborative animation program. Many other animators I talked to showed some interest for that Animator-engineer collaboration.