Broad Area Colloquium For AI-Geometry-Graphics-Robotics-Vision
Animation by Example
Michael Gleicher
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Monday, October 28, 2002, 4:15PM
TCSeq 200
http://robotics.stanford.edu/ba-colloquium/
Abstract
Motion for computer animation is notoriously difficult to create. In
order to achieve the expressiveness, subtlety and realism of quality
motion, practitioners have relied on either capturing the movements of
real performers, or labor and skill intensive manual specification
methods. Such methods create specific, short clips of motion. These
clips may provide the desired quality, but lack the flexibility
required when all movements cannot be pre-planned. In contrast to
clip-based methods, motion synthesis approaches can flexibly create
motions on the fly, but (to date) have not provided sufficient
quality.
In this talk, I will survey our efforts to create high-quality motion
for animation in a flexible manner. I will begin by reviewing some of
our previous efforts in motion editing, the problem of adapting
motions to meet new needs. I will discuss how the successes and
failures of these approaches have lead us to a number of new
directions. I will describe several of our recent results, including
preserving the fine details of motions during editing, creating
high-level control abstractions for motion, and synthesizing new
motions by assembling pieces of existing motions. Combined, these
developments promise to allow flexible creation of high-quality motion
based on an initial set of example motions.
About the Speaker
Michael Gleicher is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison. Prof. Gleicher joined the University in 1998 to start a
computer graphics group within the department. The overall goal of
his research is to create tools that make it easier to create
pictures, video, animation, and virtual environments; and to make
these visual artifacts more interesting, entertaining, and
informative. His current focus is on tools for character animation and
for the automatic production of video.
Prior to joining the university, Prof. Gleicher was a researcher at
The Autodesk Vision Technology Center and at Apple Computer's Advanced
Technology Group. He earned his Ph. D. in Computer Science from
Carnegie Mellon University, and holds a B.S.E. in Electrical
Engineering from Duke University.
Contact: bac-coordinators@cs.stanford.edu
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