Automatic Generation of 3D Character Animation from 3D Meshes

Abstract

Systems and methods for animating 3D characters using a non-rigged mesh or a group of non-rigged meshes that define the appearance of the character are illustrated. Certain embodiments disclose a process for the automatic rigging or autorigging of a non-rigged mesh or meshes. In one embodiment, a method of automatically rigging at least one mesh defining the external appearance of a 3D character includes creating a 3D representation of the external appearance of the 3D character defined by the at least one mesh, where the 3D representation is a single closed form mesh, identifying salient points of the 3D representation, fitting a reference skeleton to the 3D representation, calculating skinning weights for the 3D representation based upon the fitted skeleton, and automatically rigging the 3D character by transferring the skeleton and skinning weights generated with respect to the 3D representation to the at least one mesh defining the external appearance of the 3D character.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of automatically rigging at least one mesh defining the external appearance of a 3D character, comprising:
 creating a 3D representation of the external appearance of the 3D character defined by the at least one mesh, where the 3D representation is a single closed form mesh;   identifying salient points of the 3D representation;   fitting a reference skeleton to the 3D representation;   calculating skinning weights for the 3D representation based upon the fitted skeleton; and   automatically rigging the 3D character by transferring the skeleton and skinning weights generated with respect to the 3D representation to the at least one mesh defining the external appearance of the 3D character.   
     
     
         2 . A method of animating a 3D character, comprising:
 automatically rigging at least one mesh defining the external appearance of a 3D character, where automatically rigging the at least one mesh comprises fitting a skeleton to the at least one mesh and defining skinning weights for the at least one mesh based upon the fitted skeleton;   characterizing the fitted skeleton with respect to a reference skeleton;   retargeting motion data defined with respect to the reference skeleton to the fitted skeleton of the 3D character; and   animating the 3D character by driving the at least one mesh in accordance with the fitted skeleton, the skinning weights, and the retargeted motion data.   
     
     
         3 . An animation system, comprising:
 a server configured to receive at least one mesh defining the external appearance of a 3D character and a high level description of a motion;   wherein the server is further configured to automatically rig the at least one mesh by fitting a reference skeleton to the at least one mesh and defining skinning weights for the at least one mesh based upon the fitted skeleton;   wherein the server is further configured to generate synthetic motion data for the reference skeleton based upon the high level description of the motion; and   wherein the server is further configured to retarget the synthetic motion data to the skeleton of the 3D character.