Synthetic Actors

1. How to Make a Film with Synthetic Actors.- 1.1 Computer Animation and Synthetic Actors.- 1.1.1 The Role of Synthetic Actors.- 1.1.2 Scenario and Storyboard.- 1.1.3 Decors and Actors.- 1.1.4 Motion.- 1.1.5 Types of Animation.- 1.1.6 Cameras and Lights.- 1.1.7 Choreography and Recording.- 1.2 The Film Rendez-vous à Montréal.- 1.2.1 The Film.- 1.2.2 The Scenario.- 1.2.3 The Storyboard.- 1.2.4 The History of Rendez-vous à Montréal.- 2. Three-Dimensional Construction of Synthetic Actors.- 2.1 Planning and Preparation of Models for 3D Reconstruction.- 2.1.1 Planning.- 2.1.2 Model and Documentation Search.- 2.1.3 Guidelines for Choosing or Constructing Objects to be Digitized.- 2.2 How to Enter the Shapes.- 2.2.1 Input Scanning, Digitizing, and 3D Reconstruction.- 2.2.2 3D Reconstruction from 2D Plans or Photographs.- 2.2.3 The Steps of Construction by Digitizing.- 2.2.4 Cross-section Methods.- 2.2.5 Plaster Models Preparation.- 2.2.6 Planar Polygonal Facet Representation.- 2.2.7 Choice of Facets and Vertices.- 2.3 Photographs.- 2.3.1 Principles.- 2.3.2 Turntable.- 2.3.3 Camera.- 2.3.4 Choice of Photo Angles.- 2.3.5 Marking Vertices, Facets, and Edges on Photos.- 2.3.6 Step-by-Step 3D Digitizing Procedure.- 2.4 Object Composition.- 2.4.1 The Composition Operation.- 2.4.2 An Example: The Complete Composition of Marilyn Monroe.- 3. Human Prototyping.- 3.1 Local Transformations of Existing Synthetic Actors.- 3.1.1 Introduction.- 3.1.2 Local Transformations.- 3.2 Shape Interpolation Between Human Faces.- 3.2.1 Introduction.- 3.2.2 Grid Generation.- 3.2.3 Inbetween Calculation.- 4. Body Animation of Synthetic Actors.- 4.1 Principles of Body Animation.- 4.2 Skeleton Definition and Positioning.- 4.2.1 Skeleton Definition.- 4.2.2 Fixed Points.- 4.2.3 Actor Sections.- 4.2.4 Procedure for Skeleton Positioning.- 4.3 Skeleton Animation.- 4.3.1 Key Positions.- 4.3.2 Spline Interpolation.- 4.3.3 Definition and Manipulation of Key Values.- 4.3.4 AnExample.- 5. Hand Animation, Object Grasping, and Foot Animation.- 5.1 Hand Skeleton and Surface.- 5.1.1 Hand Skeleton.- 5.1.2 Hand Surface.- 5.2 Hand Animation.- 5.3 Object Grasping and Manipulating.- 5.3.1 The Action of Grasping an Object.- 5.3.2 Determination of Joint Angles for Object Grasping.- 5.3.3 Object Association.- 5.3.4 A Case Study from Rendez-vous à Montréal.- 5.3.5 Flower Grasping.- 5.4 Foot Animation.- 6. Facial Animation of Synthetic Actors.- 6.1 A Three-Level Approach to Facial Animation.- 6.1.1 How to Animate the Face of a Synthetic Actor.- 6.1.2 Parameter, Expression, and Script Levels.- 6.2 The Facial Parameters.- 6.2.1 The Structure of a Human Face.- 6.2.2 A Human Face Model for Animation.- 6.2.3 Constraints on Faces of a Synthetic Actor.- 6.2.4 The Role of Facial Parameters.- 6.2.5 Installation of the Face of a New Synthetic Actor.- 6.2.6 Lip Facial Parameters.- 6.3 The Expressions: Phonemes and Emotions.- 6.3.1 The Expression Level.- 6.3.2 Phonemes.- 6.3.3 Emotions.- 6.4 The Script Level.- 6.4.1 Scripts for Facial Animation.- 6.4.2 Key Values and Inbetweening.- 6.4.3 The Role of Multiple Tracks.- 6.4.4 Speech Timing.- 6.4.5 The Use of Splines.- 6.5 A Script Example from the Film Rendez-vous à Montréal.- 6.6 Interpolating Facial Parameters and Expressions Between Two Different Human Faces.- 6.6.1 Shape Level.- 6.6.2 Parameter Level.- 6.6.3 Expression Level.- 6.6.4 Script Level.- 7. Color, Reflectance, Transparency, and Texture.- 7.1 Colors.- 7.1.1 Drawing Style.- 7.1.2 How to Color a Synthetic Actor.- 7.1.3 The RGB System.- 7.1.4 The HLS System.- 7.2 Reflectance.- 7.2.1 Definition.- 7.2.2 A User Interface-for Reflectance.- 7.2.3 Reflectance and Highlight for Synthetic Actors.- 7.3 Transparency and Textures.- 7.3.1 Transparency.- 7.3.2 Textures.- 8. Cameras, Lights, and Shadows.- 8.1 Cameras.- 8.1.1 The Animation Environment.- 8.1.2 Synthetic Cameras.- 8.1.3 Eye, Interest Point, Viewing Angle, and Viewport.- 8.2 Lights.- 8.2.1 Introduction to Illumination.- 8.2.2 Surface Shading.- 8.2.3 How to Select Light Parameters.- 8.3 Shadows.- 9. Choreography.- 9.1 Decors and Actors.- 9.1.1 Scene and Script.- 9.1.2 Decors.- 9.1.3 Non-Human Actors.- 9.2 Cameras and Lights.- 9.2.1 The Role of Synthetic Cameras in Computer-Animated Films.- 9.2.2 Characteristics of an Animated Camera.- 9.2.3 Wipe Effects and Multiple Synthetic Movie Camera Effects.- 9.2.4 Animation of Lights and Spots.- 9.3 Camera and Light Paths.- 9.3.1 Introduction.- 9.3.2 Paths Defined by a Law.- 9.3.3 Camera Assigned to an Actor.- 9.3.4 Graphical Input of Path.- 9.3.5 How to Design a Camera Spline.- 9.3.6 Spline for the Camera Motion in the Film Eglantine.- Appendix: The HUMAN FACTORY Software.- A. 1 The Architecture of the HUMAN FACTORY System.- A. 1.1 Introduction.- A. 1.2 Interfaces for the HUMAN FACTORY Programs.- A. 1.3 The Hierarchical Structure.- A.2 The DIGIT3D Program.- A.3 The SABRINA System.- A.4 The BODYJPARTS System.- A.4.1 Active Figure and Cameras.- A.4.2 Current Vectors and Sets.- A.5 The BODY_MOVTNG System.- A.5.1 An Overview of the BODY_MOVING System.- A.5.2 Definition of Key Values.- A.5.3 Manipulation of Key Values.- A.5.4 A User Interface for Object Grasping.- A.6 The FACE_MOVING System.- A.6.1 An Overview of the FACE_MOVING System.- A.6.2 Lip Facial Parameters.- A.7 The M3RANIM System.- A.8 The DISPLAY Program.