CS557 Final Project: RoboAnimator
RoboAnimator
CSE557
March 19, 2004
Michael Cafarella and Ethan Phelps-Goodman
Introduction
RoboAnimator is an animation assistant tool. It lets the user
adjust parameters that describe basic animation
principles we learned about in class. These parameters modify
a basic animation script. Although the user does very
little work, and the underlying script remains exactly the same,
the tool can generate a large number of different animations.
The user can then use RoboAnimator to learn about animation,
or choose the best possible available movie.
Our tool shows a very simple movie in which a ghost pursues and
captures a walking human. The automated camera first focuses
on the human, then the ghost, and then the two of them together.
The user can adjust the following qualities:
- The walker's Look timing
- The Ghost's timing
- Squash and Stretch
- Degree of Facial Expression
- Exaggeration
- Staging
We describe each of these below.
Finally, we present three movies generated by our tool.
Walker timing
Animators often add extra pauses in the action to emphasize
certain points. This slider adjusts the amount of time that
the walker will dwell on the ghost when he turns his head.
When the slider is zero, the walker simply rotates his head
one way and back. When it reaches one, the walker stares at
the ghost for a long time.
Ghost timing
The ghost also has an important moment that the animator may
wish to emphasize. The ghost can pause right before he overtakes
the human walker. This parameter adjusts how long he lingers
nearby before finally moving in.
Squash and Stretch
Squash and stretch controls degreee of transformation of the
ghost character. When the slider is at zero, the ghost's appearance
won't change as it hits the ground. At one, it becomes ridiculously
elastic.
Exaggeration
Cartoon characters should not be overly subtle; their actions
should be outsized to emphasize the action. This parameter is
used to determine the scope of the characters' joint actions.
When it is set to a low value, the human's walking motion will
appear very tight and subtle. The ghost's arms will not flail,
nor will it jump very high. When the exaggeration parameter is
set high, the walker's arms seem super-humanly jaunty and the
ghost just appears crazy.
Facial Expression
This is a form of exaggeration, but modifies only the character's
mouth and eyes.
Staging
Characters are most appealing when they turn toward the camera at
a roughly 2/3 or 3/4 view. Both head-on and side views are pretty
boring to watch. A low setting for this value leaves the camera
focused directly toward the focused-on character's orientation.
A high setting will raise the camera above the target character
and off to the side. Intermediate values will interpolate camera
positions between these two settings.
Output
We have generated three sample animations with RoboAnimator. Roughly,
the three movies were made by setting the parameters to the lowest,
midway, and highest available settings.