| Abstract: | 我國數位內容產業近年來蓬勃發展，除了代工動畫及開發遊戲外，內容軟體也是我國少數能躍 上國際舞台的軟體項目，而甲尚科技的iClone3D 軟體便是相當突出的例子。然近年來3D 動畫設計 軟體市場逐漸成熟，也讓此市場的競爭更趨激烈。因此，如何引進先進的動畫技術，強化動畫系統 功能，增強軟體之易用性及產出之動畫品質，是此類產品是否能持續在市場上有競爭力的關鍵。在 目前較廣為使用的動畫產生技術中，以動作擷取資料為基礎所設計的動畫最為自然，因此也廣為許 多即時動畫軟體使用。一般而言，角色動作一旦完成擷取後，除了滿足原應用情境外，較難重複利 用此動作資料於其他情境。而動作圖計算的技術開發，旨在將動作庫中所儲存的動畫資料進行組織， 除了可自動平順連接不同動作片段外，更能重用動作資料合成新的動畫。在過去的研究中，我們已 掌握此技術的實作，並成功導入於動畫設計軟體中。然而，我們也發現了許多尚值得探討改進的地 方，可以增加此技術的實用性、提高動畫品質並降低製作成本。例如，如果能將具對稱性的動作自 動鏡射，將提高動作庫的豐富度與動作的可重用性；如果能對動作圖中動作節點的連接性進行自動 分析，將有助於判斷是否需要擷取額外的動作，以提高動作間的連接性及合成重用的可能性。另外， 在動作合成的過程中，如果要確保動作的真實性，必須能自動偵測特定動畫中動畫角色與環境的限 制，方能避免滑步情況的產生。再者，為了能進行各種動畫產生技術的實驗，我們必須設計一個能 輸入各種不同動畫模型、骨架、及動作的動畫實驗平台，透過視覺化的方式驗證產生的結果。本產 學合作計畫將在基本動作圖的技術之上，實做上述改進技術，以提高動作圖技術應用於即時產生角 色動畫的品質與價值。我們相信透過此產學合作計畫，不但能立即提高合作廠商在動畫軟體產品上 的競爭力，所研發技術並能提升其他即時動畫相關產業（如3D 遊戲等）的技術能力，進而提高數 位內容產業的產值。
The industry of digital contents is prosperous in recent years. Among the various sectors in the industry, content software is one of the few applications that have succeeded in international markets. The iClone3D software by Reallusion Inc. is a good example. However, as the 3D computer animation software packages are more mature in recent years, the competition of these products is also becoming more rigorous than ever. Therefore, the key for a company to remain competitive in this industry is to incorporate advanced 3D animation technologies to reduce production cost or to enhance animation quality. Among the current technologies for generating animation, the motion capture technique is widely used in real-time animation applications and can produce the most natural motion. In general, when a motion is captured for a specific scenario, it is difficult to reuse it in other scenarios without modification. The idea of motion graph results from the intention of reusing motion capture data by organizing them in a searchable structure such that motion clips can be synthesized smoothly in real time. In our previous work, we have been able to apply basic motion graph techniques to a commercial 3D animation design package. However, we have also found that several points need to be improved in order to improve animation quality while reducing the production cost. For example, for motions with good symmetry, one can enhance the reusability and quality of a motion graph simply by mirroring the motions. We also need a good tool to analyze the quality of a motion graph in order to suggest to the producer what kinds of motions need to be captured to enhance the connectivity, thus reusability, of a motion graph. In addition, in the process of synthesizing a motion, we need to have a better way of detecting the constraints set by the environment on the character in order to avoid foot sliding. Furthermore, in order to facilitate the experiments of applying various animation techniques, we need to develop a visualization platform as experimental testbed to verify the results for different models, skeletons, and motions. In this project, we will implement the aforementioned animation techniques to enhance the functions and motion quality of the 3D real-time animation package by Reallusion Inc. We believe that through this industrial collaboration project, we will develop real-time animation techniques that can not only increase the competitiveness of Reallusion, but also benefit other companies in related fields such as 3D on-line games. |
