When animating characters, a key goal is the creation of a believable, expressive performance that gives a character a unique personality with a distinct style of movement. While animators are skilled at creating expressive, personalized performances, it remains challenging to change performance-related aspects of movement in existing motion data. In recent years, motion data reuse has become increasingly important as recorded motion capture data has come into widespread use. This thesis investigates the use of a sparse set of pose-centric editing controls for editing existing motion data using techniques similar to those used by keyframe animators when they create new motion. To do this, this thesis proposes the use of motion extrema--the poses a character passes through when there is a significant change in movement--as a means for choosing effective pose-centric editing controls. First, I present algorithms for identifying motion extrema. Motion extrema can be associated with individual joints or the full body of the character. I introduce a set of approaches for identifying motion extrema; these include the use of extrema of differential measures and the explicit search for times at which the body or a joint is in a spatially extreme configuration. I then present three motion editing applications that use motion extrema as a foundation for applying motion edits. The first application, pose-centric editing, allows users to interactively change poses in a motion, and the system modifies the motion to respect existing ground contact. The second application--staggered poses, introduces a model of character pose that explicitly encodes how timing varies among motion extrema on different parts of the body. This timing variation is commonly used by animators to model overlapping action. By introducing an algorithm for finding timing variation on motion extrema in existing motion, this system enables users to make high-level changes to timing patterns to change overlap effects in existing motion. Finally, I present a procedural motion editing application that targets a specific aspect of motion style; this technique is called spatial exaggeration. Spatial exaggeration changes the geometric relationships among extreme poses. Such edits cause movement to appear more or less energetic. Overall, these applications demonstrate that performance-related aspects of existing motion can be edited using a sparse set of controls in the form of motion extrema.

Vilken roll spelar animation för gestaltbildning? Arbetet fokuserar på att ta reda på hur förenklingar av animationer påverkar gestaltbildning. Utifrån gestaltpsykologins idé med gestalter utvärderas tre animationer genom strukturerade intervjuer. De tre animationerna föreställde en självsäker gångstil som var uppdelad i tre steg,  enkel, mellan  och  komplex.  Studien  visade  tendenser  på  att  förenkling  av  animationer påverkar gestaltbildning. Resultatet kan agera som stöd för vidare studier i och med animationers  inverkan  i  gestaltbildning.  Kortsiktigt  kan  samma  test  göras  med  små förändringar    i    den    strukturerade    intervjuupplägg    eller    med    andra    sorters animationer.  I  det  långsiktiga  perspektivet  kan man behöva  se om  animationer har samma   roll   för   gestaltbildningen   i   ett   spel   som   de   har   i   exempelvis   en filmproduktion.

Creating controllers for physics-based characters is a long-standing open problem in animation and robotics. Such controllers would have numerous applications while potentially yielding insight into human motion. Creating controllers remains difficult: current approaches are either constrained to track motion capture data, are not robust, or provide limited control over style. This thesis presents an approach to control of physics-based characters based on high-level features of human movement, such as center-of-mass, angular momentum, and end-effector motion. Objective terms are used to control each feature, and are combined via optimization. We show how locomotion can be expressed in terms of a small number of features that control balance and end-effectors. This approach is used to build controllers for biped balancing, jumping, walking, and jogging. These controllers provide numerous benefits: human-like qualities such as arm-swing, heel-off, and hip-shoulder counter-rotation emerge automatically during walking; controllers are robust to changes in body parameters; control parameters apply to intuitive properties; and controller may be mapped onto entirely new bipeds with different topology and mass distribution, without controller modifications. Transitions between multiple types of gaits, including walking, jumping, and jogging, emerge automatically. Controllers can traverse challenging terrain while following high-level user commands at interactive rates. This approach uses no motion capture or off-line optimization process. Although we focus on the challenging case of bipedal locomotion, many other types of controllers stand to benefit from our approach.

When animating characters, a key goal is the creation of a believable, expressive performance that gives a character a unique personality with a distinct style of movement. While animators are skilled at creating expressive, personalized performances, it remains challenging to change performance-related aspects of movement in existing motion data. In recent years, motion data reuse has become increasingly important as recorded motion capture data has come into widespread use. This thesis investigates the use of a sparse set of pose-centric editing controls for editing existing motion data using techniques similar to those used by keyframe animators when they create new motion. To do this, this thesis proposes the use of motion extrema--the poses a character passes through when there is a significant change in movement--as a means for choosing effective pose-centric editing controls. First, I present algorithms for identifying motion extrema. Motion extrema can be associated with individual joints or the full body of the character. I introduce a set of approaches for identifying motion extrema; these include the use of extrema of differential measures and the explicit search for times at which the body or a joint is in a spatially extreme configuration. I then present three motion editing applications that use motion extrema as a foundation for applying motion edits. The first application, pose-centric editing, allows users to interactively change poses in a motion, and the system modifies the motion to respect existing ground contact. The second application--staggered poses, introduces a model of character pose that explicitly encodes how timing varies among motion extrema on different parts of the body. This timing variation is commonly used by animators to model overlapping action. By introducing an algorithm for finding timing variation on motion extrema in existing motion, this system enables users to make high-level changes to timing patterns to change overlap effects in existing motion. Finally, I present a procedural motion editing application that targets a specific aspect of motion style; this technique is called spatial exaggeration. Spatial exaggeration changes the geometric relationships among extreme poses. Such edits cause movement to appear more or less energetic. Overall, these applications demonstrate that performance-related aspects of existing motion can be edited using a sparse set of controls in the form of motion extrema.

Creating controllers for physics-based characters is a long-standing open problem in animation and robotics. Such controllers would have numerous applications while potentially yielding insight into human motion. Creating controllers remains difficult: current approaches are either constrained to track motion capture data, are not robust, or provide limited control over style. This thesis presents an approach to control of physics-based characters based on high-level features of human movement, such as center-of-mass, angular momentum, and end-effector motion. Objective terms are used to control each feature, and are combined via optimization. We show how locomotion can be expressed in terms of a small number of features that control balance and end-effectors. This approach is used to build controllers for biped balancing, jumping, walking, and jogging. These controllers provide numerous benefits: human-like qualities such as arm-swing, heel-off, and hip-shoulder counter-rotation emerge automatically during walking; controllers are robust to changes in body parameters; control parameters apply to intuitive properties; and controller may be mapped onto entirely new bipeds with different topology and mass distribution, without controller modifications. Transitions between multiple types of gaits, including walking, jumping, and jogging, emerge automatically. Controllers can traverse challenging terrain while following high-level user commands at interactive rates. This approach uses no motion capture or off-line optimization process. Although we focus on the challenging case of bipedal locomotion, many other types of controllers stand to benefit from our approach.

I den här reflekterande texten studeras det hur ljudet och bilden samspelar med varandra. Med stöd från litteraturstudien som har gjorts om ämnet, en analys av en klassisk Disneyfilm som har utförts genom att studera hur filmmusiken har använts i filmen, och erfarenheter som har erhållits från arbetet med verket har samspelet mellan ljud och bild studerats. Problemställningen för den här reflekterande texten har varit: Hur kan samspelet mellan ljud och bild användas för att förmedla en önskad stämning i de scener vi har valt att skapa? På vilket sätt kan ljudet användas för att binda ihop tagningarna till en enhet? Målet med verket har varit att jag ihop med en annan student vid namn Annette Nielsen ska skapa en pitchfilm till den tilltänkta långfilmen Gabriel Glömmer som baseras på barnboken Gabriel Glömmer (Löfgren, 1965). Därefter ska det nystartade företaget Ögongodis Animation med hjälp av denna pitchfilm försöka sälja in idén till svenska medieföretag som SVT och TV4. Slutsatsen av studien som har gjorts i denna reflekterande text visade att med hjälp av musik är det möjligt att förmedla en önskad stämning i en filmsekvens. Studien visade också att tillsammans med dialogerna och beskrivande animationer på karaktärernas ansiktsuttryck, kroppsspråk och ögonuttryck kan karaktärernas sinnestillstånd förmedlas vilket också beskriver stämningen i scenen. Resultatet av studien visade även att med hjälp av att musik eller icke-musikaliska ljud, som exempelvis röster, som överlappar mellan tagningarna gör det möjligt att binda samman tagningarna till en helhet. / Pitchfilmen Gabriel Glömmer

I denna studie behandlas effort shapes kopplat till digital animation med syfte att undersöka om det finns en könsbaserad skillnad i uppfattning och bedömning av karaktärsdrag. De animationer som har producerats är grundade på effort shapes som härstammar från Laban Movement Analysis. Metoden som har tillämpats för att samla in data är en kvalitativ enkät med öppna frågor som har besvarats av tio män samt tio kvinnor. Resultatet visade att det finns en skillnad mellan könen i bedömningen av karaktärerna men inte i uppfattningen av karaktärsdragen.

Empati är förmågan att kunna känna det någon annan känner. Målet med undersökningen är att skapa ett set av principer för animatören. Att öka empatin för animerade karaktärer. I den här undersökningen skapades fyra principer, dessa är personlighet, lära känna karaktären, underhållningsvärde och relatering. Principsystemet är inspirerat av Disneys ”animationernas tolv principer”, där man har ett set av principer som kanske inte fungerar vid varje animationssituation utan som mer skulle kunna fungera som en vägledning. / The goal with this thesis is to find a set of principles for the animator. To enhance empathy towards an animated character.  Empathy is the ability to share the same feelings another person is feeling. Through researching previous works, a set of four principles was created. These principals of empathy is, personality, knowing the character, entertainment value and relatedness. The principal system is inspired by Disney´s “Twelve principals of animation”. The purpose is to have a set of principles that will work in most animation situations.

In the media richness of everyday life, the encounter with information graphics ishappening on a daily basis, whether we are aware or not. With the development andeasy access of technologies, new ways to create and display information graphics hasemerged. Among them, the animated information graphics, which in the few pastyears appears to have increased in popularity on video sharing websites such asVimeo and Youtube. In the genre of animated information graphics, there seems to bean inherent diversity regarding the design characteristics. In this study we exploredliterature and research on information graphics and related subjects. We also lookedat topics related to the moving image, such as storytelling and narrative. We foundseveral central principles to consider in information graphics in general when youwant to communicate different kinds of messages on people successfully. We used aqualitative approach to study the responses and experiences of three different focusgroups, having limited, average and professional previous experience respectively inthe field of media design after being presented with four animated productions. Wefound that the design principles of the more traditional static information graphicsstill are applicable on a genre with such wide variations in style and design as in animated information graphics.

NPR (Non-Photorealistic Rendering) is a new and quick-developed research topic in Image Processing. The main purpose of NPR is to generate sketching or comics, something different from photos, automatically by computer algorithms. Examples of such applications include pen-and-ink tree or watercolor. On the other hands, there is another technique called PR (Photorealistic Rendering). The goal of PR is to generate real objects by computer algorithms. The performance of a PR program depends on the realities of the objects generated by the PR program. Furthermore, NPR includes two modes: one is with Physical Model and the other is not. 1.¡@With Physical Model: Researchers could write programs to simulate NPR by the properties of Physical Model. 2.¡@Without Physical Model: Researchers could write programs to simulate NPR by their observations and deliberation. Our research belongs to the second one, NPR without Physical Model. In the efforts of artists, some common consensuses about human facial proportion are brought up gradually. Then, the common standards are produced. In our research, there are several steps. First, read an input human front photo and separate main features from face, include the maximal and minimal values of left and right eyebrows, left and right eyes, left and right ears, nose and mouth, in horizontal and vertical. Then quantify these facial features. Next, we would construct a standard model based on the facial feature standard in arts. Compare the values we obtain from input human front photo with the values in the standard model, then we could obtain a cartoon face model. At last, adjust and exaggerate features according to scale relations between features of input face front photo and standard model and the distance among facial features. Keys of facial features transformation in this step are enlarging, shrinking, closing and separating. In varied parts, like face form and hair form, we hope to extract some sample feature points and use Bezier Curve in Numerical Analysis to draw them. That is because that lines of cartoon, unlike real human face, are sketched very smoothly and colors are uniform in general. We also provide several roles, one four grids comic and one cartoon animation. Users could import results of programs to those test images or image sequence, then complete these comics or cartoons based on input human face front photos. By this research, we hope that we could reach the goal that makes everyone as a main character of comics or cartoons.