Cool Stuffs

Character Articulation through Profile Curves

Character Articulation through Profile Curves from Pixar Graphics on Vimeo.

A new approach by Pixar Graphics for character articulation that produces detail-preserving deformations fully controlled by 3D curves that profile the deforming surface. 

The deformation for the mesh is controlled by profile curve much like line art with Bezier handles to fix and articulate the underlying geometry. Looks like a blend of 2D line art controlling 3D geometry, very intuitive process resulting in better deformation with art directed profiles and volume preservation! I would love to see this implemented on all 3D platforms in the near future! This could be the end of needing to create skin binding, facial blend shapes, adding helper joints and corrective blend shapes but resolving with good old line arts driven by a traditional puppet rig. Rig driven by wire curve deformers with indirect bind for articulation is something that I am familiar with but never thought those wire deformers could have the possibility of being hand keyed and posed in vertex level with Bezier handle controls much like traditional animation. Very interesting!
Presented by Fernando de Goes, William Sheffler, Kurt Fleischer SIGGRAPH 2022. Check out the documentation here.

Love, Death & Robots

Love, Death & Robots… how did I miss these mini episodes on Netflix for so long! Some amazing CGI shorts… 

My favorites listed below: 
1. Beyond the Aquila Rift (Loved it!) 

2. Zima Blue (The way the story twisted and the overall stylization) 


3. The Secret War (Always a big fan of Metro 2033 vibe and a post apocalyptic world doomed by underworld creatures) 

4. Pop Squad (Fascinating storyline, CGI stylization loved it!) 

5. Snow in the Desert (One of the best CGI humans!) 

6. Life Hutch (The integration of live action + CGI blended so well that at some point it wasn’t uncanny and very believable. 

7. The Drowned Giant (A Drowned Giant on the beach… narration nailed it!)

Cascadeur

Check out Cascadeur, physics based animation tool-set! You can try out their beta version here. With all the AI deepfake and machine learning emerging; this tool-set also uses machine learning for pose prediction and physics! Looking forward to seeing more development in these fields.

MocapX

This looks really promising! Currently out for folks with iPhone only, the app is available for purchase from iOS store. A free trial version would have been better for testing purpose. Check it out here.