Image Metrics Limited

Steven Caulkin

Kevin Walker

Gareth Edwards

Michael Rogers

Computer-implemented methods and computer program products for automatically transferring expressions between rigs with consistent joint structure, and for automatically transferring skin weights between different skin meshes based on joint positioning. A method is provided for transferring an expression between a plurality of source rigs and a target rig, where each rig characterizes an animated character, and each rig, in turn, is characterized by a set of joints and a skin mesh having a plurality of vertices, with each vertex characterized by a matrix of weights relating a response of the vertex to movement of associated joints. A set of offsets is calculated of joint positions of a goal expression of each source rig relative to a neutral expression of the source rig. A scaling transformation is then applied to the set of offsets to produce a scaled set of offsets, which are added, in turn, to a neutral expression of the target rig. Methods are also provided for transferring a set of skin weights between the source rigs and the target rig.

Development tools for animated character rigging

Methods and computer program code computer program codes for modifying an expression of an actor in at least one video frame based on performance of the actor in a sequence of frames of video footage. A plurality of control points are identified for characterizing the shape of the actor in each frame of the video footage by a shape vector comprising positions of the control points. The shape vectors of each frame are then warped to a common standard frame thereby generating an aligned shape vector and a transformed image for each frame. The aligned shape vectors and attendant texture vectors are transformed in accordance with specified pose and expression parameters to create new shape and texture vectors which are reinserted into the sequence of frames so as to reanimate the actor.

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Hale, United Kingdom

Steven Caulkin