Repurposing existing animated content

Abstract

Systems and methods for automatically animating a character based on an existing corpus of animation are described. The character may be from a previously produced feature animated film, and the data used for training may be the data used to animate the character in the film. A low-dimensional embedding for subsets of the existing animation corresponding to different semantic labels may be learned by mapping high-dimensional rig control parameters to a latent space. A particle model may be used to move within the latent space, thereby generating novel animations corresponding to the space's semantic label, such as a pose. Bridges may link a first pose of a first model within the latent space that is similar to a second pose of a second model of the space. Animations corresponding to transitions between semantic labels may be generated by creating animation paths that traverse a bridge from one model into another.