Digital object animation using control points

Abstract

Digital object animation techniques are described. In a first example, translation-based animation of the digital object operates using control points of the digital object. In another example, the animation system is configured to minimize an amount of feature positions that are used to generate the animation. In a further example, an input pose is normalized through use of a global scale factor to address changes in a z-position of a subject in different digital images. Yet further, a body tracking module is used to computing initial feature positions. The initial feature positions are then used to initialize a face tracker module to generate feature positions of the face. The animation system also supports a plurality of modes used to generate the digital object, techniques to define a base of the digital object, and a friction term limiting movement of features positions based on contact with a ground plane.