Interactive design, synthesis and delivery of 3d motion data through the web

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for animating 3D characters using synthetic motion data generated by generative models in response to a high level description of a desired sequence of motion provided by an animator. In a number of embodiments, an animation system is accessible via a server system that utilizes the ability of generative models to generate synthetic motion data across a continuum to enable multiple animators to effectively reuse the same set of previously recorded motion capture data to produce a wide variety of desired animation sequences. One embodiment of the invention includes a server system configured to communicate with a database containing motion data including repeated sequences of motion, where the differences between the repeated sequences of motion are described using at least one high level characteristic. In addition, the server system is configured to train a generative model using the motion data, the server system is configured to generate a user interface that is accessible via a communication network, to receive a high level description of a desired sequence of motion via the user interface, to use the generative model to generate synthetic motion data based on the high level description of the desired sequence of motion and to transmit a stream via the communication network including information that can be used to display a 3D character animated using the synthetic motion data.