Online interactive 4D character animation

Abstract

This paper presents a framework for creating realistic virtual characters that can be delivered via the Internet and interactively controlled in a WebGL enabled web-browser. Four-dimensional performance capture is used to capture realistic human motion and appearance. The captured data is processed into efficient and compact representations for geometry and texture. Motions are analysed against a high-level, user-defined motion graph and suitable inter- and intra-motion transitions are identified. This processed data is stored on a webserver and downloaded by a client application when required. A Javascript-based character animation engine is used to manage the state of the character which responds to user input and sends required frames to a WebGL-based renderer for display. Through the efficient geometry, texture and motion graph representations, a game character capable of performing a range of motions can be represented in 40--50 MB of data. This highlights the potential use of four-dimensional performance capture for creating web-based content. Datasets are made available for further research and an online demo is provided.