Interactive Sketching of Mannequin Poses

TL;DR

This paper introduces an interactive system that allows users to sketch human poses easily and quickly, which are then accurately inferred onto a 3D mannequin using a novel machine learning approach trained on synthetic data.

Contribution

The paper presents a new ML model for inferring 3D mannequin poses from sketches, supported by a synthetic data generation method and an integrated user interface.

Findings

The system enables quick and accurate 3D pose creation from sketches.

User study shows improved efficiency and usability.

Quantitative results demonstrate high pose inference accuracy.

Abstract

It can be easy and even fun to sketch humans in different poses. In contrast, creating those same poses on a 3D graphics "mannequin" is comparatively tedious. Yet 3D body poses are necessary for various downstream applications. We seek to preserve the convenience of 2D sketching while giving users of different skill levels the flexibility to accurately and more quickly pose\slash refine a 3D mannequin. At the core of the interactive system, we propose a machine-learning model for inferring the 3D pose of a CG mannequin from sketches of humans drawn in a cylinder-person style. Training such a model is challenging because of artist variability, a lack of sketch training data with corresponding ground truth 3D poses, and the high dimensionality of human pose-space. Our unique approach to synthesizing vector graphics training data underpins our integrated ML-and-kinematics system. We validate the system by tightly coupling it with a user interface, and by performing a user study, in addition to quantitative comparisons.