Animating Childlike Drawings with 2.5D Character Rigs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple 2.5D character modeling and retargeting system that enables real-time animation of childlike drawings with style preservation, suitable for both 2D and 3D immersive media.

Contribution

It presents a novel, view-dependent 2.5D model and retargeting technique that preserves style while applying complex skeletal motions to childlike drawings.

Findings

System is effective for real-time animation.

User studies show high appeal and usability.

Applicable to diverse 2D and 3D applications.

Abstract

Drawing is a fun and intuitive way to create a character, accessible even to small children. However, animating 2D figure drawings is a much more challenging task, requiring specialized tools and skills. Bringing 2D figures to 3D so they can be animated and consumed in immersive media poses an even greater challenge. Moreover, it is desirable to preserve the unique style and identity of the figure when it is being animated and viewed from different perspectives. In this work, we present an approachable and easy-to-create 2.5D character model and retargeting technique that can apply complex 3D skeletal motion, including rotation within the transverse plane, onto a single childlike figure drawing in a style-preserving manner in realtime. Because our solution is view-dependent, the resulting character is well-suited for animation in both 2D and 3D contexts. We also present a novel annotation study motivating our system design decisions and a pair of user studies validating the usefulness and appeal of our solution. We showcase the generality of our system in a range of 2D and 3D applications.