AnimationDiff: A Visual Comparison Tool for Generated 3D Character Animations

TL;DR

AnimationDiff is a visual tool designed to facilitate the comparison of generated 3D character animations by addressing challenges like temporal misalignment and data complexity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel visualization system combining established techniques with features like filtering and Temporal Lenses for effective animation comparison.

Findings

User study confirms AnimationDiff improves comparison efficiency.

Supports contextual and spatial comparison modes.

Enables filtering and temporal overview for better analysis.

Abstract

Creating 3D character animations traditionally requires significant time and effort from the animator. Advancements in generative methods now enable easy creation of multiple character animation variations for use or further editing. However, this capability introduces a new challenge in comparing character animations to select the best animation, which is challenging due to temporal misalignment and the large amount of spatial data. We present AnimationDiff, a visual comparison tool for generated character animations. AnimationDiff enables contextual comparisons in the intended scene and camera angle, and embedding of spatial information by combining established animation visualization techniques and easy switching between overlaid and side-by-side comparisons. AnimationDiff also supports filtering to handle information overload, and Temporal Lenses that visualize entire animations over time for overview, alignment, and comparison. We evaluated AnimationDiff in a user study, showcasing its efficacy in animation comparison and providing design insights for comparing motion.