[Bf-committers] GSoC 201 - Automatic Skeleton Extraction
Bassam Kurdali
bassam at urchn.org
Wed May 1 18:49:02 CEST 2013
- The skeleton mentioned is only the deforming joints right? or does it
include (for example) IK/FK switching, controls, etc. ?
If it is adding joints to the mesh via topology, I'm not sure that it is
more than limited usefulness; agreeing with Nathan here. This might be
an easy problem to solve, but it is not the bottleneck in rigging- as
nathan said, might help with background characters, if the skeleton
joints have consistent names, and I guess it could be used and tweaked
for forground characters.
On the other hand, I'd suggest alternate skinning/deformation techniques
that avoid weight painting by hand as a really important and useful
rigging speedup ;)
cheers
On Tue, 2013-04-30 at 13:42 -0500, Alexander Pinzon Fernandez wrote:
> The method is fully automatic.
> The method generates a new skeleton from a mesh of polygons.
> The method links the skeleton and mesh.
> The method does not use any sample skeleton.
> The proposed method provides only the skeleton, and the artist will have to
> animate the skeleton.
>
>
>
> 2013/4/30 Nathan Vegdahl <cessen at cessen.com>
>
> > > It would look like makehuman
> >
> > Eh... I think I may be a bit confused. The proposal is about
> > automatically generating skeletons for an arbitrary model, but it
> > sounds like the workflow you outlined doesn't automate that step at
> > all. What you've outlined is still cool, but it sounds orthogonal to
> > what is currently being discussed, unless I'm misunderstanding
> > something...?
> >
> > Moreover, unless I'm mistaken, Makehuman is specific to bipedal
> > characters with roughly human characteristics. Whereas the intent of
> > the original proposal (unless I'm misunderstanding it) is to function
> > for any morphology.
> >
> > --Nathan
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:18 AM, Patrick Shirkey
> > <pshirkey at boosthardware.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Tue, April 30, 2013 12:54 pm, Nathan Vegdahl wrote:
> > >> For something like this to be really useful, I think it needs to be
> > >> user-guide-able. And even then, it would mostly be useful for
> > >> background characters, not hero characters (which need fine tuning by
> > >> an artist).
> > >>
> > >> I can imagine this being useful, for example, for fully automatic
> > >> rigging of a crowd's worth of background characters. But it would
> > >> need to take guidance from the user regarding the style and morphology
> > >> of the characters, and the topology, naming scheme, and alignment of
> > >> the skeleton to be generated. And honestly, I haven't a clue what
> > >> that would look like.
> > >>
> > >
> > > It would look like makehuman
> > >
> > >> In general, building base skeletons is not the bottleneck of rigging
> > >> characters anyway. And even if you want to make that faster, just
> > >> having better/faster tools for doing it manually would get you more
> > >> bang for your buck than automatic generation, I suspect.
> > >>
> > >
> > > Animating models is the current bottle neck. This is how I have achieved
> > > it with a limited amount of success:
> > >
> > >
> > > 1: Create mesh and apply xonotic rig in makehuman
> > > 2: export model and rig to mhx with "Feet on Ground"
> > > 3: open blender
> > > 4: install iqe/qim exporter
> > > 5: install makehuman tools and mhx importer
> > > 6: import mhx to blender
> > > 7: export iqe of model/rig from blender
> > > 8: find and download original official xonotic model blend file
> > > 9: Open with blender
> > > 10: export model/rig/anims to iqe
> > > 11: open both iqe files in a text editor
> > > 12: extract anims from official xonotic models iqe file
> > > 13: add anims from official xonotic model to makehuman xonotic model
> > > 14: save mh iqe file
> > > 15: build iqm convertor tool from source
> > > 17: run iqm convertor tool on mh iqe file to create animated iqm file
> > > 18: import iqm file to external 3d game engine (cube2)
> > >
> > > cube2 import steps
> > > 19: Place xxx.iqm file in packages/models/xxx folder where xxx is the
> > > name of the model
> > > 20: add iqm.cfg file and edit with correct commands for loading the iqm
> > > 21: add the model name and location to the map.cfg file
> > > 22: load the map in coop edit mode
> > > 23: load the model with the "newent mapmodel i" where i is the numerical
> > > position of the model in the model list
> > >
> > > additional steps for using animated model in cube2
> > >
> > > 24: make changes to some hardcoded function variables to allow loading
> > new
> > > animated playermodels
> > > 25: add new playermodel to the game config
> > > 26: load animated model as a playermodel or bot in coop edit mode
> > >
> > >
> > > End result:
> > >
> > > http://iguanapro.com/cube/mh4-2.png
> > > http://iguanapro.com/cube/mh4-3.png
> > > http://djcj.org/video/goblin-demo.mpeg
> > >
> > >
> > > It's a very manual process and not very workable if building a crowd of
> > > models in the thousands or hundreds of thousands like for ex. Massive
> > from
> > > Weta can do
> > >
> > > There are also issues with scaling and position of the center of origin
> > > between models. In this specific case cube2 doesn't (obviously) support
> > > changing the center of origin of a model so it has to be handled before
> > > exporting from mh/blender. I could not find an obvious method or tutorial
> > > for changing the center of origin on a blender model. MH allows changing
> > > it at export from origin at hips to feet on ground.
> > >
> > > To cutdown on a lot of manual steps it looks like the way to go is to add
> > > an iqe exporter to MH and
> > > export the blend animations/rigs to bvh for inclusion in MH assets
> > > archive. Then everything can be applied in MH before exporting to iqe
> > > cutting out around 10 steps in the process. FYI, I am working on the MH
> > > iqe exporter at the moment.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Patrick Shirkey
> > > Boost Hardware Ltd
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> --Nathan
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 9:02 AM, Alexander Pinzon Fernandez
> > >> <apinzonf at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>> Automatic Skeleton Extraction
> > >>>
> > >>> Alexander Pinzon Fernandez
> > >>>
> > >>> Email: apinzonf at gmail.com
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Short description:
> > >>>
> > >>> The character animation is generally done with skeletons that control
> > >>> each
> > >>> joint in the character which drastically simplifies the animation
> > >>> process.
> > >>> The construction of the skeleton given a polygon mesh is a task
> > >>> typically
> > >>> performed by an artist. This project proposes to implement a method for
> > >>> extracting the skeleton automatically given a polygon mesh.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> *Name*: Alexander Pinzon Fernandez
> > >>>
> > >>> *Email*: apinzonf at gmail.com
> > >>>
> > >>> *IRC*: apinzonf
> > >>>
> > >>> *www*: http://apinzonf.wordpress.com/,
> > >>> http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Apinzonf
> > >>>
> > >>> *Additional Contact Info*
> > >>>
> > >>> *Phone*: +57 300 2 92 74 30
> > >>>
> > >>> *Physical Address*: Cr 81 H No 42a-58 sur Bogota-Colombia
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Synopsis
> > >>>
> > >>> The character animation is generally done with skeletons that control
> > >>> each
> > >>> joint in the character which drastically simplifies the animation
> > >>> process.
> > >>> The construction of the skeleton given a polygon mesh is a task
> > >>> typically
> > >>> performed by an artist. This project proposes to implement a method for
> > >>> extracting the skeleton automatically given a polygon mesh.
> > >>>
> > >>> This method iteratively contracts the shape in the reverse direction of
> > >>> the
> > >>> curvature flow, with a constraint that forces the contracted model will
> > >>> closely match the original. In each iteration eliminates details. After
> > >>> the
> > >>> model volume is close to zero is passed to the next stage in which
> > >>> through
> > >>> a special surface simplification method removes vertices to obtain a 1D
> > >>> structure.
> > >>>
> > >>> Paper used:
> > >>>
> > >>> AU, Oscar Kin-Chung, et al. Skeleton extraction by mesh contraction.
> > >>> ACM
> > >>> Transactions on Graphics (TOG). ACM, 2008. p. 44.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Benefits to Blender
> > >>>
> > >>> This project proposes a new tool for blender user that requires extract
> > >>> the
> > >>> skeleton of polygon meshes.
> > >>>
> > >>> This method allows to obtain the skeleton of a polygon mesh quickly and
> > >>> automatically.
> > >>>
> > >>> This method is insensitive to noise because it uses a smoothing
> > >>> algorithm
> > >>> for contraction which removes the noise and detail in each iteration.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Deliverables
> > >>>
> > >>> 1. A new skeleton extraction tool for Blender.
> > >>> 2. Some pages of documentation to be included in the manual
> > >>> 3. A technical document for developers to improve the method in the
> > >>> future.
> > >>> 4. A tutorial explaining the use of the tool.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Project Details
> > >>>
> > >>> The project would divide into seven parts:
> > >>>
> > >>> 1. Iteratively contracting the mesh until the volume is close to
> > >>> zero.
> > >>> 2. Simplifying polygon mesh to obtain a 1D structure (skeleton).
> > >>> 3. Relocating skeleton nodes in the center of each segment.
> > >>> 4. Create vertex groups for each node of the skeleton.
> > >>> 5. Converting a 1D polygon mesh into an armature.
> > >>> 6. Link vertex groups to bones of the armature.
> > >>> 7. Generation of the documentation and tutorials.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Project Schedule
> > >>>
> > >>> - *2 Weeks:- May 27 – Jun 09:* Iteratively contracting the
> > >>> mesh until the volume is close to zero.
> > >>> - *3 Weeks:- Jun 10 – Jun 31:* Simplifying polygon mesh to
> > >>> obtain a 1D structure (skeleton).
> > >>> - *2 Weeks:- Jul 01 – Jul 14:* Relocating skeleton nodes
> > in
> > >>> the center of each segment.
> > >>> - *2 Weeks:- Jul 15 – Jul 28:* Create vertex groups for
> > >>> each
> > >>> node of the skeleton.
> > >>> - *3 Weeks:- Jul 29 – Aug 18:* Converting a 1D polygon
> > mesh
> > >>> into an armature.
> > >>> - *2 Weeks:- Aug 19 – Sep 01:* Link vertex groups to bones
> > >>> of
> > >>> the armature..
> > >>> - *1 Weeks:- Sep 02 – Sep 08:* Testing the tool and Define
> > >>> and
> > >>> implement graphical user integration.
> > >>> - *2 Weeks:- Sep 09 – Sep 22:* Generation of the
> > >>> documentation
> > >>> and tutorials.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Bio
> > >>>
> > >>> I graduated as systems engineer in Colombia in 2007.
> > >>>
> > >>> I am a MSc computer science student at National University of Colombia.
> > >>>
> > >>> Skeleton extraction and mesh smoothing are the research topics of my
> > >>> MSc. I
> > >>> am use CGAL, Graphite and Qt libraries.
> > >>>
> > >>> Since 2007 I am a member of the Bioingenium Research Group of National
> > >>> University of Colombia.
> > >>>
> > >>> I have been using Blender for about 10 years. I was working on the
> > >>> develop
> > >>> of a operator to remove noise from a mesh at GSOC 2012 – Blender suchi
> > >>> branch “Mesh Smoothing for 3d Scan Data”.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> WORK EXPERIENCE:
> > >>>
> > >>> 2012 Google Summer of Code – Blender Foundation: “Mesh Smoothing for 3d
> > >>> Scan Data”.
> > >>>
> > >>> 2010 - Scire Foundation, Software Architect:
> > >>>
> > >>> Design and development of web services data, hibernate and oracle.
> > >>>
> > >>> Programming GUI with RichFaces.
> > >>>
> > >>> Library of generic manipulation of trees, based on Java reflection
> > >>> techniques.
> > >>>
> > >>> 2005 - 2007 Sigtech, LTDA, Developer Engineer:
> > >>>
> > >>> SIGC System Development for the "Departamento Administrativo de
> > >>> Catastro Distrital DACD".
> > >>>
> > >>> Software used in development: Oracle 9i, Visual Basic 6, PL / SQL
> > >>> Developer.
> > >>>
> > >>> 2004 -2005 IIE and Colciencias, Student Monitor research:
> > >>>
> > >>> Project: " Theater of Memory in Virtual Worlds:"
> > >>>
> > >>> Architecture for handling streaming video that comes from a digital
> > >>> camcorder and put it as a texture of a 3D plane in a virtual setting,
> > >>> using
> > >>> the Java software, J3D, JMF, VRML, X3D.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> SOFTWARE DEVELOPED:
> > >>>
> > >>> Nukak3D http://sourceforge.net/projects/nukak3d
> > >>>
> > >>> 3D medical image platform for visualization and image processing.
> > >>>
> > >>> Nukak3d is a flexible architecture that integrates general-purpose
> > >>> graphics libraries such as VTK, ITK, VTKInria3D, OpenGL, under a
> > >>> graphical
> > >>> user interface (wxWidgets) for three-dimensional visualization and
> > >>> processing of medical images. On C++.
> > >>>
> > >>> JNukak3D http://sourceforge.net/projects/jnukak3d
> > >>>
> > >>> Software for three-dimensional visualization of DICOM images based on
> > >>> java.
> > >>>
> > >>> JVC1394 http://sourceforge.net/projects/jvc1394/
> > >>>
> > >>> Wrapper for the library Libdc1394 to enable communication with the Java
> > >>> programming language. Java Video Capture for IEEE 1394 cameras. On C,
> > >>> C++,
> > >>> Java, Swig.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> PUBLICATIONS
> > >>>
> > >>> León J., Pinzón A., Sánchez C., Romero E. A distributed plugin based
> > >>> architecture for medical image processing. Proc. SPIE 8674, Medical
> > >>> Imaging
> > >>> 2013: Advanced PACS-based Imaging Informatics and Therapeutic
> > >>> Applications,
> > >>> 867403 (March 29, 2013);doi:10.1117/12.2007180.
> > >>>
> > >>> Pinzón, A., Leon, J.C., Romero E., Diseño y desarrollo de una
> > >>> aplicación web para la visualización eficiente de imágenes medicas,
> > con
> > >>> procesamiento 3D por software o por hardware. En Seminario
> > Internacional
> > >>> de
> > >>> Procesamiento y Análisis de Imágenes Médicas SIPAIM 2009, (Noviembre
> > >>> 27-27,
> > >>> 2009), Bogotá Colombia.
> > >>>
> > >>> Pinzón A., Romero E., Visualización 3D de imágenes médicas:
> > una
> > >>> herramienta Open Source, En Seminario Internacional de
> > Procesamiento
> > >>> y
> > >>> Análisis de Imágenes Médicas SIPAIM 2008, (Noviembre 24-27, 2008),
> > >>> Bogotá –
> > >>> Colombia.
> > >>>
> > >>> Mendoza, B. U., Ramos, G. A., Mendez, L. M., Santamaria, W.,
> > >>> and Pinzón, A. 2006. Camera Motion Control from a Java 3D
> > >>> Environment: Virtual Studio Application in Decorative Arts Museum
> > >>> Collections. In Proceedings of the 2006 international Conference on
> > >>> Cyberworlds (November 28 - 29, 2006). CW. IEEE Computer Society,
> > >>> Washington, DC, 58-64.
> > >>> _______________________________________________
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> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Patrick Shirkey
> > > Boost Hardware Ltd
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Bf-committers mailing list
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