{"id":81,"date":"2007-11-04T17:38:14","date_gmt":"2007-11-04T21:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/2007\/11\/04\/parametric-human-modeling-for-3d-character-design\/"},"modified":"2007-11-04T17:38:14","modified_gmt":"2007-11-04T21:38:14","slug":"parametric-human-modeling-for-3d-character-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/04\/parametric-human-modeling-for-3d-character-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Parametric Human Modeling for 3D Character Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve just run across this amazing presentation on YouTube \u2013 and as I dug a bit deeper, I found that one of the most amazing things about it is that it originated in 1999, to accompany a SIGGRAPH paper<\/a> by Volker Blanz<\/a> and Thomas Vetter. It\u2019s not that 1999 is actually ancient history \u2013 it\u2019s just that the technology behind this is so very interesting that I don\u2019t understand why it hasn\u2019t already worked its way down to commercial applications (unless it has<\/em> \u2013 but more on that below).\n<\/p>

\nThis demo shows how a 3D database of 200 textured male and female faces was used as the foundation for a human face modeling system, and much more \u2013 among other things you\u2019ll see how the software uses its raw data to extrapolate a 3D face from a single photograph. It even invented matching textures, whether the photo was in color or in black and white. The same techniques were used to generate expressions for the faces.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n<\/param>\n<\/param> <\/embed><\/div>\n

In the rest of this post I\u2019m going to muse about what all this could mean. So in the interest of full disclosure I must admit to you that in my last post<\/a> I mentioned that I was skinning a set of 3D characters, and that skinning characters \u2013 without fail – drives me insane. It doesn\u2019t take much of a leap here for you to realize that you are probably reading the thoughts of a crazy person. So make of this what you like.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Building 3D characters does make me crazy. It\u2019s not the modeling, assembly, mapping or texturing \u2013 that whole process has some twitchy bits, but at least at the texturing phase you\u2019re solving a unique problem and coming up with something new and interesting. No, the truly crazy-making things are tasks like matching a skeleton to the model and skinning it \u2013 that is, teaching how to bend as its skeleton moves and bends. One has to arrive at a pretty good solution in a very complex system where each individual choice you make about a bone\u2019s influence has repercussions down the line in a sort of domino effect from Hell. And it\u2019s never done \u2013 each time you make a character move in a new interesting way you find that some joint acts strangely, and you have to go back and make adjustments. Forever, I think.<\/p>\n

But even before that, there are structural points to character modeling and mapping that one has to solve over and over again, for no very good reason. Now I\u2019m really thinking of human (or human-like) characters, here \u2013 truly bizarre fantasy creatures will always take individual, specific work. But probably because I\u2019m not an especially good character modeler I never fail to resent it when I have to solve the same problems every time.<\/p>

I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary. I really believe that artists will eventually have ways to create complete human characters parametrically \u2013 that is, we\u2019ll be able to create a human primitive object, already skinned to a skeleton, and adjust its race, gender, facial features, body type, and so on, to create new and unique characters based on a single root object.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why this demo movie excites me as much as it does \u2013 because although it\u2019s limited to faces, it\u2019s a brilliant proof of concept for such a system \u2013 and its ability to match the 3D model to a single photograph of an actual person is an unexpected bonus.Note that expression morphs are already incorporated into the system \u2013 so in theory a system like this one could allow the artist to create a model with all of its facial expressions in a single shot. A system like that \u2013 exporting rigged and skinned human characters for use in one\u2019s renderer of choice \u2013 would be a fantastic addition to a 3D artist\u2019s toolbox.<\/p>\n

Mind you, it\u2019s not a \u201cMake Art\u201d button. I\u2019m sure that we would still do a lot of work on texturing our characters, and clothing would remain a separate problem \u2013 probably best addressed through a matching cloth system. And I don\u2019t doubt that the results would often need to be tweaked. That\u2019s just the nature of software in our work.<\/p>\n

There have already been at least small first steps in this direction, both in standalone applications and in plug-ins for other software.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention Poser here, even though Poser is widely regarded as a hobbyist\u2019s toy box. At its core, the Poser system gives its users a sort of human primitive with a number of morphs associated with it, particularly in the face, and it can be used as a more limited version of what I described above. It may be that in the end the real distinction is that the Poser models are working from a much smaller database. Given the same \u201cancestry\u201d of 200 or more faces and bodies, the existing Poser system might very well turn into something like my dream tool for character creation. There are problems with exporting Poser\u2019s models, but many of those problems have been addressed through plug-ins for 3D applications.\n

A 3DS Max plug-in called Facial Studio attempts to do something along these lines, again limited to faces. It also suffers from a small database and, I think, not an especially good one. Faces created with that plug-in are nowhere near the quality of what we see in the SIGGRAPH demo.<\/p>\n<\/a>\n

Finally, a combination application\/service called Darwin Dimensions<\/a> looks like an implementation of the SIGGRAPH paper \u2013 but with complete bodies. Darwin Dimensions\u2019 Evolver<\/a> software uses a library of \u201cseed\u201d ancestors, and the user blends and morphs between them to\narrive at a unique character. An impressive variety of characters<\/a> can be designed with the system. Every model that\u2019s output from the software uses the same structure, and is rigged and skinned; also, and again because of the shared topology, facial expression morphs are included. Characters can be output in several different resolutions.\n

In theory this is exactly the tool I was describing, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s only the sticker shock that stands in the way. This is not an inexpensive tool, and the models themselves have to be ordered from the publisher based on the data you create. In fact I\u2019m puzzled that they charge for the software at all, because it seems as though they\u2019d do better to disseminate the tool as widely as possible and make their money from the data that users must purchase, once they\u2019ve done their design.<\/p>\n

So the price of the Evolver<\/a> software ($2995, including one customized character download) and the per-character price ($1995) prevent this tool from having any effect on my own work. Your mileage may vary. I can see that production studios might become customers of the service \u2013 though I do wonder if most studios don\u2019t have specific aims for style in their characters that are better served by unique modeling. I think that this service may be missing its mark by targeting the highest end users, when their audience might actually be in a larger middle class.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it\u2019s a very interesting product and service and one that I hope will appear elsewhere \u2013 and with a different business model. The system has shown itself able to create a wide variety of human characters based on a parametric database, resulting in pre-skinned character models with a full library of facial expressions. It\u2019s proof that these systems are possible, if not yet attainable. By, you know, folks like me.<\/p>\n

So that leaves me, tomorrow, right where I was yesterday – back to days of crazy-making character setup.<\/p>\n

If you need me, I\u2019ll be gibbering under my desk.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve just run across this amazing presentation on YouTube \u2013 and as I dug a bit deeper, I found that one of the most amazing things about it is that it originated in 1999, to accompany a SIGGRAPH paper<\/a> by Volker Blanz<\/a> and Thomas Vetter. It\u2019s not that 1999 is actually ancient history \u2013 it\u2019s just that the technology behind this is so very interesting that I don\u2019t understand why it hasn\u2019t already worked its way down to commercial applications (unless it has<\/em> \u2013 but more on that below).<\/p>\n

This demo shows how a 3D database of 200 textured male and female faces was used as the foundation for a human face modeling system, and much more \u2013 among other things you\u2019ll see how the software uses its raw data to extrapolate a 3D face from a single photograph. It even invented matching textures, whether the photo was in color or in black and white. The same techniques were used to generate expressions for the faces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cant-stop-thinking","category-computer-graphics"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webomator.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}