Automatic generation of 3D character animation from 3D meshes

A method of animating a 3D character, comprising:

• receiving at least one non-rigged mesh defining an external appearance of a 3D character from a user device over a network using a server system;
• automatically rigging at least one non-rigged mesh defining the external appearance of a 3D character using the server system to form a rigged mesh of the 3D character, where automatically rigging the at least one non-rigged mesh comprises fitting a skeleton to the at least one non-rigged mesh and defining skinning weights for the at least one non-rigged mesh based upon the fitted skeleton;
• characterizing the fitted skeleton of the rigged mesh with respect to a reference skeleton using the server system;
• retargeting motion data defined with respect to the reference skeleton to the fitted skeleton of the 3D character using the server system;
• and
• animating the 3D character by driving the rigged mesh in accordance with the fitted skeleton, the skinning weights, and the retargeted motion data using the server system,
• wherein automatically rigging at least one non-rigged mesh defining the external appearance of a 3D character to form the rigged mesh further comprises:
• creating a 3D representation of the external appearance of the 3D character defined by the at least one non-rigged mesh using the server system, where the 3D representation is a single closed form mesh;
• identifying salient points of the 3D representation using the server system;
• fitting a reference skeleton to the 3D representation using the server system;
• calculating skinning weights for the 3D representation based upon the fitted skeleton using the server system;
• and
• transferring the skeleton and skinning weights to the at least one non-rigged mesh defining the external appearance of the 3D character to form the rigged mesh using the server system.

An animation system, comprising:

• a server system configured to receive at least one non-rigged mesh defining the external appearance of a 3D character and a high level description of a motion from a user device over a network;
• wherein the server system is further configured to automatically rig the at least one non-rigged mesh to form a rigged mesh by fitting a reference skeleton to the at least one non-rigged mesh and defining skinning weights for the at least one non-rigged mesh based upon the fitted skeleton;
• wherein the server system is further configured to generate synthetic motion data for the reference skeleton based upon the high level description of the motion;
• and
• wherein the server system is further configured to retarget the synthetic motion data to the skeleton of the 3D character;
• wherein the server system is further configured to automatically rig the at least one non-rigged mesh to form a rigged mesh by fitting a reference skeleton to the at least one non-rigged mesh and defining skinning weights for the at least one non-rigged mesh based upon the fitted skeleton by:
• creating a 3D representation of the external appearance of the 3D character defined by the at least one non-rigged mesh, where the 3D representation is a single closed form mesh;
• identifying salient points of the 3D representation;
• fitting a reference skeleton to the 3D representation;
• calculating skinning weights for the 3D representation based upon the fitted skeleton;
• and
• automatically rigging the 3D character by transferring the skeleton and skinning weights to the at least one mesh defining the external appearance of the 3D character.

A method of animating a 3D character, comprising:

• receiving at least one non-rigged mesh defining an external appearance of a 3D character from a user device over a network in a server system;
• automatically rigging the at least one non-rigged mesh defining the external appearance of a 3D character to form a rigged mesh using the server system, where automatically rigging the at least one non-rigged mesh comprises:
• creating a 3D representation of the external appearance of the 3D character defined by the at least one non-rigged mesh using the server system, where the 3D representation is a single closed form mesh;
• identifying salient points of the 3D representation using the server system;
• fitting a reference skeleton to the 3D representation using the server system;
• calculating skinning weights for the 3D representation based upon the fitted skeleton using the server system;
• and
• transferring the skeleton and skinning weights to the at least one mesh defining the external appearance of the 3D character using the server system;
• characterizing the fitted skeleton with respect to a reference skeleton using the server system;
• generating synthetic motion data with respect to the reference skeleton based upon a high level description of a motion using the server system;
• retargeting the synthetic motion data defined with respect to the reference skeleton to the fitted skeleton of the 3D character using the server system;
• and
• animating the 3D character using the server system by driving the at least one mesh in accordance with the fitted skeleton, the skinning weights, and the retargeted motion data.