3D Animations with a Stroke of a Pen

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.

Isn't it amazing to know that just with a hit of a pen or a click of a mouse anyone can transform their 2D drawings into 3D animations! Even Amateur Artists may use this technology to make animated films where cartoon characters, animals, and other figures jump, run, swim, and dance! Only imagination is going to be a limit!

Mosketch is a new computer software that allows anyone to try their hands at 3D animation without toiling away at numerous 2D sketches. The basic working of the software is that it combines two major animation methods:

• Direct kinematics:It deals with the change of a character's joints.
• Inverse kinematics:It takes into account the movement of a character's body part.

The software also allows users to alter viewpoints as they alter character's poses, adding to the experience of animating in a 3D space .The developers of the software assert that artists can use it to effortlessly convert a 2D stroke into 3D moves.

Who Developed Mosketch

Mosketch is currently available in beta version. It is developed by Moka Studio and Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) which is a research institute in Switzerland .This institute specializes in physical sciences and engineering. Mosketch is professional-grade software that can be used by anyone, from top to bottom or we can say that from independent artists to animation studios.
Ronan Boulic - Head EPFL said that the software automates the natural flow of action of a graphic artist so that anyone can create animations. With the help of software, artists are able to concentrate on visual cues rather than detailed coding to create animations. Basic working of the software is that as soon as we draw a line or stroke, we see the line on the screen and the algorithm right away adjusts the pose of the 3D figure to match this line. It is a simple interface.

Behind the Computer screen

At the back of the computer screen there are two algorithms working together to gracefully create these 3D animations. One converts 2D strokes on screen into pose of character. The second algorithm is a bit different. The user would pick one body part, for example the right hand, and would guide the position of this body part in space and the limb would automatically be adjusted. The combination of actions is inspired by the way 2D artist work. A 2D artist could continuously redraw little strokes until he achieve his vision. Then micro-changes would need to be made to animate that vision, meaning the artist would need to create even more strokes. Mosketch algorithm runs in parallel thus offer very high speed as needed in making so many strokes. As a result artist sees the results in real time. The algorithm speeds up iterations in complex modelling environment and according to developers, can be used in complex robotics operations like humanoid robots also.

By Mani Sahore, Assistant Professor, Chitkara University Himachal Pradesh

Reference

http://actu.epfl.ch/news/3d-animation-with-the-stroke-of-a-pen/