Visual modeling for computer animation

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Abstract
Over the past decade, the Visual Modeling Research Program at the University of Toronto has consistently championed the concerted exploration of computer graphics and computer vision. Our premise has been this: graphics, the forward/synthesis/models-to-images problem, and vision, the inverse/analysis/images-to-models problem, pose mutually converse challenges, which may best be tackled synergistically through the development of advanced modeling techniques catering to the needs of both fields. With illustrated case studies of three projects spanning a twelve-year period, this brief article presents a personal retrospective on image-based modeling for computer animation. As we shall see, one of the projects has also created opportunities for computer animation to contribute to the study of visual perception in living systems.I shall begin by reviewing an early computer animation project that pioneered the use of image-based modeling to combine natural and synthetic imagery. The animation Cooking with Kurt, produced in 1987 at the Schlumberger Palo Alto Research center, introduced a paradigm in which computer vision was applied to acquire 3D models of objects from their images. The acquired models were then dynamically animated in a simulated physical scene reconstructed from the image of a real scene. The approach demonstrated a promising alternative to the established convention of keyframe animating manually constructed geometric models.The human face is a natural objective for the image-based modeling approach. I will next describe a facial animation project that uses specialized imaging devices to capture models of human heads with functional, biomechanically simulated faces conforming closely to human subjects. Facial animation is by no means the sole benefactor of an exciting area of advanced graphics modeling that lies at the intersection of virtual reality and artificial life [6]. Accordingly, I will also describe a virtual "seaquarium" populated by artificial marine animals whose 3D shapes and appearances were captured from images of real fishes. As I discuss in the final section, lifelike, self-animating creatures now serve as biomimetic autonomous agents in the study of animal perception.

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