Transcript Topics on Computer Applications (Synthetic Character Design)

Topics on Computer Applications
(Synthetic Character Design)
Jehee Lee
Who am I ?
• PhD in computer science, KAIST, 2000
– Motion analysis and synthesis for human-like characters
• Joined SNU in spring 2003
– Movement Research Lab will be established
• Specialties
– Computer graphics
– Animation
– Computer games (?)
Synthetic Characters
• Artificial life-form in physical and graphical
worlds
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Characters in video games
Synthetic actors in computer-generated films
Artificial pets
Avatars
Virtual humans and animals
Robots
Related Research Fields
• Computer graphics
– Visualize appearances and movements
• Artificial intelligence
– Make them think !
• Robotics
– They might have physical bodies
• Human Computer Interaction
– We want to interact with them
Why Synthetic Characters ?
• Mostly for entertainment
– Video games, movies
– Petz5web.mov
• Better communication through internet
– Avatars
• Better interaction with computers
– Agents
• Assistance in real life
– Robots
• Fine art
• Just curiosity
What do we expect ?
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Appearance
Action
Personality
Ability to perceive
Ability to think
Ability to evolve
Appearance
• Imitation of real life-forms
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Full-body
Upper body only
Lower body only
Head only
• Imaginary forms
– Appeal
– Visually pleasing
– Functionally useful
Final Fantasy
Action
• Physically feasible
– The law of physics
• Perceptually plausible
– Not physically feasible, but
– Accepted as plausible movements
– A bit exaggerated
• Unrealistic, but visually pleasing
– Extremely exaggerated
– Eg) Cartoon
Personality
• Emotion
– Eg) Feel fear if an enemy is present
• Motivation
– Eg) Seek for food if hungry
• Social behavior
– Interaction among artificial and real life-forms
Perception
• Recognize objects, characters, actions, and
events
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Vision
Sound
Speech
Touch
Facial expression
Think
• Reasoning
– Artificial intelligence
• Planning
– Path, motion, task
• Memory
– Keep track of interaction history
Evolve
• Learn
– Collect information through perception
– Experience the world through interaction
– Evolve personality
• Breed
– Produce new characters
• Mutate
– Develops different characteristics
Autonomy
• Animated characters
– Movie characters
– Carefully planned, scripted, created through off-line
process
• Avatars
– Game characters
– Controllable through user interfaces
– Local planning, responsive to stimulation
• Intelligent agents
– Virtual humans, artificial pets
– Think, perceive, interact, learn, and evolve
• Sometimes this classification is unclear
Course Planning
• We will survey the state of art
– Research papers and case study
• Administration
– Prerequisites
• Undergraduate computer graphics
– Course webpage
• http://graphics.snu.ac.kr/~jehee/MRL
• Readings will be on the web every week (No textbook)
– Grading
• Term projects (50%)
• Classroom presentation (30%)
• Homework & class participations (20%)