Digital character development theory and practice / Rob O'Neill.
Material type:
TextPublication details: Amsterdam ; Boston : Morgan Kaufmann Publishers/Elsevier, c2008.Description: 1 online resource (xxi, 316 p.) : illISBN: - 9780123725615
- 0123725615
- 006.696 ONE
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Loan | Clonmel Library Main Collection | 006.696 ONE (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 30026000069418 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Digital character development consumes a large percentage of the development time of every animated film or video, and is widely viewed as the next major area of advance in computer games. This field now spans the areas of cognition, anatomy, animation, computer graphics, theater, and psychology. While advanced techniques are reported in scholarly journals and academic dissertations, only those that find an implementation in off-the-shelf software (such as Maya) are covered in books. Digital Character Development: Theory and Practicecovers the foundational algorithms and research that go into the development of virtual characters. The author, a faculty member of the Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design, as well as studio technical director of Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York, was technical director at PDI/Dreamworks on Shrek 2and Madagascarand is an independent filmmaker and artist. His new textbook guides both students and professionals who need a thorough understanding of character development in order to make decisions about the creation of their own characters. This text bridges the gap between algorithm and software-agnostic applications. The book will include exercises. The manuscript will be class tested at Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, and others.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-310) and index.
Front Cover; Digital Character Development: Theory and Practice; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part 1: An Introduction to Digital Characters; Chapter 1. Overview; Chapter 2. Contemporary Issues Related to Digital Characters; Chapter 3. History of Digital Characters; Chapter 4. Character Technology and Code; Part 2: Character Technology; Chapter 5. Introduction to Character Technology; Chapter 6. Motion Systems; Chapter 7. Deformation Systems; Chapter 8. Face Setup; Chapter 9. Rig Synthesis.
With the code and instruction in this book, O\'Neill shows how to create sophisticated digital characters - building progressively through the chapters to teach and produce a fully functional digital character that can be ported to any number of high-end a.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Part I Introduction
- 1 Overview
- What defines a digital character
- The "Uncanny Valley"
- How does style dictate setup?
- 2 History
- Overview of digital characters in film
- Video games
- Multimedia
- 3 Introduction
- Nomenclature
- Joint rotations
- Geometry mesh surface types
- 4 Motion Systems
- Anatomy
- Joint mechanics
- Joint placement
- Joint hierarchies
- Constraints and high level control
- User interface
- 5 Deformation Systems
- Deformation order
- Basic deformations: skinning
- Shape interpolation
- Layering deformation methods
- Joint-free deformations
- 6 Face Setup
- Anatomy
- Frameworks for effective face rigging
- Mixing deformation methods
- Secondary motion for realism
- Psychology behind facial expressions
- Part III Animation Technology
- 7 "Traditional" Techniques
- Forward kinematics
- Inverse kinematics
- 8 Motion Capture
- Marker-based motion capture
- Marker-less motion capture
- 9 Procedural Animation
- Artificial intelligence
- 10 Multi-Character Systems
- Crowds
- Behavioral animation
- Path-finding and decision making
- Part IV Conclusions
- 11 The Future of Digital Characters
- 12 Character Interactivity