Finally, Instant Monsters! 🐉

Dear Fellow Scholars, this is Two Minute  Papers with Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér. If we wish to create an adorable virtual monster  and animate it, we first have to engage in 3D   modeling. Then, if we wish to make it move,  and make this movement believable, we have   to specify where the bones and joints are located  within the model. This process is called rigging.    As you see, it is quite laborious, and requires  expertise in this domain to pull this off. And now, imagine this process with no 3D  modeling, and no rigging. This is, of course,   impossible…right? Well, now, you know what’s  coming, so hold on to your papers, because   here is a newer technique that indeed performs  the impossible. All we need to do is grab a   pencil and create a rough sketch of our character,  then, it will take a big breath, and inflate it   into a 3D model. This process was nearly 7 times  faster than the classical workflow, but what   matters even more, this new workflow requires  zero expertise in 3D modeling and rigging.    With this technique, absolutely  anybody can become an artist. So, we noted that these models can also be  animated. Is that so? Yes, that’s right,   we can indeed animate these models by using  these red control points. And even better,   we get to specify where these points go. That’s  a good thing because we can make sure that a   prescribed part can move around, opening up  the possibility of creating and animating   a wide range of characters. And I would say  all this can be done in a matter of minutes,   but even better, sometimes  even within a minute. Whoa. This new technique does a lot  of legwork that previous methods   were not able to pull off so well. For instance,  it takes a little information about which part   is in front or behind the model. Then, it  stitches all of these strokes together and   inflates our drawing into a 3D model, and it  does this better than previous methods, look.    Well, okay, the new one looks a bit better where  the body parts connect here, and that’s it?    Wait a second…a ha! Somebody  didn’t do their job correctly.    And we went from this work to this, in just  two years. This progress is absolute insanity. Now let’s have a look at a full workflow from  start to end. First, we draw the strokes,   note that we can specify that one arm and leg is  in front of the body, and the other is behind,   and, bam the 3D model is now done! Wow, that was  quick. And now, add the little red control points   for animation, and let the fun begin! Mister, your  paper has been officially accepted! Move the feet,   pin the hands, rock the body. Wait. Not only  that, but this paper was accepted to the   SIGGRAPH ASIA conference, which is equivalent  to winning an olympic gold medal in computer   graphics research if you will, so add a little  neck movement too. Oh yeah! Now we’re talking! With this technique, the possibilities really feel  endless. We can animate humanoids, monsters, other   adorable creatures, or can even make scientific  illustrations come to life without any modeling   and rigging expertise. Do you remember this  earlier video where we could paint on a piece of   3D geometry, and transfer its properties onto a 3D  model? This method can be combined with that too.    Yum! And in case you are wondering how quick this  combination is - my goodness. Very, very quick. Now, this technique is also not perfect,  one of the limitations of this single-view   drawing workflow is that we have only limited  control over the proportions in depth. Texturing   occluded regions is also not that easy. The  authors proposed possible solutions to these   limitations in the paper, so make sure to have a  look in the video description, and it appears to   me that with a little polishing, this may be  ready to go for artistic projects right now.    If you have a closer look, you will also  see that this work also cites the flow paper   from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.   Extra style points for that. And with that said, when can we use this?    And that’s the best part - right now! The authors  really put their papers where their mouth is,

or in other words, the source code for  this project is available, also, there is,   an online demo. Wo-hoo! The link is available  in the video description, make sure to read the   instructions before you start. So there you  go, instant 3D models with animation without   requiring 3D modeling and rigging expertise. What  do you think? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for watching and for your generous  support, and I'll see you next time!